Violet Gillett

{{Short description|Canadian painter and educator (1898–1996)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Violet Amy Gillett | image = Violet-gillet-in-studio.jpg | imagesize = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 14 July 1898 | birth_place = Liverpool, United Kingdom | death_date = {{Death date and age|1996|01|20|1898|07|14}} | death_place = Perth-Andover, Canada | education = Ontario College of Art, Royal College of Art | field = Painter, Educator | training = | movement = | works = | patrons = | awards = Order of Canada {{small|(1976)}} | spouse = }} '''Violet Amy Gillett''' {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CM|size=100%}} (1898–1996)<ref name = Rivers >{{Cite book| isbn = 978-1-77827-880-8| last = Rivers| first = JoAnne| title = Violet A. Gillett: Painting with Words| location = Saint John, N.B.| date = 2022}}</ref>{{rp|4}}<ref name = gmobit >{{Cite news| page = D2| title = Obituary: Violet Amy Gillett, Artist influenced by Lismer| work = The Globe and Mail| location = Toronto| date = 15 February 1996}}</ref> was a Canadian artist and educator known for her encouragement of the arts in New Brunswick.<ref name="cwahi " >{{cite web |title=Gillett, Violet |url=https://cwahi.concordia.ca/sources/artists/displayArtist.php?ID_artist=173 |accessdate=10 November 2017 |website=Canadian Women Artists History Initiative}}</ref>

==Early life and education== Gillett was born in Liverpool, England in 1898.<ref name="ArchivesCANB " >{{cite web|title=Gillett, Violet Amy|url=https://search.canbarchives.ca/gillett-violet-amy-b-1898|website=ArchivesCANB|accessdate=10 November 2017}}</ref> Her parents, Walter Gillett and Ada Syson, had been married in 1893 and her sister Beatrice was born two years before Violet. Her early childhood was spent in Gloucester, England, where her father worked at the John Bellows printing company.<ref name="Rivers " />{{rp|4}}

Her family emigrated to Canada in 1908.<ref name="cwahi "/> After farming in rural Victoria County, New Brunswick for two years, they moved to the village of Andover, where Walter Gillett opened a general store in 1911.<ref name="Rivers " />{{rp|13}}

Gillett attended normal school in Fredericton and taught at a rural one-room school in Victoria County before entering the Ontario College of Art in Toronto in 1919.<ref name="Rivers " />{{rp|23}} A scholarship awarded after her first year was insufficient to cover her living expenses. On the recommendation of Arthur Lismer she was hired by the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine to make coloured drawings of pathological specimens in the university's collection. For four years she was employed full time as artist and cataloguer of specimens, while taking evening art classes at the College.<ref name="Rivers " />{{rp|29}} She also provided illustrations for publications by the medical school's faculty, including Frederick Banting and Charles Best's research on insulin.<ref name="cwahi " />

==Career==

===Saint John===

In 1926, Gillett was hired as the first Head of the Fine and Applied Arts department at the newly constructed Saint John Vocational School in Saint John, New Brunswick. In 1928 she received funding from the Board of Vocational Education to attend the Royal College of Art in London in order to improve her knowledge of commercial art.<ref name="Rivers " />{{rp|34}} She returned to Saint John Vocational School in 1930, having received her associate degree after two years instead of the usual three.<ref name="cwahi "/> She remained there until her retirement in 1948.

During her tenure at Saint John Vocational School Gillett was active in the creation of ''Maritime Art'' magazine. This publication was the first Canadian magazine with a sole focus on the visual arts. The first issue was published in 1940 under the auspices of the Maritime Art Association. Gillett and student volunteers from the Vocational School were responsible for production of the first issues.<ref name=Niergarth >{{Cite book  | publisher = McGill-Queen's University Press| isbn = 978-0-7735-3966-2| pages = 55–82| last = Niergarth| first = Kirk| title = Rethinking Professionalism: Women and Art in Canada, 1850-1970| chapter = 'What would he have us do?': Gender and the "profession" of artist in New Brunswick in the 1930s and 1940s| location = Montreal| editor1-last=Huneault |editor1-first=Kristina |editor2-last=Anderson |editor2-first=Janice | date = 2012 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4LW7y8EQQUcC&q=rethinking%20professionalism}}</ref>

Gillett participated in the formation of the Maritime Art Association.<ref name="ArchivesCANB " /> She was the secretary for nine years and succeeded Walter Abell as president in 1946.<ref name="cwahi " /> As president Gillett emphasized art as a community good, insisting on the importance of active "creation and education" over passive "appreciation".<ref name="Niergarth " />

