signed lower right; dated 18 March 2003 ("030318") on the reverse
45 × 60 in (114.3 × 152.4 cm)
Mountain Galleries, Jasper
Private Collection, Vancouver
Murray Whyte, “Doris McCarthy exhibit speaks to the artist as lover of life”, Toronto Star, 27 June 2010
Dr. Nancy Campbell, “Doris McCarthy: Roughing it in the Bush” [online publication], Doris McCarthy Gallery, Scarborough, 2010
Born in Calgary and raised in Toronto, Doris McCarthy is recognized as one of Canada’s foremost landscape painters. In a 2004 interview with Harold Klunder, the artist remarked: “I was influenced very strongly by the tradition of going out into nature and painting what was there. I bought it. And I still buy it.” Throughout McCarthy’s long and storied career, the artist made numerous trips around the world, including a year painting in Europe in 1951, and a solo tour of Asia in 1961. However, McCarthy favoured her paintings of Canada, which became her best-known subject matter. In particular, the Arctic landscapes are considered McCarthy’s most desirable pictures.
Nancy Campbell writes in her curatorial essay accompanying the exhibition Doris McCarthy: Roughing it in the Bush: “The simplification of form was pivotal in McCarthy’s major breakthrough following a trip to Resolute, Nunavut, in 1972. The Arctic landscape not only captured the artist’s imagination but also served as a springboard for her studies in form. The sharp edges of the icebergs, the blocks of colour and the shifting light offered a setting that perfectly suited the expansion of her earlier explorations during the sixties.”
In Mountains, McCarthy reduces the snow-covered landscape to simplified, geometric forms, continuing her exploration of the North through hard edges and bold shapes. The shadows cast by the mountain peaks become abstract patterns in their own right, emphasizing the interplay of light, form, and landscape.
