Inspiration from Artists Week 45 : Lawren Harris and Graham Sutherland

I first encountered Lawren Harris' work on a trip to Ottawa in 2010. Before that I had never heard of the Canadian artists called the Group of Seven. I would encourage you to seek out examples of work by all of the Group and also Tom Thomson. Lawren Stewart Harris (October 23, 1885 – January 29, 1970) was a Canadian painter, best known as a leading member of the Group of Seven. He played a key role as a catalyst in Canadian art and as a visionary in Canadian landscape art. He was born in 1885 in Brantford, Ontario. He was heir to a considerable fortune from the Massey Ferguson company (partly founded by his father) which gave him financial independence for the rest of his life. In 1903 he attended University College at the University of Toronto. From 1904 to 1908 he studied in Berlin, where he stayed for three years, learning about Impressionism and Post-Impressionism as well as seeing exhibitions of German and European modern art. In 1908 he travelled to Austria, Italy, France and England before returning to Toronto. From 1910 to 1918, he focused in his painting on the urban landscape of Toronto, featuring a significantly bright palette. In 1913, Harris took the first step that would cement a group of like minded artists together in Canadian art, by inviting A. Y. Jackson, then in Montreal, to Toronto. The following year, he and his friend Dr. James MacCallum, financed the construction of a Studio Building in Toronto which provided artists, among them Tom Thomson, with an inexpensive space to work. In 1918 and 1919, Harris financed trips for the artists of the later Group of Seven to the Algoma region, travelling along the Algoma Central Railway and painting in areas such as the Montreal River and Agawa Canyon. His work showed the effect of such trips; he began sketching in oil en plein air as a regular practice and used the sketches as a guide in constructing his major canvases. In May 1920, Harris, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Franklin Carmichael, A. Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, and Frederick Varley, formed the Group of Seven.  In the autumn of 1921, Harris ventured beyond Algoma to Lake Superior's North Shore. In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1928, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to Greenland, the Canadian Arctic and Labrador  for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches. He was the only member of the Group of Seven to align himself with European and American forms of Modernism. More detail on his life can be found on Wikipedia at  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawren_Harris. I have chosen six diverse paintings as a starter - You will find a lot more examples of Harris' work on the internet, I hope you enjoy them. 

Interesting intro. Andrew.  Not an artist I’d heard of, but I just love his bold, colourful style.

Thanks Andrew for introducing this artist.  I just love the organic shapes and those big bright colours. Super choice. 

I was in two minds about Lawren Harris.....then I saw the third painting posted by Jenny (the house and people in the snow) and thought wow!  There are elements that are bold, there are elements that are simplified, but he really captures the essence of what he paints.

I do like his snow scenes and houses, also the paintings with people in, however I’m not taken with the more abstract mountain peak type paintings- just not my cup of tea. I tried to pick out some I liked , then realised they are already above.!

Third one down curiously looks  quite like a Hong Kong Junk. Happy memories ... or is it a Brixham trawler. .?.....come on Dixie you are our boat person.   Mixed feelings about this artist.  I  do like the earlier ones. 

Not wishing to advertise the competition, but this group of artists - all of whose work I like for very different reasons - was covered in International Artist Magazine some years ago, and I first saw this work then, or some of it.  I like the commitment to colour and light, and they are recognizably of a place; thus unlike generic mountain, snow and domestic paintings by a certain  TV presenter of days gone by who tended to paint the same place regularly but just give it different names; mind you, it's probably easy to be besotted by Alaska. I've never been to Canada, but these are paintings to make me wish I had. 

Third one down IS a junk, isn't it?  A change from the Canadian themes.