PERMANENT COLLECTION

ALAN WOOD

NATIONALITY: British / Canadian

DATES: 1935-2017

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Alan Wood was born in 1935 in the town of Widnes, in Lancashire, England. His early interest in art was due to the support and encouragement he received from both his father and his high school art teacher. Following graduation from high school, he studied art at the Liverpool College of Art and credits his success as an artist to his good fortune to be in the right places at the right times. His involvement with the lively art and music scene in Liverpool during the late fifties led him to the innovative St. Ives Artists Colony in Cornwall, which in turn opened the door to a successful 6-year teaching career at the prestigious Cardiff College of Art in Wales.

Alan Wood moved to Canada in 1971 and settled in British Columbia in 1974. Since that time he has produced his most personal and mature work as an artist. His interest in the dynamics of light and colour from the ocean, beach, forest, and sky has dominated his landscape work throughout his career. In 1983 Alan Wood gained international recognition for taking his painting directly into the landscape with his Ranch creation. This 320-acre painted construction built in the foothills of the Alberta Rockies was a monumental exploration of colour and form. Since then, he has continued to work with constructions of wood, canvas, and paint. Alan Wood is a prolific artist and since 1962 has participated in many group and solo exhibitions in Great Britain, Europe, Canada, the United States, and Australia. In March 1981, Alan Wood built the indoor Ranch installation at the Charles H. Scott Gallery in Vancouver, Canada. The success of this piece led Wood to plan a large outdoor environmental work continuing to use the theme of Western Ranch architecture (fences, corrals, barns, gates etc.). The site chosen was the Rocky Mountain Ranch in Alberta, Canada.

The Ranch Project cost $500,000 and was sponsored by corporate patrons, C.P. Air and Delta Hotels. The project occupied 320 acres of Alberta ranch land and consisted of 150 000 board feet of lumber wrapped in 54 864 meters of canvas and painted with 5455 liters of acrylic paint. Twelve scenes accompanied the running fence. They included a corral, a windmill, a sixty-foot bridge, barns, chutes, and gates. The project was completed in late summer of 1983 and remained on site for four seasons, until it was dismantled in July 1984. Wood described the Ranch as a three-dimensional painting. It was built of wood, wrapped in canvas, and painted. He stated he planned the piece to be a colour statement in the natural environment using the Ranch theme in twelve parts or tableaux. The piece did not attempt to suggest weathering or imitate a "natural" look, but wore non naturalistic, strong, intense colours, forming a static but dynamic element in the constantly changing atmosphere, light, and colors of nature in different time, weather, and seasonal conditions. In addition to the prints, the exhibition will also feature the photographic documentation undertaken by renowned photographer, Robert Keziere, who undertook photographing each of the elements or tableaux to create a visual record of the Ranch installation in situ. In addition we will feature the 1985 the film "The Alan Wood Ranch Project,” produced and directed by Steven Denure and Chris Lowry, which includes time-lapse, aerial, and seasonal shots of the Ranch Project. Wood produced five portfolios of Ranch prints in an edition of 200. Each portfolio had a specific theme and contained five images.