The colour red in the Canadian flag has been switched to green, brown and white in various paintings by a former Chilliwack artist.
It’s all part of Maxwell Newhouse’s art show called ‘Max 4’ on display at a Chilliwack brewery.
“I’m trying to invent something that hasn’t been done,” said the Harrison Hot Springs artist.
Back in 2015, he painted four pieces in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Canadian flag and called the one-day show ‘Four Seasons of the Canadian Flag.’ Each painting featured the flag with the maple leaf in different seasons, including a tiny maple leaf for spring, a curled-up leaf for fall, and no leaf (all white) for winter.
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Those paintings grew into a card game called Max 4. It’s a standard 52-card deck, but he replaced the 13 ranks with Canada’s provinces and territories. They are numbered in the order in which they joined into confederation.
“It wasn’t until I got the card game going that I figured out the formula… four,” Newhouse said.
It’s that card game from which his new art show of the same name, Max 4, came about.
In his paintings, the red of the Canadian flag is gone. Instead, Newhouse used light green to represent spring, dark green for summer, brown for autumn, and white for winter.
The paintings are hung alongside some of his older work of the red-and-white flags.
He said he could apply the four colours representing the seasons to any country in the world to create new card games. The cards can be used as a standard deck of cards, or people can play Max 4 based on the instructions inside.
Newhouse is welcoming folks to check out his art show Max 4 which is on display at Flashback Brewing Company on Mill Street for the month of March.
On Wednesday, March 1, he will be at Flashback for several hours starting at 1 p.m. to chat with people in person. He will have several decks of cards on hand for people to play.
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Email: jenna.hauck@theprogress.com
Twitter: @PhotoJennalism