CARRY ON, Lt. Col. Dwayne Kevin Hobbs CD CO The Toronto Scottish Regiment by Gertrude Kearns

Gertrude Kearns

Home: Toronto, Ontario
Title: CARRY ON, Lt. Col. Dwayne Kevin Hobbs CD CO The Toronto Scottish Regiment
Media: Pencil, charcoal, pastel on paper / crayon, charbon, pastel sur papier
Dimensions: 136 x 98 cm

This portrait is of a Canadian Reserve Commanding Officer. It is about the personality and character makeup of this individual in a life inextricably entwined with defense agendas and militia responsibilities which for one include preparing his soldiers for Canadian Forces’ duties in Afghanistan. My intention was that the face alone could say it all as a small study about this modern warrior: about his feeling buried with concerns yet having the personal rigueur and discipline to lead and be forward thinking. The challenge was maintaining this sense of dominance yet isolation in the head study by expanding its mood and structure into elements of both his full dress uniform and background, to become extensions of his nature and preoccupations, with a sense of their being both within and outside of his control. The study utilizes elements of traditional portraiture, particularly in an implied formal military genre, but with a contemporary twist and an inherent expectation of more consistent resolutions, in accord with the times.

1950 born Canada, 1973 piano studies concluded RCM U of T, 1975+ no formal visual arts education
1983 Koffler Centre for the Arts, Loggia Gallery, director Jane Mahut, first solo show Toronto
1992 Ontario Society of Artists, Most Outstanding Work [jury: Doris McCarthy. Kathryn Minard…]
2000-2002 Member of Propeller Gallery, annual exhibits, scheduling director, selection committee
2001 April ‘Stills’ [portraits of street people] Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts, Toronto with review by Mary MacKenzie in LOLA 10 ‘the Man Issue’: review by Betty Ann Jordan in Toronto Life Magazine.
2002 Oct-Nov ‘UNdone:Dallaire/Rwanda, Propeller Centre for the Visual Arts, Toronto, review by Gary Michael Dault, the Globe and Mail: ‘The Art of War’; reviews by Peter Goddard ‘Painting the Inner Hell of War’ and ‘From Surreal to too-real: Best of 2002’: Dart International, review by Steve Rockwell
2003 Apr ‘A proximate’ curated by Emelie Chhangur, Zypr Gallery, Toronto [‘squeegee people’ portraits]
Spring, Canadian Art Magazine review by Gary Michael Dault ‘UNdone: Dallaire/Rwanda’
Dec–Jan ‘Dean of Queen’ Pages window installation, Queen West, Toronto
2004 Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art, The Canadian Art Database CCCA
2004-6 Represented by Lehmann + Leskiw Fine Art, independent as of Nov 2006
2004 Jan-Feb ‘Blue Yellow Black’ abstract works, Lehmann + Leskiw fine art, Toronto, review in Globe and Mail, Gary Michael Dault; artist profile by Nicole Collins winter issue 5 ‘Aboveground Lowdown’
Feb-Mar ‘Monkey See Monkey Do’ SPIN Gallery, Toronto review Globe and Mail, GM Dault
May 29 McMichael Gallery, Kleinburg, portrait by GK installed, featured in a panel discussion about portraiture: Dr. Lilly Koltun-Portrait Gallery of Canada, Joanne Todd-artist and Betty Ann Jordan-writer
2005-3 Canadian Forces Artists Program, Ottawa
2005 Nov-Dec ‘United States of Being: the John Bentley Mays portraits’ Lehmann+Leskiw Toronto, reviews by Gary Michael Dault, Globe and Mail and Peter Goddard, the Toronto Star
Oct-Dec Cdn Embassy, Washington DC ‘Boots on the Ground’ CFAP group curated: Anne Delaney
Oct Kingston Prize for Portraiture Exhibition [portrait of General Lewis MacKenzie]
May Canadian War Museum permanent installations, Beaverbrook Collection, 2007-6-5-2 + 1999-6
May ‘Ars Medica: a Journal of Medicine, Health and the Humanities’, Mt Sinai Hospital, Toronto
‘Gertrude Kearns: Conflict, Conscience and the Artist-Healer’ essays by Anna Hudson in conjunction with GK, launch at Drake Hotel with visuals and reading both by GK
2006 Official War Artist in Afghanistan, Department of National Defence, embedded in uniform, contracted to create six canvas works [3 x 4 ft each] completed in October, awaiting DND reproduction
July Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, portrait judge director Bill Kirby
April 22-May 24 ‘Results of the Headhunt’ The Drawers -Headbones Gallery, Toronto + catalogue 2007 Convergence:The Intl Journal of Research into New Technologies Laura Brandon vol.3, No. 1, 9-17
Carleton Grad Course ARTH 5115 ‘Contemporary Art and War’
‘Art and War’ Laura Brandon, I.B Tauris publisher, London UK chapter 7: ‘War Art Internationally’
spring issue MORE magazine [Transcontinental Publications USA] ‘40 over 40’ Kim Pittaway
Current historical portrait commissions for the Royal Canadian Military Institute, Toronto
Catalogue in progress, ‘U.S. of Being: the John Bentley Mays portraits’ essay by Peter Goddard
April 12 CCCA Database auction ‘12 on 12’, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto, collector purchase F. Faria
May 28 Sotheby’s in conjunction with Ritchie’s auction ‘Important Canadian Art’ Toronto + catalogue
Sept 5 wks Black/White abstract show with Alan Glicksman……The Drawers-Headbones, Toronto