Painter and Writer.

Born in Victoria BC, Carr exhibited an independent personality as a child. After studying painting in California, she taught painting to children in Victoria and then made a trip to England and France. Her style developed from a subdued English watercolour tradition into a much more colourful style that was inspired by the work she had seen in France.

Once back in British Columbia in 1912, Carr developed a particular interest in painting the villages of Native peoples along the Pacific coast. However, she could not make a living from her art and languished, making money as a landlady of an apartment building.

In 1927, when twenty-six of Carr's works were included in an exhibition of Canadian art at the National Gallery of Canada, she met and was encouraged by members of the Group of Seven. This was a group of painters formed in central Canada who had come to national attention. In particular, Lawren Harris influenced and encouraged her.

She continued to paint Native subjects for several years, particularly landscapes featuring totem poles. Then, after 1932, her subject became her perception of nature's rhythms as she took them from the West Coast scenes of huge trees, beaches, and skies.

"Woods and skies out west are big," she said; "you can't squeeze them down."

Carr captured the energy and life that she found in the wilderness into hundreds of drawings and canvases. Her paintings are some of the best known in Canada. (You can see Carr's paintings that are owned by the National Gallery of Canada by going to Cybermuse. Click on "English", then "Login as Guest", click on 'Search", type in "Emily Carr" and click on "Submit". About six pictures at a time will appear on your screen and there are five screens to look at. Go through them and look particularly at Blunden Harbour [1930], Sky [1935], and Self-Portrait [1938-1939] as examples of Carr's work.)

After a severe heart attack in 1937, Carr turned more often to writing, and in 1941, her collection of literary sketches, Klee Wyck, came to national attention. The title means "laughing one" in Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), a Native language. It was the name given to Carr by these people of the west coast of Vancouver Island.