52 WEEKS::Doris McCarthy

Sometimes my paintings are so legible I feel guilty.

~ Doris McCarthy

Doris McCarthy is someone whom I have admired for a long, long time.  She was a petite woman, and feisty as all get out, drinking her homemade wine and eating porridge daily which she attributed to her longevity (she passed away at 100 years of age).  A Canadian artist and educator whose work focused on the rugged Canadian landscape, she was often upset by comparisons between her slightly abstracted work and that of Lawren Harris of the Group of Seven.  She was born in Calgary in 1910 and studied and taught art in Ontario, building her own home which she dubbed 'Fool's Paradise' with the help of friends on the Scarborough Bluffs in Toronto.  I can relate to her comment about her work feeling too legible as sometimes I feel like my work is so straight forward, maybe too literal, and I really don't want to bore a viewer.  Her books are wonderful as is a documentary of her and her work by Alberta artist Wendy Wacko.