Grey Days Preferable

A vibrant portrait of one of Canada’s premiere painters of the 19th Century, Paul Peel, and his sister Mildred, who is now a forgotten, but great, artist in her own right.

Paul Peel was one of Canada’s first artistic exports. Through a fictional correspondence between Peel and his sister Mildred, Grey Days Preferable tells of Peel’s rise in the art scene of Paris, his family life and his philosophy of art. In turns exhilarating, pastoral and reflective, Grey Days Preferable is a celebration of art and the simple beauty of the arc of life.

The story follows Peel’s life from the age of seventeen when he was about to embark on a career as a professional painter and through to his rise to fame in the French art scene. His joy in the creation of art and the confines that family expectations can play on artistic ambition are at the centre of this theatrical sketch book. Along with the characters of Paul and Mildred, two additional actors act as a chorus creating movement based pieces inspired from Peel’s paintings.