2019 December | Hodgins Art Auctions

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signed lower left; signed & titled verso
Provenance: Gold Design Fine Arts, Calgary AB

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signed lower right; titled verso

Notes:

signed lower left; signed & titled verso

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signed lower right; titled on the artist’s label verso

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signed & dated lower right; signed, titled & dated verso
Provenance: Marlborough-Godard Gallery, Toronto ON

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signed & dated lower left

Leighton was working as a commercial artist in England, in 1924, when he was hired by the Canadian Pacific Company to paint scenes along the railway. He made his first journey to Canada in 1925, followed by a second in 1927, moving here permanently in 1929 after accepting the position of Director at the Art Institute of Calgary. Leighton’s first Canadian exhibition consisted of 27 works of the Rockies (along with 40 additional works depicting the English countryside). The Canadian Pacific retained several of these early landscapes, as did Leighton, taking a number back to England with him. These were later destroyed during the bombing raids in WWII. This work would have been among the earliest Leighton painted in the Canadian Rockies, and a rare surviving work from the period.

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signed & dated lower left; titled on the stretcher verso
Provenance: Gainsborough Galleries, Calgary AB

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signed lower right; signed & titled on the stretcher verso

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titled & dated on the gallery labels verso

Provenance: Gallery Moos, Toronto ON; Art Rental and Sales Gallery of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto ON

Ted Godwin was born and raised in Calgary. He attended the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Art (1951-1955) and, upon graduating, worked as a television art director, a neon sign designer and a commercial artist. He moved to Regina in 1959, where he began to attend the Emma Lake Artists’ Workshops. In 1964 he began teaching at the University of Saskatchewan (Regina Campus), then at the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Regina. He returnined to Calgary after his retirement in 1985. Godwin was a founding member of the ground-breaking modernist group of painters known as the Regina Five. He received many awards during his career, including membership in the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1974), the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal (1977), an honorary degree from the University of Regina (2001), and Officer of the Order of Canada (2004).

Godwin’s streambank paintings, while initially appearing representational, upon further contemplation reveal the artist’s deep interest in the abstract, and his drive to uncover and express the colours and patterns evident within nature. The works are gestural, bold and colourful, typically painted from a low perspective; they explore the interplay of tangled shrubs, trees, rocks and water along the water’s edge. These streambank images are deeply personal for Godwin, an avid fisherman, whose family had a long-standing connection to the river. Ted writes (on page 11 of “Lower Bow: A Celebration of Wilderness, Art and Fishing”; Ted Godwin & Geoffrey Simmins; Hard Art Moving and Storage Co. Ltd., Calgary; 1991):

“Growing up by the Elbow River, our house was closer to the prairie and wilderness than to downtown, and the riverbank was my natural playground. No stranger to nature, Dad enjoyed taking me for a walk along the river, occasionally with fishing rods. In so doing, he relived his past at the same time instilling a love of streamside in me…In retrospect, most of the time I spent growing up was streamside, although this memory lay dormant for a long time. Old memories now merge with new and the only constant is the current of the dark stream that flows through my life. It seems to me that the images and rhythms of streamside have formed an integral part of whatever it is that is Ted.”

Notes:

signed & dated lower right on the right panel; signed, titled & dated verso on each panel