Introduction

As a young person, I was inspired by Henry David Thoreau, who turned his back on society and lived simply by Walden Pond. I admired the French painter Pierre Bonnard, who stayed at home with his wife and found subjects to paint right in front of him. And I reflected on the meditative practice of Zen monks who cultivated a profound concentration, living in the moment without care for the past and future.

At art school I was disappointed to find that my teachers were dedicated to abstract painting, and the “art world” had moved from painting to conceptual art. When I came to Vancouver Island I discovered the unique and wonderful art of E. J. Hughes. He showed that realism was still worthwhile and that success was possible even for someone who lived an isolated existence and eschewed self-promotion.

To support my art career I wrote newspaper reviews and included Hughes’s work wherever I found it, though out of respect for his privacy I never tried to interview him. Then, in 1993, Pat Salmon telephoned and invited my wife Sarah and me to join the artist for lunch. As it turned out, he was charming and voluble, and a few more meetings followed. Though his success grew and grew, he always avoided becoming a public figure.

In 2010, three years after the artist’s death, Pat Salmon again called and asked if I would complete her self-appointed task as Hughes’s biographer. I agreed at once, for it was clear to me that there could be no greater gift for a writer and artist here on the West Coast. Here was a story of compelling interest which had never been told.

My previous books on Hughes have concentrated on the subjects of his professional career: Vancouver Island, British Columbia, war art, and all manner of boats. Now, in conclusion, I consider the quiet life which was essential to his success and those who helped him to achieve it. In writing about him, I have avoided interpreting his work but have assembled comments from the artist and those who knew him. I hope this will enhance the understanding of the life and art of E. J. Hughes.

Robert Amos

Chapter One

Of his family, E. J. Hughes was always “the special one”. The first of four children of Kay and Edward S. Hughes, “Eddie” grew up in Nanaimo. He never learned to swim or ride a bicycle. He didn’t join sports teams or go to church but from an early age he loved to draw and paint. His mother recalled: “Eddie could draw almost before he could speak. I remember his drawing a small picture of a boat on pointy waves with smoke coming out of the funnel.” (Pat Salmon: E. J.Hughes: Painter of the Raincoast).

While living in Vancouver during his teens, Hughes became a cadet with the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, and excelled at marching, precision drills and target practice. After finishing high school in 1929, he then enrolled in the Vancouver School of Art where he was recognized as an outstanding student.

When he graduated in 1933 Hughes was kept on for two more years on a scholarship. Since the young artist showed no aptitude for teaching he was allowed to pursue his own course of studies: “Teaching exhausted him emotionally, and he spent an inordinate amount of time preparing for each class. “It was awful” he recalled. “On Monday I began worrying and by the next Satuirday I felt a wreck. The children were talented but I had such trouble making them behave.” (Pat Salmon: E. J.Hughes: Painter of the Raincoast).

Subsequently he joined two colleagues and spent the next five years painting murals. While their productions were excellent the men did not become close. Hughes always remained a loner, devoted to his art.

It was on October 15, 1937 that Hughes first met Fern Smith. They discovered each other at Second Beach in Vancouver when Hughes was twenty-four and Fern was twenty-one.

“I was sketching a group of beautiful deciduous trees in Stanley Park when a beautiful girl who was out walking her little dog came up and very considerately asked if I would mind if she looked at my work. I asked her name, which was Fern Rosabelle Smith, and I told her mine was Edward Hughes. We walked to her grandmother’s house at 1217 Robson Street, and that’s how I met my wife. I was impressed with her polite seriousness.”

Hughes continued: “For once I had met somebody who was easy to talk to. I asked to walk her home, and while we were walking I asked if she liked parties. She replied that she “liked some parties”, and that came as a big relief. There were many nice girls at art school, but I always felt that they liked parties too much.” (Pat Salmon, unpublished manuscript).

Fern was from Regina. She didn’t have much education or ambition, but she was profoundly patient, a characteristic which would serve her well. At the time she met Hughes she was living as a companion to her grandmother in a house in Vancouver’s West End.