It has been easy to be a classical artist. Today it is immensely difficult. And immensely necessary. John Berger, Permanent Red
By 1936, my parents, Ken Phillips and Marie Cecilia Guard, had every reason to look forward to a brilliant future. Although they were only twenty-eight, they were exhibiting regularly in the prestigious O.S.A. (Ontario Society of Artists) and R.C.A. (Royal Canadian Academy) shows. Indeed, Marie’s powerful, full-length female nudes had been given pride-of-place in these shows. One of her paintings had traveled across Canada, and one of Ken’s wood engravings had been acquired by the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario)]. Very much in love with each other and with art, they were at the beginning of a lifelong adventure together, a quest to convey in pictures the spirit which lay deep within all things.
Guard and Phillips were fortunate to have studied with distinguished teachers Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, Emanuel Hahn and J.W. Beatty and to have lived their youth in the atmosphere of a flourishing, glamorous Toronto. The young artists’ pictures reflect the radiant sense of possibility and promise which was typical of the best of those times.
Unfortunately, many factors forced my parents to a painful choice. As they were for most Canadian artists, the thirties and forties were a challenging period, fraught with financial disappointment and rapid change in public taste. The war isolated them from mentors and associates; a disinclination and inability to play political games increasingly distanced them from success. Poor health and the lack of money eroded the time they could devote to their lifework. By the fifties, Guard and Phillips felt forced to choose to give up marketing their art in order to have the time to go on creating it. Over six decades their works evolved, but in later years, with a few significant exceptions, their art was largely unseen.
I have a beautiful painting by Marie Cecilia Guard and it is one of my favourite paintings that I own. I saw it as a teenager and didn’t have enough money to buy it but it was still available years later and I was thrilled to find it again and buy it.
Sarah, my mother, Marie Cecilia Guard who have been absolutely delighted. What a heartwarming story. Any chance you’d have a picture of your new painting?
I’m sorry I just saw this now, I will email you the photo now. Thank you
Thank you, Sarah. My mother was particularly proud of the later pictures of which this is one. She would have been happy to hear your story. In my parents’ last years they went to England and Europe to sketch. The trips were challenging for my parents, particularly my mother, who was crippled with serious arthritis, but nevertheless she poured her joy in life and beauty into her paintings. All the best, Peri.