57/150 – Pegi Nicol MacLeod

Such a different approach than her contemporaries in the Group of Seven. Pegi Nicol MacLeod (1904, Listowel, Ontario – 1949, New York) was primarily based in Ottawa until her marriage. She sometimes sketched with Arthur Lismer at the home of Eric Brown (Director of the National Gallery of Canada through 1939).

Nicol MacLeod trained often and traveled frequently, took many different jobs and rapidly developed her own style. She called it “kaleidoscope vision,” with intense color, rapid movement, and lyrical lines.

Nicol Mcleod intersected with other Group of Seven artists and their associates, including Emily Carr, one of many who influenced her style. The paintings above, for example, came from a trip to British Columbia in 1927 and 1928 to record scenes of indigenous life on the west coast for anthropologist Marius Barbeau.

Among her placements, Nicol MacLeod worked for a time on window displays for the T. Eaton Co. under influential interior decorator and designer René Cera, producing as a result her famous oil work, A Descent of Lillies, in 1935 (above, National Gallery of Canada).

Married to Norman MacLeod and moved to New York City in 1936, she painted and sketched New York scenes (above: United Nations General Assembly), and travelled to his hometown of Fredericton, NB in summer, teaching sessional university art courses.

During the Second World War, she was commissioned to paint the women’s division of the Canadian Armed Forces, producing everyday scenes such as beauty salons and uniforms and more extensive, artistic interpretations (Salmon in the Gallery, below)

More of her Armed Forces art, New York scenes and Canadian paintings on this superb, short overview of her work on YouTube.

Pegi Nicol MacLeod died of cancer in New York City in 1949, leaving a legacy of more than a thousand works of art.

At the National Gallery of Canada, here.

At the War Museum of Canada, here.

A more detailed bio, part of Ottawa Art & Artists at Art Canada Institute, here.

This is #57 in the series 150 Artists, an ongoing series on Canadian artists you should know.