Pratt, Mary 1935-

PERSONAL:

Born March 15, 1935, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada; daughter of William John (a provincial attorney general) and Katherine Eleanor West; married Christopher Pratt (an artist), September 12, 1957 (divorced, 2004); married James Rosen (a professor of fine arts, art historian, artist, and critic), 2006; children: (first marriage) John, Anne, Barbara, Edwyn. Education: Mount Allison University, Certificate of Fine Arts, 1956, B.F.A, 1961. Hobbies and other interests: International travel (especially Italy, England, and Spain), keeping her journal.

ADDRESSES:

Home—St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada; fax: 709-726-4007. Agent—Linda McKnight, Westwood Creative Artists, 94 Harbord St., Toronto, Ontario M5S 1G6, Canada. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Artist. Member, Newfoundland Task Force on Education, St. John's, 1973; representative to Canada Council, 1987-93; board member for numerous civic and cultural organizations. Guest on media programs, including Ideas, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Exhibitions: Exhibitions include shows at Vancouver, Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 1974; Canadian Embassy, Washington, DC, 1978; Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 1989; Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1995; and Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, Newfoundland, 1997; mounted touring shows, 1981, 1995, and the show "Transformations," 2005—; and a solo show, 1997.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Women's Recognition Award, Zonta Club, 1988; fellow, Ontario College of Art, 1990; Commemorative Medal for Canadian Confederation, Canadian Conference of the Arts, 1993; inducted into Hall of Honor, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, 1994; decorated companion, Order of Canada, 1997; Canada for the Arts Molson Prize, 1997; nonfiction award, Writers Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2001; honorary doctorates from Dalhousie University, 1985, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 1986, St. Thomas University, 1989, University of Toronto, 1990, Mount Allison University, 1992, University of Victoria, 1996, Mount Saint Vincent University, 1998, and University of New Brunswick, 2000.

WRITINGS:

(Coauthor) Across the Table, Prentice-Hall (New York, NY), 1985.

A Personal Calligraphy, Goose Lane Editions (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada), 2000.

Simple Bliss: The Paintings and Prints of Mary Pratt (exhibition catalog), MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada), 2004.

Contributor to Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada).

ADAPTATIONS:

The Canadian government released two postage stamps based on Pratt's paintings "Jelly Shelf" and "Iceberg in the North Atlantic."

SIDELIGHTS:

Mary Pratt is a Canadian painter and printmaker who was described by Helen Fogwill Porter in Horizons as "one of Canada's finest visual artists." In Maclean's, Brian Bergman wrote of her art, "With loving attention to the interplay of light and shadow, tint and tone, Pratt transforms … everyday objects into works of art." Her subjects include such ordinary scenes as an unmade bed, a supper table, and ingredients for meals, and touched a nerve among many observers. She told Bergman that at exhibitions of her art, "There were a lot of women who would come up to me and just burst into tears. I didn't know what to say. But I'd far rather that reaction than a good review from the art elite."

Pratt was born and raised in Fredericton, New Brunswick, the daughter of a prominent lawyer who later became attorney general of New Brunswick. She studied fine arts at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, where she met her first husband, Christopher Pratt, also an artist. They moved to Salmonier, southwest of St. John's, Newfoundland, where they had four children. Pratt's husband was already a successful artist, but her own breakthrough did not come until the late 1960s, when she exhibited what Bergman described as "a series of stunning paintings that depicted household scenes bathed in a sensual light." The marriage ended in 2004, but Pratt continues to paint from her studio in St. John's.

Porter, commenting on A Personal Calligraphy, which combines reproductions of Pratt's paintings with excerpts from the artist's daily journal, noted that "Pratt's prose, dealing as it does with the events and meditations of a lifetime, stands up well beside much of what is being published in Canada today." Porter praised Pratt's "sensuous artwork" and "intense and personal" reflections on her life, as well as her "eloquent prose." "I've always found that the real world, unadorned by humans, is a comfort," Bergman quoted Pratt as saying. "When I'm really troubled, these are the only things that give me peace."

Pratt once told CA: "When I was about ten years old, I tried to write a novel and found that I couldn't imagine people or plots. In order to fill the books I had bought in which to write my ‘novel,’ I began to keep accounts of the trivia of daily events. I discussed my classmates, usually in negative terms. I wrote a whole booklet on Rimsky-Korsakov's ‘Scheherazade’ and another on a movie starring Marlene Dietrich and Ray Milland called Golden Earrings. I realized I could say anything I liked in these little books. My parents believed everybody deserved privacy, and I trusted them not to invade mine.

"Many years later, I am still ‘telling all.’ I sit with my breakfast and my pen and my journal recording the previous day. I am, by profession, a painter. My paintings of the mundane trivia of a middle-class life have enjoyed a considerable audience. Curators have used some of the journal entries to add to catalogues and books that discuss me and my painting. In 2000, Goose Lane published a book, A Personal Calligraphy, that consists of short excerpts from my journals dating from 1964 to 2000. In this book the writing takes pride of place and the paintings, although beautifully reproduced, act as a foil for the writing. This unexpected turn of events gives me such childish pleasure that even when the rest of my world is trouble, I find myself smiling before I go to sleep at night."

Pratt later added: "In 2006 I married Professor James Rosen, and we travel often to Italy, where he once taught, and to England and Spain. As a result I have begun to keep travel journals, illustrated with drawings made en route—or in museums, art galleries, and churches. Seeing truly great art has broadened my appreciation and understanding of art. It has not, however, changed my own vision or my choice of subjects. Maybe I am more tolerant of work I previously didn't accept. I continue to write in my journal while I eat my breakfast, and I paint for five or six hours every day. Having found a life I never expected to live has been an unexpected gift. And so, despite the usual problems of advancing years, I believe Jim and I are as foolishly happy as a couple of teenagers."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Gwyn, Sandra, and Gerda Moray, A Personal Calligraphy, McGraw-Hill, Ryerson (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), 1989.

Smart, Tom, "The Art of Mary Pratt: The Substance of Light," Goose Lane Editions (Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada), 1995.

PERIODICALS

Canadian, November 29, 1975, Harry Bruce, "The Fine Art of Familiarity," p. 17.

Dalhousie Review, winter, 1988, Maurice Yacowar, "The Paintings of Mary (vs. Christopher) Pratt," p. 385.

Horizons, summer, 2001, Helen Fogwill Porter, review of A Personal Calligraphy, p. 37.

Maclean's, July 6, 1981, David Livingstone, "The Wrought Irony of the Real World," p. 54; October 9, 1995, John Demont, "Making the Mundane Sublime: A Touring Exhibition Showcases Mary Pratt's Homespun Esthetic," p. 78; December 22, 1997, Brian Bergman, "Mary Pratt," p. 58; June 1, 1998, "Won," p. 13.