Steve Driscoll: A Promise of Coming Warmth

In his latest series of paintings, Steve Driscoll has slightly shifted his unique technique, pigment mixed with urethane, in order to focus on the skies above his iconic Canadian landscapes. After his visit to the McMichael Canadian Art Collection’s recent Tom Thomson exhibition, Driscoll began to experiment with a new palette that introduced pastels into his translucent colourfields of magenta, purple and blue. He also began to include clouds as prominent and sculptural forms in his paintings, reminiscent of the work of Paterson Ewen who has been a major influence throughout Driscoll's career. With their heightened colour and large, abstract cloud formations, the skies are now given equal weight to the water and trees in the paintings.

The time sensitive nature of Driscoll’s medium, which is often likened to watercolour, means that he has to work wet on wet in one sitting in order for the materials to coalesce and remain flat. Driscoll uses ceiling fans and his innate knowledge of the properties of the urethane medium he is credited with inventing to achieve his desired effects. It was therefore no less than a revelation for Driscoll when he discovered a way to separate the process into two parts in order to bring attention and detail to the skies. 

Driscoll has always viewed experimentation and invention as an important part of his practice and this latest development, while visually subtle, has opened new pathways for him to explore and discover.