"Some can be active to a great age but enjoy little," observed Emily Carr shortly before her death in 1945. "I have lived." The impressive scope of Carr's art and her unorthodox life are the subjects of art educator Anne Newlands' latest book. In a text that skillfully blends selections from Carr's own writings with illustrated commentary, Newlands creates a delightful look at one of Canada's best-known artists. Emily Carr: An Introduction to Her Life and Art will lead you to the West Coast, where Carr spent much of her life in a world of richly drawn First Nations villages and totems, dark, haunting forests, wild beaches and vast skies. There, you will meet the unconventional woman -- "the little old lady on the edge of nowhere," as she called herself -- who helped define the face of Canadian art.

Anne Newlands worked for twenty-seven years as an educator and researcher-writer at the National Gallery of Canada. She is the author of numerous books including Canadian Paintings, Prints and Drawings, Canadian Art: From Its Beginnings to 2000, Clarence Gagnon: An Introduction to His Life and Art, Emily Carr: An Introduction to Her Life and Art, and The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson: An Introduction. She is currently writing a book about the Quebec textile artist Mariette Rousseau-Vermette (1926-2006).

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I acquired this slender volume through interlibrary loan and what a gem it turned out to be! If you know nothing about Emily Carr, this book may serve as a wonderful introduction. Newland presents a brief overview of Carr's life and work and skilfully compliments full color reproductions of Carr's art with excerpts from her own writing. Indeed, Carr's paintings are well chosen and beautifully rendered -- far better quality than I expected in such a flimsy-looking book.

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