Sonia Cornwall: Fifty Years at the Onward Ranch
Westbridge Fine
Art,
Vancouver
Sept 22, 2001 - Oct 6,
2001
 Washing Day, Onward Ranch (1996), Oil on board |
At 82, Sonia Cornwall is
unquestionably the grande dame of art in B.C.'s Cariboo
region. Since 1919, Cornwall has lived and worked most of
her life at Onward Ranch, an 11,000-acre cattle ranch
outside Williams Lake in the central part of the
province.
While historically the home has been a predominant setting
for women's art, few homes have been a persistent source of
inspiration for 50 years. Cornwall's poignant painting
feature lots of cattle, the ranches, horses and snow, the
rolling hills and plains and the big skies above-all
captured in a fresh and uniquely expressive manner. Full of
brushwork and thick with impasto, her documentary style is
imbued with what the gallery describes as a "pictorial and
emotional naivetÈ". Cornwall is clearly deeply
engrossed in her subjects, even playful at times, She is
completely at one with them to the point where the art and
artists appear inseparable.
Sonia Cornwall has been close friends with a number of
prominent Canadians including A.Y. Jackson, Joe Plaskett,
Herbert Siebner and Ted Lindberg. Many of these people have
contributed their insights to her exhibition
catalogue.
© Mia Johnson