Marcelle Ferron’s two variegated paintings—one small (LOT 37) and one medium-format (LOT 36), both from the same period—are examples of how the artist explores contrapuntal registers that reveal her fascination with light. These two works foreground the richness of her material and exemplify the pure, brilliant colour palette favoured by the artist during the early 1960s. They are also a kind of swan song to this period in her career, as Ferron devoted herself entirely to the art of stained glass between 1966 and 1973, before finally returning to painting, but in a different style.

The 1962 painting shows a vegetal mass split in two: the orangey-yellow-dappled corner corner seems to pull away from the creased, acidic tones of the lower half, and blooms against the white background. The palette knife strokes are both crunchy and ingenious, and still feel fresh more than half a century after their creation. (A. L.)