Strokes and Crescendos, Market Friday and Emily Carr in the 30's w/ @dswigle

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(Edited)

Strokes and Crescendos

On display currently at the Vancouver Art Gallery is a small showcase of some of Emily Carr's (1871-1945) best work from the 1930s.

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Featured above is BIg Raven (1931). The forest is a surging ocean of green. The totemic raven stands buttressed against the storm and focused on an oppressive sky. The horizon promises respite. Approaching light beams fall in abstract swathes. They are sure to calm the tempest.

To the left is Red Cedar (1931). Forest movement is again represented as waves or even banks of swiftly moving clouds. The tree boughs undulate and crest in colors not dissimilar to the surf on a cold Pacific Northwest winter day. The grasses ripple. The tree trunk appears more solid and even pleated before reaching roots that flow languidly into the underbrush.

The surreal world of the temperate rainforest melds into one with the surrounding ocean.

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Scorned as Timber, Beloved to the sky was completed in 1935. The work depicts the trees cast aside as unsuitable for commercial use by the lumber industry. They remain rooted and alive if sparsely vegetated. The trees emit their own light and brighten a cloudy sky. They are haloed. These blessed rejects will be the source of new life and regrowth as they reseed a barren forest.

Finally, we have Above the Gravel Pit from 1937. It features a swirling almost iridescent sky. One cannot help but think of Van Gogh's Starry Night. Emily, however, painted a majestic and whimsical sky over a gravel pit and not an idyllic​ French town. The strokes​ used for the earth strike a cohesive beat with the waves of the air. We sense the land is stripped but not silenced. Everything vibrates on the wind. Nature is warming up to compose new strains and crescendos.

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A thank you to @dswigle. The indefatigable host of #marketfriday. All photos are my own.

palnet art humanizesteem photography marketfriday
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22 comments
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The last one made me think of Starry Night too.
Thanks for sharing your photos.

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I really like these paintings, especially the first one. I had not heard of the artist before.

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She really was a master and has ​probably not been given her do outside of British Columbia​ and Canada.

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She certainly hasn't been given her [due]. She should be on permanent exhibit in the NMWA.

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I can't choose which one is tbe best for me but I am liking the last one because I love the song Vincent. Lovely set!

Posted using Partiko Android

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For me it is either the first one or the second one:) Thanks, Lee:)

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Totally harmonious discourse with each pictorial work. Poetry goes through each stroke of the hand with your insightful and assertive look, @prydefoltz. The commentary to each work is a tribute to it. Better described, impossible.

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Thanks so much, Zeleira. Carr's work is certainly inspirational:)

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I had not heard of her before but I do love her style :)

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I like them more with your commentary about them. Is that ok?

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I like them more with
Your commentary about
Them. Is that ok?

                 - old-guy-photos

I'm a bot. I detect haiku.

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I think that is better. It looks like you are communicating in haiku too:)

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To me, the iconic Emily Carr has never been given her proper credit, unless you're talkin about inside the Canadian fence line. She actually did study for a short time the here in the states but for real influence or should I say inspiration Indians and I believe that is how she came to her style of painting. Well I know she studied in the other places, I'm not quite sure where it was but I know that her home and her heart belonged to Canada.

The unique ability for blending Styles into her own made her quite Unforgettable for anybody who has ever seen her work or read anything about her.

Funny enough, it was her eccentric personality and her always rebellious manner that made her the great painter that she was. I can't believe you want me to just pick one of her works. I think most of her Works in that period were bigger than life. Thank you for showcasing her and for putting together such a wonderful post!

#MarketFriday loves you!

Upped and steemed

!tip

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Thank you, Denise:) She was a woman who knew who she was that is for sure. She was also very well-trained. We are very lucky to have so many wonderful examples of her work in Vancouver:)

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