Doris McCarthy was the elfin faced mystery artist for January. She will be 98 in July and is still painting. Look at her fingers! I was fortunate to attend a small presentation she gave here in Kingston a few years ago. Doris has been a plein air painter, working outdoors well into her 80's along Canada's coasts and northlands, sitting out on the tundra or in the snow. She did a brief journey into abstract art but quit as "it didn't sell". I love her boldness and honesty. Here's Doris' website: http://www.dorismccarthy.com
Doris McCarthy -Boughton Reflections 1984
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Hey, Hennie, I also attended that presentation that Doris gave at Queens a couple of years ago. It was really interesting wasn't it. She is totally amazing, i want to be painting at 98 too.
When you said, "Look at her fingers," did you count them? Several years ago, Doris got one of her fingers caught in her garage door, and it mended crookedly. It got in her way when she was painting, so she had it lopped off.
I admire her greatly, not only for her dedication as a painter, one who would have been in the Group of Seven were it not for her gender, but also to her devotion to her friends. She used to attend the Stratford Seminars every year with her little entourage of friends in tow, women and men were friends she had met as a girl and of whom had read in her autobiographies. Can you imagine holding the friends you made in grade eight close to your heart and active in your life for 50, 60, 70 years? That gives those of us who don't have the artist's gift something to aspire to.
P.S. Doris McCarthy is my Great Aunt.
Thanks for this insight Vicky, I had assumed the gnarly fingers were a sign of arthritis. Your story reconfirms this feisty woman's amazing character! Hennie
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