Art Fx #3: "Helve Lake #9" by Pat Fairhead

“Helve Lake #9” by Pat Fairhead – Watercolour, 11 x 13 inches

“Helve Lake #9 is one of a series of watercolour paintings inspired by the several summers l spent on that lake in Limberlost Forest. It’s the rich forest, isolation and quiet of the lake that I love. I can slip around the shore in a canoe, sketch and swim.”

About the artist:

Pat Fairhead, M.A., M.Ed., R.C.A., O.S.A.,C.S.P.W.C, came to Canada from England when she was 10 years old. She fell in love with Muskoka which sparked a life-long love affair with the wilderness. Pat was educated at the Ontario College of Art, now OCADU.

Inspiration for her work has lured her to the Arctic nine times. She has paddled up the west coast of British Columbia and a section of the Amazon River. She has hiked the outback of Australia, explored South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, sailed down the Nile and toured around Europe, with many trips to England. She has travelled Canada East to West and back.

During her career Pat has had 70 solo shows nationally and internationally. Her work can be found in the Royal Collection of Prints and Drawings at Windsor Castle, England, and is represented in at least 200 corporate collections, government buildings and universities.

Pat’s first recognition came at age 16 with a proficiency prize from the Ontario College of Art. She was elected to the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1966, and the Ontario Society of Artists in 1986. She has been a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art since 1993, and was awarded the A.J. Casson Medal for Excellence in Watercolour in 2011. Her work can be seen today at the Britton Gallery in Bracebridge, Harbour Gallery in Mississauga, and Collectors Gallery in Calgary.

Pat now lives and paint in her studio in Muskoka, right where she started out.