From RCA Bulletin ARC 2004

Raymond Arnatt RCA, sculptor
1934 to 2004

The visual arts and academic community of Alberta has lost a remarkable artist, academic and animator of cultural life in this province. Born in a small village in England in 1934, Ray Arnatt's art studies began at age 13 at a special arts and technology school. He received formal training in sculpture at the Oxford School of Art (Oxford, U.K.), and later at the Royal College of Art in London, U.K., where he was awarded with a Silver Medal for Sculpture and a First Class Honours Degree. Between 1965 and 2004, he taught sculpture at numerous art institutions in England and Canada. In 1981 he became a Professor of Art (Sculpture), Department of Art, University of Calgary. Elected to the prestigious Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1995, he was a founding member of the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts in Calgary.

Arnatt had an extremely productive exhibiting record over the years. His work can be found in private and public collections across the continents.

For several years, Arnatt shared his artistic and family life in Cochrane with his wife, JoAnne Schachtel, who is also a sculptor, and their daughter Mary. Arnatt and Schachtel worked together on several sculptural projects and multimedia installations.

Arnatt used his expansive and interdisciplinary knowledge to create art that goes beyond traditional boundaries and explores fresh conceptual and formalistic parameters, particularly in relations to his visual and conceptual debate on 'binarism'. His major retrospective exhibition, Ray Arnatt: Perfecting the View curated by Dr. Caterina Pizanias and held in March 2003 at the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, created a forum for Arnatt's ongoing debate on the aspects of 'binarism" and 'paradox'.

Ray Arnatt will also be remembered as a great academic and a brilliant pedagogue with an unorthodox approach to his teaching methodology, always asking his students to explore unexplored and uncharted stratas of visual articulations, and as a mentor for young and emerging artists.

Arnatt's most recent work was selected by curator Dr. Caterina Pizanias for the group exhibition, Migrations in the Third Dimension organized by the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, Calgary, in partnership with the Cultural Foundation of Tinos in Greece. This unique exhibition/cultural exchange project included the work of Ray Arnatt as one of five leading sculptors from Alberta, including Katie Ohe RCA and Isla Burns RCA. Presented on the Island of Tinos in October 2004 the Triangle Gallery has dedicated this exhibition on Tinos and in Calgary in November 2004, in memory of Ray Arnatt.

(Jacek Malec, Director/Curator, Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts)

Conyers Barker RCA, painter
1909 to 2003

It was a party! A birthday party! Noisy in the kitchen, quiet where I sat, too far for conversations, too close to be ignored! We introduced ourselves, I knew who he was, he knew who I was. We talked. That was the start of a friendship I shared with Conyers Barker that spanned about 25 years.

Before I knew Conyers I knew his paintings. I saw the watercolours at a little gallery run by Leo Kamen in Craighurst, just north of Barrie. The paintings had a special feeling about them that's hard to describe, soul, energy, directness, and confidence. I bought two paintings that day. Sometime later he had a show at Olga Korpers' gallery. I bought a large pastel done around 1932.

Who was this person? It would be nice to say hello or get to know him at sometime I thought. Then there was the party and the magic began.

Conyers and I became the best of friends. We shared values, trust, reliability and philosophies that were similar yet different. We agreed to disagree. At 94 years of age he had opinions and the experience to back them up. His strong faith, his belief in prayer was consistent with the positive and creative energy he brought to his work.

With Conyers it was never about technique it was always about making art. His sketchbooks had pages and pages of line drawings and compositions of various ways to interpret a scene before he started to paint.

The memories of sketching and laughing with Conyers will be with me as long as I live. When I go through my sketchbooks I remember that day, where we were, and what we did. Photographs don't do it. Drawing does. I see, I draw, I remember. Somehow in the process of drawing, the scene is in you and you are the scene.

When Conyers died, I received an email from Leo Kamen who wrote a few words about Conyers that seem appropriate. In part he said "Conyers was tough as a nut and as committed to his art as a monk to a prayer cell. He seemed to be fashioned out of the soil and rock of the great Canadian Shield. He was the product of a harder more demanding age and he was a man wholly defined by stern individualism. He let a rigorous passion guide him, he gave no quarter and in return he expected none."

Lastly, I want to say that Conyers and I frequently joked about when he died, and I would often ask him to send me a signal that he got to the other side. The day that I got the news of Conyers' death I had a difficult time sleeping that night and for some reason got up and opened the blinds to look out. I saw a shooting star…it was going up!

(John Delves OSA)

Zhigniew (Zigy) Blazeje RCA, sculptor
1942 to 2004

Zigy Blazeje/ Zbigniew Blazejewicz was born in Barnaul Siberia, on June 2, 1942 and almost immediately took up a series of travels through India to Mexico to the United States, and then to Canada in the late forties. Growing up in Brampton, then moving to Toronto for a brief period at OCA(D) in 1962, he was immediately drawn into the abstract art scene and rapidly got the attention of Dorothy Cameron who first brought him to public notice

His work initially used glow in the dark painted panels and soon expanded to the use of electronic controls, strobe lights, and day glo paints. Then into large plexiglas works in two and three dimensional form, with and without electric lighting system controlled sometimes by the sound of passersby - other times by sequencers.

Zigy represented Canada in the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67with an environmental work that combined his pure constructivist day glo, canvas and plexiglas works with all manner of sound and illumination, as mentioned above This was enormously well received by the large crowds who flocked through the large room scale environmental work. This lead to several large mural commissions, at York University Library, and then a large steel plexiglas sound and electric work in the Statistics Canada Building in Ottawa. He had many one man and touring shows in Canada and the United States He ran the Light Lab at OCA(D) for several years and then became active in "Art Sake" from its beginning, eventually serving as president for two years.

