Marilyn Jones | Emily Carr Chronicler

Love and Loss: How the Death of Emily Carr’s Mother Shaped Her Life and Art 

Published: 12 September, 2025
Written by Marilyn Jones

Emily Saunders, Emily Carr’s mother, was born in Freeland, a small town in Oxfordshire, on July 3, 1836, to a single mother, Mary Saunders. Her birthplace was less than ten miles from Beckley, where Richard Carr was born — though they didn’t meet in England, as Emily was eighteen years younger and Richard had emigrated to America at age eighteen. Roots in a Large, Devout Family Emily Saunders Carr was one of…

read more

Exhibition Review : Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape at VAG

Published: 11 September, 2025
Written by Marilyn Jones

Emily Carr: Navigating an Impenetrable Landscape invites viewers into Emily Carr’s haunting interplay between enclosure and horizon. More than 20 of her signature forest paintings dominate one wall in dense succession, creating an almost tactile mist of foliage and trunks that deliberately resists entry. Opposite, a single work depicting a clear‑cut landscape stretches toward an open horizon, offering contrast—a moment of visual space that recalls Carr’s own spiritual longings. The curatorial design accentuates…

read more

A Day in the Life of Emily Carr, the Elephant & Friends

Published: 10 September, 2025
Written by Marilyn Jones

In 1933, after years of dreaming of owning one, Emily Carr purchased a small travel trailer that would change the rhythm of her creative life.  To Carr, it was more than just a vehicle—it was liberation. She spotted the travel trailer with a for sale sign posted to it. A small canvas topped , metal trailer that was a bit worse for wear. It became more of a personage than a thing that…

read more