Art By - J M Girvan

J M GIRVAN was born in Cambridge Ontario, in 1942. He moved, in 1961, to Toronto to study at the Ontario College of Art.

In 1974 he moved to Manitoba and spends much of his time in the wilderness areas of the Whiteshell and Nopiming. The move and the painting and ideas of Ken Danby powerfully influenced his art. He began painting landscapes in a realist manner in egg tempera and gouache. He finds that egg tempera gives him a clarity of light and colour which suit the bright sunlight, dry atmosphere and colours of Manitoba. He attempts to convey an instinctive, spontaneous response to landscape; to give the impression of a place, rather than a precise photographic image.He attempts to convey an instinctive, spontaneous response to landscape.When sketching he works directly with brush and paint, with no preliminary drawing, a visceral approach rather than an intellectual one. In the studio, using egg tempera he refines the image, adding a thoughtful element to the image while still retaining the feel of the original sketch. Details are added from memory and feelings to create the final image. “The Whiteshell and Nopiming Provincial Parks are on the edge of the Canadian Shield. They contain a magical, fragile world. Life clings tenaciously to their granite rocks. I try to show that magic in my art so that others may see and experience it, bringing a new understanding of the unity of our world and the importance of taking care to protect and nurture the beauty of this planet “

Since 1990 he has been giving lectures on landscape painting in egg tempera to interested groups. In 1991 and 1992 he was commissioned to do paintings for the Eaton Place permanent Collection.

He is listed in the World Artists Directory, is a member the Society of Tempera Painters. In 2009 he created the graphic novel “Afghan Tales”. based on his nephew’s letters home from the Afghan war.