As the Owens Art Gallery gets ready to show a retrospective of Sackville-based artist John Murchie’s work in January, they are putting out a call for help. The gallery is hoping to round up and reunite Murchies’ series of nearly 100 works known as Duck Decoy Paint Portraits.
Murchie started the series in 1998, says Owens director/curator Emily Falvey.
“I’m not sure if he’s finished it yet,” she says. “He’s still making them.”
Falvey is excited to be putting together the Murchie retrospective for January. “Not that many people have seen his work because he’s very quiet about it,” says Falvey. “We’re really excited to finally have this retrospective show because he’s been making art for 50 plus years. So it’s gonna be good.”
All Duck Decoy Paint Portraits are “more or less the same,” says Falvey, with the same bright yellow colour and sculptural duck decoy silhouettes made from dried paint. The works stand alone, but are also part of a larger series concept. “The idea was that he would make these paintings and sort of put them out into the world. And then, at a time in the future, he would try to bring them all back together as a sort of a way to complete the work,” says Falvey. “So we’re trying to do that, to see how many we can get back.”
“They could be anywhere,” says Falvey, who herself acquired one in an auction in Ottawa, while her father in Nova Scotia has another from parts unknown.
“We haven’t had found too many of them yet,” says Falvey, but she’s hoping that if word spreads widely enough, more Duck Decoy Paint Portraits will be able to make the trip back to Sackville for the show in January.
Falvey warns there are other works that look similar to the Duck Decoy Paint Portraits series. “I’m interested in those too, but I’m primarily interested in this series,” says Falvey. All works in the series have a number on the back of the work.
If think you might own a Duck Decoy Paint Portrait or know someone else who might, get in touch with Falvey via email (efalvey @ mta.ca) or call the Owens directly at (506) 364-2574.
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