Arts & Culture

During the summer I went to see a Kathleen Munn art exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, and recently I went to see Judith Snow's current exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum.  I enjoyed both vibrant art exhibitions and the efforts made by these two women to express their creativity.  They reminded me of other inspiring Canadian women artists, brimming with talent and perseverance.

I remember, when I was a teenager, admiring the work of graphic designer Heather Cooper.  She designed the Roots beaver logo in the 1970s and her work still looks fresh today.

Also as a teenager, I visited Saskatchewan, and was taken by its breathtaking landscape.  I have always appreciated the paintings of Dorothy Knowles for capturing so brilliantly Saskatchewan's natural beauty.

I have always been impressed by Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, two trailblazers of Canadian sculpture.  Loring and Wyle were also renowned for encouraging other Canadian artists.  There is a park in Toronto on the northeast corner of Mount Pleasant Road and St. Clair Avenue East, which is devoted to "The Girls" and their sculpture.

Known for her realist paintings of domesticity, Newfoundland artist Mary Pratt has achieved such renown that one of her paintings, Jelly Shelf, has been featured on a postage stamp.

Maud Lewis was possibly the most inspiring Canadian woman artist ever, both for her charming scenes of everyday rural life in Nova Scotia and her cheerfulness in the face of adversity.

If there is one inspiring Canadian woman artist known by everyone, it is Emily Carr, who sought and found inspiration in Aboriginal people and nature.

On one of my trips to Manitoulin Island, I was lucky enough to meet multi-talented Aboriginal artist/actress/writer Shirley Cheechoo in her studio.  I have always admired her paintings of humorous family scenes and it was a great honour and pleasure to meet her.  Daphne Odjig is another Aboriginal artist whose joyous paintings have achieved widespread acclaim.  Amongst a host of accomplishments, she is the only Aboriginal Canadian woman artist to have had a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada.

Doris McCarthy inspired many generations both with her art teaching and her landscape paintings.  She even helped to paint the beautiful murals on display at the Dufferin/St. Clair Library.  She radiated energy and a sense of purpose when I met her, in her late eighties, at a painting workshop at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

I have had a lifelong interest in textiles, and pioneering art quilter Laurie Swim's quilts are so impressive that she was commissioned by the Toronto Transit Commission to create a quilt to commemorate the Hoggs Hollow Tragedy.  The quilt, Breaking Ground, is on permanent display at York Mills subway station.

For further reading, Independent Spirit is an excellent overview of thirty-six early Canadian women artists. 

Sometimes, however, the artists who inspire us the most never achieve fame or fortune, and that was true of my grandmother.  When she was a young widow, she taught herself to paint and continued to do so with joy and skill for the rest of her life.

 *Updated Nov 3, 11 am.