McDougall Sell for Record Price at Auction
Two Clark McDougall paintings sell for record prices at Waddington’s March 5, 2015 Canadian Art Online Auction.
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Positioned on the cover of the auction catalogue and heavily promoted by the auction house, Clark McDougall’s “Release of the Thistledown” painting sold at Waddingtons, Toronto auction for a record $24,120 (including buyers premium) on March 5, 2015. Another painting, from the same private collection, “Interior Bucke’s Chicken Coop” did just as well selling for $24,000 (including buyers premium).
Waddington’s wrote the following about “Release of the Thistledown”: Blending the brushstrokes of Van Gogh and the colour of the Fauves with bold outlines and distinctly Canadian compositions, the works of Clark McDougall emit equilibrium, light and rhythm.
In 1950, at the age of 29, Clark McDougall drove with a group of friends to Quebec City and to Montreal. It was during this trip that he first encountered works by John Lyman, J.W. Morrice and Henri Matisse; works that would have a great effect on McDougall and profoundly influence his ideas on colour and outline:
“It struck me,” he said in reflecting on the trip, “that there was another point of painting that I’d never thought about… By using the outline, you establish the form; you establish the location of all your objects, so… this is your composition and your design. Now you start to think of your colour as a separate item. You put it in flat. You can work flatter and purer and the colour will give you more impact and you don’t have to think about traditional painting, which is to say a gradation to get the change from light to dark. You can allow more for your line to do that.”
According to Paddy O’Brien, McDougall’s ‘substantial breakthrough’ came eight years later in the painting of Release of the Thistledown. Concerned with composition and design, McDougall made a drawing in the exact size of the eventual painting. After the right balance had been achieved, he traced the work several times onto semi-opaque paper and eventually onto a prepared masonite panel. The outlines were next – a paint mixture of ultramarine blue and alizarin crimson that created changeable and moody black bands. Once the black was dry, the colours could be filled in: Shapes and patterns vibrating between their outlines like stained-glass. The effect was vibrant, bold and impactful.
We are excited to feature Release of the Thistledown, the first painting executed in what was to become Clark McDougall’s signature style in our Canadian Art Online Auction, March 2-5, 2015.