He was well known and much appreciated by many and various. Zigy generally enjoyed a high state of being in every way I can recall, while at the same time doing pretty well exactly what he wanted while being quite considerate of others and enjoying what he thought was a great privilege, to be an artist. He was more than slightly individual and quite original about it and will be much missed by me and many.

(bart schoales)

Bob Boyer RCA, painter
1948 to 2004

I knew Bob Boyer as student, Artist, close friend, and colleague. In the beginning I was his mentor, and later he was mine. Becoming my spiritual mentor eventually culminated in attending a Sun Dance earlier this summer. Our closeness was never governed by geography but rather by a spiritual bond that once made, knew neither time nor space. Over the years he and Anne would make a number of geographical moves but always they would return, and we would be family again. Bob is survived by two fine young men (Bobby junior, and Jonah). They have always called Phyllis, and I, Auntie and Uncle. A fact both Phyllis, and I, are proud of.

In the early years I watched, and counselled, as Bob struggled to find his rightful place in a World that had separate boxes for those of the pink persuasion, and those of the brown. I am so very proud of the choices he made. Over the years I watched, and applauded, as he explored, and found his rightful place just as I watched, and applauded, when the student excelled the teacher. As Bob began to be recognized internationally there was no one who was prouder of his accomplishments than I.

His time on this plane is over, and we are all the richer for his having shared this part of the journey with us. By the same token his leave taking was doing what he loved to do - dancing in a Pow Wow. What a wonderful way to exit, and enter, rigged and gigged in full spirit dance regalia. He must have been some kind of sight entering the big room.

When I paint in the studio I am never alone. The spirits of those who have been my mentors are ever present as company and always available to have conversations with. Wes Irwin, Buck Kerr, Max Bates, Barney Newman, Jack Snow are now joined by Bob. I look forward to many warm conversations just as I look forward to watching Bob's stature, and reputation, as an important Canadian artist assume its rightful level.

(Ted Godwin RCA)


Norman Campbell RCA, filmmaker
1924 to 2004

Norman may have been born in Los Angeles in 1924 and brought up in Vancouver but, as he told it; he was on Sable Island serving as a weather man when the enchantments of musical theatre (on radio!) took him over and so he came to Toronto to produce "Let's See", the opening event of CBLT (believe me!) . That was in 1952. Soon he was shaping a big career, letting us see musical plays (the first "Sunshine Town" in 1954.), big ballets, (Swan Lake, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella) operas and other variety shows. Some were produced with the National Ballet Company, some with Stratford's casts; some in CBC studios; some "live" from theatres. Veronica Tennant's original Juliet is still recalled, and so is Stratford's The Mikado. But Norman did an opening for the Canadian Opera Company's Norma with Joan Sutherland, live from O'Keefe Centre. Maureen Forrester both sang and flew to fresh heights in Studio 7, as the witch in Hanzel & Gretel.

Norman always had fun and a flair. He had winning ways with crews and the "suits", so when he pitched for more cameras, more time and more whatever, he truly needed them, with audiences and awards to show for the investment. He did "specials" south of the border too, with Crosby, Sinatra and others, but the CBC was home.

It was in 1965 that he and Don Harron devised a clever adaptation of Anne of Green Gables for the big new Charlottetown Festival that Mavor Moore was creating. Norman wrote the music and his wife Elaine some of the lyrics. It was, and still is, one of the great hits of modern musicals, running annually.

Was all this because he had time to spare on Sable Island where he said "radio showed him there could be more to life than wild horses and shipwrecks"?

The CBC was right to give Norman this chance, the RCA was right to elect him a member in 1975. By 1978 he had become an Officer of the Order of Canada. A master, Norman died of a stroke in April 2004. He was only 80.

(Vincent Tovell RCA)

Guy Edouard André Joseph Desbarats RCA, architect
1925 to 2004

Guy Desbarats was a brilliant child of a brilliant family. His ancestors came from Gascony, a region of fiery and mischievous spirits. Guy's mother, largely to tease her husband, engaged in a spirited campaign to restore ancient names to streets renamed by developers in the western suburbs of Montreal Island. Guy's sister was a brilliant sailor; his brother a brilliant polemicist. So naturally, Guy too, was a brilliant architect. He built a house near Ottawa, an extraordinary assertive, dynamic piece of architecture - the product of a dynamic and assertive mind, fertile imagination and forceful character.

These characteristics and his faultless bilingualism carried him beyond the minutiae of ordinary practice, to a broader scope of action. He found himself in a position to start and organize important initiatives. His success at McGill led to setting up a new faculty at the Université de Montréal serving the schools of architecture, urbanism, landscape and industrial design. Guy was its doyen for years, but eventually he was snatched by the Federal Government to run the architectural side of Public Works Canada. He intervened in the strange history of the National Gallery of Canada, when in 1976, he advocated and organized a limited competition for the design of its new building on Wellington Street. It was a Herculean effort to conciliate disparate interests and to establish, once and for all, exemplary criteria for the conduct of public competitions in Canada. That it ended in a fiasco must have been a major blow to Guy Desbarats. What followed was a very different selection process for the Canadian Chancery in Washington but Guy told me later that, despite all kinds of interferences, he was happy with the final result.

Well before these events, Guy with Ray Affleck *, Hazen Sise* and Jean Michaud set up a powerful architectural practice they called ARCOP, in Montreal. It started with their winning the Vancouver Theatre competition, which brought in to ARCP another bright spirit, Dimi Dimikoupoulos*. Their practice was based on teamwork and it is not too clear who designed what, but I know that Guy was particularly active in the design of the interiors of Place des arts, where he incorporated large tapestries in the foyers.

