Gesture

Portraits of artists at work are rare in Canadian art. Here, Davies paints a fellow artist and friend, Elizabeth Wyn Wood, in front of two of her most important sculptures, Gesture and Dead Tree. Gesture is a dramatic realization of the expressive power of figural movement. The form’s full-length robe allows for an abstract interpretation of the human body, which is composed of interrelated horizontal and vertical planes, creating a strong dynamism within the piece.