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Feet integral part of art for painter

Ontario artist Mitchell Fenton paints with his feet. While he isn’t physically putting a brush between his toes, Fenton relies on the ‘getting there’, preferably by foot – especially in the Rocky Mountains – to prime his artistic pump.

Ontario artist Mitchell Fenton paints with his feet.

While he isn’t physically putting a brush between his toes, Fenton relies on the ‘getting there’, preferably by foot – especially in the Rocky Mountains – to prime his artistic pump.

“Just to get out in the fresh air and the scenery and exercise – your blood is pumping and you’re tingling and you sit down to paint and things just start happening,” Fenton said recently from his home just outside of Toronto.

“How you feel comes through in the paintings. If you’re out in the mountains and feeling good, it literally comes through. That’s the draw for me.”

The journey, as he likes to say, is just as important as his destination, which quite often is Lake O’Hara, a place he has been to 10 times now.

Fenton, also a sculptor and a part-time instructor at the Ontario College of Art, first travelled to Lake O’Hara when he chose to focus on painting about 14 years ago, following in the footsteps of some of landscape heavyweights, namely John Singer Sargent, J.E.H. MacDonald and Lawren Harris.

“When I got there (Lake O’Hara) was so familiar. I had a chuckle over John Singer Sargent’s work. He did a study of the peaks there and I thought that was the wackiest mountain, but when I got there he got it right,” Fenton said.

While in the Rockies, Fenton travels light and works quickly.

He carries a portable painting set-up and paints on 8 x 10 inch wooden panels. As he paints, he strives to capture a sense or notion of the scene in front of him, often paring it down into its most intriguing details rather than trying to paint the entire mountain, summit and all.

“I often have a hard time getting all of the information in there. I start at the bottom and never quite get to the top. It adds to the largeness when you can’t get to the top,” he said.

Fenton also likes to focus in on minute details often overshadowed by the mountains.

“I also like the smallness, focusing in on lichen or wildflowers or abstract patterns of rocks, snow and maybe reflection on a lake.”

Later, once he is back home, Fenton uses his small paintings, along with photographs, to inspire and guide him as he works on his larger studio paintings.

The difference between the work he does outdoors, or en plein air, and his studio work is striking. Where the smaller paintings feature quick and rough brush strokes, the luminous studio paintings are comprised of smoother and softer brush strokes.

“I mostly try to get the colour and compositions and the real feel for it and then I’m able to spend the time, play with surface quality and sometimes work on it too much and have to hold back. I like the freshness of the plein air, but the studio focus helps the plein air,” he said.

While neither approach is intrinsically better than the other, Fenton’s large studio paintings are remarkable, and even the often hard-edged mountains appear smooth and luxurious.

Bigger isn’t always better, but in the case of Fenton’s studio work – especially what he refers to as his XXL Landscapes, which often measure five feet by six feet, need to be seen to be fully appreciated.

Fenton will be at Willock and Sax on Banff’s Bear Street, Saturday, Aug. 6, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. as part of the gallery’s show Artist’s Visions, which also features Neil Liske, Chris Stoffel Overvoorde, Dwayne Harty and Amy Loewan.

Artist’s Visions is being held as a part of Banff Culture Walk. This event is only one piece of the larger Banff Culture Days, scheduled for Aug. 5-7, featuring Doors Open Banff, the Stoney Nakoda Family Camp located at the Banff Indian Grounds, Natural Treasures Speakers Series, the Banff Outdoor Cookoff and the Rocky Mountain House National Historic Site Métis Camp, alongside a number of musical events, as well.

More information on Banff Culture Days go to www.banfflakelouise.com/bht/heritage-events-sites/banff-culture-days


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