He was a good man for all seasons. ("As time requireth, a man of marvelluous mirth and pastimes, and sometimes of a sad gravity, as who say: a man for all seasons") Robert Whittington, 1520

(Victor Prus RCA ). * all RCA members

Lynn Donoghue RCA, painter
1953 to 2003

Lynn Donoghue's sudden death at the age of 50 in November 2003 came as a shock to everyone who knew her. Her energy, her enthusiasm for life, her remarkable generosity of spirit all helped to create an image of an all but indomitable personality. A late self-portrait shows her at her easel, holding a paint brush, looking out at the viewer with a determination that reflects both her courage and her commitment to painting.

Lynn painted portraits throughout her career, portraits of women and men, of friends and public figures, of individuals and groups in family settings. When she began to paint, abstraction was still the dominant style. Her love of people and of the body drove her to go her own way. Her portraits tend to be bright and vibrant; some focus on the face, others are full length.

To sit for a portrait with Lynn was a fascinating and stimulating experience. She loved to talk, to talk about what she was doing and why, about her life and about the local arts community. Her gregarious friendliness enabled her to bring people together, whether around her table or simply through the stories she told.

Still-lives were always a part of her repertoire; she loved the texture of fruit, the shape and color of bowels and glasses and the way in which light played off them.

Her final major project was a Last Supper. It is made up of 16, 40 by 40 inch canvases, 13 for the 13 figures who are said to have taken part in the original event and 3 in the middle for the table. The table, which has nothing on it but a cloth, evokes an altar or a tomb. The food and drink appear in the individual paintings. The figures - men and women, young and old - are friends and members of the Toronto art community. The work sums up and reflects many of Lynn's loves and passions. It involves portraiture and still life, it suggests friendship and conversation. It evokes both the biblical story and the kind of dinner party for which Lynn was famous. For me the work has what I would call a sacramental quality. It suggests that for Lynn, meaning and mystery are encountered in the midst of life, in friendship and in sharing, in a glass of wine and a loaf of bread. With her death, the Toronto and Canadian art scene has lost a wonderful and wonderfully talented painter and a generous friend.

(Father Dan Donovan)

Abraham Etungat RCA, sculptor
1911 to 1999

Abraham Etungat (1911-1999) was born in Amadjuak but spent his art making years in Cape Dorset. He is a well respected Master Sculptor.

Abraham is best known for his delicate depictions of birds with wings raised. It is interesting to note that the subject matter for his sculptures is actually quite varied. His depictions of figures and animals, often in family groups, are both imaginative and finely sculpted.

He was elected as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1978. His classic "Bird of Spring" has been reproduced and cast in seven foot bronzes' which are on display in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Halifax.

His sculptures have been a part of numerous exhibitions since the 1960's and are also included in many collections across North America.

(Terry Ryan, Dorset Fine Arts)

Audrey Garwood RCA, painter, printmaker
1927 to 2004

In 1953, Audrey Garwood graduated from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto with an Honours Diploma and a Scholarship to the Rijks Academie in Amsterdam, Holland. From there, she attended La Grande Chaumiere in Paris, France.

Returning to Toronto to live and work, she sent her work to major juried exhibitions. In the late '50's, as the youngest artist and as the first woman artist, Audrey won the prestigious J.W.L. Forester Award in the Ontario Society of Artists annual juried exhibition at the Ontario Gallery of Art.

From that major recognition onward, her painting career (with gallery representation) became established. She began having exhibitions where she featured wood-cuts, mono-prints (works painted on glass then imprinted on paper), serigraphs, watercolors and (her most favorite medium) oil on canvas.

In her early years, Audrey married a young writer. When she was pregnant with their fourth child, her husband unexpectedly died. Somehow, coupled with her valiant, little bull-dog tenacity and the financial assistance from a very dear artist friend, Audrey was able to manage a houseful of young children and began to teach print-making and drawing in the art department of Central Technical School, Toronto, where she taught until retirement.

Astoundingly, through all those years, she continued to paint, exhibit, teach…..and raise a family! Creating a most positive and highly respected art career, she was invited by her peers to become a member of: the Ontario Society of artists (OSA); the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA); the Women's Caucus of the Arts and The Arts & Letters Club. She served them all with energy, enthusiasm and paintings.

Audrey Garwood had well over 25 major solo exhibitions on this continent and participated in multiple juried, invitational group shows in both Canada and the U.S.A. Her work is represented in numerous Public Art Museums, Corporate & Private collections.

As a human being, Audrey earned a multitude of loving friends. She was funny, warm, generous and endowed with the spirited curiosity of a wonderfully precocious child. When I think of Audrey, I will always remember her eagerness to explore places or anything life had to offer and her contagious giggle of sheer delight.

She was brave, had strong convictions and took chances to travel to remote places and dared to experiment in her work.

With Audrey's all-too-soon passing, many of us have lost an exceptionally fine individual we dearly loved and respected. We have to find our solace in that she clearly lived a Big Life.

(Virginia Kieran RCA)

James T. Hill RCA, illustrator
1930 to 2004

James Thomas Hill RCA was born on December 27, 1930 and spent his early years growing up in Hamilton. He passed away in February of 2004, leaving behind a great legacy as one of Canada's most prestigious illustrators.

James began his career as an illustrator by enrolling at the Hamilton Technical School, where his father taught Decorative Plastering, in the Art Course. Several of his teachers took an interest in him and began to encourage his love of art and illustration. He began his professional career early, with his first illustration based job starting when he was sixteen at Ferris Advertising in Hamilton.

