Helen Galloway McNicoll
Today's piece was suggested by one of our users. I am very happy about this for a couple of reasons: it was created by a female artist — we always crave female artists!; she is from Canada — we are looking for artists from outside of Europe and the US; and I must admit, I've never heard of her :) So Lynda, thank you very much! And please don't forget that if you would like to see a particular artist in DailyArt we are always open to suggestions - just drop me an email at [email protected]
Helen Galloway McNicoll was a Canadian impressionist painter. Born in Ontario and raised in Montreal, Helen Galloway McNicoll was from a wealthy upper-middle-class family. She contracted scarlet fever at the age of two which left her deaf for the remainder of her life. Her family, intent on Helen remaining a fully included member of society, brought in private tutors to teach her lip reading as well as educational instruction and piano lessons. Helen's early life, though somewhat restrictive, was not isolated. In addition to her tutors, she became a member of a local deaf community. With her private education and lip reading skills she was able to attend art schools in her adulthood with other young artists of her day.
She began her art education in Montreal attending art classes at the AAM, the Art Association of Montreal, where she studied for two years. From Montreal, Helen travelled to England to attend a few of the prominent and experimental art schools active there at the time. After England, Helen lived briefly in France to gain more formal instruction in the visual arts. Inspired during her time in France, she opened up a small studio where she painted continuously. Then in 1906, Helen returned to England to continue her art studies at Julius Olsson's School of Landscape and Sea Painting in St. Ives, Cornwall. This school was also the liberating spirit that helped another Canadian Impressionist, Emily Carr, find happiness and fulfillment in her art — just as Helen McNicoll found in hers. Helen McNicoll died at the age of 35.
I really like her Cherry Time we are presenting today. It has that innocence, calmness and joy of summer days that adults remember from their childhood summer days.