Dark Trees, 1996

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. Knowles’ participation in the Emma Lake Workshops in the 1950s and 1960s greatly influenced and encouraged her interest in landscape painting. She took Clement Greenberg’s advice to continue painting from nature, and discovered the importance of working en plein-air. Knowles 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. “Dark Trees”, dating to 1996, would have been painted after her children had grown up, thus enabling her to spend more time outside. The dark trees in the right foreground reflect into the water below, in stark contrast to the soft and more delicate horizon line in the distance.