James went on to illustrate many magazines and books, and became well known internationally. He later produced a wonderful series of posters for Chargex that are now considered collector's item, and testify to his impact upon the filed of advertising. James also taught a night school illustration course at OCAD in the seventies, and no doubt had a great impact upon the students he encountered there.

James T. Hill RCA won his first award at the age of eight from a local library in his home town and went on to win many more, including being the first artist-illustrator to be elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He was named artist of the year by the American Guild of Artists in 1966, received the Queen's Silver Jubilee medal, and on more than one occasion received gold medals from the New York Society of Illustrators. James also had membership in the Toronto Art Directors Club from about 1952 or 53 to about 1958.

His magnificently detailed illustrations often took him over a month to complete, as they had to be 'just right.' He wanted his work to have emotive feeling and was one of the first illustrators in the sixties to begin illustrating the 'whole story', rather than just one image or idea from the accompanying text. James felt that illustration was a 'fine art' and should be treated as such, with the illustrator incorporating personal interpretation into their work and reflecting upon the changes and events in society at the time. Although his first love was and always remained, fictive work illustration, he delved into many different aspects of illustration and always approached his work with the same level of professionalism and perfectionism.

(Rebecca Harris, RCA Communications)

Virginia June Kieran (née Wilson) RCA
1930 to 2004

Virginia died peacefully on Sunday morning, September 26, 2004 in the company of loving friends and family. She is survived by her mother Lela Wilson, her sons, John, Douglas and Ian and her beloved granddaughter Zoë.

Memories go back over the years. Virginia always seemed to naturally turn everything she did into art, such as painting her shoes various designs every few weeks. At an early age, about 8 years old, she was given a sketch box and all accoutrements for painting by the Russian artist André Lapine. On family outings she would march along beside her dad, York Wilson, open up her sketch box and settle down to work a few paces away from him.

It's true that she had a passion for life. In junior high school Virginia had a bedroom on the second floor with a door opening onto the garage roof. After being put safely to bed, she would slip out the door onto the garage roof, slide down the drainpipe, recuperate clothing she had left earlier in the garage, and take off on her bicycle for a couple of hours, reversing the procedure on her return home. When checked for the night, she was peacefully sleeping.

When her three boys were small, she formed a children's Club which included her own three sons, teaching them in the many directions of art, painting and sculpture, making things like trays, candlesticks or paintings to give their mothers and fathers as gifts on special occasions.

One of her first problems was not to paint like her father. This was not easy but he gave her small jobs encouraging her to paint in her own directions. Eventually she was a great help with his murals, since York brought formulas in foreign languages to Canada and Virginia hunted things down. Eventually she was a painting assistant on the odd mural, especially The Salvation Army Twenty Third Psalm mural, which was sadly destroyed to make room for the Eaton Centre.

Eventually Virginia found her own direction, painting distinctly fine abstractions unlike any others.

She was selfless in helping others, painting, assisting cleaning to set up a new studio, home or doing whatever she found necessary to hasten the completion or to make a huge job lighter. She had many friends in the creative fields of painting, sculpture, dancing, music and architecture along with those in less artistic fields, her golf and pub pals.

When the dreadful news broke of impending death, too late for treatment, it brought pals to her bedside from places as far away as Australia. They took turns at her bedside, trying to make it interesting for Virginia and watching over her at night. Although she couldn't talk and was half paralyzed, they would urge her to paint or draw with her one free hand. They had gathered some small earlier works of hers and photos of friends, along with humorous items adorned her hospital wall and occasionally we were treated to a fleeting smile.

(Lela M.Wilson, O.ON)

Winston Leathers RCA, printmaker
1932 to 2004

Prominent Manitoba artist and teacher Winston Leathers RCA died of cancer on July 20, 2004 at the age of 72, at a Kenora, Ontario hospital not far from his beloved cottage in Minaki, where he spent his summers painting and sharing good times with colleagues, friends and family.

All those who knew Winston were shocked and saddened; he told only his wife Kathleen about his illness, and even then only a month or so before his death. That determination to set aside personal issues in favour of exploring the wonder of life head-on was typical of his approach to everything from teaching to painting.

Born in Miami, Manitoba, Leathers studied Fine Arts at the University of Manitoba and at the Manitoba Teachers College. From 1958 until his retirement from the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Architecture in the late 1980s, he taught literally thousands of young people. As painter, printmaker, teacher and poet, Winston never stopped expanding the limits of his artistic disciplines and encouraging those students who, under his patient, persistent tutelage, discovered and pursued their own individual talents.

His curiosity and avid interest in life inevitably swept friends and family along on grand-- often mischievous-- adventures, and inspired his students to follow their dreams. Many of those students became friends and colleagues who continued to learn and explore with Leathers, as he constantly experimented with new techniques, new materials, and new approaches, among them the architectural application of sand-blasted glass and stained glass, electronic colour laser photography, and ceramics.

Winston's artwork is represented in major public galleries and corporate collections across Canada, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

But, perhaps even more important, his life work is represented by scores of fine painters, printmakers, designers, and architects who carry with them the permanent inspiration of his lifelong example of passion for the visual arts.

(Bruce G. Head RCA)

Harry Mayerovitch RCA, architect
1910 to 2004

Born in Montreal, 16 April 1910, Harry Mayerovitch grew up in Rockland, Ontario. He enrolled at McGill University in 1926 and remained in Montreal to become one of its most enduring and entertaining citizens. Discovering his aptitude for drawing, he transferred from a B.A. programme to Architecture, graduating with a B. Arch. in 1933. He worked for the noted architect, Percy Nobbs, before establishing a partnership with Alan Bernstein.

