Early travels to Europe and England, and more
recent ones to China and India, combined with
years of travelling from coast to coast in Canada
have widened her spheres of reference to allow
her idiosyncratic use of form, colour, tone and
focus to create deeply personal statements on
canvas.
Born and raised in Victoria of an architect father,
and with an artistic mother of marked individuality,
Rosemary grew up surrounded by a rich creative
background.
She returned to Victoria after living across
Canada on the prairies, in Winnipeg and Toronto
and savouring life in the Maritimes, learning
the bare bones of her art under diverse masters
and influences in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick,
Winnipeg and Washington State. From this background
she has developed as an artist of merit and is
recognized for her passionate response to subjects.
Rosemary has long considered a comment on painting by Kafka
inspiring and applicable to her own work:
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"A
tree is a tree. A painting of a tree is
not a tree, - or a painting. It is weak,
weaker than either. It must show more than
just the tree, -- simultaneous illusion
and reality." |
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COMMENT
by
Norman Gidney
Her
expressive work clothed in different colours
and with some features exaggerated by perspective,
the best of them seem
truer to the real life structures than any blueprint.
COLLECTIONS:
Canada Housing and Mortgage, Fredericton, N.B.
Coleman, Lipuma and Segal, New York, U.S.A.
New Brunswick Art Bank.
New Brunswick Craft Collection (sculpture).
National Exhibition Centre, Fredericton, N.B.
Norman House Collection, Fredericton, N.B
Beckley Farm Lodge Collection, Victoria, B.C.
Resthaven Lodge Collection, Sidney, B.C.
Norgarrd Neale Camden Collection, Victoria, BC.
Private collections in Australia, West Germany, France, England,
the United States and Canada.
Click here for more information about Rosemary's life as an
artist.
Her interest in architecture was intensified
by her indenture to study with her father for
three years. Later she worked as a secretary
for architects in Toronto.
After her return to Victoria heritage people
asked her to write a book about her father and
in the 1990s she started to seriously research
for this book from the plentiful material available.
She honed her writing skills with membership
in the Canadian Authors Association and earned
prizes within the local branch for both short
stories and poetry.
Donald Luxton asked her to write articles on
five of the architects included in Building
the West – Early Architects of BC which
was published in 2003. In 2002 and 2003 she published
articles to help families learn together about ‘Star
Gazing’ and ‘Bird Watching’ in Parent
Magazine,
and some memoirs – an
interest she hopes to develop.
Her
book, The
Life and Times of Victoria Architect, P.
Leonard James , published in 2005, has
earned the Mark Madoff Award from the Hallmark
Society
of
Victoria
and a British
Columbia Heritage Society Award for her outstanding
contribution to Heritage Conservation.
In
2006 she received an Honourable Mention from
the BC Historical Federation for historical
writing that contributes significantly to the
recorded history of British Columbia
The book was nominated for an Alcuin Society
award for its design.
The Architectural Institute of BC conferred
upon her an Honorary Membership in the Institute “in
recognition of her efforts to increase awareness
of the larger community to the nature of architecture
and enable everyone to realize the contribution
that can be made to a community and to the
lives of its citizens by our profession.”
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