Gillett promoted the teaching of creative art to children. In 1937, she delivered a lecture to the Maritime Art Association entitled "A Plea for the Furtherance of Art Education in the Public Schools", arguing for its importance in promoting young people's development. In the same year she also wrote a commentary to accompany ''Creative Art by Children'', a travelling exhibition from the National Gallery of Canada featuring children's works from Arthur Lismer's classes at the Art Gallery of Toronto.<ref name=brayley >{{Cite thesis | publisher = Concordia University| last = Brayley| first = Katharine R.| title = A Regional Agency: Maritime Art Association Programming from 1935 to 1945|location=Montreal, Quebec, Canada | accessdate = 26 September 2023 |degree=Masters of Arts| date = August 2010| url = https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/thesescanada/vol2/002/MR70970.PDF?oclc_number=795623976|isbn=978-0-494-70970-2}}</ref> She was invited to write a curriculum for art education in New Brunswick public schools. Written in collaboration with her fellow artist Miller Brittain and drawing on the ideas of the Austrian art educator Franz Cižek, this curriculum was adopted by the New Brunswick Department of Education in 1939.<ref name="ArchivesCANB " /><ref name="Rivers " />{{rp|44}}

===Andover=== After retiring from the Saint John Vocational School in 1948 Gillett returned to Andover, joining her recently widowed sister and parents in the family home. She and her sister opened a shop selling Gillett's paintings as well as a wide variety of craft works including hand-printed fabrics. They closed the shop in 1959.<ref name="Rivers " />{{rp|57}}

Gillett painted four murals for Trinity Anglican Church in Andover. The murals, which were unveiled in 1966, illustrate: on the southeast wall, various children's hymns; on the northeast wall, the hymn ''All Things Bright and Beautiful'', and on the other walls, "New Testament scenes set in recognizably local, New Brunswick landscapes.<ref name="Niergarth" /><ref name="Rivers " />{{rp|64}}

She wrote and illustrated two children's books; ''Where the Wild Flowers Grow'' and ''In Fields and Woods''.<ref name="cwahi"/> In the late 1960s, she wrote and illustrated monthly columns entitled "In the Country" in the ''Atlantic Advocate'' magazine.

In 1969, Gillett lost 90% of her eyesight due to macular degeneration, but continued artistic activity despite her limitations.<ref name="Rivers " />{{rp|66}} She died in January 1996.<ref name="gmobit " />

==Style and works==

'''Artistic aims'''

<blockquote>“My aims – what they are – are not perhaps high. I do not think of my art works – as it seems is the fashion nowadays – as having a socially significant message – unless [it is] in trying to tell in my work, of beauty I have felt or observed, and so to bring it to the attention of others, [so it] does good to mankind and has some social value. If what I have said in my art, or have fostered in my teaching, carries into the world a sense of greater happiness and beauty in my day, then all my aims will be gratified” - Violet Gillett.<ref name=":0 " >{{Cite web |title=Violet A. Gillett: Fine Art and Original Craft |url=https://mccainartgallery.com/exhibitions/violet-gillett/ |access-date=26 September 2023|website=Andrew and Laura McCain Art Gallery |language=en-US}}</ref> </blockquote>

'''Selected works'''

''Freedom from Want'', June 1944

This sculpture is a painted plaster that was produced in response to Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1941 Four Freedoms speech. Gillett's inspiration and rationale behind this piece was to include both food and love through mother and the child, symbolizing differing freedoms from want. This piece is part of the New Brunswick Museum collection.<ref name="nbm " >{{cite web |title=The New Brunswick Museum participated in Museum Week 2022 |url=https://www.nbm-mnb.ca/the-new-brunswick-museum-participated-in-museum-week-2022/ |website=New Brunswick Museum |date=22 June 2022 |access-date=26 September 2023}}</ref>

''"Where the Wild Flowers Grow,"'' 1966 and "''In the Fields and Woods," 1967''<ref>{{Cite book |first=Violet |last=Gillett |title=In fields and woods. |date=1967 |publisher=Brunswick Press |oclc=70433574}}</ref>

She wrote both of these children's books which contained her artwork.<ref>New Brunswick Museum. ''Violet Gillett: A retrospective.'' Saint John: New Brunswick Museum, 1980</ref>

''Winter Night, Old Methodist Church'', Andover, N.B.

This is a linocut artwork on paper in white and blue paint. It was included in Maritime Art: A Canadian Art Magazine in December–January 1942 – 1943.

==Honours== *Member of the Order of Canada (1976)<ref name=oc >{{Cite web| title = Ms. Violet Amy Gillett| work = The Governor General of Canada|accessdate = 25 September 2023| quote = In appreciation not only of her own talent, but of the constant encouragement she has given hundreds of young artists. |url = https://www.gg.ca/en/honours/recipients/146-14623}}</ref> *New Brunswick Teacher's Centennial Award (1976)<ref name="cwahi " /> *Queen's Jubilee Medal (1977)<ref name="cwahi " /> *Governor General's Medal (1977)<ref name="cwahi " />

==Bibliography== *{{cite book|title=In fields and woods.|date=1967|publisher=Brunswick Press|oclc=70433574|language=English}} *{{cite book|title=Where wild flowers grow|date=1966|publisher=Brunswick Press|oclc=63551000|language=English}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillett, Violet}} Category:1898 births Category:1996 deaths Category:20th-century Canadian painters Category:Canadian expatriates in England Category:Artists from New Brunswick Category:British emigrants to Canada Category:Artists from Liverpool Category:People from Perth-Andover Category:Members of the Order of Canada Category:20th-century Canadian women painters Category:Canadian women painters Category:Canadian educators