Unity Bainbridge was born in Victoria, British Columbia.[1] She was also known as Unity Bainbridge Brewster.[2] Her parents were George P. and Deborah Bainbridge. Unity was the eldest of three sisters; her two younger sisters were Ursula Ridgeway and Monica Resnick. She had one daughter, Deborah Ryan.[3] Her niece is Lynn Johnston the comic artist of For Better or For Worse[4]
Bainbridge married in 1946, moved to San Francisco, CA for five years, then moved back to British Columbia.[5] She was a long-time resident of West Vancouver, British Columbia. She died there on November 30, 2017, at the age of 101.[3]
After returning from Seattle, Bainbridge made her living as a portrait painter in Vancouver. She felt strongly that portraits should be painted from the source, not from a photograph. This led her to eventually start traveling around British Columbia painting portraits of people during the summers and then returning to Vancouver in the fall. She was especially drawn to paint portraits of the native community of northern B.C.[8]
In the early 1930s, Bainbridge trekked through a vast area of British Columbia's remote wilderness. She preferred to work alone and shunned most art groups. She was invited to join the Canadian Portrait Academy as a Founding Academician but declined this offer.[why?][citation needed]
In 1976-77 she compiled her research and images from repeated trips to communities between Pemberton and Lillooet. The works comprise Songs of Seton and Lullaby of Lillooet, two small books Bainbridge published in limited editions."[6]
The Madonna of the Weeping Willow Tree and Other Moods (date unknown)[10]
Group exhibition catalogueedit
Seymour Art Gallery: A North Shore Beginning (1990)
Referencesedit
^Carolan, Trevor (June 25, 2007). "A Portrait of North Shore Painter Unity Bainbridge". Vancouver Art Scene. Retrieved March 4, 2016.
^"Unity Bainbridge BREWSTER Obituary". The Vancouver Sun. December 9, 2017. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
^ abcde"Unity Bainbridge In Memoriam". Emily Carr University of Art + Design. December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
^Wiersema, Robert J. (August 22, 2015). "Retrospective goes behind the funny pages". The Vancouver Sun.
^Bengtson, Ben (December 15, 2017). "Artist leaves legacy of painting from real life". North Shore News. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
^ abcdClark, Michael (1996). "Unity Bainbridge: Vancouver Artist". Visions in the Making. 2 (2). Vancouver, British Columbia: Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design: 7.
^Mentors in our Midst: Leading Ladies of the North Shore. West Vancouver, B.C.: West Vancouver Community Arts Council. 2004. p. 24. ISBN 0-9734542-0-2.
^Mentors in our Midst: Leading Ladies of the North Shore. West Vancouver, B.C.: West Vancouver Community Arts Council. 2004. pp. 24–25. ISBN 0-9734542-0-2.
^ abcJacob, Evelyn (November 25, 1992). "The right stuff: WV painter Unity Bainbridge". NOW Weekly Dining and Entertainment Section. North Shore News. North Vancouver, British Columbia. pp. 25, 35, 48.
^ abMentors in our Midst: Leading Ladies of the North Shore. West Vancouver, B.C.: West Vancouver Community Arts Council. 2004. p. 23. ISBN 0-9734542-0-2.
^ abcSeymour Art Gallery: A North Shore Beginning. North Vancouver, British Columbia: Seymour Art Gallery. 1990. p. 23.
^"Straight Choices". Georgia Straight. Vancouver, B.C. September 2, 1999. p. 6.
^"Beauty is all there is: Unity Bainbridge - A Retrospective". gallerieswest. Retrieved December 26, 2017.
^"Rapture, Rhythm and the Tree of Life: Emily Carr and Her Female Contemporaries". Vancouver Art Gallery. 2019-11-07. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
^Province of British Columbia (1993). "O.B.C. Biography - Unity Bainbridge". protocol.gov.bc.ca.
External linksedit
Portraits of the graduating class, drawn by E.J Hughes, including Unity Bainbridge, for the 1936 issue of Behind the Palette, an annual of the Vancouver School of Art Retrieved March 8, 2019.