Lot 4: Edward John (E.J.) Hughes 1913 - 2007 Canadian

Edward John (E.J.) Hughes 1913 - 2007 Canadian watercolour on paper Above Okanagan Lake, Penticton 12 x 16 inches 30.5 x 40.6 centimeters signed and dated 1960 and on verso titled on the Dominion Gallery label Literature:Leslie Allan and Patricia Salmon, E.J. Hughes: The Vast and Beautiful Interior, Kamloops Art Gallery, 1994, the 1958 graphite drawing entitled Above Okanagan Lake reproduced page 50 and the 1960 canvas entitled Above Okanagan Lake reproduced page 53 Ian M. Thom, E.J. Hughes, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2002, the 1960 canvas entitled Above Okanagan Lake reproduced page 154 Jacques Barbeau, The E.J. Hughes Album, The Paintings Volume I, 1932 - 1991, 2011, the 1960 canvas entitled Above Okanagan Lake reproduced page 31 Provenance:Dominion Gallery, Montreal Private Collection, Vancouver In 1958 E.J. Hughes was awarded a Canada Council fellowship to sketch around British Columbia, and he traveled to the Interior where he executed the pencil sketch that this beautiful watercolour and an outstandin 1960 canvas were based on. Hughes's style - which had evolved through his coastal subjects - was fully developed, and the same essential elements can be seen in the Interior works: his attraction to a stunning panoramic view, his sensitivity to the unique elements of the landscape and a heightened awareness of colour. Here he focuses on such striking elements as the Ponderosa pine, the deep blue of Okanagan Lake and the unique clay cliffs above its shores. His attention to detail is manifest in his depiction of the short bunchy grasses in the foreground and the sage and other vegetation growing on the slopes above the lake. In Above Okanagan Lake, Penticton, Hughes adeptly captures not only the physical uniqueness of the area, but also the light-drenched and dreamy atmosphere of the Mediterranean-like Okanagan Valley.