Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Canadian, 1935-2010
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working in commercial art, starting with Bush's commercial art firm, Wookey, Bush and Winter. An exhibition of Painters Eleven in 1955, and especially the work of William Ronald, which he visited with his friend, artist Dennis Burton, at Toronto's Hart House Gallery (today the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Art Museum at the University of Toronto) turned him towards abstraction as did visits to the Albright Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo (now called the Buffalo AKG Art Museum), to see artists such as Willem de Kooning.
Under the influence of the neo-Dada movement current in Toronto in the late 1950s and first half of the 1960s, Rayner began to combine found materials with his paintings.
In 1966, he began a new period in his work centred around images of Magnetawan, an area 200 miles north of Toronto, north of the Muskoka District. It provided him with a favourite painting place in which he could experiment with materials and technique while demonstrating how to refer to nature without copying it in his work. To express his feelings, he used oblique references, a thick and expressionist technique, and sometimes found objects. These paintings were intuitive reinterpretations of landscapes dramatically conceived.
Rayner showed his work with Toronto's Isaacs Gallery. For this reason, he has been called part of the Isaacs Group of artists, which include, among others, Michael Snow, Joyce Wieland, John Meredith and Graham Coughtry.
In the 1980s, his work shifted direction to a new interest in the figure. He began to reinvent this crucial subject of art for himself using dimensions of the inner, more spiritual self and obliquely explored realism in the context of the body, painting himself in inventive scenes. Some of these paintings are called the Oaxaca Suite, since Rayner lived in Oaxaca in southern Mexico in 1993 and 1994.
On September 26, 2010, Gordon Rayner died suddenly at home in Toronto.(Biography provided by Christopher Cutts Gallery)
to
10
2
11
1
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
12
9
8
6
6
4
4
1
1
11
1
16
178
97
68
65
12
11
11
1
1
Artist: Gordon Rayner
Raising Cane (self portrait)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
2010s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Country Bath (self portrait)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working i...
Category
1990s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Self Portrait
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working i...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Sunday in the Park (self portrait #12)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Self Portrait #3
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Board, Oil
In the Playpen (self portrait #11)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Sea Roof (self portrait #6)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
As a young person, Gordon Rayner learned to paint from his father, a commercial artist and weekend painter, and from his father`s close friend, Jack Bush. He spent 17 years working i...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Up, on the Roof (self portrait #2)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Untitled (self portrait)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Look (self portrait)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
2010s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Hangover (self portrait)
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
2010s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Self Portrait #5
By Gordon Rayner
Located in Toronto, CA
During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, K...
Category
Early 2000s Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
Related Items
[Buggereau (b. 1956)] Untitled #1
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Oil on canvas with silver leaf, black painted wood frame with gold leaf
Signed and dated in red, l.r.
$6000.00 + $500.00 framing
This artwork is offered by ClampArt, located in New...
Category
2010s Realist Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
French School Portrait PS243 La Contrebasse d'Ingres (Large)
Located in Zofingen, AG
PS 243 La Contrebasse d'Ingres
Such as Odalisque from Ingres or the photography composition from Man Ray, the most important point is the round shape of the body. The pale body sha...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Impressionist Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Ink, Oil, Acrylic
H 23.04 in W 17.33 in D 1.38 in
Contemplation in Blue and Green Nude Women Portrait Painting by Lada Kholosho
Located in Zofingen, AG
This original acrylic painting, rendered on a quality stretched canvas measuring 50 cm in width and 70 cm in height, compellingly explores the human form through a vibrant interplay ...
Category
2010s Expressionist Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Acrylic, Canvas
1 bid
Free Shipping
H 27.56 in W 19.69 in D 0.79 in
Series of Four Portraits from a New York City Gay Underground Club
By Damien Smith
Located in London, GB
A series of four paintings - acrylic on stretched canvas - unframed, by Canadian artist Damien Smith (born 1969). This unique series depicts four characters in a New York City erotic gay bar...
Category
1990s Contemporary Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
H 24.02 in W 24.02 in
French School - PS 233 La Fauve s'habille en Leopard Oil Post Impressionist
Located in Zofingen, AG
Ps 233 La Fauve S'habille en leopard. (Tawny wears leopard)
Portrait of a naked woman who is carrying a leopard.
Structural analysis:
Closeup portrait of a naked woman. The backgro...
Category
2010s Impressionist Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Ink, Oil, Acrylic
H 27.56 in W 19.69 in D 1.5 in
Indigo Solitude Nude Women Portrait Painting by Lada Kholosho
Located in Zofingen, AG
This original acrylic painting on canvas is an impressive work created by artist Lada Kholosho in 2024. It depicts a solitary figure wrapped in an embrace and rendered in a vivid pal...
Category
2010s Expressionist Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Acrylic
Free Shipping
H 27.56 in W 19.69 in D 0.79 in
Market Day in Piazza Grande Locarno Switzerland
Located in London, GB
'Market Day in Piazza Grande, Locarno, Switzerland', oil on board, by unknown artist (1947-48). Locarno is an utterly charming Italian-speaking resort located on the northern shore o...
Category
1940s Expressionist Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Board
At the Mirror
By Frederick Carl Frieseke
Located in New Orleans, LA
the most important American Impressionists of his age. While many of his contemporaries focused on the landscape, Frieseke gained his inspiration from the figural, and in particular the theme of femininity. His works capture female figures engaging in traditionally feminine roles — strolling in the garden or posed in a domestic interior. At the Mirror...
Category
Early 20th Century Impressionist Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
Early 17th Century Italian Old Master Semi Nude Man with Dagger oil painting
By Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Semi Nude Man drawing a Dagger
Italian School, early 17th century
circle of Caravaggio
oil on canvas, framed
framed: 21 x 17 inches
canvas : 18 x 14 i...
Category
Early 17th Century Old Masters Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
"Sashenka" Oil cm. 40 x 50 1981 Woman, Russia, snow
Located in Torino, IT
Woman, Russia, snow,Portraits
Levitin, Anatoly Pavlovich or Levitine,
Russian, 20th century,
Born 1922, in Petrograd (now St Petersburg).
Painter. Figures, nudes, genre scenes.
Socialist Realism...
Category
1980s Realist Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Cardboard
Memories from Past Life - original large painting by Paula Craioveanu
By Paula Craioveanu
Located in Forest Hills, NY
Memories from Past Life - original large art by Paula Craioveanu
Original, large, unique painting, oil on canvas, 150x100cm.
Shipped rolled in a tube from the artist's studio.
Artis...
Category
2010s Contemporary Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Oil, Canvas
6-8-10 - 21st Century, Contemporary, Nude Painting, Oil on Canvas
By Montse Valdés
Located in Barcelona, Catalonia
“I paint the human figure and explore further till I reach the Beauty of Being, the Soul.. the part of Human Being where everything is in total Serenity, Goodness and Harmony, where ...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Gordon Rayner Portrait Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Gordon Rayner portrait paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Gordon Rayner portrait paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Gordon Rayner in paint, board, oil paint and more. Not every interior allows for large Gordon Rayner portrait paintings, so small editions measuring 24 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Daniel Hughes, Jennifer Hornyak, and Di Li Feng. Gordon Rayner portrait paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $10,000 and tops out at $27,500, while the average work can sell for $10,500.