Early Fall

Artist/Creator: Emily Carr (Artist)
Date: c. 1939
ID #: BG115

Physical Description

Medium: oil
Support: paper
Dimensions: 83.8 cm 55.9 cm (Object)
Object Description: In the 1930s, Carr executed a series of quick sketch-like works on cheap wood-pulp paper which have come to be known collectively as the "oil sketches" (although she conceived of these not simply as sketches, but rather finished works). Carr used gasoline to thin oil paint down to liquid, which allowed for the fluid application of pigment and rapid drying. Carr’s innovative process also complemented the distinctive painting style for which she is recognized. In Early Fall, the forested landscape swirls and pulses with organic energy, and is invested with a spiritual dimension. In Carr’s words, the gasoline oil sketch was an appropriate technique with which to capture BC’s landscape; it allowed for "great freedom of thought and action…the woods and skies out west are big. You can’t squeeze them down."

History

Collection: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Permanent Collection
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery Permanent Collection
Credit Line: Gift of the Women's Faculty Club and Monday Art Study Group in memory of Mildred Britten Brock, 1940
Related Exhibitions: Becoming Animal/Becoming Landscape: Works from the Collection and Joan Balzar

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