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Subject: The Right Honorable Kim Campbell, Prime Minister of Canada
Oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches (122 x 91cm)
Collection, The Parliament, Ottawa

Samuel Edmund Oppenheim, esteemed instructor in portraiture at New York's Art Students League school, emphasized that "the success of a painting is in the conception." No painting could better illustrate this maxim than this extraordinarily effective portrayal of the Prime Minister of Canada, by artist David Goatley.

The Prime Minister sits before a striking assemblage of doctoral robes and a banner, all in a blaze of vivid reds. Her gaze is contemplative and earnest at the same time - the portrait shows the lady to be both thoughtful and strong-willed. The master stroke in this powerful composition is the blue garment thrown casually over the back of the chair, with the crisp white panels balancing the storm of red above, and imparting an unmistakably patriotic color theme.

The artist employs deep, rich darks throughout the painting to stabilize the brilliant colors, and impart solidity and gravity to the over-all effect. This kind of powerful design doesn't "just happen" - it is the product of careful, thoughtful planning by an artist who knows just what he wants to communicate, and how to achieve it. J.H.S.