The depression years were not the best time to start an architecture practice but Harry Mayerovitch was the a versatile of artists. Besides architecture, he worked in photography, sculpture, etching, painting and drawing. Evident in his works was a strong social commitment which may have been reinforced by a visit to Mexico in 1939 where he met highly political artists such as Orozco and Rivera. He painted the unemployed and disadvantaged of the Depression years; and during the Duplessis era he contributed political cartoons to the Montreal newspaper, Le Jour. When my partner Sandy, and I tried to save Mount Royal Park from encroachment, it was natural to ask Harry (and Hazen Sise) to join us in a planning brief to the province. (We succeeded.)

In 1942, after seeing Mayerovitch's paintings, John Grierson, founding head of the National Film Board, fired him as art director of the graphics division of NFB. New para? Some of his powerful wartime posters were reproduced in a book in recent years. His paintings are in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Musée du Quebec, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

The office of Mayerovitch and Berstein was one of the earliest in Montreal to espouse modern architecture (which is why I wanted to work there). The practice produced several houses in Montreal and its environs; synagogues; industrial, commercial and public buildings, including the old Jewish Library and the City Centre office building.

Harry Mayerovitch taught in the McGill School of Architecture and also continued, intermittently, to attend courses in the university until recently. Retirement from active architectural practice resulted in increased activity in drawing, painting and writing. He published several books in which the words and the drawing had equal place. Among them, "Jibes, Jabs & Jeers" (1987), a compilation of verse and cartoons of political commentary, whose trenchant wit is timeless. His activities and spirited conversations belied his age. Self-deprecating joker that he was, it was fitting that he died suddenly on his 94th birthday, 16 April 2004, two weeks after launching his last publication, "Way to Go".

(Blanche Lemco van Ginkel RCA)

Elza Edith Mayhew RCA, sculptor
1916 to 2004

Elza Lovitt was born January 19, 1916 in Victoria during the "Great snowstorm" of 1916; 4 days before Alan Mayhew. They were sweethearts from age 13, and married September 10, 1938. Five years later Alan's plane went down in a hurricane off Ceylon leaving her a widow with two small children, Anne and Alan. She had taken the children to Charlettetown, PEI to await his arrival. Today one of her magnificent sculptures stands in silent tribute in Centennial Square. After the war Elza lived in Japan absorbing another culture, hosting the Canadian Embassy for her ambassador father-in-law. In 1937 Elza earned double honours BA from UBC in French and Latin; a thesis on Roman tombs informed her later work. In 1989 she received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Victoria.

Elza actively made sculpture from the 50s to the 80s; mostly bronze, casting in Ontario, England and Oregon. One of her most glorious reliefs is hidden behind a wall in a former bank building in Vancouver, a great crime; another beauteous piece was done for Expo with Jean-Paul Schoeler RCA and Ernestine Tahedl RCA.

I first met Elza in 1964 when she was representing Canada in the Venice Biennial but I knew her sculpture from my time of working at Canadian Art Magazine in Ottawa; the brilliant Alan Jarvis was editor and a great admirer of Elza's work. Among other admirers were Henry Moore, whom she visited, and Lynn Chadwick.

In my mind's eye, I see her in Malta with that unforgettable laugh talking with Sir Basil Spence of Coventry Catheral fame; I see her in London in Denis Bowne's studio, dancing amid great hilarity for she loved music and at the fun parties in her various studios (she had a swing in one), at the RCA Ball, talking to the young Marquis of Lorne, Duke of Argyll but most of all at the top of the CN Tower with John Parkin RCA pointing out his buildings. Elza was a strong member of the RCA and came to all the meetings. This stopped after the Banff AGA; it became apparent something was wrong. The toxic material she worked with was taking effect, slowly and deadly, her laughter with it.

I miss that laugh. A June 5th 1938 entry in Alan Mayhew's "Diaries" say it all, "God but I love Elza … she's worth anything and everything".

(Pat Martin Bates RCA)

Ingeborg R. Mohr RCA, painter
1921 to 2004

"For me painting is a walk from a given point in time into the unknown. Painting is asking questions for me; I get no answers but directions appear," Ingeborg once remarked of her life as an artist.

On 5 January 2004 she took the final walk into the unknown. At Christmastime 2003, not being able to communicate anymore, the family gathered around her, singing the traditional Christmas carols, her eyes signaled an understanding and a peaceful acceptance.

Like her work, she was warm, sensitive and courageous.

Born in Innsbruck, Austria, December 8, 1921, Ingeborg studied at the University of Breslau, Germany. After a bout with Polio at the age 18, when she was told to forget about her aspirations to become a painter she studied Art History instead and than decided to become a painter after all. She took studio courses at the School of Fine Arts, Linz, and was accepted into the Master-class at the School of fine Arts, Graz, Austria.

Ingeborg, her husband Dr Hans Mohr and their three children immigrated to Canada in 1954, settling first in Saskatchewan, than moving to Toronto in 1955; the move made her aware of the work of the abstract expressionists. At this point she abandoned representational art and developed her unique expressive style of non-objective painting.

After living in Toronto until 1981, Ingeborg and her husband found a different life style on rural Howe Island in the St. Lawrence River near Kingston. They rebuilt an old barn, creating a home with a working studio and a spacious gallery. Guests and friends from different places arrived for visits, to exchange ideas or to attend her exhibition openings which were always complimented by a concert, gracious hospitality, and a delightful stroll through the beautiful grounds on the river, where many sculptures created by friends can be seen. It was also at this pastoral setting that the RCA held one of their summer picnics.

In her studio and gallery, surrounded by her paintings, a gathering, on 2 May 2004, of family, friends and fellow artists celebrated Ingeborg's life. With music, Lieder, spoken words, good food and wine, all remembered her love for her family, her art and the life of the creative and generous woman she was.

(Peter Dorn RCA)


Guido Molinari RCA, painter
1933 to 2004

On his last days, it was pitiful to see him. Decimated by cancer, this great debater - the man who liked to talk so much, to discuss, take part in any kind of group exchange - even had trouble breathing. During one of our last get-togethers, on the second floor of the bank that he had converted into a studio, he showed me his art collection: several Lymans he adored, a sketch by Pellan for a theatre set, a Barnett Newman litho, a small Mondrian, a landscape by Leopold Dufresne, his first professor.

Guido Molinari is gone, and we are now assessing the meaning of his lifetime work. He came to painting when automatism seemed to be the sole avant-garde painting movement in Quebec and abstract impressionism was dominant in Toronto, influencing the rest of Canada. He found a common thread between those two movements, referring to them as "the scenic space of Renaissance", "depth", and "third dimension", and saying that, in his view, we "should no longer redo painting as it has been redone too many times before". His work, meanwhile, was radically abstract, favoring pure colors and verticality within a two dimensional space. In his paintings, all reference to appearances was absent and, eventually, even horizontal lines and variations in color values would disappear.

Looking at Molinari's coming into his own in context - during what we refer to as Quebec's Quiet Revolution - one realizes that it coincided with a period that some have called "the age of the word"… or the age of poetry (Gaton Miron, Roland Giguere, Jacques Brault, Fernand Ouellet…). It is a period when, inspired by words and images flowing out of literature, artists could have turned towards figurative expression. A few did. But to Molinari's credit, he kept to his course in spite of on-going discourse by political and nationalist tenors urging artists to "work for the good cause". What Molinari left behind is a constant preference towards universality rather than regionalism. He had dreams of establishing exchanges with New York City.

Today, an important corpus of his work is in Grenoble. Museums across Canada recognize his contribution. His paintings speak for him as eloquently as he has ever done himself.

(Pierre Henry RCA from a memorial by François-Marc Gagnon)


Douglas Gibb Morton RCA, painter
1926 to 2004

The first time I met Douglas Gibb Morton he had just been hired as the first Curator at the Coste House Allied Arts Centre in Calgary. Doug and Mickey had arrived in Calgary from the mysterious east by way of Paris. The salary of Curator at Coste House just wasn't enough to live on, so they moved on to Regina, in those days a town of 100,000 with the only Grade A gallery west of Toronto. Those who were committed to the New York International movement of Abstract Expressionism seemed to naturally gravitate to one another and we later met again when I moved to Regina.

One of the most endearing memories I have of Doug is from the Newman workshop. Barney had gotten Doug so fired up that everything he had to paint on just wasn't large enough. He, and Art Mckay, liberated one of the old Kenderdine stage set flats that were stored under the studio to release his energy, and enthusiasm on. I will never forget him standing over the large surface that was on the floor in paint stained t-shirt, baseball cap, and Bermuda shorts. In complete control of his world with ketchup plastic squeeze bottles full of paint in each hand he was squirting them like a six gun shootout at the OK corral on the horizontal panel. The stub of a cigar stuck in the corner of his mouth he said "it doesn't get any better than this Godwin."

The movies in my head begin to roll. The two of us fishing for pike on Long Lake, with a strip of raw beef on a Len Thompson spoon and the finishing touch of a dab of mercurochrome - surveying it prior to throwing it out to troll Doug chuckled, "I hear they really like this". The house on Cross Place full of Morton Girls everywhere you turned. The kitchen of this elegant house designed by Cliff Wiens with a common two by four picnic bench for a table, (Ron) Bloore and I visiting Doug on Sunday to see what he was up to, and tying the whole package together so very, very many wonderful paintings. A tapestry of incredibly rich memories of a shared journey through a strange wonderland!

My life was enriched immeasurably by sharing the journey with him, and is not lessened by his passing as he still walks with me daily in the studio.

(Ted Godwin RCA)

Norman Antonio (Toni) Onley RCA, painter
1928 to 2004

When Toni Onley returned to Vancouver from San Miguel de Allende in the late 1950s he had a remarkable body of work with him. Alvin Balkind of the New Design Gallery recognized this, and gave an exhibition to this remarkable but practically unknown new artist. In 1960, Bev and I met Toni and Gloria in London, at dinner at the home of another Canadian artist, David Partridge. But it wasn't until our return to Canada in late 1964 that we began to know Toni well. We occasionally painted together - sometimes on the sandy banks of the Fraser River near Vancouver. One very memorable trip was the three or four days on the deserted Vargas Island west of Tofino, after a delicate landing on a log-strewn beach. That was his first aircraft - two wheels, no floats.

Toni was a kind, incredibly generous person. He and I communicated well, and when we talked about art, there was frequently a great area of agreement but, when there were differences, he respected my opinion, often with an impish scepticism.

In the summer of 1970 Toni asked if I would be interested in teaching some courses at UBC. I began that fall with Toni as a colleague and remained until 1979 as Chairman of the BFA Program.

Toni Onley touched the lives of many people over the years. He always had wonderful stories to tell of his experiences, his mishaps, his adventures, his chance encounters, his deliberate encounters, his friends, and his deep connection to his world. In a thoughtful conversation we had together last year while he was visiting and painting at our home at Christina Lake, Toni and I were expressing our awareness of the ageing process. He commented: "...we need to pay much more attention to our friends..."

