Doris McCarthy, CMOOntRCA LL. D. (July 7, 1910 – November 25, 2010) was a Canadian artist known for her abstracted landscapes. In a 2004 interview with Harold Klunder, the artist remarked:
I was influenced very strongly by the tradition of going out into nature and painting
what was there. I bought it. And I still buy it.[1]
Born in Calgary, Alberta, McCarthy attended the Ontario College of Art from 1926 to 1930, where she was awarded various scholarships and prizes. She became a teacher shortly thereafter and taught at Central Technical School in downtown Toronto from 1933 until she retired in 1972.[2] She spent most of her life living and working in Scarborough (now a Toronto district), Ontario, though she travelled abroad extensively and painted the landscapes of various countries, influenced by Lawren Harris's simplification of form. The countries she visited included: Costa Rica, Spain, Italy, Japan, India, England, and Ireland. McCarthy was nonetheless probably best known for her Canadian landscapes and her depictions of Arcticicebergs - she began visiting the Arctic in 1972. In 1989, she graduated from the University of Toronto Scarborough with a B.A. in English.
McCarthy's work has been exhibited and collected extensively in Canada and abroad, in both public and private art galleries including: the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, The Doris McCarthy Gallery[3] at the University of Toronto Scarborough with over 200 of her works, and Wynick/Tuck Gallery.
In 2004, she had a gallery named in her honour at the University of Toronto Scarborough. Doris McCarthy trail runs alongside Bellamy Ravine, connecting Bellehaven Crescent to Lake Ontario.[4]
McCarthy penned three autobiographies, chronicling the various stages of her life: A Fool in Paradise (Toronto: MacFarlane, Walter & Ross, 1990), The Good Wine (Toronto: MacFarlane, Walter & Ross, 1991), and Ninety Years Wise (Toronto: Second Story Press, 2004). She was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.[6]
^"Works". cowleyabbott.ca. Cowley Abbott Auction, Session 1 Important Canadian & International Art December 6th, 2023. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
^A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada
