To view image clock on "Access Content Now" above This artwork, entitled “Last Dance at the Oasis” by Eleanor Bond offers a bird’s-eye-view of a roadhouse at night. It is closing time, and there are a few cars left in the parking lot. Usually situated outside city limits, this type of bar or tavern offers meals, liquor, dancing, and sometimes gambling. This is an early work by Bond, but the high angle perspective in the composition is a device that she uses often. The medium of the artwork is an artist-made lithographic print with pochoir, which means that the artist added colour using stencils. By printing the image in several layers of inks she skillfully builds the illusion of a night scene lit only by the electric light streaming from the windows of the roadhouse. It is an unusual subject matter for a landscape painting, but throughout her career, Bond has created paintings and drawings that explore the impact of technological developments and urban design on humans and animals. Bond’s interest in the built environment and public space derives from her studies in literature, comparative religion and interior design, and her work reflects on current ideas of space, place and community. Eleanor Bond (1948- ) was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and graduated from the University of Manitoba, School of Art (1976). Bond has become internationally known for her distinctive paintings and drawings that use the tradition of landscape painting to provoke discussions around social, ecological, political, and economic themes. Since 1988, Bond has been based in Montreal, teaching drawing and painting at Concordia University. Bond has exhibited across Canada and internationally, including solo exhibitions in Rotterdam (1988 and 95), New York (1990), São Paulo (1995) and Toronto (2001). In 2012 Bond received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Her work is held in numerous private and public collections
