An in depth look at the more personal side of one of Canada's most prominent and memorable artist/writers. Who was this woman who is generally recognized as one of Canada's foremost painters and who also achieved an enviable reputation as a writer? She is thought of by some as a cranky oddball who wore outlandish clothes, had innumerable pets, and painted strange pictures of Indian totem poles and towering trees. She is thought of by others as a lonely, misunderstood genius who struggled against misfortune, poverty and the tide of opinion in an effort to express, through her painting and her writings, the powerful thoughts and feelings that possessed her. Portions of Emily Carr's humorous Sketch Books, which include free hand drawings of animals plus writings and jottings by the artist in her own inimitable style, are collected here for the first time. In Edythe Schleicher's remarkable portrait, Emily Carr emerges as a sort of rotund, Victorian matron, a humorous, smiling lady with a strong and dominating personality--a woman fascinated by Indian totems, who worked out of a caravan near the woods painting subjects in many cases never previously seen on canvas.

Edythe Hembroff-Schleicher (1906-1994) was a painter and writer from Victoria. She studied art in Paris, travelled widely and became a good friend of Emily's (and her only sketching partner). Edythe authored Emily Carr: The Untold Story and was the Provincial Consultant on Emily Carr. The Life and Art of Edythe Hembroff-Schleicher, by Christina Johnson-Dean, was published by MTP in 2013.

Edythe Hembroff-Schleicher's profile page