Rod Prouse A Brief History
-1968 Ontario College of Art Graduate ‘Drawing, Painting and Printmaking’
-1968-1972 a stint in the Graph Arts Trade and two years a full time Art Teacher (grade9-10) Painted and worked in the North West Territories (made beer money doing portraits in Bars).
-1972-1976 . Made the move to full time Artist (50 years ago!)
Moved to Nova Scotia. Started a gallery with my artist Father, ‘The Father and Son Gallery’ Chester NS …boats, beaches, rocks, weather and good folks. Loved it.
Got picked up by a down-town Toronto gallery, ‘Canadian Fine Arts Gallery’ in ‘76.
First show sold out. Career launched, media attention’ income.
-1977 -the 80s -moved back to Ontario. Bought a log cabin with a studio and a view of Georgian Bay.
A ‘New York’ influence had me producing large ‘Rural Graffiti’ paintings, Silk Screen Prints and some very big Block Prints.
Starting to get Public Gallery attention. Found a mentor in Basil Williams, an accomplished Art Dealer. Travelled and painting in the UK, France. The USA and Caribbean. Started having ‘Open- Studio’ events at home (still do).
Also returned to Education….Hooked up with the Ontario Arts Council and their ‘Artists In Education Programme’ This programme created grants to artists to create and facilitate Art Projects in schools across Ontario. I also worked for TV Ontario traveling to 160 locations in the North introducing the station to a new audience. I saw a lot of Ontario!
-the 90s Collaborations, New Media and the Mountains
I worked with teams of Dancers, Composers, and Visual Artists to developed interdisciplinary projects for the OAC’s ‘Artists In Schools Programme’ Our projects were state of the art and also in sync with educational thought of the time. We created an educational platform to enable students to create and stage their own original Performance works.
The 90s were also a game changer for Artists…the home Computer grew up.
I jumped into New Media,Video and Photoshop… received Grants, created new media work and exhibited.
An invitation in 1992 to paint the Rockies from Wendy Wacko of the new Jasper Originals Gallery (now Mountain Galleries) rekindled a new adventure in Painting and my longest association with a commercial Gallery.
-2000, 2010 ,2020-22 ‘coming to terms with Painting Landscape’
Although Painting is now my visual art focus I never thought of myself as a one-horse Artist. I have received Grants and presented exhibitions based on my work in several visual-art disciplines. My practice in other disciplines have influenced my Painting.
I started to use procedures and process that a print-maker or Photoshop user would be familiar with..(offset printing, stencilling , blocking out, revealing, layering…). My painting process had expanded. The content of my Landscape work had also evolved. I started looking behind the curtain of ‘whats seen’ to reveal narratives within the landscape.
“ ….whimsical and imbued with energy Prouse’s compositions are a result of imagining untold narratives…objects become animated…land, water, sky become sacred.” Jill Price Curator Quest Art 2017
I was achieving my goal of creating authentic landscape paintings. RP
-1968 Ontario College of Art Graduate ‘Drawing, Painting and Printmaking’
-1968-1972 a stint in the Graph Arts Trade and two years a full time Art Teacher (grade9-10) Painted and worked in the North West Territories (made beer money doing portraits in Bars).
-1972-1976 . Made the move to full time Artist (50 years ago!)
Moved to Nova Scotia. Started a gallery with my artist Father, ‘The Father and Son Gallery’ Chester NS …boats, beaches, rocks, weather and good folks. Loved it.
Got picked up by a down-town Toronto gallery, ‘Canadian Fine Arts Gallery’ in ‘76.
First show sold out. Career launched, media attention’ income.
-1977 -the 80s -moved back to Ontario. Bought a log cabin with a studio and a view of Georgian Bay.
A ‘New York’ influence had me producing large ‘Rural Graffiti’ paintings, Silk Screen Prints and some very big Block Prints.
Starting to get Public Gallery attention. Found a mentor in Basil Williams, an accomplished Art Dealer. Travelled and painting in the UK, France. The USA and Caribbean. Started having ‘Open- Studio’ events at home (still do).
Also returned to Education….Hooked up with the Ontario Arts Council and their ‘Artists In Education Programme’ This programme created grants to artists to create and facilitate Art Projects in schools across Ontario. I also worked for TV Ontario traveling to 160 locations in the North introducing the station to a new audience. I saw a lot of Ontario!
-the 90s Collaborations, New Media and the Mountains
I worked with teams of Dancers, Composers, and Visual Artists to developed interdisciplinary projects for the OAC’s ‘Artists In Schools Programme’ Our projects were state of the art and also in sync with educational thought of the time. We created an educational platform to enable students to create and stage their own original Performance works.
The 90s were also a game changer for Artists…the home Computer grew up.
I jumped into New Media,Video and Photoshop… received Grants, created new media work and exhibited.
An invitation in 1992 to paint the Rockies from Wendy Wacko of the new Jasper Originals Gallery (now Mountain Galleries) rekindled a new adventure in Painting and my longest association with a commercial Gallery.
-2000, 2010 ,2020-22 ‘coming to terms with Painting Landscape’
Although Painting is now my visual art focus I never thought of myself as a one-horse Artist. I have received Grants and presented exhibitions based on my work in several visual-art disciplines. My practice in other disciplines have influenced my Painting.
I started to use procedures and process that a print-maker or Photoshop user would be familiar with..(offset printing, stencilling , blocking out, revealing, layering…). My painting process had expanded. The content of my Landscape work had also evolved. I started looking behind the curtain of ‘whats seen’ to reveal narratives within the landscape.
“ ….whimsical and imbued with energy Prouse’s compositions are a result of imagining untold narratives…objects become animated…land, water, sky become sacred.” Jill Price Curator Quest Art 2017
I was achieving my goal of creating authentic landscape paintings. RP
