Blog

"Homage refers to an act of showing respect or tribute towards someone or something in public. In the context of art, the term refers to a painting, movie or another work of art where the artist adopts the content or features of another artist or work as a mark of respect."

I have written before about my grandfather, J Gordon Sinclair, who was a founding member of the Federation of Canadian Artists as well as other western Canadian art societies, and a prolific oil painter. He also taught me drawing, pastels and oil painting as a child. I own several of his paintings, and have photographs of many more, and I decided I would try to use photos of some of his art as inspiration for some paintings of my own.

In many respects such homage to an early artist is common; we have all no doubt copied Monet and Renoir and others in art classes. One can learn much from such efforts. The resulting paintings are often lovely, but cannot be entered in juried shows or galleries of course. If the artist were contemporary, such a copy would be a copyright violation, of course. But more importantly, whether the artist is contemporary or long deceased, such a copy is largely the original artists' work, not yours! The selection of subject, the composition, the values, the colour palette - really all the main principles of design - have been chosen by the original painter. Thus, the resulting new work is not, largely, the original work of the current imitator. (This is also why many shows and galleries won't let you use someone else's photo as a reference, even if copyright permission has been granted.)

Despite these limitations, I spend some time during the Covid lockdown with some photos of Grandpa's oil paintings, and "reproduced" these in my own chosen medium of watercolour. The results to me were as much about connection to my artistic roots and long lost family as they were a homage to his art. I wish I knew more about these paintings.... long since sold to collectors, I have nothing but poor photos of the originals, with no real clues as to where they were painted nor when.

At any rate, here they are:

Land Remembered, Elaine Hughes, Watercolour on paper, 11 x 15

Title Unknown, J Gordon Sinclair, Oil on panel, size unknown

Vale of Memory, Elaine L Hughes, Watercolour on paper, 11 x 15

Title unknown, J Gordon Sinclair, Oil on panel, size unknown

Can You Remember? Elaine L Hughes, watercolour on paper, 11 x 15

Title unknown, J Gordon Sinclair, Oil on panel, size unknown