38 Replies to “Laying Down The Brush”

  4. I’ve got his first book and it is becoming well worn as I like to keep revisiting it. The man and his talent will be missed.

  5. You definitely compliment him in your style Kate. The realists in Canada are an amzing group.At least he did get some well deserved recognition.

  6. Died of a heart attack (presumed) while canoeing in Algonquin Park.
    Well, if you gotta go (and, sadly, you gotta), you might as well go whilst doing something you love, I guess.  A neighbour died last year while golfing (something he loved very much) — essentially from a heart attack as well.
    Great artwork.  I now have further insight into why you have such contempt for “artists” who can’t actually support themselves and live off of Canada Council grants, Kate.  This guy had real talent.

  7. he was great, always loved this one and especially “Lacing up”
    the faceless portrait was a picture of us all.

  8. Mr. Wood perhaps it might be a good idea for you to read Mr.Danby’s entry in Wikipedia.There is a mention of the Canada Council and his connection to it.I wonder if Mr.Danby had “contempt” for those artists recieving grants or any artists for that matter unable to make a living from their work.Somehow I doubt it.

  9. truly a great, I remember the argument in highschool(early 70’s,the painting shown above) as to who it was, some esposito, some dryden & i can remember reading an interview or seeing it on tv his answer to the question was, whoever you think or want it to be.

  10. The mask is Espo-ish, although not right around the mouth. The stance definitely isn’t Tony O’s.
    I always hated Dryden – both a Hab and absolute crap against the Soviets.

  11. Although I’ve never heard of the man,browsing his portfolio showed me what I’ve missed. Great guy for inspiration, Kate!

  12. I was fortunate enough to be introduced by a mutual friend to Ken Danby a few years ago.
    Caring and personable right from the get go.
    Forgetting his talent and work, he seemed like the type of person who you would want to be your next door neighbour.
    His art was spread through a very interesting gallery @ Lawrence and Bathurst in a way that made the entire experience truly unforgettable.

  14. Come on people! The guy placed PHOTOGRAPHS beside his blank paint boards and simply copied them. Just one step above a paint by number. He was good at color perception though.

  15. RIP Ken Danby
    I’m not sure if it was Ken Danby or Robert Bateman that provided what I believe was one of the most profound statements during the Free Trade debates in 1988.
    Regarding protecting Canadian artists…
    “If I can’t sell my paintings without government help…maybe I shouldn’t be a painter!”
    Enjoyed his work.

  16. I always remembered it as Rogie Vachon, but here’s what Danby had to say about “At the Crease”:
    “The idea for this painting resulted from my return to playing recreational hockey, after not doing so for a few years in the mid sixties. During that time away from the game, the mask had become a part of the goalie’s equipment. After an afternoon’s scrimmage on the river ice, I kept recalling my experience of being confronted by the young netminder wearing a mask. It was an image that gradually intensified in my mind over the following three years until I finally had to explore it, and recruited a goalie to pose.”

  17. Sorry. Link above should be here: http://www.puresportsart.com/warehouse/crease96danby.htm
    Here is more:
    “His 1972 painting of a masked hockey goalie hunched in the crease is considered by many to be a Canadian national symbol and is sometimes mistakenly thought to be a portrait of legendary netminder Ken Dryden. “Lacing Up,” another hockey painting of someone tying his skates in a locker room, is almost equally iconic.
    On his website, Danby recalled an encounter about “At The Crease”: “One day, a woman complimented me on my painting ‘At the Crease,’which she referred to as ‘That painting you did of the goalie, Ken Dryden,”‘ he recalled.
    “She said that she had long had a print of it in her home and really enjoyed it. I thanked her, but also explained that, ‘It isn’t an image of Ken Dryden.’Looking puzzled, she replied, ‘Yes it is.’I responded, ‘No it isn’t.’After a long pause, she loudly exclaimed, ‘Yes it is!’I quickly apologized, with the sudden realization that she was right. It’s really whomever one wants it to be.“

  19. Funny, I’ve never thought of that painting as Dryden. I always connected it to Esposito, because of the mask and the colour of the jersey (much closer to a Blackhawks jersey than a Canadiens) – even though Esposito caught with his right hand.

  20. I met him briefly in the ’70s – a college chum of mine and his wife had rented the farm next to his Guelph property, and he came over for dinner with a bunch of us, one warm Saturday evening. Friendly, not boisterous, a bit reserved. We ate, sat on the porch, drank quality port, smoked a cigar and toasted the setting sun. Good times, back then.

  22. “The guy placed PHOTOGRAPHS beside his blank paint boards and simply copied them.”
    It’s just that easy, isn’t it?
    So, let’s see yours sometime.

  23. Mr. Poopy Pants with a name like that to go with your comment it just proves “you’re just one step below an idiot”.Now i will apologize for that if you will tell us you were making some kind of odd joke.

  24. Oddly enough, I was just watching a Bio on him on what else-the Bio channel. His work is extraordinary whether or not pp likes it. (who cares) Having taken art classes and trying to learn as an outlet for the day I hopefully retire, I can appreciate the work and attention to detail that goes into each painting. Sorry for your loss Kate.

