Verna Viola Depew (1984 - 1992)
About the Artist:
Verna Depew was born in Stoney Creek, Ontario. Like most small children she liked to draw but she said that it was Julian R. Seavey, art instructor at the Hamilton Normal School, who gave her a love for art. Depew studied water colours and oils with Seavey from 1914 to 1922. Since it was her intention to become an art teacher, she also attended summer school at the Ontario College of Art and studied under G.A. Reid, Arthur Lismer, and other artists of the day. In 1923, she went to the Cleveland School of art to study under F. Wilcox. For many years Depew was mainly interested in painting landscapes and floral studies in oils or water colours "but her national reputation derives almost exclusively from the work she has done in colour linocuts". Depew grew to prefer this medium after viewing several pieces of of Leonard Hutchinson's work at the Canadian National Exhibition. When she discovered that he lived in Hamilton and gave private lessons she became a student of his from 1932 to 1940.
Depew produced only 22 colour linocuts during her career. As a full time art teacher with the Hamilton Board of Education and then as Supervisor of Art for Hamilton Elementary Schools from1946 until 1955 when she retired, Depew was a very busy woman, often working late into the night on her own art. Summers were spent teaching block printing to art teachers for the Ontario Department of Education and at the Ontario College of Art. After retirement her creative output was eventually reduced by arthritis and a serious heart condition.
Stuart MacCuaig
Climbing the Cold White Peaks: A survey of artists in and from Hamilton 1910 -1950
About the Painting:
woodblock
Old Church, Stoney Creek, was Depew's first exhibition piece, shown in 1935 at the annual exhibition of the Canadian Society of Graphic Art.
In the colour block process used by Depew, linoleum was glued to a sheet of masonite to create a block, with separate blocks being created for each colour.The 'pressing' of the inked blocks in sequence against fine, hand-made paper created a colourful detailed print when a flawless technique was employed.
Stuart MacCuaig
Climbing the Cold White Peaks: A survey of artists in and from Hamilton 1910 -1950
