STILL LIFE ON RECTANGLES VII, 2007
oil on canvas
39.5 x 39.5 in.
framed
$17,000

BULRUSH AND RED APPLES, 2005
oil on canvas
37 x 26 in.
framed
$12,000

SQUARE STILL LIFE VII, 2007
oil on canvas
39.5 x 39.5 in.
framed
$19,000

BRUNO BOBAK AND JOSEPH PLASKETT AT THE BIRTHDAY RECEPTION, COMPLETE WITH CAKE!

BLUE PERIOD, 2007
oil on canvas
21.75 x 35.75 in.
framed
$10,000

LUNCH WITH WHITE WINE, 2007
oil on canvas
28.5 x 19.5 in.
framed
$8,500

TURNIPS AND BEETS II, 2007
oil on canvas
19.75 x 39.75 in.
framed
$12,000

BULRUSH, GLADIOLAS AND LEMON, 2005
oil on canvas
39.75 x 30 in.
framed
$17,000

THE FRAMED VERSION

POINSETTA AND HELLEBORA, 2006
oil on canvas
framed
23.5 x 36 in.
$14,000

REFLECTIONS ON TURNING NINETY

Think of it – the challenge and excitement of old age, the approaching extinction that death brings – all part of the drama of being alive! 

To reach ninety is becoming commonplace. It is no longer a feat. I owe it to the luck of good genes – both parents lasted into their 90's. I am making a celebration of it only because, when I turned 70 I held a big party in Paris , and did the same when I turned 80 in Suffolk . That was the party to end all parties.

The third decade-celebration takes the form of holding seven separate exhibitions across Canada . My zest for exhibition has over a long career become increasingly a mania. The ecstasy I feel as I survey  work I have done I want to share with the world – not the whole world  which couldn't care less, but my private world, which is my country, Canada. An aged painter cannot help but accept the fact that his work belongs in the past. Younger painters have leaped into the phenomenon called contemporary, where it would be foolish of me to try to enter. But I can claim my own phenomenon, the existence of a public that loves and is moved by what I do, and this public even includes my peers some of whom are young and contemporary. I now paint works that I would previously have not been capable of painting, works that take me by surprise and leave me in a state of wonder and amazement. When I see older work that has stood the test of time (not everything I do does) I cannot recall how I have done it. At a certain point the painting seems to have painted itself without my help – what I have called the "eureka" moment when a sudden daring intervention has worked a miracle.

How much longer can this go on? I still feel 'in my prime'. I must look old, as younger people keep offering me a seat in a bus or metro. Deafness and ageing have restricted my activities so that all I am really good for is my work, but when painting I am almost as tireless as ever I was. I keep saying that painting keeps me youthful, or ageless. But hovering over waking, and even sleeping, brain-activity is the spectre of Death, which I insist on not seeing as an invisible enemy but as a friend. At an early age death is tragic. I would resent it coming tomorrow, but when it comes in the fullness of time, it must be counted a blessing. I think back on the most vivid encounter I have had with death, that of my father in 1963. After minor strokes and a fall that broke his leg, I was summoned home from Italy . He was hospitalised and for a month my mother and I made daily visits, but as his brain was affected, conversation was limited, so I began bringing paper and pastels and making constant drawings of him. There must be nearly one hundred, depicting a man slowly dying. Was I cruelly exploiting a human predicament for the sake of art and its glory? One night there was an unheard of natural phenomenon, a hurricane. I remember watching through the window the wild turmoil outside. A large tree in the garden was swaying back and forth until a moment came when there was no forth, the tree was laid back. At 4 a.m. that night I was awakened by a phone call, the hospital announcing that my Dad had died. I made one more drawing of him in his coffin. This portfolio of drawings is an homage to death, or the homage that art can pay to it. These works have never been exhibited, but they are perhaps a unique record.

But let me return to life, which goes on and on as long as it can. Because of my art, every moment can be precious. I will be happy if I can be granted five more years of joyful activity. This small exhibition is a cross section of what the other six contain.

APPLES AND DAHLIAS, 2004
oil on canvas
20 x 29 in.
framed
$11,000

THE ARTIST AT WORK, 1996
oil on canvas
31 3/4 x 39 1/2 in.
framed
$18,000

THE ARTIST AT BREAKFAST, 1996
oil on canvas
31 3/4 x 39 1/2 in.
framed
$18,000

Joe Plaskett was born in New Westminster, BC in 1918 and grew up in British Columbia. He graduated from the University of British Columbia in 1939 with first class honours in History, and upon completion of teachers' college at UBC, taught in private and public schools. He studied art at the Vancouver School of Art under Ustinov, Amess, Shadbolt and Binning, as well as under A.Y. Jackson at the Banff School. After several exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery in the early forties, he received friendship and encouragement from Jock MacDonald and Lawren Harris. Nominated by Lawren Harris, he won the first Emily Carr Scholarship in 1946. The award changed his life, enabling him to study, first at the California School of Fine Art in San Francisco and then with Hans Hofmann in New York and Provincetown. In 1947 Plaskett was appointed Principal of the Winnipeg Art School, succeeding Lemoine Fitzgerald. Summers were spent with further studies in New York City and Provincetown under the noted abstract painter Hans Hoffman. Hhe taught for two years, by which time the lure of Europe became irresistible.

In 1949, after visiting London , he found in Paris the ideal setting for his artistic development. He moved to Paris where he studied with, among others, Fernand Leger, Jean Lombard, and Marzelle, traveled throughout Europe, drawing, using mostly pastels which were suitable for mobility.

In 1951 he moved to London, England to study art at the Slade School with a bursary awarded by the British Arts Council. He returned to Canada for exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the University of British Columbia Art Gallery, as well as in Winnipeg and Toronto. In 1953 a Canada Council Overseas Scholarship assisted him to return to Paris and study etching and engraving with Stanley Hayter.

After twice returning to Canada to teach, it was in 1957 that he was able to make Paris his home for the next half century. Since 2001, he has lived in Suffolk , England. Despite living abroad for over fifty years, he is staunchly Canadian. Almost annually he has returned to his homeland and held exhibitions across the country. A legendary host and supporter of Canadian artists working in Europe, he was considered an unofficial Ambassador in Paris .

The artist created the Joseph Plaskett Foundation in 2005, designed to support a mature Canadian student to travel and/or study art in Europe for one year. When the formation of the foundation was announced in 2005, Mr. Plaskett said, "I created this award in emulation of what Emily Carr did for me in 1946. I would like young Canadian artists to enjoy the privileges I experienced more than a half century ago. Europe and, above all, France , have left me richer in knowledge and experience. Although things have changed a great deal since I first traveled and studied abroad, the lesson of Europe and its past is always waiting for those ready to learn."

Since the 1940's, Mr. Plaskett has had over 65 solo and group exhibitions, with work in major public, private and corporate collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2001 for his excellence in the field of visual art . His autobiography A Speaking Likeness (Ronsdale Press) was published in 1999.