Carl

Carl
Portrait of a Painter from Letters & Reminiscences

George Johnston
Featuring Carl Schaefer

8 X 10 inches, 144 pages
contains reproductions of his drawings from his letters

THIS BOOK GIVES A LIVELY PICTURE of Carl Schaefer, an important Canadian painter, largely in his own words. The excerpts from his letters are full of personal interest and tell much about his attitude to his vocation, his methods and his opinions of the world and art. The book also includes reproductions of a number of drawings from the letters and photographs.

George Johnston, a recipient of the Governor General's Award, writes in a style that combines wit with clarity, delight with skill. This book is no exception. It leads us to a 'human' understanding of how a major Canadian painter gets through life as a full-time professional artist. In this perceptive study of Carl Schaefer, Johnston himself becomes the artist, painting word pictures that reveal both the intensity and the simplicity of his observations.

George Johnston

Author

George Johnston was born in Hamilton, Ontario on October 7, 1913. He graduated from the University of Toronto (Victoria College) in 1936 with a B.A. in Philosophy and English. He served for four and a half years with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, as a general reconnaissance pilot in West Africa and as an instructor in the United Kingdom and Canada. In 1944 he married Jeanne McRae and in 1945 he graduated M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Toronto. He taught English and Old-Norse language and literature at Mount Allison University from 1947 to 1949 and then at Carleton University from 1950 to 1979, continuing on as Professor Emeritus.

To celebrate George's 85th birthday (October 7, 1998), Penumbra Press assembled the festschrift, The Old Enchanter (1999), in which over two dozen writers give testament to the quiet charisma and quick charm of the man—poet, translator, teacher, colleague, and friend.

A Party For a Poet, Winter 2000, Carleton U.

Carl Schaefer

(1903-1995)

Artist, Featured

Carl Schaefer was a distinguished Canadian painter and graphic artist. He studied first under members of the Group of Seven and exhibited with them, and he was a founding member of the Canadian Group of Painters, which succeeded the Group of Seven after its dissolution. He exhibited widely in Canada, the United States, Great Britain and Europe, receiving a long list of honours.

He is probably best known for his paintings, in water colour and oil, of the country around Hanover, Ontario, where he was born and grew up, his water colours of Waterloo County and the Haliburton Highlands, and paintings and drawings of the country north of Toronto, painted and drawn since the War. His drawings and paintings of aircraft, personnel and aerodromes, which he did as War Records Artist with the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, now held by the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, are an important part of his work, and deserve recognition as such.

Northern Mythos Artshow ...

Hanover Drawings Artshow ...