Marilyn Jones | Emily Carr Chronicler

The story of the National Gallery of Canada (NGC) up to its initial purchase of three Emily Carr watercolours in 1928 is especially interesting because Carr’s acquisition came at a moment when the Gallery was changing from a relatively small, government-administered collection into an institution with a national vision—and when Canadian artists were beginning to be taken seriously as part of Canada’s cultural identity. Read more: From Victoria…

Beginning around 1932, Carr largely abandoned traditional watercolour for her field studies. Instead, she began using oil paint (and sometimes house paint) thinned with gasoline on manilla paper, creating a medium that combined the fluidity of watercolour with the rich colour and permanence of oil. This technique became central to many of her finest forest paintings of the 1930s. Read more: From Victoria to Ottawa: Emily Carr’s Journey…

Emily Carr is often described as an early environmentalist. She did not campaign for conservation in the modern political sense, nor was she involved in environmental organizations. Through her writings, paintings, and personal observations, she expressed a deep concern about humanity’s impact on forests, Indigenous villages, and the natural world. Her work anticipated many ideas that later became central to the environmental movement. Read more: From Victoria to…