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About W.P. Weston
Introducing William Percy Weston
"Art must be founded on sound technique with idealism and imagination."(1) W.P. Weston William Percy Weston is one of Canada’s most exceptional artists. He was one of the first to capture the ephemeral, majestic beauty of British Columbia. His work is of the vintage and quality as his contemporaries, the Group of Seven and Emily Carr, although he never rose to the same level of fame or commercial success. His list of accomplishments is impressive. Weston’s paintings are held in major collections, such as the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Hart House, the University of Toronto, and the University of British Columbia. His work has been exhibited in London and at the World’s Fair in New York. He was one of the first BC artists to have a solo exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery, after Emily Carr and Thomas Fripp. Weston was the first painter in the west to be elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy. He became an original member of the Canadian Group of Painters, formerly the Group of Seven. He was made a life-member of the British Columbia Society of Fine Artists, after he completed a seven-year term as president. He taught other successful Canadian artists, such as Gordon Smith. And yet, today W.P. Weston is not as well known as his contemporaries Emily Carr or Lawren Harris. Weston was art master at the Provincial Normal School, formerly the King Edward School at 12th and Oak, in Vancouver, from 1914 until his retirement, in 1946. He also taught summer school in Victoria for many years. W.P. Weston sold, and in some instances, gave away art during his life. He earned his main source of income from his teaching career, so he did not have to depend on the commercial success of his art to survive, as other artists did. In the 1930s and 40s his imaginative interpretations of British Columbia were both celebrated and controversial. Weston was considered avant-garde at that time, but by the 1960s, tastes changed and new styles of visual art emerged. The abstractionists became the next major movement, but Weston resisted the turbulent changes of the art world. He believed art should be somewhat representational and continued to paint landscapes in his own, distinct style.
Discovering the BC Coast - Circa 1950
Weston, Undated Note Weston found his British art training too constraining for British Columbia’s unique coast. He once told a friend, "it took a while to realize that you couldn’t paint Vancouver harbour to look like the mouth of the Thames."(2) The fierce Canadian land demanded more from its artists. He had to free himself from the old training and develop a style that expressed the character of his new country.(3) "I made up my mind to study and know these things [the trees, mountains and shoreline] and to me the best way was by drawing and painting them constantly."(4) Weston wanted his audience to be able to recognize the forms in his work and felt that paintings should represent what can be seen.(5) He thought "good art should be universal and unique. It must be founded on experiences common to many."(6) But he didn’t want to represent people on the canvas. "You wouldn’t want to put people into the paintings," he once said. "You’d spoil the whole thing."(7) The new environment sparked Weston’s lifelong investigation of the landscape, one that didn’t include people, only wilderness. He savored the "silence and the solitude"(8) of each tree and mountain peak with every brush stroke and pencil sketch.
Weston developed his remarkable style through his repeated attempts to capture the unique nature of the landscape. The wilderness inspired the shift away from his early, conservative works, allowing him to capture British Columbia’s dramatic scenery with imaginative idealism. A chronological overview of Weston’s work shows this progression in style, and how detailed study of his subjects, technique and design, influenced his painting.(9)
Period 1 (1909-23) Early Painting and Experimenting W.P. Weston was born in London, England in 1879. He arrived in Vancouver with his wife Jessie, in 1909, just two months after the birth of their first daughter, Bette. He had been teaching and working as an illustrator in London, after studying at the Putney School of Art. Looking for a change, Weston applied and was hired as an art teacher at King Edward School in Vancouver.(10) The seed of the city’s present-day cultural life had only just been planted; the art gallery and arts school had not yet been built. The rugged coast more than made up for it.(11) His artist’s eye was captivated by the wildness of the landscape.
It took almost 15 years before Weston was able to depart from the restrictions of painting in the British aesthetic. He was occupied with his young family and his teaching career, and did not immediately begin painting his surroundings.(13) He eventually began a period of experimentation and change that stretched over a decade.(14) There are few pieces left from this period, as Weston destroyed most of his work. Years later, he commented: "I painted some pretty wild things, but always I came a little closer to my own language of form and the expression of my own feeling for this coast region; its epic quality, its grandeur, its natural beauty."(15)
Period 2 (1924-30) Designing the Landscape While the Group of Seven was active in Eastern Canada, Weston was moving closer towards a style more suited to British Columbia. Ian Thom cites, Landscape, a painting from 1923, as a turning point in his development. Weston’s paintings begin to show a "changing perception of the scale and mood of the landscape" and "closer interest in massive rock forms and sculptural outlines of distant mountains."(16) By 1928, "Weston had achieved a convincing sense of atmosphere and space."(17) During this period, he used "paint to create a sense of mass…compositions are simplified, detail is reduced and broad solid forms are used."(18) Two works in this collection were painted in 1930, on the cusp of Weston’s third period: Scrub Pines, Howe Sound and Shadows—Grouse Mountain.
Period 3 (1931-67) Maturing Style As Weston’s knowledge of the coast deepened, so did his sense of design, with "sharpened observations of the line and outlines, or planes and patterns."(19) Thom identifies Peaks of Silence from 1931, as defining the beginning of the third period. He attributes Weston’s matured style to the growing influences of art nouveau/deco and Japanese pattern books. He incorporated these with "heavy, opaque brush strokes, a strong sense of mass and a linear, decorative design."(20) Weston applied these elements to his paintings for the rest of his career. "He employed them to advantage in striking images of the coastal trees and mountains and later the Okanagan and Kootenays."(21) The third period paintings in this collection span over 25 years, with Finis B.C. from 1933 to View from Eagle Island, painted in 1959.
Weston sustained his passion for painting the landscape throughout his life. He created a body of work that both captivates and surrenders to the natural forms and moods of the Pacific Northwest Coast. "He, more than any other artist, captured the awesome, lonely nature, the spirit of British Columbia."(22)
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March 14-20, 1980: 19. |
The most remarkable aspect of W.P. Weston is the
passionate drive to know every inch of the mountainous, coastal landscape
at the core of his paintings. The real measure of Weston’s success is
how powerfully he interpreted British Columbia through his art, with sound
technique, imagination and idealism.
