The River with Hills, 1986

Private Collection, Toronto

Dorothy Knowles was raised on a farm in Saskatchewan with no intentions of becoming an artist; rather, she enrolled in the biology program at the university in Saskatoon. Upon her graduation in 1948, a friend convinced her to enroll in a six-week summer art course given by the University of Saskatchewan at Emma Lake, led by Reta Cowley and James Frederick Finley. Knowles’ interest in painting blossomed and she returned to the workshops in following years. From these Emma Lake workshops, Dorothy Knowles took art critic Clement Greenberg’s advice to continue painting from nature and she discovered the importance of working en plein-air. The artist found it difficult to find time to station herself outside for extended periods of time to paint while raising her three daughters. She produced some finished paintings outdoors but she often made sketches and took photographs to use back in the studio. “The River with Hills”, dating to 1986, would have been painted after her children had grown, thus enabling her to spend more time outside.