David Cantine

Edmonton-based painter David Cantine cites his primary influences as Cézanne, Picasso and Morandi, and has undertaken a singular mission to exhaustively explore the illusion of space produced by colour. Having earned a Master of Arts degree from the University of Iowa in 1964, Mr. Cantine accepted a position as Professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Alberta, where he taught for 35 years. As an artist, he has consistently produced and exhibited work, participating in over 100 solo and group exhibitions in Canada and the U.S.A. Mr. Cantine's imagery faithfully consists of two pairs of circles or discs set within a trapezoid. Recently retired from teaching, Cantine continues to explore the formal relationships within this fixed and precise format by playing with colour. He chooses to align his paintings neither with the representational nor the abstract, positioning them in a neutral field where the trapezoid, not the field, is the subject matter.