“The real function of the artist is to give fresh vision to their own generation.”
-Doris McCarthy
Art in Action embraced the ice and cold this week by staying in our warm classrooms and learning about one of Canada’s celebrated artists, Doris McCarthy. She studied art at the Ontario College of Art and Design. Some of her teachers were members of the Group of Seven: Arthur Lismer, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald and Lawren Harris. She was inspired by their approach to painting, to go out into nature and paint from real life or “en plein air.”
McCarthy became an art teacher at Central Technical School from 1932 until she retired in 1972. She spent her summers travelling abroad and painting the landscapes of various countries, including: Costa Rica, Spain, Italy, Japan, India, England and Ireland. After she retired she travelled to every province in Canada, painting and camping. From the Hoodoo’s in Alberta to friendly fishing towns in the east. She travelled to the Arctic many times, even at 94. To see icebergs, McCarthy would travel by dogsled and set up her easel and paints in the snow.
In 1989, at the age 79, she graduated from the University of Toronto at Scarborough with a BA in English. McCarthy died November 25th, 2010 when she was 100 years old. She left her home Fool’s Paradise to the Ontario Heritage Foundation as an endowment for future artists to have an opportunity to live and work in her home as an artist in residence program. The property is also open to visitors and you can tour McCarthy’s eccentric house and explore the beautiful grounds, with gardens, a large pond and spectacular views of the Scarborough Bluffs.
Art in Action students love to paint with watercolour and salt resist and the results are always spectacular. Students also learned a new scraping technique with old gift cards to create the highlights and low lights on their mountain peaks. It may be cold and icy, but it certainly inspired some beautiful paintings!
I can almost hear the silence echoing in the mountains…