A rare abstract painting by Bob Dylan (circa 1968) is up for sale, featuring a vibrant abstract composition filled with musical notes, animals, and a prominent central figure of a bull. There is also a red outline of a man in a brimmed hat, reflecting Dylan’s self-image during that era, reminiscent of his “Nashville Skyline” album cover.

“Bob Dylan’s visual art, like his music, draws from a deep well of cultural and personal expression. This painting from his Woodstock years is particularly evocative, capturing the vibrant and transformative spirit of the 60s,” explained Bobby Livingston of RR Auction, which has the work for sale.

More info and images at RR Auction here.

The experience that began at the famed Pouch Cove artist retreat transformed him, freed his art and led him to settle on The Rock for good.

Being alone with his thoughts was transformative

The residency is right at the end of the Avalon peninsula, and all you can see around you is sea and its rugged coastline, Thompson says.

“I was the only one there, so it was just me and my thoughts. They were incredibly loud, and the intensity of the process . . . it was really transformative.” 

Changes were deep. It wasn’t just being isolated, but also: “it was a question of stopping; there was nothing to pursue. I wasn’t preparing for a show or painting for a gallery.“ Thompson says he thinks that gave him permission to follow exactly what he wanted to follow, without any pressure.

No one was watching, there was no gallery to be shocked by a change, and I was learning to give myself permission to fail again.

Mark Thompson

Weirdly, the monochromatic Newfoundland landscape made his colours bloom.

My work had been more or less monochromatic for years, and for a while I’d been chasing colour but never quite able to grasp hold of it, Thompson says. “Weirdly, after stepping into this quite monochromatic northern landscape, colour began to bloom.”

“I’m not going to say that it was all smooth sailing, but once I began to increase the range of pigments available on my palette, I felt like a kid in a sweet shop and was so excited about this expanded direction in my work.” – from a profile in BoldBrush, here.

Thompson says his paintings are “works of memory.” He uses an indirect process, the image and surface built up through successive layers of glazing and scumbling – techniques that are “are steeped in the history and tradition of painting, but allow me great emotional and physical freedom.”

Mark Thompson still exhibits in Germany and Norway

Born in the Fenlands of Eastern England (1972), Mark studied painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. He has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe and the U.S., the National Museum of Art in Lithuania, the Hordaland International Art Gallery in Norway, and the Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle. His work is held in many collections, including the Government Art Collection of Great Britain and Microsoft collections and has recently exhibited in Germany and Norway.

Represented by Christina Parker Gallery, here.

Mark Thompson’s Instagram, here.

His website, here.

His Print shop, here.

Pouch Cove Artist Residency, here.

A Ukranian-born Canadian, Merkulova explores her home base of Montreal with the eye of an immigrant, drawing attention to the idea of making existing urban spaces more humane.

“As an immigrant, I have always been looking to establish attachment to different places to rediscover a place of belonging, a feeling of home and re-define an evolved self-identity,” she says.

Iryna Merkulova

 Merkulova’s observations blend inner and outer worlds, using reflections and juxtapositions to fracture familiar spaces.

The paintings represent snapshots of “urban navigation routines” and include fragments of architectural landscapes with visual openings to interior spaces through reflections in the windows.

 The recognizable places, depicted in a non-traditional way by juxtaposing the inner and outer spaces, encourage viewers to re-discover their surroundings to find their purpose and beauty.

Link to the series “Blind Contour,” here

Iryna Merkulova is at the Artist Project 2024 in Toronto in April, here.

Iryna Merkulova’s website, including her biography, here.

Her Instagram, here.

hide – the name of this exhibition in Toronto – refers to artist Chanel DesRoches’ fear of being seen.

I quite literally can’t hide from this, and if I had it my way, I wouldn’t be putting myself in such a public and vulnerable space. . .BUT I am doing this and I will survive and it will be great. 

DesRoches on the Feb. 29 opening, on Instagram, here.

“Finding humour in what may appear as a ridiculous fear from someone producing work meant for public viewing, DesRoches positions her practice as an embodiment of an idealized, fearless self – each surface consciously acting as a confident placeholder looking to derail any signs of weakness,” the gallery says.

Chanel DesRoches website, here

Her Instagram, here

Exhibition page, Birch Contemporary, Toronto, here.