Graham Metson

The vibrant pop palette that Graham Metson uses in his paintings stands in stark contrast to the colours he remembers seeing during his childhood.  Growing up, a kid during the blitz in London, he recalls,

“England’s grey, and especially during the war.”

Metson has since chosen to express his vision of life through the energetic manipulation of paint, in highly saturated hues.  He loosely conveys the human figure, in the form of dancers and jazz musicians, in order to convey the kinetic energy one would expect to emanate from such art forms.  Through the use of strong, rhythmic, and gestural brushstrokes, he is able to create a visual equivalent to musical notation - a language all his own.  According to Metson, life, art and music are inter-related:

“My life is a tune I paint…my paintings are improvisations, much like jazz music.”

Graham Metson has had a distinguished artistic career, having exhibited widely since the 1960’s.  His work hangs in private and public collections in the United Kingdom, the United States and in Canada.  He is the author of “The Halifax Explosion” and “Alex Colville, Diary of a War Artist.”  Metson was born in Walthamstow, England, and taught at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design from 1972 until 1986. In 2002 Metson was a featured artist at the 50th Anniversary of the Ottawa Tulip Festival opened by the Queen of the Netherlands.