- Pegi Nicol MacLeod
Pegi Nicol MacLeod, (
4 January 1904 –12 February 1949 ), was a Canadian artist. Born Margaret Kathleen Nicol, she was part of the first wave of Canadian modernist painters. She was born inListowel ,Ontario and was a pupil of Franklin Brownell inOttawa . She later studied at theEcole des Beaux-Arts inMontreal . In 1932 she won the Willingdon Arts Competition prize for painting. She lived inToronto from 1934 to 1937 when she marriedNorman MacLeod . The couple them moved toNew York City , but she returned annually toFredericton, New Brunswick , where in 1940 she opened an art centre for aspiring artists at theUniversity of New Brunswick .A painter of people and landscapes, her pieces tend to reveal a sombre though joyful, reflective and humanitarian insight. MacLeod often painted in muted tones, showing the likely influence of the Group of Seven, which had a similar impact on many Canadian painters in the first half of the Twentieth century.
MacLeod was opposed to World War II, though in 1944 she accepted a commission by the
National Gallery of Canada to paint many scenes depicting the Women's Division of theArmed Forces as means of showcasing the war from a female perspective. MacLeod died ofcancer in New York City in 1949, leaving a legacy of more than a thousand works of art that included many paintings and other art forms including as designs for hooked rugs.Today MacLeod is a well-regarded artist whose wartime work, which includes more than one hundred oil paintings, sets her apart from many of her contemporaries.
References
*Brandon, Laura. "Pegi by Herself: The Life of Pegi Nichol MacLeod." Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 0773528636
*Tippett, Maria. "By A Lady." Toronto: Viking Canada, 1992. ISBN 0670844586
External links
* [http://www.gallery78.com/pmacleod.htm Bio and examples of her paintings]
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