Working from the
Collection: Ellen Vaughan Grayson
The works on display
represents a selection from a larger group of works by Canadian artist
Ellen Vaughan Grayson, donated to the Kelowna Art Gallery by David and
Carolyn Grayson in 1999.
Ellen Vaughn Grayson
was born into one of the original pioneer families in Moose Jaw,
Saskatchewan in 1894. Her
interest in art, from early childhood, lead her to seek formal training,
first privately, then graduating from Teachers’ College at Columbia
University, New York with a Bachelor of Science and a professional
certificate in Fine Arts in 1923. She
continued her studies at the Curry School of Expressionism in Boston;
St. Margaret’s College, Toronto, with the modernist artist Marion Long
(1882-1970); and later in Budapest.
Returning to Canada,
Grayson worked as an instructor at Teachers’ Colleges in Regina and
Moose Jaw, and moved to Summerland, in the Okanagan Valley in 1929;
later establishing a studio at Oyama overlooking Kalamalka Lake.
She continued her artwork, painting and sketching the Okanagan
Region, a favourite site for inspiration that would continue through her
life and career as is evident in the works shown here.
Her work was included in group exhibitions at the Vancouver Art
Gallery in the 1940s, abroad in London and New York, and several annual
exhibitions with the Society of Canada Painter-Etchers and Engravers
held in Toronto in the late 1950s.
Solo exhibitions of her
work were held in Moose Jaw, Penticton, and in Kelowna.
A retrospective was held at the Kelowna Art Gallery in 1985.
Her works can be found in numerous public collections in Canada.
Like many artists of
her time -- such as Hortense Gordon (1887-1961), Dorothy Stevens
(1888-1966) and Yulia Biriukova (1897-1972) -- Grayson was dedicated to
fostering a greater appreciation for art. Throughout her life and career
she was committed to education, teaching at the Banff School of Arts and
the Summer School of Fine Arts at Penticton and lecturing on a regular
basis. She authored two
books, Picture Appreciation, Elementary School (1929) and Picture
Appreciation, Junior High School (1932).
Both were used in school curriculum and received with enthusiasm
and praise.
In 1961 Grayson
returned to Moose Jaw but continued to spend summers in the Okanagan.
She died in Moose Jaw in 1995.
“Working from
the collection” is more than a play on the oft-used gallery phrase
“works from the permanent collection.” The acquisition of a work of
art is often only the beginning of research into the history of the
object and life and times of the artist.
To this end, if any member of the public can share their
knowledge of Ellen Vaughan Grayson, or knows of the whereabouts of her
work in the Okanagan region, please contact the Kelowna Art Gallery.
