July 1, 2006
Mayberry Fine Art to Showcase McInnis’s Work beginning July 18, 2006.
Outspoken Artist RFM McInnis’s Move to Winnipeg, a Major Coup for City
Mayberry Fine Art to Showcase McInnis’s Work beginning July 18
Public Invited to Meet the Artist Sat. July 22 at 212 McDermot in The Exchange
Oil painter RFM (Robert) McInnis is somewhat of an outsider when it comes to Canada’s mainstream art world. Winnipeg’s reputation as an artistically-sophisticated city drew the outspoken artist to the city from Alberta six months ago.
Bill Mayberry, whose Winnipeg gallery Mayberry Fine Art has represented McInnis for several years, describes McInnis’s relocation here as “a major coup for Winnipeg.”
Mayberry: “Robert is a significant Canadian artist -- almost one-of-a-kind in Canada today, both in the way he paints and what he paints. His figurative work, which challenges the viewer and provokes discussion and thought, is a tougher sell, but definitely worth having.”
Mayberry will host a large exhibition of McInnis’s latest figurative works beginning July 18 and continuing through August. The public is invited to meet the artist on July 22 (time tbc) at Mayberry at 212 McDermot Ave.
McInnis: “I don’t paint ordinary, nice, pleasant subject matter. It’s what I call mild eroticism – women in various stages of dress and undress -- anywhere from nude to wearing slips, stockings, high heels. I am not a soft painter for the commercial market. I am painting tough, real art that you paint from your heart, your inner emotion that most artists don’t have a clue they should be doing because they’re too eager to make a nice picture that will sell easily in their galleries.”
For his figurative works, McInnis prefers mature, Rubenesque women who exude confidence and feel comfortable in evocative clothing, although his paintings also include women wearing turtleneck sweaters and flowing overcoats.
McInnis’s wish is for all of his dealers, who operate some of the most prestigious galleries in Canada (Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton), to take a risk on his tougher-to-sell figurative work, not just sell his landscapes.
Mayberry: “It is often the case that paintings of great artists are more difficult to sell in their day because these people are breaking new ground, and many buyers tend to stick with the tried and true. Ultimately, the contribution of artists, like McInnis, are recognized in the end.”
McInnis believes the dealer’s role is to educate their clients, elevate their personal taste in art, get them into buying serious art rather than decoration. “I will fight that battle until I’m dead. I’m 64 now. In coming to Winnipeg, I’m going to take a tougher stand, only do my figurative work and hope for the best.”
McInnis paintings sell for between $1200 and $10,000.
McInnis: “Art that sells is what’s in commercial galleries today. Art we know is by artists that painted with their passion. Forty years ago, it was like that – tough artists, tough dealers, connoisseur collectors.”
Over the last 30 years, McInnis, who works mostly in oil, has also painted portraits of some well-known Canadians, who he invited to sit for him -- Margaret Atwood (approx. 1975), Maureen McTeer (approx. 1980), Chief Justice Beverley McLaughlin (2003), as well as former Prime Minister Joe Clark, Peter Pocklington and Henry Morgentaler.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas, Lucien Freud, Raphael Soyer, and Canadian Jean-Paul Lemieux are among McInnis’s favourite artists and from whom he has drawn inspiration.
McInnis, born in Saint John, N.B., has lived all over Canada for his painting career, moving frequently in search of new vistas, to find new inspiration. He and his wife Francoise lived the last 12 years on a rural property near Nanton, Alberta. He had passed through Winnipeg before, but had never explored the city.
McInnis: “We did hear before we came here that Winnipeg is a more exciting, more vibrant city art-wise and I’m finding that to be true. There’s a greater sense of art the way I’m describing it than there ever was in Calgary.”
McInnis moved to Winnipeg mid-winter, a season that he loves. “I like this city the best of any I’ve lived in – it’s quiet, peaceful, an amazingly friendly city, just like the licence plate says.”
Now, with his studio established in the duplex he purchased (699 Carter Avenue at Arbuthnot), McInnis is hard at work. He has hired two women as models for his figurative paintings, but is always on the lookout for interesting people to paint.
His business card, featuring images of some of his paintings, serves as an invitation to pose. McInnis pays his models $50 per three-hour session. Most paintings require three or four sessions to go from pencil to finished work.
McInnis’s portrait work includes both women and men. He recently convinced his plumber, who has “an intriguing face”, to sit for a portrait. (He does not do commissioned portraits.)
At this stage in his career, McInnis is keenly interested in selling his work to public galleries for their collections. He has had an initial meeting with a Winnipeg Art Gallery curator who will monitor the figurative work he produces in Winnipeg.
A list of all McInnis’s work is in the National Archives, along with his papers, letters and sketch books dating from 1958. His journal writing (1973-98) is also in the collection catalogued as RFM McInnis Fonds. Although not open to the public until his death, the material is available on request for research.
McInnis burned 350 of his paintings before moving to Winnipeg. He went through his entire collection, rating each out of 10. Those that did not score 8 or better were burned.
McInnis has thus far eschewed internet and e-mail technology, although his son has created a website for him to feature his work. He uses his Apple laptop as a typewriter. He prints off his occasional articles and mails them to the magazine editors, who have been unsuccessful in convincing him that e-mail does work for this purpose. “Technology is so far ahead of me now and I don’t feel like trying to catch up. I want to concentrate on my new figurative work.”
To learn more about McInnis’s life and to view his work, go to www.rfmmcinnis.ca and www.mayberryfineart.com