Emily Carr

Emily Carr is a 19th century artist, an explorer, fearless and brave, willing to undergo extreme discomfort, ravenous bugs, slithering and biting things to document the totems of native people of the northwest as well as the landscape of towering trees, majestic mountains and streams. She was driven to capture expression with her paintbrush, finding a compliment in being labeled a Fauve.  Her work is a historical document of ancestor poles that were sold, ruined or stolen. She is considered an honorary member of the Group of Seven in Canadian art history.

This scene from the East side of Tuscarora State Park was painted with Emily Carr in mind. I hoped to show respect for our mature evergreens and the meadows of wetlands in rich and loose color, painted with a brisk wind at my back and a serious chill in the day.

Channeling Emily Carr, oil on board 14x11

 The book The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland is an embellished novel of her life as a painter, her travels into the Northwest and into Alaska in search of carved totems to draw and paint. The week after I painted this, I drove to Pennsylvania to paint and listened to the book on CD. Totally inspiring, but coincidental that I had just completed this painting.