Emily Carr

Victoria-born Emily Carr became British Columbia's most famous artist, with art and writings recognized across Canada. She grew up with a passion for art and a love of nature, especially animals, studied art in San Francisco after high school, and later travelled to England and France to refine her style. A trip to the native village of Ucluelet in 1899 opened the world of Aboriginal culture that inspired her to paint images of vanishing totem poles in their natural setting. An art exhibit in Eastern Canada in 1927 brought her to the attention of a wider public, and her later paintings drew inspiration from the deep forest itself in vivid strokes of colour. After 1939, when ill health curtailed her painting, she turned to writing and won the Governor General's award in 1941 for Klee Wyck, then published more books and gained new recognition as a writer. She celebrated the British Columbia landscape in an original and vigorous way, from the "turmoil of growth" to the "space and glory of the sky," and as a person of deep spirituality she reflected upon nature and humanity.

British Columbia · Canada