Provenance:

Gallery One, Toronto.
Private Collection, Toronto.

Literature:

Lisa Moore, “David Blackwood: Memory and Light”, Newfoundland Quarterly, Volume 98, Number 3, 2006.

Note:

Ephraim Kelloway and his brothers Jacob and Alpheus were next-door neighbours to Blackwood in Wesleyville, Newfoundland in the 1950s. On the Kelloway property was a shed with a wooden door that Ephraim would frequently paint in bright colours. In a 2006 interview with Lisa Moore, Blackwood recalled: “One day Ephraim painted the door to the shed. A couple of weeks later he painted it again. Once he used stovepipe paint and the door was silver. Another time it was fluorescent pink. Gradually he began to add bits and pieces to the surface, a horseshoe and lettered tin. The surface paint peeled and the texture became a part of the overall effect."

Here, the vibrancy of Ephraim's door against the Newfoundland coast is captured through the use of two strong colours: red and purple. Although this painting wasn't his first work in the Kelloway Door series, Blackwood was most inspired by it. Reflecting upon the painting, Blackwood noted: “[It] gave me the idea to use the door motif as a vehicle for a personal voyage of exploration and discovery in the medium of painting. It would serve as a point of departure, and allow the painting itself to become the objective.” Blackwood's future door etchings and paintings would be based on this magnificent, large-scale work.