Barbara Roe Hicklin – biography

HICKLIN, Barbara Roe, 1918 – 2010 Life member: ASA, CSPWC

Barbara Jane Roe was born in Toronto, Ontario.
During the late 1930’s Hicklin attended the Central Technical School in Toronto, where one of her teachers was the Canadian painter Carl Schaefer, and also the Ontario College of Art and Design.
She moved to New York in the early 1940’s where she worked as a commercial artist; illustrating books, magazines, music books and newspapers while attending the Phoenix School of Design, where she graduated in 1946.
Barbara worked as a theatre set designer in Sarnia between 1951 and 1956.
She then moved across the country to Alberta, started a family and she joined the Edmonton Art Club.
During the 1970’s Barbara toured the country in a van painting landscapes of the Canadian countryside.
She traveled to the Yukon and painted almost every year from from 1980 to 1997. In 1993 she went North of the Arctic Circle.
Barbara most commonly worked with watercolours, but she occasionally worked in acrylic and pen and ink.
Barbara was an important early member of the Alberta Society of Artists, becoming the first woman president of the society in 1975.
Barbara’s work has been shown in numerous group shows with the Alberta Society of Artists and the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolours. Her solo exhibitions have been held in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. Examples of her work can be found in the collections of, among others, the Alberta Art Foundation and the Visual Arts Branch of the Government of Alberta.
Education
New York Phoenix School of Design, ? – 1946
Ontario College of Art & Design (formerly Ontario School of Art)
Central Technical School, Toronto, ? – 1937 (under Peter Haworth and Carl Schaefer)
Memberships
Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour, 1980
Alberta Society of Artists, 1958, President 1975 – 1977
Edmonton Art Club, 1956
File & Archive locations
Vancouver Public Library, BC – Fine Arts and History Department
Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
University of Calgary Library, AB
Alberta Culture and Community Spirit – Arts Branch
Edmonton Art Gallery, AB – Library
University of British Columbia – Fine Arts Library
Winnipeg Art Gallery, MA – Clara Lander Library
National Gallery of Canada, ON – Library and Archives
Toronto Reference Library, ON
Art Gallery of Ontario – Edward P. Taylor Research Library and Archives
Vancouver Art Gallery, BC – Library
Calgary Public Library, AB – Arts Department

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baker, Suzanne Devonshire. Artists of Alberta. Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1980.
Deyell, Daniel, Brent R Laycock and Charles S Tomsik. Alberta Society of Artists: A Juried Exhibition. Calgary: Glenbow-Alberta Institute, 1977.
Greenberg, Clement. “Clement Greenberg’s View of Art on the Prairies.” Canadian Art 20.2 (1984): 96.
Joyner, Brooks. “Barbara Roe Hicklin.” Arts West 5.2 (Mar-April 1980): 26-27.
MacDonald, Colin S. The Dictionary of Canadian Artists. (Volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker) Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009
http://www.pro.rcip-chin.gc.ca/bd-dl/aac-aic-eng.jsp?emu=en.aich:/Proxapp/ws/aich/user/wwwe/SearchForm.
Nickle Arts Museum. Barbara Roe Hicklin: Composition Canada. Calgary: Nickle Arts Museum, 1979.
Westbridge, Anthony R. The Collector’s Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction. Vancouver: Westbridge Publications, 2001.
Zimon, Kathy E. Alberta Society of Artists: The First Seventy Years. Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2000.

Barbara Roe Hicklin – sketching

Artists Statements and Comment: (extracts)

My last major exhibition, “Composition Canada” [1979], depicted my impressions of the ten provinces. Since then, I have been working on the series called, “Canada’s Yukon”. Several trips by van to various parts of that great Northern area have resulted in this exhibition.
Numerous small water-colours and photos from the expeditions have given me the ideas for the larger paintings which are done in the studio. The large works each take two or three months to complete. In these I have continued to use the same techniques as used in “Composition Canada”. Colour patterns provide visual movement and light vibrations. In the Yukon series, these colour patterns are more suble than before, but still create similar effects of atmosphere and light.
This exhibition includes glimpses of many areas of the Yukon: the Kuane (Kloo-ah-nee) and the Haines Road, both west of Whoitehorse; the Klondike Highway north as far as Dawson City; and the Dempster Highway, north of Dawson toward Inuvik.
The Yukon is a wonderful place to visit, photograph and paint!
My sincere thanks:
To the curator and the Exhibitions Committee of the Fort Calgary Preservation Society, for giving me the opportunity to exhibit in this attracive location; to the La Flamme Galleries for framing all the works in this exhibition, and as always, to my family and friends for their continued support.
Barbara Roe Hicklin
Since 1976 I have traveled by van, across Canada from B.C. to Newfoundland, as well as making many trips North to the Yukon, some up the Dempster Highway as far as the Arctic Circle. On these lengthy trips, I try to sense the regional character of the different areas. Numerous small watercolours and photographs from the trips give me the ideas for my large paintings, which are done in the studio. In my large paintings, I attempt to convey some of the unusual effects of light, colour, and space on the landscape. The colour patterns in my work provide visual movement, and help me to convey the atmospheric effects, which are so fascinating in nature.