Halloween by Jobelle Quijano

This is a fine art painting I bought around this time last year. I post a few of the fine art pieces I get here because I am often asked about what other art I collect outside of comic art. I have missed adding some larger pieces in recent years but thought I'd catch up. I know this is not what CAF is for but I have a lot of comic art on CAF and there and connections between the fine art I have and my interests in comic art. For me, it is fair game and I want to write a bit about it now as my relationship with the art changes over time. I don't expect others to really care about this stuff.

Every year in Toronto we have Nuit Blanche. White Night. It is a night in October where the city is taken over by art and there are art exhibitions throughout the city and they run all night until the next morning. Some are just there for the night including installations and performances but also many galleries stay open all night and have special exhibitions. Last year we went and at a smaller gallery in a large artist complex in the downtown core I found some art I liked. The gallery was busy and so some of the pieces I didn't get a good look at as groups of people were in front of some. There was just so much to see. One piece in particular stood out so I went back a few days later to look at it again. It was pretty cool and I liked it but when I went back to that gallery I saw this painting. I had either missed it or it didn't register the first time I saw it. I spent quite a few minutes looking at it and the dialogue with it started. I left and came back two more times that afternoon. Never a good sign when trying to avoid buying art. I really liked it. I also knew that Jane would not like it. Plus, we don't have wall space for all the paintings we already have, it would be a hard no if I asked. But, I am an art fiend and it not that often a piece or artist's work really speaks to me. It happens more often in fine art galleries but only every few years in retail galleries.

I was debating buying the two pieces I liked and then settled on this one as getting one new piece into the collection would be hard enough. I had a discussion with the gallery owner about the painting and asked if I could have it on loan for a few weeks to see if it would grow on my wife. I knew it would take some time for her to come around on it and this time I wasn't 100% sure she would get there. The gallery agreed and he dropped it off a few days later for me. I hung it and Jane didn't like it at all. Didn't like it might even be too kind about her initial impression. She agreed to give it 2 weeks and if she still hated it then, it would go back. We talked about it a few times. As the 2 weeks were coming to a close, I was starting to worry that I was wrong and it hadn't grown on her and it would go back. I was fine with that but would have missed it as it had really grown on me as my discussion with it deepened. On the last days she decided she didn't hate it and it was OK to continue hanging in our main family room. Since then it has grown on her more. My daughter loved it right away. My eldest was on the fence and my youngest still says he doesn't like it but he looks at it often (he is the least arty of my kids). Many guests have had mixed reactions to it but it certainly not a piece that leaves them neutral. I am ok with that as you don't have to like art for it to be art or for it to be good. It is as important to understand why you don't like something as to why you do. It is the challenge of art and I welcome it.

So now it is with us for good. I worked out a price with the gallery that was very reasonable and went downtown and paid them. At first sight, I knew it was the right piece but there were things I needed to understand about it. It is a bit of a different kind of image than people usually buy. We buy landscapes, portraits, still lifes or abstract but images like this are more like the art you see in fine art galleries and not on people's walls. It is decent size too, 4 ft x 5 ft. Oil on Canvas.

The artist Joebelle Quijano - a young female Canadian artist. I have not met her and missed a talk she was giving but have seen a few short online clips. She is a recent graduate but has a style that is unique and mature enough that I'd have guessed she had been a fine artist for many years already and not such a fledgling. Supporting young up and coming artists is something important and I assign value to. I like the themes she explores in her work which include nostalgia, fantasy, dreams, sexuality, girlhood, coming of age, femininity, vulnerability and it is all here in this piece.

I wrote a lot more on this but got cut off by CAf. I have screenshot the rest of what I wrote in case you care to read it, see additional images.