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DONALD FLATHER - 1903-1990 FCA original member
Dr. Flather was a
highly talented man who combined his love of the
outdoors with his love of art to produce many wonderful
works. Over his lifetime, he produced in excess
of 400 paintings, which extensively covered Canadian
landscapes from coast to coast, as well as plants
and animals. Although a teacher by vocation, he
dedicated a great deal of his life (circa 1919-1990)
to his painting and developed his own unique style
which combines elements of French Impressionism
and the Group of Seven.
Dr. Flather was a
colleague of Lawren Harris, founder of the Group
of Seven and the two men worked together for several
years on the executive of the Federation of Canadian
Artists (click here to go to their site), of which
Dr. Flather was an original and founding member.
From 1938, Dr. Flather exhibited many times with
the B.C.Federation of Artists (of which he was Secretary
of in the 40's and 50's) in Vancouver, and even
displayed paintings at The Art Gallery of Toronto
(March, 1950). Following this, he also acted as
National Treasurer of The Federation of Canadian
Artists. He was a very modest man, and did not devote
much time or effort to showing his art, rather he
preferred to circulate it amongst friends and Family.
After growing up in
the Shuswap Lake region, Donald M. Flather came
to Vancouver in his twenties, at which time he began
to paint more in his free time. He graduated from
U.B.C. with his B.A. and M.A.. He took teacher training
and began teaching at Templeton, and taught at Britannia
and King George High Schools. At King George he
was Vice Principal, and he organized the Vancouver
Night School for several years at King Edward Campus.
Dr. Flather's Ph.D. in Education was conferred at
the University of Washington in 1950. He and his
lovely wife Grace raised a family of three boys,
Elwood, Barrie and Verne- all of whom went on to
become medical doctors, raising families of their
own.
Dr. Flather's works
show a wonderful combining of his roles of teacher,
botanist, biologist, scientist and painter, and
successfully integrate his knowledge with his art.
One of his greatest wishes was that others be able
to view and enjoy through his paintings the world
as he saw it- full of beauty. His paintings are
now widely held in collections in Canada, Asia,
Indonesia, the USA and Britain.
Visit Donald's
own web site at http://www.donaldflather.com
to view over 300 of his beautiful Canadian landscape
paintings and abstract paintings.

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