Gallery bearing her name celebrates Doris McCarthy's 100th birthday

Gallery bearing her name celebrates Doris McCarthy's 100th birthday. Doris McCarthy's 100th birthday will be celebrated by an exhibit of her works, Roughing It in the Bush, at the University of Toronto Scarborough's Doris McCarthy Gallery. The show opens Saturday, June 19. McCarthy will turn 100 on July 7. Photo/COURTESY

On July 7, Doris McCarthy will be turning 100 years old, marking a century of living, creating and inspiring those who either had her as a teacher, friend or an admirer of the vast amount of art she has created throughout her career.

While turning 100 is a personal achievement all on its own, it's will also be celebrated in the arena where she established herself in the Canadian history books - her art.

In celebration and tribute, The Doris McCarthy Gallery in Scarborough is hosting an exhibit featuring the works of its namesake, in conjunction with the University of Toronto Arts Centre, titled, Roughing It in the Bush.

Curator, Nancy Campbell, said McCarthy is well known for her landscapes and the exhibit features works that depict both her Scarborough Bluffs home, Fool's Paradise, and some from her acclaimed iceberg series of the Arctic.

However, for this exhibit, Campbell has chosen to show some of McCarthy's lesser known works as the focus, deciding to feature her hard-edged abstracts that have never been shown in public.

"It will make her look more contemporary and I think she will get a new audience from it," Campbell said.

The paintings, 70 in total, in the two exhibition spaces, mostly depict her beloved cottage the Knot Hole, and a neighbouring cottage called the Key Hole, in Georgian Bay, where she spent many days creating in its beautiful and rugged surroundings.

Friend and painting companion of McCarthy, Barbara Sutherland, recalls her painting trips with McCarthy to the Knot Hole and said this place, with its bare necessities of an outhouse and no running water, is the perfect place to paint uninterrupted.

"She loves the simple life, she loves the rustic nature of her cottage so the fewer the gadgets the better," Sutherland said. "Things breaking down would just take away from painting time so she kept it simple with nothing to take away from nature or her painting time."

Living in the same area of the Scarborough Bluffs, Sutherland met McCarthy in 1988 and soon after, was accompanying her on painting trips to many locations. These trips were filled with a staunch work ethic, which McCarthy is known for, and a focus on painting.

Sutherland said it's this dedication to her craft and her zest for life that she admires about McCarthy.

"Her drive, her determination, her positive nature, anything negative just rolls off her back, like if we had a difficult painting session...it was all water under the bridge within minutes," Sutherland said.

"She doesn't hold on to anything that gets in the way of living and enjoying life, she just moves through life with such clarity and an unstoppable force."

Sutherland said besides being a phenomenal painter, McCarthy is also a wonderful mentor, with one of her greatest gifts being able to make people believe in themselves.

"She helped me to believe in myself and that's huge because that could be a block for a lot of artists," she said. "You're putting yourself out there for criticism all the time...and you have to be able to get past that and still believe in yourself, you have to have tough enough skin to stay in this business."

McCarthy was born on July 7, 1910 in Calgary, Alberta. Her family moved to the Beach area of Toronto in 1914, and as a teen she attended Malvern Collegiate. At 15, she took a junior course at the Ontario College of Art (OCA) and after graduating high school received a four-year scholarship to the OCA.

In her final year of art college, she was offered a job teaching children's art classes at the then named Toronto Art Gallery, and four years later, began teaching at Central Technical High School. After a teaching career, which spanned 40 years, she retired in 1972.

It was then she focussed solely on being a painter. McCarthy has travelled extensively throughout Canada and the world, finding inspiration for her paintings. She has created a large body of work, many of which are in galleries and private collections worldwide.

Both Sutherland and Campbell said McCarthy will leave behind a massive legacy and continue to influence and inspire people for many years to come.

"I think she's larger than life and what she will leave behind will astound people. And this show will astound people," Sutherland said. "People will stand up and notice her again."

Campbell said her longevity distinguishes McCarthy, and while many women in art history are generally overlooked and the focus more on men, she has carved out her own place while also leading the way for others.

"Not only did she pioneer the road for many women artists, she's also influenced a lot of women artists, and she was a teacher and an independent woman," Campbell said.

While McCarthy has made an undeniable impact on the art world, she's also an example of someone who turned her back on tradition and went ahead with her passion. In 1940, she purchased her home Fool's Paradise in Scarborough, much to the dismay of her disapproving mother.

In a 2002, interview with The Scarborough Mirror she shared, "My mother thought it was such a foolish idea for me to come here and live on my own," McCarthy said. "She called it the fool's paradise and I seized it," adding that she was more interested in creating art than getting married just because it was expected.

Today, McCarthy is living a quiet life and spends most of her time at Fool's Paradise surrounded by family and close friends. She's excited about the exhibition and even told Campbell that she still has a painting or two left in her yet.

Roughing it in the Bush is on display from June 19 to July 24, at the Doris McCarthy Gallery on the University of Toronto Scarborough campus, 1265 Military Trail. Opening reception is June 19, Noon to 4 p.m.

Admission is free.