Doris McCarthy, Kitchen at Fool’s Paradise, 1954, oil on board, 30″ x 24″

This rare McCarthy painting from the mid 50′s is brimming with the life of Fool’s Paradise, Doris McCarthy’s home and studio on the Scarborough Bluffs, Toronto. Her kitchen with its hand made (by Doris) knotty pine cupboards and back splash, provides the background for this animated still life that captures the “life” in Doris’ abode.

The kitchen was the centre of her home with a view out to the lake from one window and a carefully designed rectangular opening at one end to reveal a view of her studio and, specifically, the end with her easel. When taking a break from painting, making a cup of tea or in the morning starting the day with an hearty breakfast, the most recent work on the easel could be viewed and appraised by McCarthy.

This painting would have been on that easel many years ago. It has been newly conserved and framed and it is a pleasure to have this work for sale now.

William Kurelek, Hand Saw, 1975, mixed media on board, 16″ x 28″

William Kurelek worked for many years for the Isaacs Gallery, framing many other artists work. He was also known to spend many hours on his own frames for his paintings, personalizing each frame and making them part of the whole painting.

He prized his tools and often they became subjects as in this fine still life painting. These paintings of tools and implements (often painted size-as) comprised one of the Kurelek’s much appreciated sub-series over many years, with examples found in many significant collections, including the National Gallery of Canada. In his everyday subjects, the life he lived and witnessed, in and outside his home and studio, filled many of his paintings.

He has elevated the ordinary hand saw in this painting to a place of the personal significance, surrounding it with fragments from the studio. The viewer can enter his time and place through this work.