Unity Bainbridge facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Unity Bainbridge
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| Born | July 6, 1916 |
| Died | November 30, 2017 (aged 101) West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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| Education | Vancouver School of Art 1932-1936 |
| Known for | Drawing, painting, writing |
| Movement | Modernism, Contemporary Realism |
| Awards | Order of British Columbia 1993 |
Unity Bainbridge OBC (born July 6, 1916 – died November 30, 2017) was a Canadian artist and writer. She was known for her paintings and poems about the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and its beautiful landscapes.
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About Unity Bainbridge
Unity Bainbridge was born in Victoria, British Columbia. Her parents were George P. and Deborah Bainbridge. Unity was the oldest of three sisters. She had one daughter, Deborah Ryan. Her niece is Lynn Johnston, who created the comic strip For Better or For Worse.
Unity Bainbridge got married in 1946. She lived in San Francisco, USA, for five years. Then, she moved back to British Columbia. She lived for a long time in West Vancouver, British Columbia. She passed away there on November 30, 2017, at the age of 101.
Her Education and Training
Unity Bainbridge studied art in Vancouver. She attended the Vancouver School of Art from 1932 to 1936. Her teachers included Grace Melvin and Charles Hepburn Scott.
After graduating, she briefly went to the Cornish School of Art in Seattle. However, she returned to Canada within a year.
Her Artistic Career
After returning from Seattle, Unity Bainbridge became a portrait painter in Vancouver. She strongly believed that portraits should be painted from real life, not from photos. This led her to travel around British Columbia. She spent summers painting people and returned to Vancouver in the fall. She especially enjoyed painting portraits of Indigenous people in northern British Columbia.
In the early 1930s, Bainbridge explored many remote wilderness areas of British Columbia. She preferred to work alone and did not often join art groups. She was invited to join the Canadian Portrait Academy but chose not to.
She met famous Canadian artists like Lawren Harris and A. Y. Jackson in the 1930s. She considered Arthur Lismer and A.Y. Jackson to be important mentors.
In 1976 and 1977, she gathered her research and artwork from trips to communities. These works became two small books she published. They were called Songs of Seton and Lullaby of Lillooet.
Art Exhibitions
Unity Bainbridge's art was shown in many places. Here are some of her exhibitions:
- Royal Canadian Academy Exhibition, 1938
- Seymour Art Gallery, 1986, 1989, and 1990
- Heffel Gallery, Early British Columbian Woman Artists, June 1995
- West Vancouver Museum and Archives, Generations: Five Decades of Art in West Vancouver, 1999
- Ferry Building Gallery, West Vancouver, BC, Beauty is all there is: Unity Bainbridge - A Retrospective, October 24 to November 5, 2017
- Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, Rapture, Rhythm and the Tree of Life: Emily Carr and her Contemporaries, December 7, 2019 to June 2020
- Griffin Arts Projects, "Whose Chinatown?", January 29, 2021 to May 1, 2021
Where Her Art Is Kept
Unity Bainbridge's artwork is part of several important collections, including:
- Buckingham Palace
- Canada House, London
- Imperial War Museum
- Diefenbaker Museum
- Vancouver Art Gallery
- West Vancouver Memorial Library
Awards and Recognition
Unity Bainbridge received the Order of British Columbia in 1993. This is a very high honor in British Columbia.
