The Naked Silo

12" x 12" x 6", styrofoam, spackle, synthetic sponge, plastic, wax, caulking, acrylic and lacquer paint, wood, wood stain, spray varnish, 2018 In 2014 I embarked on a huge adventure to do 100 paintings on the theme of World War One called To the Sound of Trumpets , commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the beginning of that war. For roughly nine months I was steeped in research and sketching and painting and by the end of it I was emotionally exhausted and artistically drained, but I was largely satisfied with my efforts, knowing I did my best. You can view a  short video of those paintings (the accompanying music suits the mood very well). I knew I needed more than 100 ideas to make sure the 100 I did paint were the best ones, so I brainstormed a great deal and filled my notebook with more than enough ideas. I ended up with a few extra ones that were pretty good, ones I would have liked to have painted, but there just wasn't enough time (the show open...

To the sound of voice and piano. During the exhibition of my World War One painting project (11-30 November 2014) I had a selection of music playing in the venue ( Macaulay Church Museum in Picton, ON) to convey an overall sense of melancholy –not sadness– while visitors looked at the paintings. Among the songs was one called "So" by my friend, writer and musician  Gayleen Froese , which always makes me think of a snowy winter's day whenever I hear it –and we did get some snow during the exhibition. The mood of it was perfect for my show and I was very happy when she said I could use it for a video showing all of the paintings in their proper display order, starting with the Archduke Ferdinand and his assassin, and ending with the Remembrance section. This video lasting 3 minutes and 45 seconds represents almost ten months of work, from the first documentary watched to the last brush stroke applied (not to mention the 8 hours spent hanging the show the day be...

20" x 16", oil on canvas, 2014 Trench songs feature in a few pieces in my World War One painting project , but they're most prominent in this one and in "Why Are We Here?" , having some of the words scratched into the paint. I could have found image reference of an actual soldier tangled in barbed wire for this, but I decided to look through my photos from my trip to Italy last March, knowing there I'd taken a shot or two of Michelangelo's  Pietà . My idea was to extract Jesus from Mary's embrace and string him up in barbed wire for my Remembrance section, emphasizing the theme of sacrifice. My sketch of the figure in my notebook looked wobbly and rough, but nice and alive and reminded me of Egon Schiele 's drawing style, so I then chose to emulate his style for the figure in the final piece.

"It is forbidden to kill, therefore all murderers are punished  unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." – Voltaire 16" x 20", oil on wood panel, 2014, private collection (here's the painting without the text ) ________________________________________________ Here is the MASTER LIST  and links to all 100 paintings. Here is a SHORT VIDEO of all 100 paintings. ________________________________________________ Press release: To the Sound of Trumpets One hundred paintings commemorate start of World War One Macaulay Heritage Park, 35 Church Street (at Union Street), Picton, Ontario For his upcoming art exhibition, To the Sound of Trumpets , Milé Murtanovski is creating one hundred paintings to commemorate the hundred-year anniversary of the start of World War One. Opening on Remembrance Day, Murtanovski has been developing this project for more than a year, immersing himself in research, with a particular focus on the effects of ...