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Fine
Arts, UBC Library
A Tribute to the flying
landscape painter, Toni Onley (1928-2004)
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The renowned British Columbia artist survived a plane
crash twenty years ago but not again on Sunday, February 29, 2004 when
his plane crashed into the Fraser River.
The
Vancouver Sun, March 3, 2004
Toni
Onley's work "reveals a fascination with how it plays
upon mountain and escarpment, spills across the sky or is
reflected from the sea, snowfields and glacial ice that comprise
the elements of this vast and humbling country."
"When
he captured it, his paintings became luminous expressions of
an eternal Canada at its most ephemeral. His watercolours are masterpieces
of nuance, studies of what happens on the distant boundaries
of the world -- horizon and skyline, beach and tidemark. All are
suffused with the subtlety and sudden transformations that define
our landscapes in their passing splendour."
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A Brief
Biography |
| 1928... |
born Nov. 20, Isle of Man. . . . . . . studied under local landscape water-colourist John Nicholson at Douglas School of Fine Arts. |
| 1948... |
immigrated to Canada; studied with Carl Schaeffer. |
| 1957... |
studied for a year at the Instituto Allende at San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. |
| 1958... |
first one-man exhibition (Vancouver Art Gallery). |
| 1961... |
awarded Canada Council grant to attend EMMA LAKE ARTISTS' WORKSHOP (1962), led by New York critic, Clement Greenberg. |
| 1963... |
2nd. Canada Council grant, studied British watercolour tradition in UK.
1964 . . returned to Vancouver, Canada. |
| 1966... |
learned to fly and purchased a float plane. |
| 1967... |
joined University of British Columbia Department of Fine Arts. |
1990...
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received the Order of Canada. |
| 2002... |
honoured by Isle of Man Post Office; 5 commemorative stamps issued |
| 2004... |
died in a plane crash February 29. |
A
Selection of Print Resources Available through the UBC Library
Boulet,
Roger and Toni Onley. Toni
Onley: a silent thunder.
Burnaby
Art Gallery. Mystic
circle.
Canadian
Society of Painters in Watercolour. Annual
exhibition of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour.
Dorothy
Cameron Gallery. Canadian
printmaking today.
Peloquin,
Claude. Bahamas
in the arctic (paintings by Toni Onley).
Mendel
Art Gallery. Flat
side of the landscape; the Emma Lake Artists' workshops.
Murray,
Robert and Toni Onley. Watercolors
by Robert Murray and Toni Onley.
Museum
of Modern Art. Fifteen
Canadian artists.
Onley,
Toni. Onley's
Arctic: diaries and paintings of the high Arctic.
Onley,
Toni. Toni
Onley: major works from the sixties.
Onley,
Toni. Toni
Onley: 10 years of painting, 1962-1972.
Onley,
Toni. Toni
Onley's British Columbia: a tribute.
Onley,
Toni and Gregory Strong. Flying
colours: the Toni Onley story.
Onley,
Toni and Memorial University of Newfoundland. Toni
Onley: [traveling exhibition].
Onley,
Toni and Vancouver Art Gallery. Toni
Onley: a retrospective exhibition.
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| A
Select List from over 100 Individual & Group Exhibitions |
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| 1964 |
New Design Gallery |
Vancouver, BC |
| 1965 |
Commonwealth
Institute |
London,
England |
| 1967 |
Memorial
University |
St.
John's, NFLD |
| 1971 |
Alberta
College of Art |
Edmonton,
AB |
| 1972 |
Bau-Xi
Gallery |
Vancouver,
BC |
| 1974 |
Bau-Xi
Gallery |
Vancouver,
BC |
| 1977 |
North
Shore Art Gallery |
North
Van., BC |
| 1977 |
Mira
Godard Gallery |
Toronto,
ON |
| 1978 |
Roberston
Galleries |
Ottawa,
ON |
| 1978 |
Vancouver
Art Gallery |
Vancouver,
BC |
| 1978 |
Memorial
University |
St.
John's, NFLD |
| 1980 |
Robertson
Galleries |
Ottawa,
ON |
| 1981 |
Kenneth
G. Heffel Fine Art |
Vancouver,
BC |
| 1982 |
Kenneth
G. Heffel Fine Art |
Vancouver,
BC |
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Biographical sources
Boulet,
R. Canadian Encyclopedia. Historical Foundation of Canada.
2002.
Gold, K. Vancouver Courier. Oct. 12, 1994, p.11.
Gold, K. Vancouver Sun. May 6, 2002, Front.
Kitchener Waterloo Record. May 2, 2004, Front.
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Additional
resources
Fine Arts, UBC Library
Vertical Files
filed under: Onley, Toni
UBC Library Special Collections
The Toni Onley fonds (1962-1990) contains
3.6m of textual records and 2,716 photographs.
Toni Onley website |
Special
thanks to
Harbour Publishing
for permission to use the image of
Toni Onley and the jacket cover of
Flying Colours: the Toni Onley story AND
Raincoast Books
for the cover image of
Toni Onley's British Columbia: a tribute. |
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Last modified: Feb 23, 2006
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© The University of British Columbia
Library, 2002