One of Canada's most eccentric and well-known artists is being honoured with a bronze statue in a prime Victoria location near the B.C. legislature buildings.
Emily Carr's statue will overlook one of the city's most popular tourist areas, which includes the stately Fairmont Empress Hotel.
The larger-than-life statue will include two of the artist's most famous sidekicks --her pet monkey Woo sitting on her shoulders, and her mixed-breed dog Billie, standing near his master.
Carr is best known for her post-impreVssionist paintings depicting the rugged and moody West Coast rainforest and her portrayal of remote First Nations villages.
She was born in Victoria in 1871 and died in 1945.
Sculptor Barbara Paterson of Edmonton said she couldn't be more thrilled to see her work placed in such a prominent location in Victoria, where it will be officially unveiled on Wednesday.
Paterson is also known for her bronze statue depicting Canada's Famous Five women who fought to have women officially called persons and granted the right to sit in the Senate.
That bronze is located outside of the Senate on Parliament Hill in Ottawa and in Calgary and shows Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Nellie McClung celebrating their historic victory.
She started working on the Carr statue in 2001 with a series of sketches, Paterson said.
She said she was drawn to Carr because she was a strong-willed individual, a woman, and an artist working well ahead of her time.
"She was unique and a little eccentric," Paterson said as she sat on a bench near the statue while workers fixed the monument in place.
"That worked for me," she said. "Somebody who carries a monkey on her shoulder, she was really, as I say, a character."
Paterson said Carr's portrayal of the West Coast rainforest and aboriginal villages resulted in groundbreaking art that is still being appreciated and discovered.
"She was way ahead of her time in her art," said Paterson. "Her style is very unique. It's rich, it's colourful."