Toni's legacy is an absolutely remarkable body of paintings that express a profound understanding of the spirit of our land - our country, in a way that no other artist has expressed. The paintings at first seem devoid of life - there are no people in his landscape, yet we seem drawn into the solitude of our own individual experience in our land, whether city dweller or not. The human spirit resides there. The other legacy is the memory that will always be held by his friends, and by those who have been touched by his life.

(Richard Reid RCA)

Jim Orzechowski RCA, architect
1944 to 2003

Jim Orzechowski, born October 11, 1944, was, in his time, one of the most prominent architects in Winnipeg. He died Wednesday, November 12, 2003 after a reoccurrence of cancer in late August and was hospitalized in early October with complications.

Jim lived his life with passion, commitment and in the belief that we could always do things better. He is survived by his wife Simone of 36 years, daughters Kristina Braun and Lasha Orzechowski, and son-in-law Jeffrey Braun. He was predeceased by his son Demion.

Jim enjoyed a demanding and fulfilling career as an architect. He was the CEO of Smith Carter Architects and Engineers Incorporated when he died. Upon his graduation from North Dakota State University with his Bachelor of Architecture in 1970, he immediately joined Smith Carter in June of the same year, was elected to the Associate Group in 1973 and became partner in 1974.

Starting in 1984 under Jim's leadership, the firm transitioned from partnership to corporation. With his vision and progressive thinking, the firm has come to enjoy a pre-eminent role in Manitoba, as well as abroad.

Jim was recognized as an authority on the design of research laboratories, biological containment facilities and healthcare projects. Significant works in which Jim had a key role include: Centers for Disease Control, BSL3 and 4 facilities (Atlanta, GA); University of Texas Medical Branch, BSL4 containment laboratory (Galveston, TX); Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (Stockholm, Sweden); Canadian Science Centre for Human and Animal Health (Winnipeg, MB & Ottawa, ON); St. Boniface Hospital Redevelopment and Research Laboratories (Winnipeg, MB).

In all his work, Jim demonstrated the highest regard for professionalism and the art of architecture. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and inducted as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, in 1996. This recognition by his peer group allowed him a quiet and appreciative pride.

Family, friends and colleagues have all heard from Jim at one time or another say: "Do your homework", "Take the high road", "Work hard and smart", and "Enjoy whatever you do". Jim loved Winnipeg and Manitoba: underrated, central, caring, affordable with four beautiful distinct seasons. And so he felt a need to promote and nurture this wonderful community. He served as a volunteer member on many of Winnipeg's boards: educational, cultural, professional, health, and civic.

He will be dearly missed by his family, friends, peers and his community.

(Jim Yamashita, Smith Carter Architects)

Herbert Siebner RCA, painter
1925 to 2003

Herbert Siebner was born 16 April 1925 in Settin on the River Oder. His father was Prussian, and his mother Viennese. An artist at an early age, and opposed by his father he ran away from home. His mother interceded; he was allowed to enter Max Richter's studio but our sehr good friend and kunstler extraordinaire had not the teenager's life, losing everything and a beloved brother, His escape from a Soviet concentration camp was ingenious. From 1945 to 1950 Herbert studied at the Berlin Academy under Max Kaus becoming interested in Expressionism, Eastern Philosphy and dreaming of a Utopia. In 1954 Herbert found it in Victoria, emigrating to Canada with his beautiful wife, expressionist dancer Hannelore and baby daughter Angela. Over 150 one-person shows of Herbert's works have been held in Europe, Canada and the United States. This September The Art Gallery of Victoria is presenting an exhibition in honour of his 50 years.

Herbert was the founder of "The Limners" artists group in Victoria. He was the lodestone, the heart. In my Mind's Eye I see him in the seaside garden of RCA Walt Dexter and his wife, poet Rona Murray. It is May our last meeting. I hear his hearty laugh, his voice booming out "much obliged"! In Herbert we had a worker of miracles mit mischtechnik, acrly, tuch mit sand mit collage mit alle. He delighted in everything. He painted his dreams, his Muse, leaping, flying, swimming or standing looking at the sun in the Aegean Sea..

And I will miss his 10 page letters, his witty playful rejourners, but it is the spiritual contemplative side of Herbert I miss the most. I knew of him in the late 50's when Tony Emery wrote "The Art of Herbert Siebner for Canadian Art Magazine. The Canadian Painter-Etchers' Society gave him the Reid Award in 1956. We met 40 years ago and I remember it vividly. He, asking for my art philosophy. I quoting Lao-tsu. Herbert astonished, so was I for he was deeply knowledgeable about Taoism. Fast forward to 20 years later: flying into Berlin for his major exhibit in a surprise visit. Here we see the distinguished Prof. Siebner speaking to the city's dignitaries gathered to honour him. Herbert Siebner gifted us: in his works he bowled the Aegean Sun. Chuis Herbert! and very very Much Obliged!!

(Pat Martin Bates RCA)

Ernest John Smith RCA, architect
1919 to 2004

Ernie Smith was born December 17, 1919 and educated in Winnipeg, the son of a house painter for whom he worked in his early years. This led to his desire to be an architect.

He earned his Bachelor of Architecture with Honours, University of Manitoba in 1944 and received the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) Gold Medal. As a scholarship recipient he obtained a Master of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1947.

Ernie was registered in the Manitoba Association of Architects (MAA), in June 1946, retiring in February 2000. He served on the Council of the MAA for six years and as President from 1954-55. He was bestowed with Honourary Membership in the MAA in 1985 and a Life Membership in 2000. He was admitted to membership in the RAIC College of Fellows in 1963 and served as its Dean from 1973-75.

