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Visual Artists

© J. M. Bridgeman

On March 23, 2000, the Canada Council for the Arts presented the first annual Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. One winner of these new lifetime achievement awards is Doris Shadbolt, mentioned last month as the writer of a major book about Emily Carr's work. It seems like synchronicity. As Jean-Louis Roux, Chairman of the Canada Council, says: "Our visual and media artists interpret Canada for us, and return the experience in the form of striking and imaginative images that remain fixed in our minds. Because our artists undertake this profound work of imagination that makes reality more real to us, we honour them." As a follow-up to the Carr article, here are links to more visual artists.

You may wish to begin by going to the Canada Council news release and following the links to check out examples of the work of all five artists--Jocelyne Aloucherie , Ghitta Caiserman-Roth, John Chalke, Jacques Giraldeau, John Scott, and Michael Snow. Doris Shadbolt's award is for voluntarism. http://canadacouncil.ca/news/pressreleas...

Art Galleries:

The National Gallery of Canada http://national.gallery.ca has a comprehensive site that sends you to http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/ng/ to research names of artists, their biographies, and view samples of their works owned by the Canadian people.

Other public art galleries have websites which highlight and make their collections available to on-line visitors. Check out the Vancouver Art Gallery. Its Permanent Collection contains Emily Carr, Bill Reid, and Contemporary work. It's current show by Vancouver artist Gathie Falk is introduced here. http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/see/curre...

The late BC sculptor, Bill Reid (1920 - 1998) is celebrated at the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology. http://www.moa.ubc.ca/ Check out both Collections and their Links section. Reid's large sculpture The Spirit of Haida Gwaii graces the Canadian embassy in Washington, D.C. and a jade green copy welcomes visitors at the Vancouver International Airport. The Royal BC Museum has an interesting article about his life and work. http://rbcm/.rbcm.gov.bc.ca/hhistory/bil...

Artist Webpages:

I have always loved Saskatchewan sculptor Joe Fafard's cows. He does many other subjects too. You can see them at his own site: http://www.joefafard.com

Wanda Koop's website offers thumbnail-sized postcards of her wall-wide paintings. Check them out. Which do you prefer? There's something about the swimmers in the lake that draws me back every time. The site contains biographical (born in BC, lives in Winnipeg, MB) and contact information. http://www.koopart.mb.ca/wk_bio.html

Robert Bateman's realistic paintings of wildlife are very popular in Canada. I found many sites selling reproductions as well as an interesting link where the painter writes about his philosophy of life and art. http://www.batemanideas.com

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