Art
Trees by Cliff, Fernwood, P.E.I.
Trees by Cliff, Fernwood, P.E.I.
Title: Still Standing (Trees by Cliff, Fernwood, P.E.I.), 1979
Artist: Elaine Harrison
Image size: 18” × 23 1/2” [45.7 × 59.7 cm]
Frame size: 20” x 26” × 3/4” [50.8 × 66.0 × 1.9 cm]
Description: Acrylic on plywood panel. Signed and dated on the reverse. Framed. This painting appears in the book, Elaine Harrison: I am an Island that Dreams, by Jane Ledwell, Kevin Rice & Douglas Sobey, published by Acorn Press, 2011 (Page 29). The book was issued to coincide with a major Elaine Harrison exhibition at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown in 2011-2012, in which this painting was also included.
Elaine Harrison (1915-2003) spent most of her working life as a teacher in Summerside. Although she was with the PEI Art Society in the 1950s, it wasn’t until her retirement from teaching in 1968 that she devoted most of her time to writing, and painting. She was inspired by the work of the Group of Seven and iconic artists such as Tom Thomson and Emily Carr. Over time, Harrison’s painting style evolved. In later years, she rarely used brushes, preferring to apply paint with a pallet knife. Harrison's works are vigorous, direct, colourful, abstracted impressions of her favourite subjects: the red cliffs and shorelines near her summer home in Fernwood; the stands of hardwood trees near her home in Bedeque, PEI; Island harbours; and her many cats. A retrospective exhibition entitled, Elaine Harrison: I Am an Island That Dreams, was held in the Art Gallery of the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown in 2011/12.