Brigus, Newfoundland, 1990

Private Collection, Toronto

Doris McCarthy, Stuart Reid, and William Moore, “Celebrating Life: The Art of Doris McCarthy”, Toronto, 1999, page 79

Doris McCarthy was born in Calgary, Alberta on July 7, 1910, and travelled throughout Canada with her family from a young age. She studied at the Ontario College of Art from 1926 until 1930, and was hired by Group of Seven member, Arthur Lismer, for a teaching job at the Toronto Art Gallery. Like Lismer, McCarthy was fascinated with the beauty of Newfoundland. Brigus is a small fishing community located in Conception Bay, Newfoundland, and boasts a charming postcard perfect landscape. Shiplap clad coastal homes in classic nautical colours pepper the landscape with its rolling green hills and rocky shorelines. The quaint locale reflects its strong ties to its English, Irish and Welsh roots. A favourite province to visit and paint, McCarthy loved to focus on the inlets and fjords, experimenting with colour, form, and compositional layout in her works. Neighbour and art student, Barbara Joan Sutherland, sometimes accompanied McCarthy to Newfoundland. Fondly remembering one of their last trips together, Sutherland said of McCarthy, “Doris would say grace with gusto, giving thanks for whales and icebergs as well as for food and friends. This spirit makes those who are with her feel more awake and alive.” Sutherland also recalled a trip to Newfoundland with her mentor in 1995, where then 85-year-old McCarthy spontaneously decided to climb an extremely steep slope so that she could have tea with a friend who lived in the red house at the top of the cliff. The simple and clean nature of the local architecture of Brigus lent perfectly to the artist’s practice and this bright work exemplifies McCarthy’s expertise in capturing the whimsical joy of the coastal landscape.