Happiness – by Emily Carr – Public Domain
Art in Action began the Winter Session with a look at Canadian artist Emily Carr. Emily Carr was born in Victoria, British Columbia in 1871 and was the second youngest of six children. She grew up surrounded by the rugged landscape of British Columbia which inspired her passion for nature, animals and art.
Emily Carr studied art in San Francisco, London and Paris and returned to Vancouver to teach art to children.
Carr was inspired by the indigenous people of the Pacific North West Coast. Her painting style has been characterized as a modern approach to post-impressionism. Her favourite subjects included aboriginal themes, landscapes and in particular, forest scenes with tall trees.
Carr used charcoal and watercolour for her sketches, and later house paint thinned with gasoline. Her later work was oil on canvas or paper.
When she was 57 years old, the National Gallery of Canada was organizing an exhibition of West Coast Aboriginal art and Carr was invited to participate. Here she met members of the Group of Seven, and in particular, Lawren Harris who was to become her mentor. Harris told Carr, who had felt unappreciated as an artist, “you are one of us.” This acceptance re-energized her career.
Emily Carr died on March 2, 1945 and her popularity continues to grow.
In today’s class, students learned about warm and cool colours. Using chalk pastels and watercolours, students created their vibrant background. When the watercolours were still wet, students “pulled out” clouds in the cool colours at the top of the painting. Using fan brushes and black acrylic paint, students were careful to leave a lot of space around the branches of their towering pine trees. Using a variety of vertical lines, students sketched out the heights of their trees first and then using horizontal “stippling” or “pouncing” techniques, painted the branches of the pines. Students were asked to be “deliberately random” with the placement of the branches so as not to do the same type of branch more than once.
Well done everyone – a great start to our winter session!