“I have been following the seasons, forcing my colour to change with them. At first my paintings were descriptive but as I became more involved I found a strange cool organic flame beginning to emerge. I feel that I would like to pursue this strange growth movement further. I would like to continue to work in nature, returning to my studio to crystallize my findings.” Bert Weir Artist statement Gallery One, Toronto Ontario
G Konopny
Director Gallery One
from exhibition notes for solo exhibition
1976
Bert Weir an artist of great ability and devotion continues his explorations of the Parry Sound Region. His landscape paintings are of great importance to the continuation of the Canadian heritage of landscape paintings.
Bert is a modern painter who responds to inner sensations and creates refined images that are related to nature. His landscapes are transformations of his personal contact with the essence of his environment.
His love for the physical substance of the vital echoes within his magnificent works of art. Bert’s intuitive response to life is a very essential part of his existence. He paints a great deal out of doors, directly from nature, and then returning to his studio to crystallize his findings.
These landscapes are of diverse forms. One’s initial impression is a feeling of calm and tranquility which soon gives way to an awareness of the vitality and assertiveness of these varied forms. One gradually becomes aware of their light, the space around them, and the rhythm of their formations. His serious commitment to painting, and his continuing and growing investigation and involvement with the forms he has found in the Canadian landscape, are the basis of his work today.
His palette of low chroma colours with their high value provide a tremendous sense of peacefulness. Strong brush lines are often used to contain the colour.
Every shape and area is in the process of changing, no definite outlines are visible, and his drawing quality has a crispness and strength about it. One colour dissolves into another, obliterating colour and line.
There is an ambivalence of direction in his compositions, so that lateral and vertical movements are reversible, thus enhancing the cyclical nature of his theme.
In the past six months, Bert has produced the finest works of his career. In these works a new evidence of a clearer more painterly approach is apparent. These paintings reveal a totally spontaneous and relaxed experience. This feeling of casualness is in effect a deep sincere extension of himself.
Bert Weir 