Artist Information
Artist
Heather D. Cragg (1953-1980)Role
PainterDate made
Mar 27, 1979Time Period
20th CenturyNotes
ARTIST EXPLANATION (From a handwritten note in one of her sketchbooks)
"I am primarily a linear artist working in graphic media (primarily printmaking) but with a particular allegiance to painting. My paintings (oils and watercolours) are descriptive/illustrative and concerned with atmospheres (humid atmospheres); portraits (studies from life with concentrations on the character and emotion of the sitter through observance of of the physiognomy - under the influence of Rembrandt, Caravaggio and high realist contemporary masters); still lifes - with special attention to colour, light, texture, allegorical subject matter; the realization of and practise of colour and colour theory, atmosphere - tranquil or disturbing - as in Vermeer, Durer. Recent works are involved in still life, illustrations of animals, birds, feathers (real and imaginary subjects), with truth to representation of natural phenomena and capturing character of subject (Durer - illustrations of animals, etc.)...I am largely occupied in the study of perception, reality, vision and realization of ideas and their growth in practise and relation to hand, mind and aesthetic coordinations concerned. Studies in dream research, world mythology, evolution, music, literature, biology, anthropology, philosophy are requisite in the development and understanding of my works as are the selection, practise and technical handling of various media (for enhancing the clarity of the vision and stating the idea)."
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Born in Victoria, B.C., Heather D. Cragg was an aspiring and gifted young Canadian artist who died tragically at the age of 27. She studied extensively first at Oak Bay High School under the artist and designer Bill West (1921-2007) and textile artist Carole Sabiston. She then studied under printmaker Pat Martin Bates, RCA in Victoria, then at the Vancouver School of Art and later, at the Ruskin School of Drawing, University of Oxford, U.K., graduating in 1976 with First Class distinction.
She also continued to immerse herself in the art and worlds of the Renaissance Masters, such as Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610), through study and travels in Europe all the while pursuing her understanding of their observational and technical skills, aesthetic motivations, and the mythologies of the times. With her fine draughtmanship and mastery of various media (drawings, prints and painting), she achieved considerable note as a portraitist, and in particular as an animal painter, as well as with her lesser known and understood allegorical painting and etchings. A memorial scholarship was established in her name at the University of Victoria in 1981. Her work can be found in collections in Canada, Britain and the United States.
