Robert Newton Hurley

Last updated

Robert Newton Hurley
Born1894 (1894)
London, England
Died1980(1980-00-00) (aged 85–86)
Known forartist

Robert Newton Hurley (1894, London, England - 1980, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada), who was also known as R.N. Hurley, was an English-born painter who, after immigrating to Canada in 1923, became known for his watercolor paintings of the Saskatchewan landscape and sky. [1]

Career

Hurley had little formal training as a painter. As a teenager, he worked multiple jobs in England, including as a form-laborer and an apprentice printer-compositor. [2] He later served during World War I in the Suffolk Regiment before moving to Canada. In Canada, he worked on the Canadian Pacific Railway [1] and as an itinerant laborer before settling down in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

During the Great Depression, Hurley began to use his extra time to paint, focusing on the prairie landscapes, skies, and grain elevators near Saskatoon. Hurley came to the attention of Ernest Lindner when he took several night classes from Lindner at the Saskatoon Technical Collegiate Institute. [1] From 1942-1958, Hurley worked for the University of Saskatchewan and continued painting. [2]

In 1958, Hurley was given an artist's grant from the Government of Saskatchewan that allowed him to paint full time. In his later life, he and his wife moved to Victoris, British Columbia, where he died in 1980. [2]

Hurley has often been called Saskatchewan's "Sky Painter" [3] for his "effective use of watercolour to illuminate the prairie sky." [1] Artists and curators say he was important for the colour-field painters that followed him. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Perehudoff</span> Canadian artist

William Perehudoff was a Canadian artist closely associated with colour field painting. He was married to the landscape painter Dorothy Knowles.

Mashel Teitelbaum (1921–1985) was a Canadian painter, born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1921. He was the father of museum director Matthew Teitelbaum.

Lyell Gustin was a pianist, teacher and adjudicator active in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, from 1920 to the mid-1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Eyre</span> Canadian artist (1935–2022)

Ivan Kenneth Eyre was a Canadian artist best known for his prairie landscapes and compositionally abstract, figurative paintings. In addition, Eyre was a Professor Emeritus of painting and drawing at the University of Manitoba where he taught for 33 years, from 1959 until his retirement in 1992. He has been described as a "visual philosopher" and "a true outsider and visionary".

Augustus Frederick Lafosse (Gus) Kenderdine (1870–1947) was a landscape and portrait artist of Lancashire and Saskatchewan, a farmer of Saskatchewan, and academic at the University of Saskatchewan.

Arthur Fortescue McKay, best known as Art McKay L.L. D. was a painter and a member of the Regina Five. Most of his work is abstract.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Lindner</span>

Ernst Friedrich Lindner LL. D. was an Austrian-born Canadian painter. He moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, in 1926, where became a self-taught commercial artist. He soon was recognized locally and then nationally and was active in several art organizations. He is known for his meticulous watercolors of natural woodlands depicting the cycle of decay and regeneration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saskatoon Technical Collegiate</span> Vocational secondary school in Canada

Saskatoon Technical Collegiate Institute was a vocational secondary school in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Bonli</span>

Henry Thomas Bonli was a Canadian painter and interior designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wynona Mulcaster</span>

Wynona Croft Mulcaster was a Canadian painter and teacher from Saskatchewan, best known for her prairie landscapes. She also played an important role in developing competitive riding in Saskatoon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reta Cowley</span> Canadian painter

Reta Cowley was a Canadian painter. She is known for her watercolors of the prairie country around Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which capture the unique qualities of space and light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Illingworth Kerr</span> Canadian painter, illustrator and writer

Illingworth "Buck" Kerr was a Canadian painter, illustrator and writer. He is best known for his landscape paintings of the Saskatchewan and Alberta prairies and foothills.

Otto Donald Rogers was a Canadian painter and sculptor from rural Saskatchewan whose abstract works reflects his belief as a member of the Baháʼí Faith in unity in diversity. His work has been widely exhibited. It is held in many private and public collections in Canada and other countries.

Ann Harbuz (Napastiuk) was a Canadian artist. A self-taught artist, she is known for folk art painting depicting 20th-century Canadian Ukrainian prairie perspectives. She drew inspiration from her rural and Ukrainian origins in Western Canada, reflecting her very personal vision of the social life of her community, a vision which is a combination of memories, dreams and reality. While her art career began late in life, she produced more than 1000 paintings and painted objects.

Sybil Henley Jacobson, was a Canadian painter. Her oil and watercolor paintings of prairie landscapes, portraits, and still life are in a traditional style. Her work is largely found in private collections, but is also found the major collections at Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Moose Jaw Art Museum and National Exhibition Centre, and Nutana Collegiate. In 1929 she was one of ten founding members of the Women's Art Association of Saskatchewan.

Terry Fenton is a Canadian artist, author, critic, and curator known for his landscape paintings, his support of modernist art, and his writing on the work of artists such as Jack Bush, Anthony Caro, Peter Hide, Dorothy Knowles, Ken Macklin, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, and William Perehudoff. Fenton is the former director of the Edmonton Art Gallery, the A.C. Leighton Foundation, Calgary and the Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon. Since 2013, Fenton has resided in Victoria, British Columbia.

Stanley Ernest Brunst was a Canadian painter, best known for his early abstractions.

David T. Alexander is a Canadian painter, known for breathing new life into the landscape tradition of Canada as well as for working in a serious and ambitious manner to reinvigorate the contemporary practice of landscape painting.

Douglas Bentham has been since the late 1960s, acknowledged as one of Canada's pre-eminent producer of large-scale welded steel sculpture.

Clara Hume was a Canadian painter. Her work is largely focused on landscapes and still lifes. Her paintings have been exhibited in Saskatchewan and Manitoba as part of group and solo exhibitions. She was particularly noted for her detailed acrylic paintings of prairie wildflowers and grasses, and prairie landscapes.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Stewart, Iain. "Entries". esask.uregina.ca. Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan. Retrieved 27 January 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 R.N. Hurley Collection (University of Saskatchewan, University Archives and Special Collections)
  3. Sky painter : the story of Robert Newton Hurley / by Jean Swanson, Saskatoon, Sask. : Western Producer, 1973
  4. Bovey, Patricia E. (2023). Western Voices in Canadian Art. Winnipeg: U of Manitoba Press. p. 175. Retrieved 27 January 2024.