Seven Crows

1980
acrylic polymer emulsion
60.0 x 120.0 cm
Gift of Ross B. Eddy, Collection of the Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University

Perhaps the most ominous of all of Colville’s animal paintings, this artwork references a poem by Yeats and the traditional rhyme:

One crow sorrow
Two crows joy
Three crows a letter
Four crows a boy
Five crows silver
Six crows gold
Seven crows a story never to be told

Colville often draws literary references as the foundation of his artistic ideas. This painting is in the Owens Art Gallery collection.