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A Retrospective Show of Dornacilla Drysdale's WorkDornacilla Peck (1913 - 2009) was an abstract artist born in Rossland, BC, raised in Ottawa, educated at Yale and worked as a painter in BC where she lived since 1969 and in many places in the world. Dornacilla Drysdale studied watercolour under Eleanor Curry, life drawing under George Ernest Fosbery and oil painting under Peleg Franklin Brownell. She took classes at the Ottawa Art Association with Frederick Varley, one of the founders of the Group of Seven. Her early works were of the surrounding landscapes in Northern Ontario. During this time she traveled to the Grange, now part of the Art Gallery of Ontario, to study with another member of the Group of Seven, Franklin Carmichael, receiving an art supervisor's certificate. This experience led Dornacilla Drysdale to Yale University on full scholarship (1942 - 1947), completing her FBA in 1947. There she studied under Louis York and Rudolph Zalinger, developing a unique painting technique and compositional style. This style combines a Non-objective composition with the sculpted stylistic characteristics of the Group of Seven. Her paintings created an inner landscape of colours and reconstructed objects. Drysdale's paintings are considered by some to be of the Non-objective School. Her paintings have been exhibited widely in New York, Boston, Providence, Rhode Island, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and are part of a collection in the Fogg Museum. She also taught in Providence at the Mary C. Wheeler School, Ottawa, Windsor, Woolongong, Calgary and Vancouver. She was passionate about the importance of education and training for young artists and highly regarded for her ability to inspire her students. Dornacilla Drysdale is represented by the Aaron Gallery in Chicago |
