Brad Woodfin's Menagerie
Brad Woodfin, "La Petite idée fixe," 2017
oil on panel, 11" x 14"
Montreal-based painter Brad Woodfin loves animals. A vegetarian, he grew up with pets and despises cruelty to animals. “When I see an animal being hurt, to me, it just breaks my heart,” he says.
He started painting farm animals soon after finishing art school in Olympia, Washington, about 10 years ago. “It came from a social and political place, like the treatment of animals in everyday life, as far as eating them as food and things like that,” he says.
Eventually, he started painting other creatures. Woodfin's drive is expressive, not documentary. He scours books and the Internet for images that capture his imagination in the moment. “I just look at pictures and something strikes me,” he says. “I’m interested in their lives and their characteristics, but it’s always been more about expression.”
It’s hard to describe the paintings as anything other than portraits, even though that’s a term usually reserved for people. And his subjects, who can be seen at the Christine Klassen Gallery in Calgary until June 17, have a surprising presence, even charisma.
Brad Woodfin, "Sacre coeur," 2017
oil on panel, 20" x 16"
Take his painting Sacre coeur, which shows a roseate spoonbill, a bird Woodfin has seen in the Florida wetlands while visiting his parents. “I find them really striking,” he says. “I love the colour. I love the absurd bill and their strange legs that bend backward when they walk.” The bird does indeed seem a sacred heart with its almost coy gesture, head tucked back to preen its pink plumage, yet its eye radiating an unfathomable wisdom.
Brad Woodfin, "Slippery Slopes," 2017
oil on panel, 16" x 12"
Then there’s Woodfin’s painting, Slippery Slopes, which shows an octopus both elusive and mysterious. “For me it looked like a ghost or some sort of phantom, which I like because their personality seems like that,” he says. “I’ve always been fascinated by octopuses ... They’re really fun to paint because of their eight arms and their really strange eyes.”
He poses his ceatures against dark backgrounds that he painstakingly lays down before painting his subject, an approach he thinks is tied to his training as a printmaker.
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Brad Woodfin, "Danphe," 2017
oil on panel, 16" x 12"
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Brad Woodfin, "Monty," 2017
oil on panel, 9" x 12"
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Brad Woodfin, "Up Where the Stars Get Lit," 2016
oil on panel, 16" x 12"
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Brad Woodfin, "Chummy," 2017
oil on panel, 12" x 16"
Woodfin, who was born in Massachusetts, has lived in Montreal for the last eight years. While many of the creatures he paints are exotic, he also portrays more familiar species, like hummingbirds and owls.
Christine Klassen Gallery / CKG
321 50 Avenue SE, Calgary, Alberta T2G 2B3
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