  25. Although this will rile the troll (yeah you Poopy) I consider (some)photography to be art as well. Heck, I’ve even had to listen to “experts” who said Bateman’s work was not art because it was too realistic. Well, duh!

  26. What would have probably been easier than simply copying a photograph lying right beside his paint board, would have been to place the paint board on the wall and put his photo on an overhead projector and copy the major outlines of objects ( he may have done this, there is evidence). Never the less, he was very good at matching colors from the said photo with oil paints. And no, Mr. erotic, I am not a person of jokes.

  27. Not oil. Egg tempra.
    And he didn’t use a projector. Danby used horizontal and vertical lines as reference points from which he plotted key points in mathematical relationship from the original photograph. Which is the technique I adopted when I was 12. It’s a painstaking process.
    Now again, Mr. Dung-Laden Art Critic, I ask – if you think that simply looking at a photo and rendering it with that exacting realism is easy – let’s see yours.
    That said, I acknowledge it’s a level of talent that falls far short of applying three stripes on a canvas with a roller and naming it “Voice Of Fire”.

  28. Unfortunately, my paintings cannot be seen anymore.Destroyed in 1945 for being too “nationalistic” They could be seen in Dresden,Munich, Berlin, Hamburg…Once again, Mr.Danby was good with colors.

  30. Ya know what? In the crease coulda been photocopied and blown up then had a wet rag over it to “soften” it or something. I don’t care how an artist does what He/She does. If I like it,
    I like it. I hate it when people tell me its not “real” art.
    BTW my Uncle played with Tony Esposito and I always thought it was him. Both my Uncle and my Dad have that print in their homes to this day.

  31. It never ceases to amaze me that some people think that one can learn talent.The lefties all think this because to think other wise puts some on a higher plan than others which would put their basic beliefs in the toilet.

  32. Mr. Poopy Pants even though i don’t care for your remarks on Mr. Danby’s work you mentioned your own efforts and that interests me.Could you please give us some more information on the work you did? Are you doing any work these days and if so where can we view it? Mr. Coop just finished a piece of work using an overhead projector and talks about it on his blog [positveapeindex blogspot.com].From my reading i don’t get the feeling it was all that easy.Anyway from the date and locations you give in your previous post you might have an interesting story to tell us so lets hear it and if you tell a few jokes that’s okay. Might do your cranky soul a bit of good.

  34. It was a long time ago that painting even interested me. Most of my work at that time was comission work, neo-realistic sketches and paintings of hard working citizens. Things were different, times have changed and my work is gone. Dix, Schimkowitz, Rieger, these were real artists. Rieger a close friend. You can be assured that none of this work was copied from photographs they were not available to us! I still have a few items, but I will keep these, maybe one day someone will see them. The nurse bothers me again! (she calls me poopy pants! – we don’t get any respect here!)

  35. Mr.P+P i had a look in Wikipedia for the names you mentioned and found Otto Dix, Othmar Schimkowitz but nothing on Rieger. Have i got the right ones?Otto Dix looks very interesting.If you were so inclined you could go there[Wikipedia] and add your info to the history.Perhaps with Rieger you could start one and others might add to it.Myself i’ll more than likely be a Mr. P+P in due time and can only hope my darling Lili will take care of me.Dude your more interseting already.

  37. Once years ago, I came across a book of Ken Danby’s works with some ‘scholarly’ analysis explaining the pictures. The text read like Chomsky on acid; the paintings themselves stood in quiet refutation to every attempt to make the interpreter some paragon of cosmic-scaled, obfuscated depth because he could see what Joe Average viewer could not.
    That’s the power of Danby’s works: interpretation was never necessary. He shall be missed.

  38. This is from today’s Toronto Star.
    “Danby looked up to Alex Colville, the great Nova Scotia representational painter. Colville in turn followed Danby’s career at a distance. ‘I remember a self-portrait he did that was foolishlly called Magic Realism, something I have also been accused of’, Colville said yesterday from Nova Scotia. ‘It’s funny that to the art world we’re often seen as freaks and not belonging, while we’re in the main-stream with the general public’.”
    This is very true . Artists reflect and amplify the culture of their people. Danby is reflecting and glorifying and reminding us of who we are and where we come from – things that we too often forget. That is why we understand and appreciate his work so much. His work is positive and life affirming.
    So the point really is is that art is subjective and it’s influence is cultural.
    I did the wiki thing on this Otto Dix guy. Seeing some silly thing with a bunch of Germans prancing around in gas masks in WWI and trying to pretend he’s unique and all that stuff – is something that Canadians cannot relate to. Although it may mean much to a bunch of Germans who understand the experience. The same thing with ‘The Scream’ – it sucks the big one – just shoot that clown.
    The thing that I love the most about ‘In the Crease’ is that he uses many national symbols that we all understand – except for one. The goalie stick is made by “Northland’ – it’s not made by Victoriaville or Sherwood or Koho – he is making a statement – we are from the Northland.

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