Harold Town (1924-1990) remains one of the most accomplished and fascinating characters from the "Painters Eleven" group. 

While Town coined the group's name (based on the number of artists who simply attended their first meeting) his output was diverse and ever-changing. He was nicknamed the Picasso of Canada due to his constant reinvention. 

One of his most exciting chapters occurred in the early 1970s. Realizing an idea first considered in 1957, Town and his father created a device that stood 7 feet tall, that allowed the artist to flick paint from a string onto a canvas. 

Town would do this technique thousands of times on a single canvas. The highly textured artworks that employed this approach were appropriately titled Snap Paintings. 

While the lines in these paintings are totally straight they have a wonderful texture that Iris Nowell compared to Chenile. While it sounds trite, these are works that are best appreciated in person. 

Caviar20 is excited to show this exceptional example from the Snaps era (1972-1976). Like the best of Town's work, he offers two unexpected colors, purple grape contrasted with an apricot/ochre. While many of the Snap paintings are quite large in size, as the artist was taking advantage of his tall homemade contraption, this work is notable for its intimate domestic proportions. 

This work is featured in the Caviar20 exhibition "Toronto20". 

An essential work for any collection of post-war Canadian abstraction.