Woodlands style, also called the Woodlands school, Legend painting, Medicine painting, [1] and Anishnabe painting, is a genre of painting among First Nations and Native American artists from the Great Lakes area, including northern Ontario and southwestern Manitoba. The majority of the Woodlands artists are Anishinaabeg, notably the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi, as well as the Oji-Cree and the Cree.
The style was founded by Norval Morrisseau (Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabe, 1932–2007), a First Nations Ojibwe artist from Northern Ontario, Canada. [2] He learned Ojibwe history and culture primarily from his grandfather Moses "Potan" Nanakonagos and in the 1950s collected oral history of his community. Their history and cosmology provided inspiration and subject matter for his paintings. He also drew upon his personal dreams and visions. [1] Morrisseau said, "All my painting and drawing is really a continuation of the shaman's scrolls." [3] and the Eckankar religion. [4] Ojibwe intaglio, pictographs, petrographs, and birch bark scrolls ( wiigwaasabak ), were stylistic antecedents of the Woodlands style.
This visionary style emphasizes outlines and X-ray views of people, animals, plants, and spiritual beings. [1] Colours are vivid, even garish. While Morrisseau initially painted on birch bark, he mostly switched to Western art materials, such as acrylic, gouache, or watercolor paints on paper, wood panels, or canvas.
Norval Morrisseau, also known as Copper Thunderbird, was an Indigenous Canadian artist from the Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek First Nation. He is widely regarded as the grandfather of contemporary Indigenous art in Canada. Known as the "Picasso of the North," Morrisseau created works depicting the legends of his people, the cultural and political tensions between native Canadian and European traditions, his existential struggles, and his deep spirituality and mysticism. His style is characterized by thick black outlines and bright colors. He founded the Woodlands School of Canadian art and was a prominent member of the “Indian Group of Seven."
The Odawa are an Indigenous American people who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Their territory long preceded the creation of the current border between the two countries in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Anishinaabe are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potawatomi, Mississaugas, Nipissing, and Algonquin peoples. The Anishinaabe speak Anishinaabemowin, or Anishinaabe languages that belong to the Algonquian language family.
Selwyn Hanington Dewdney was a Canadian writer, illustrator, artist, activist and pioneer in both art therapy and pictography.
The Severn Ojibwa or the Oji-Cree language is the indigenous name for a dialect of the Ojibwe language spoken in a series of Oji-Cree communities in northern Ontario and at Island Lake, Manitoba, Canada. Ojibwa is a member of the Algonquian language family, itself a member of the Algic language family.
An underwater panther, called Mishipeshu or Mishibijiw in Ojibwe, is one of the most important of several mythical water beings among many Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands and Great Lakes region, particularly among the Anishinaabe.
Sandy Lake First Nation is an independent Oji-Cree First Nations band government. The First Nations community, in the west part of Northern Ontario, is located in the Kenora District, 227 km (141 mi) northeast of Red Lake, Ontario. Its registered population in June 2007 was 2,474. As of December 2015 the total registered population reached 3,034. Sandy Lake First Nation maintains an affiliation with Nishnawbe Aski Nation, as a signatory to the Treaty 5.
The Central Algonquian languages are commonly grouped together as a subgroup of the larger Algonquian family, itself a member of the Algic family. Though the grouping is often encountered in the literature, it is an areal grouping, not a genetic grouping. In other words, the languages are grouped together because they were spoken near one another, not because they are more closely related to one another than to other Algonquian languages. Within the Algonquian family, only Eastern Algonquian is a valid genealogical group.
Jackson Beardy was an Indigenous Oji-Cree Anishinaabe artist born in Canada. His works are characterized by scenes from Ojibwe and Cree oral history and many focus on the relationship between humans and nature. He belonged to the Woodland School of Art and was a prominent member of the Indian Group of Seven. His work has contributed to the recognition of Indigenous contemporary art within Canada.
The Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporation (PNIAI) was a group of First Nations artists from Canada, with one from the United States. Founded in November 1973, they were Indigenous painters who exhibited in the mainstream art world.
Eddy Cobiness, was a Canadian artist. He was an Ojibwe-Native Canadian and his art work is characterized by scenes from the life outdoors and nature. He began with realistic scenes and then evolved into more abstract work. He belonged to the "Woodland School of Art" and was a prominent member of the "Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporation", better known as the "Indian Group of Seven". He was a graphic designer who began drawing pictures of birds in sand, snow or on cardboard, in his childhood. In the 1950s, during his military service years, he discovered working in watercolour. He studied colour and composition. In the 1960s his ink and watercolour drawings were commercially successful, and he began his art career. For Cobiness, the life outdoors and nature always was subject of his works. He began with realistic scenes and then evolve into more abstract work, influenced by his art colleague at the time, painter Benjamin Chee Chee. He further developed his work unimpeded and worked with several styles, using many media. It would bring him international recognition. It is known that Queen Elizabeth II has work of Cobiness in her collection. Cobiness died in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on January 1, 1996, of complications from diabetes.
Triple K Co-operative Incorporated is a Canadian Native-run silk-screen company in Red Lake, Ontario that produced high quality limited editions of several artist within the Woodland School of Art from 1973 till the early 1980s. Now it is an online and bricks-and-mortar gallery in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
The Bingwi Neyaashi Anishinaabek is an Ojibwe First Nation Band government in Northwestern Ontario, Canada.
Shirley Cheechoo is a Canadian Cree actress, writer, producer, director, and visual artist, best known for her solo-voice or monodrama play Path With No Moccasins, as well as her work with De-Ba-Jeh-Mu-Jig theatre group. Her first break came in 1985 when she was cast on the CBC's first nations TV series Spirit Bay, and later, in 1997, she found a role on the CBC's TV series The Rez.
Kelly Jean Church is a black ash basket maker, Woodlands style painter, birchbark biter, and educator.
Carl Ray was a First Nations artist who was active on the Canadian art scene from 1969 until his death in 1978. Considered primarily a Woodlands Style artist. He was a founding member of the Indian Group of Seven. He began painting when he was 30 years old.
Daphne Odjig,, was a Canadian First Nations artist of Odawa-Potawatomi-English heritage. Her paintings are often characterized as Woodlands Style or as the pictographic style.
Blake Debassige was a Native Canadian artist of the M'Chigeeng First Nation, born at West Bay on Manitoulin Island in Ontario on June 22, 1956, passed June 13, 2022. A leading member of the "second generation" of Ojibwa artists influenced by Norval Morrisseau, Debassige has broadened the stylistic and thematic range of this group. Debassige's paintings and graphics frequently investigate traditional Anishabek teachings about the nature of cosmic order, the cycles of the seasons, the interdependence of animal, plant and human life and the common principles at work in the world's great spiritual systems. He frequently relates these themes to highly contemporary problems such as the destruction of the environment, the alienation of native youth and family dysfunction.
