Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto
Private Collection, Ontario
Literature
Tom Smart, “The Art of Mary Pratt: The Substance of Light”, Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, 1995, page 123
In the late 1980s, Mary Pratt embarked on a new and distinct body of work. Breaking with her previous easel paintings in oils, Pratt experimented with combinations of watercolour, pastel and chalk to create large-scale drawings. Scaling-up in format, but just as significantly in subject matter, these works explore the natural, elemental forces of fire and ice. Writer Tom Smart observed, “Fire and ice both become elements through which Pratt explores the refraction of light and the incarnation of her muse as a presence radiating from the centres of the phenomena.”
With consistent technical mastery, Pratt’s renderings of light take on a transcendent quality. “Rafted Ice‒Sunrise” depicts the sensual play of light and shadow on gently rippling water. The work features a stunning layering of pink, orange, blue and violet hues. The dramatic luminosity is enhanced with a foreboding barrier of dark pines in the distance. The rhythmic intervals of fenceposts are the sole indication of a human element. The sharp forms of broken ice at the centre evoke a visual reference to Caspar David Friedrich’s masterpiece, “The Sea of Ice”. Both works share a reverence for the destructive power and beauty of nature.
