Paterson Ewen

“I don’t believe too much in originality… you learn art from other art and then looking into somebody’s face or landscape is the point of departure to do your work of art.”

– Paterson Ewen, 1977

An influential artist and teacher, Paterson Ewen is best known for his paintings of such natural phenomena as celestial bodies, storms and ice floes. He experimented with numerous tools and materials, in styles and forms ranging from figurative to abstract, expressionist and monochromatic.

With an early interest in science and geology, Ewen studied Fine Arts under John Lyman at McGill University, then under Goodridge Roberts and Arthur Lismer at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts. In 1949, he met Françoise Sullivan and soon began exhibiting with Borduas and the Automatistes. He mounted his first New York exhibition in 1956.

Paterson Ewen’s work includes Moon over Tobermory, Tidal Wave and Self-portrait. Canada’s representative at the 1982 Venice Biennale, he was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art, and a recipient of the Jean A. Chalmers Award.