Votive Lights

Private Collection, Hamilton Bequeathed to the Art Gallery of Hamilton Private Collection, Toronto

Iris Nowell, Painters Eleven: The Wild Ones of Canadian Art, Vancouver/Toronto, 2010, pages 256-59

The eldest member of the Painter’s Eleven, Gordon’s career spanned from early beginnings as a landscape artist inspired by French Impressionism to embracing her unique interpretation of abstract expressionism. Developing her practice with husband John Gordon, Hortense felt limited with the possibilities of landscape painting and sought to experiment with abstraction in the late 1920s, inspired by Canada’s first abstract painter’s Bertram Brooker and Kathleen Munn. Fresh territory for the artist, Gordon tirelessly worked on mastering the balance between colour and compositional design to create impactful pieces. In 1953, Hortense Gordon met with the members of the Painter’s Eleven, as invited by Ray Mead, and found the connections in the like-minded artist’s and spirits she searched for throughout her career. Inspired by the fellow members, Gordon’s abstract artworks flourished as she was finally able to seize the moment in this crucial juncture in her practice. Working in a smaller scale than her fellow Painter’s Eleven compatriots, Hortense Gordon’s abstract works were more subtle with less expressive swaths of colour and tighter compositions. “Votive Lights” is a shining example of the artist’s ability to produce understated but expressive works imbued with calmness in pleasing colour palettes and strong compositional design focused on line and geometric forms. Ribbons of yellows and oranges speak to the viewer from the canvas rather than shout in this piece, exemplifying the artist’s unique ability to maintain a sereneness to her practice and mirroring her own calm and collected demeanor.