Dorothy Knowles' prairie landscapes at McMichael Collection

Paintings by one of Canada's top landscape artists bring a fresh prairie breeze to the GTA this summer.  Dorothy Knowles: Land Marks opened at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario, on May 22 and will be there until September 12, 2010.

The retrospective offers an overview of Knowles' six-decade career and body of work that celebrates the rich natural expanses of the artist's home province.

Born in Unity, Saskatchewan, in 1927, Dorothy Knowles grew up on a farm overlooking a sweeping prairie valley.  A summer art class run by the University of Saskatchewan at Emma Lake in 1948 sparked a passion for painting that she pursued at night and summer school in Saskatoon, Emma Lake and London, England.

A turning point in her career came at an Emma Lake Artists Workshop in 1962 when American critic Clement Greenberg urged her to continue painting from nature, a radical departure from her contemporaries' preoccupation with abstraction and abstract expressionism.

Working with a variety of materials over the years, Knowles' remarkable canvases have transported Saskatchewan's magnificent landscape across Canada to some of the country's finest museums and galleries.

Dorothy Knowles was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 1987 and the Order of Canada in 2004.  She and her husband, artist William Perehudoff, live in Saskatoon where they are represented by The Gallery/Art Placement Inc.

In conjunction with the McMichael exhibition, another show entitled Dorothy Knowles: A Survey of Work from 1960 - Present will be on display at Miriam Shiell Fine Art in Yorkville from June 5 to 19, 2010, with the artist present on June 5 between 2 and 4 p.m.

Located just minutes north of Toronto in the village of Kleinburg, the McMichael Art Gallery Collection offers visitors the unique opportunity to enjoy Canadian art in a woodland setting.  The Gallery's permanent collection consists of nearly 6,000 artworks by Tom Thomson, Group of Seven, First Nations, Inuit and other artists who have contributed to Canada’s artistic heritage.  The gallery is accessible by car, public transit and taxi with detailed directions available on their website.