In 1947 Ernie entered into private practice with Dennis Carter and Walter Katelnikoff. The practice grew and became known as Smith Carter & Partners. Ernie assumed the role of Managing Partner. One of the earlier practices of modern architecture in Canada, it was responsible for many major projects in Canada and overseas, including: the Canadian Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, the Pan American Games Swimming Pool in Winnipeg, the Richardson Complex at Lombard Place, Winnipeg, the entrance to Expo '67, Place d'Accueil, Montreal, and the School of Architecture Building at the University of Manitoba.

A generous volunteer, Ernie involved himself in a variety of professional and community services. He was Chairman of the National Joint Committee on Construction Materials, 1963-65, Chairman for the Conference on Church Architecture, Winnipeg 1965, Co-Chair, Fine Arts Committee, for the Centennial Cultural Centre, Winnipeg 1967, and was active with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) in 1967, Ernie in his later years served on its Council for several terms, assisting in fundraising to support the work of the RCA. He exhibited in two of the RCA shows in Winnipeg.

Predeceased in 1993 by his wife Marjorie, they were married for 48 years and had three children and two grandchildren.

Ernie was greatly influenced by his Church, by his family, by his educational experiences particularly at MIT, by his associates in architecture, and by his many friends who admired and respected him. These relationships contributed to a very successful professional and volunteer career.
A memorial service to celebrate Ernie Smith's life was held in Winnipeg at Westworth United Church, on October 28th.

(Morley Blankstein RCA) 435

John Ivor Smith RCA, sculptor
1927 to 2004

John Ivor Smith arrived in Canada at the age of thirteen, as part of the refugee program to keep the English children safe during the WW2 Blitz in England. Billeted with a caring family who lived on my street in Montreal, he became fast friends with my brothers and they went to school and graduated from McGill University together. From his youth John was a remarkable inventor and athlete and loved to draw. When I was a fourth year art student at the MMMFA School of Art and Design under Arthur Lismer at the time, we persuaded John to take the night course there while working at his day job making ad films for the Northern Electric Company (now Nortel). His choice of activating with sculpture became his passion and it resulted as his life's career.

John's mentors during the 60's and 70's were the Italian sculptors, Marino Marini and Manzu`. The Smith humour and aesthetic dominate all his work, despite the intense and creative purpose involved. On a Canada Council scholarship he spent a year in Italy to work and study new and ancient techniques of casting. Other awards and many important commissions followed, including two immense standing figures of welded steel substructure and reinforced polyester resin, for the Montreal Expo 67 site. He invented a new way to enlarge from a maquette long before using computers. In those heady days , Martin and Betty Goodwin, Jimmy (Henry) Jones, John and his wife, dancer, Coleen Kenney, and other artists, architects, musicians, poets, Eldon Grier and myself, established a coterie`a la boheme. We traveled to New York regularly and to Europe to indulge in art there since art was not a big word in Canada yet, but there was plenty of excitement and new ideas were flourishing. John Ivor was greatly loved and respected by his students at Concordia University, becoming Head of the Sculpture Department of Fine Arts, a position he held until his early retirement in 1982. He came to live on Vancouver Island, working in his Geodesic dome studio in Duncan, until he moved to Victoria with his new wife, Lynn McIvor.

John Ivor Smith exhibited his work across Canada and in Europe and is represented in major public and private collections here and abroad. John will be dearly missed by his son, Fraser, and his wife, Lynn, as well as by his many devoted friends and artists across Canada. He is truly a Canadian treasure, and his work will be a legacy for all Canadians to cherish. I was privileged to be his friend.

(Sylvia Tait)

Christopher Yaneff RCA, graphic designer
1928 to 2004

In the early 1950s, as art director for the Financial Post, Chris Yaneff contacted Dept. of Mines in Ottawa in an effort to secure photographs of the Quebec-Labrador iron ore development. He was referred to George Hunter who had recently completed photographic coverage of the area. Thus began a business and personal relationship that spanned over fifty years.

When I moved from Ottawa to Toronto in 1955, Chris shared office space with me at The Benvenuto for his newly-formed advertising and public relations business. He soon outgrew the space and moved to Yonge Street and later to a heritage coach house on Isabella that eventually evolved into a prestigious art gallery

Chris' first flight was in my Piper Clipper. Enthused about flying, he and his wife Katie took flying lessons and it was not long before he purchased his own plane, a Beechcraft Debonair and later, a Beechcraft Baron (twin engine) in which he circumnavigated the continent. His last aircraft, a Belgian Stampe, was an aerobatic biplane and he had been shooting circuits in it at Brampton airport earlier in the week of his passing.

Chris was often called upon as expert witness in trademark and logo litigations. I like his story about a case where the defense lawyer was attempting to discredit him and asked, "Mr. Yaneff - what credentials can you offer this court as to your expertise". Chris replied without hesitation, "Well sir, the company you are acting for hired me as expert witness on two occasions over the past three years".

In the late 1980s, as Chris was winding down his business, he had spare time and accompanied me on world assignments I was covering for corporate clients. During the following decade-and-a-half he had traveled with me to every continent, except Antarctica. His favorite country visited was Myanmar where he bragged about having been there, "Before BM". Explaining, he would answer. "Before Macdonalds". He was looking forward to accompanying me to Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia in May and continuing on afterwards to Macedonia, the land of his forefathers.

Always the supreme storyteller, guests on the cruise ships we were photographing vied for space at our table to hear of Chris' adventures. Being invited to dine with the captain on occasion, he would relate hair-raising experiences while crewing on his friends' sailboats in the South Pacific. Sailing was right up there with art and flying among Chris' lifetime passions.

The RCA, where Chris served on Council during several different terms, including one as secretary-treasurer, has lost a great member. I have lost a wonderful friend. Canada has lost an outstanding citizen.

(George Hunter RC)