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"A picture equals a movement in space. Pictures have
swerved too much towards design and decoration... The idea must run
through the whole, the story that arrested you and urged the desire to
express it, the story that God told you through that combination of
growth. The picture side of the thing aids the relationship of
the objects to each other in one concerted movement, so that the whole
gets up and goes, lifting the looker with it, sky, sea, trees
affecting each other... One must ascertain first whether your subject
is a slow lolling one or smooth flowing and serene, or quick and
jerky, or heavy and ponderous." -Emily Carr
Emily Carr was noted a Canadian Painter and also a writer.
Carr painted most of her life and began writing only a few years
before her death. Emily Carr was a remarkable West Coast painter
and is, perhaps, Canada's best known woman artist. In her search
for just the right scenes to depict the rich culture of the Northwest
Coast indigenous people and the dense forest of the West Coast, Carr
traveled to remote regions of British Columbia.
Emily was born on December 13, 1871 in Victoria, British
Columbia. Emily has two older sisters Clara and Edith, and her
parent's names are Richard and Emily Carr. In 1880 Emily
attended her first drawing lessons, which was the first step to her
great career in being a Canadian Artist. In 1886 was the death
of her mother, and in 1888 was the death of her father. Carr
first studied art in San Francisco, California and the in Europe, in
London and Paris. When she exhibited some of her paintings in
Vancouver, inspired by her experience in France, the exhibition
brought little success. Her Indian paintings received little
attention also. She did these paintings when she went on visits
to Indian Villages in B.C., these were her early paintings portraying
the Indian culture. When these paintings did not receive
attention Emily almost gave up painting completely in 1913.
In 1927, an exhibit of her painting was shown at the National Gallery
in Ottawa, Ontario. It brought her attention to the Group of
Seven which were nationally known as Canadian landscape
painters. They and their works inspired Carr to resume painting
and encouraged her interests in landscapes. In her later
paintings, they reflected her desire to capture the spirit of vast
forest's of Canada's vast coast. In her later, more abstract
paintings of forests and individual tress, Carr starts to move in
closer to her subject. A sensuous rhythm and emphasis on
sculptural form that characterizes a forest.
Emily used thick brush strokes, she had her own sense of style, and
she just used mainly oil paints on paper and canvas. She was
very admired by the natural world and the Indian Villages, she really
loves Canada's west coast land.
I really like Emily's paintings, I like her style, and the way she
characterizes some of the things she sees in Canada's west coast, it
adds a bit more life to it than there already is. I like how she
plays with the paints, and doesn't try to be a perfectionist.
Emily Carr is definitely Canada's best known Canadian woman artist in
my mind.
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