Sketching Whales Haida Gwaii an Artist Appeal

Story: Hi, my name is Lucy, and I am starting this fundraiser on behalf of my good friend and artist, P Jean Oliver.

Jean has long been inspired to follow the spirit and work of Emily Carr, a great Canadian artist and writer to Haida Gwaii, in British Columbia, Canada. Due to the amazing support of friends, a trip to the archipelago is forming from July 18th to the 30th. A major show of new canvases, and graphic novel titled, ‘Sketching Whales’ will follow.

This is intended as a working trip, not a holiday, a working painter’s foray to explore the forests and scenes Emily Carr so loved.

The name, ‘Sketching Whales’, came to Jean once, a long time ago, while watching a tourism video for Haida Gwaii. In one scene a whale breaches the ocean surface, then disappears. The significant moments in life are like that, fleeting, hard to hold on to, but so worth experiencing.

Jean and I met over forty years when we both worked in an animation film studio in Ottawa, Ontario. I moved back to the Windsor area for family reasons, and life took a different route, while Jean went west, to follow her own path. We bonded over our love of Emily Carr and the great spirit of her paintings.

Jean draws strength and inspiration from Emily Carr as a muse, and from her own work as a painter. She headed west to Victoria, BC to be closer to Emily’s wild trees.

When Emily completed her last excursions into the forests she was about the same age Jean is now. Like Emily, Jean supported her art and studio with painting, teaching art, and sacrifice. Jean's health is challenging, and soon painting may mean staying close to home, as it did for Emily. Truly, this could be the last chance for a working expedition of this size.

After returning home this summer, the months following will be spent on canvases the work inspires, culminating in an Artist in Residence in a major hotel in Victoria, BC, and the completion of a graphic novel of Jean’s journey with her mental health, healing, and Carr.

In many ways, a hard-won path in Jean’s art career is only now beginning to take off; as it did for Emily around the same period in her life. I know that this trip will inspire her, and others, and lead to even greater canvases. Please help support someone who is a true Canadian artist, and join us as pilgrims in the legacy of Emily Carr.

You can find more information about P Jean Oliver at:

www.pjeanoliver.com

Facebook: P Jean Oliver Artist and Writer

Studio All Sorts: In Emily Carr’s “The House of All Sorts”, Victoria, BC, Canada

Gallery: Central Art Studio and Gallery, Victoria, BC Canada

[email redacted]