Rob Gonsalves

Rob Gonsalves

I just hung my first painting by Rob Gonsalves up in my family room last night.  It’s called “On the Upswing” and shows two kids on swings hanging from a tree with bright autumn foliage.   The girl in the foreground swings high above the rooftops – or is that just the fence around her yard?  In the distance is a river or ocean - or maybe it’s just her street.  Below her, fallen leaves blanket the yard – or is that the same tree that she sails over?

Rob Gonsalves is a Canadian painter of what he calls “Magic Realism.”  His paintings usually involve landscapes and objects that seem to morph from one thing to another.  In the case of “On the Upswing”, the fence morphs into buildings, the leaves into another tree, and the street into a far off river.  But the real metamorphosis is that the simple act of swinging becomes an exhilarating launch into the sky. His drawings are extremely well-planned, beautifully detailed, and reflect his architectural training.  The spectacular “The Sun Sets Sail” draws the eye from left to right as a bridge morphs into blue sky and the clouds seen through the bridge become sailing ships.  The image’s smooth, effortless transition results in an uplifting, transcendental effect.  “Bedtime Aviation” appears to show kids jumping on their beds.  But the bedspreads morph to a field-covered countryside which the jumpers now appear to be flying over – and above an airplane.  While these transitional pictures are clearly influenced by the great M.C. Escher, Gonsalves goes further than Escher in richness, depth, and complexity of themes and emotions.

Other Gonsalves canvases involve visual trickery that is equally brilliant.  “Table Top Towers” shows kids building skyscrapers with toy blocks in the foreground that mimic the real buildings behind them.  All seems realistic until you realized the boy hanging in the tree is placing one last block on one of the real buildings.  “Change of Scenery” (I and II) show alterations being made to a room’s drapery to make an urban skyline from starlit wilderness (in I) and mountains out of the prairie (in II). “New Moon Eclipsed” which I’m going to hang in my bedroom soon, has no magic per se as a woman makes a shadow of a globe on a nearby tree – and the moon?  Could be.  The influence of Rene Magritte is apparent in these paintings.  Magritte’s “The Human Condition” impressed the young Gonsalves with its magical effect elicited from a purely realistic image.

It is tempting to call Gonsalves’ work surrealistic but the label belies the intense logic and structure of the images.  Every image is perfectly logical to the eye while magical things happen in the brain.  In “Doll’s Dreamhouse” the dolls inside the dollhouse exit the back door, come around the hall, and pull up a chair next to the children.  “Unfinished Puzzle” show jigsaw puzzle builders running pieces into the puzzle’s picture to finish it.  It all makes sense to the eye but it boogles the mind.

I’ve been studying Gonsalves’ paintings for a while now and have two minor quibbles.  First, the people in the pictures almost always have their eyes closed.  The puzzle builder mentioned above has his eyes closed as he hands over a piece.  The girl “On the Upswing” does, too.  Even the boys in “Autumn Cycling” are dangerously riding their bikes with their eyes closed.  Why? Is it meant to convey a dreamy state?  If so, I guess the pictures are surrealistic after all.  Or maybe he just doesn’t like to paint eyes.  I wish I could ask Rob about it. Maybe I’ll go to one of his shows and do just that.

Second, Gonsalves’ work has been published in three children’s books “Imagine a Night” (2003), “Imagine a Day” (2005), and “Imagine a Place” (2008).  While this offers a relatively inexpensive way to get copies of his work, their presentation as kid’s stuff undercuts their power and genius.  I'd like to see a collection of this wonderful artist’s work for an adult audience. 

Question of the Day: In "Chalkboard Universe", who is standing at the blackboard?