Paintings that "Resinate"

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Michael Fitzsimmons, “Blue Moon,” 2017

mixed media on panel, 36” x 60”

The smell in Michael Fitzsimmon's work space is overpowering. Not unpleasant, but pungent. And toxic. The Vancouver artist wears two hats (and a respirator), one as a furniture re-finisher and the other as an artist who turns those same resins and solvents into complex abstract paintings. His work is displayed at Vancouver’s Ian Tan Gallery until May 31.

It’s been a circuitous journey. Fitzsimmons attended three art schools, eventually graduating from the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1980 with an honours diploma in interdisciplinary studies. But he stopped creating soon after, critical of what he saw as a shallow and vacuous art world. “I was put off by the art scene and didn’t do a sketch for 15, 20 years,” he says. “I just stopped altogether.” He took a job as a re-finisher to feed his family and only returned to making art in 2005 when business was slow and there wasn’t much to do. “So I picked up a panel that was lying around and started working on it to turn it into an artwork.”

He makes his colours from scratch, adding pigments to a clear industrial varnish base. Because they dry so quickly, he has to work fast. “In some cases I’ve only got 40 seconds or so before it hardens up.” His “canvas” of choice is fibreboard.

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Michael Fitzsimmons, “Ucluelet,” 2017

mixed media on panel, 48” x 48”

Fitzsimmons moves paint around with paper towels while it’s still wet, lightly sands the surface and spray guns a clear coat of fixative before repeating the process. The result is like a stack of mylar panels, each with a bit of colour on them.

“I typically like my paintings to be seen not as art objects,” he says. “I think of them more often as a window looking through something, so if they portray a nebula or a cloud moving through space, that’s good.”

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Michael Fitzsimmons, “Forest Spirits,” 2017

mixed media on panel, 48” x 48”

His most recent paintings include dollops of hard edge colour. Another departure? Although he and his wife, Doris, now own the business that first employed him, Zebo Designs, Fitzsimmons is resolute: He’s going to do more art and less finishing.

“I want to do less of the business and more art. That’s a change for me.” But don’t expect any conceptual imagery, he warns. “I’m driven by the objects that I hope will elicit a more gut reaction,” he says. “I want the guts.”