Emily Carr 1871 - 1945

Carr's wonderful works on paper that began in her later renaissance in the mid-1930s were big, bold, and vigorous. She had found a medium that gave her the inspiration and allowed her the freedom to express her reaction to what was before her eyes and in her heart with an immediate response. The medium, pigment and kerosene, was thinner, faster, more malleable, and thus more immediately expressive for her than other media she had tried.

This particular work has a evanescent quality that seems particularly suited to the technique that Carr had adopted, since it shows a fleeting vision or impression of a glade in the forest. What drew her to it was perhaps the giant stump in the left foreground, with its young new growth already reaching upward. But the surroundings were also important, although she did not dwell on them; perhaps the light did not linger or perhaps mist or fog had briefly withdrawn from this corner of the wood. Like other such paintings, these are like drawings in colour, the most intimate and direct thoughts of the artist.

The paper Carr used for these paintings has also mellowed over the years to present to us now a richer, honey-coloured background, when originally it would have been a more prominent grey. Time has helped Carr by transforming these works into more durable images than she perhaps ever expected them to be.