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Buttermilk Falls, Burk’s Falls, Ontario by Bernice Fenwick Martin

Artwork by Bernice Fenwick Martin, Buttermilk Falls, Burk’s Falls, Ontario

Bernice F. Martin
Buttermilk Falls, Burk’s Falls, Ontario

oil on canvas, laid down on board
signed lower right; titled and dated “circa 1932” on the reverse
10.5 x 13.75 ins ( 26.7 x 34.9 cms )

Auction Estimate: $2,000.00$1,500.00 - $2,000.00

Price Realized $978.00
Sale date: November 25th 2015

Provenance:
Private Collection, Ontario
Literature:
Dorothy M. Farr, “J.W. Beatty: 1869-1941”, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, 1981, page 80, plate 36 for a very similar composition by J.W. Beatty
Louis Gagliardi (Introduction), “A Celebration of the Art and Life of Bernice Fenwick Martin”, Canadian Heritage Art Company Inc., Kleinburg, 2010, pages viii & ix
Taught and mentored by celebrated landscape painter J.W. Beatty between 1929 and 1934, “Buttermilk Falls, Burk's Falls”, Ontario was painted during Martin's time under Beatty's guidance, the painting bearing striking resemblance to a canvas by her teacher (Beatty's “Burk's Falls Bridge” is now part of the collection of the Toronto Board of Education). A challenging and sometimes harsh instructor, Beatty held Martin in high regard, sharing personal stories with his student and inviting her to accompany him upon sketching trips and to social outings, where Martin was introduced to A.Y. Jackson and Frederick Banting, among many others.


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Bernice Fenwick Martin
(1902 - 1999)

HighlightsWatch Artist

Born in Shelbourne, Ontario, Martin studied at the Ontario College of Art under noted Canadian artists J.W. Beatty and Franklin Carmichael. After the death of Beatty in 1941, she found friendship in Peter Clapham Sheppard whom she studied and worked with until his death in 1965. Working in oil, watercolour and woodcut, Martin focuses on real scenes, Toronto harbour scenes, still life, and Northern landscapes with particular concentration on the Muskoka, Haliburton, and Algonquin Park regions of Ontario. She had works showcased at the Royal Canadian Academy from 1945-1947 and solo exhibitions of her work in Toronto galleries throughout her career. “I look back on my life and my painting hours were the happiest. I’d spend long hours and forget time…my time was always measured by the passage of light.”

(With details from Canadian Heritage Art Gallery, “A Celebration of the Art and Life of Bernice Fenwick Martin”, Kleinburg, 2010, page xi)