Even in montreal’s deepest winter, rusting freight trains are Labrona’s surface of choice. When painting a train, he never brings along any sketches; instead, a composition will come to mind on the walk to the train yard. Sometime he brings a photo as a reference but he always draws rough lines first, which then evolve into the final oil stick drawing. His drawings on trains are kind of a sketch, he feels, and he refers to his photo album of freight train paintings like a sketchbook.
Classic themes reoccur in Labrona’s work, including human behavior and good-versus-evil power struggles: ‘Painting is my language, so it’s really hard to put into words. I let the work tell the story.’
text by Tristan Manco