Beach

Gift of the Artist to the Henderson Family, British Columbia Private Collection, British Columbia

In 1942, Molly Lamb Bobak enlisted in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps and became Canada’s first female war artist three years later. Her wartime experience supplied her with endless new material to incorporate into her art. Since childhood, Bobak had a particular fascination with the teeming energy of large groups of people. Her firsthand account of the victory parades of the Allied forces at the end of the Second World War reinforced this interest. Crowd scenes became a returning motif for the artist, who eagerly took on the challenge of depicting the energy and motion of large gatherings in paint. “Beach” is a notable example of Bobak’s most celebrated subject. Bobak describes each figure with efficient, gestural strokes. The beach–goers are faceless rather than specific, yet they are each imbued with vital energy. The colourful dabs of their swim attire have been applied with an impressionistic quality which directs the viewer’s attention around the picture. Bobak’s innovative crowd scenes allowed her to explore loose, spontaneous brushwork in a manner which could approach gestural abstraction. But by maintaining a figurative foundation, Bobak imbued her paintings with her own playful humour and interest in the people around her. Barbara Biart Henderson and Molly Lamb Bobak grew up together in Burnaby Lake – countryside on the outskirts of Vancouver at the time. Molly’s father, Mortimer Lamb, was, among other things, a respected photographer, and he took many charming pictures of Molly and Barbara, and Barbara’s sisters, in the woods and at the lake. Molly and Barb, or “Mol” and “B” as they called each other, remained best friends throughout their lives. Molly drew charcoal sketches of Barbara’s children for her. She also illustrated stories for the children and sent prints she made of zoo animals when she was in Europe. The Bobaks moved to New Brunswick when Bruno became Artist-in-Residence at the University of New Brunswick, but Molly frequently returned to Vancouver and usually stayed with the Hendersons. She gifted the family watercolours, prints, and oils. The Bobak‘s daughter, Anny, lived with the Hendersons for about a year after she finished school in New Brunswick. By way of a “thank you”, Molly gave them this vibrant painting, “Beach”.