March 15, 1935

Mary Pratt's obituary (March 15, 1935 to August 14, 2018) said this Canadian painter
'turned the ordinary objects of her kitchen, garden and daily life into extraordinary works of beauty and colour.....

'Pratt painted items she saw around her, transforming them. A jar of currant jelly glowed from within. The aluminum foil holding a meal of fish seemed to have eerie qualities. The flowers she picked outside became beacons of strength.
....
'To Pratt, the stuff of everyday was fascinating, and she brought a distinct style of realism to her canvases.

'"I wouldn't do it if I hadn't loved the subject," Pratt told CBC News in 2013, when a career retrospective of more than 60 works opened in St. John's. Two years later, she was the subject of a solo retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
...
'Born in Fredericton — her father, William J. West, was a Harvard-educated provincial cabinet minister — Pratt attended Mount Allison University, where she fell in love with Newfoundlander Christopher Pratt, whose own painting career has been legendary.....

'When Christopher Pratt shelved a promising engineering career to pursue art full time, the couple moved to a remote home near St. Mary's Bay, on Newfoundland's southern Avalon Peninsula.

'While raising four young children, Mary Pratt launched her own painting career, finding ways to capture moments of daily life, and then turning them into art.

"I don't mind celebrating the domestic. I mean, how could we get along without it?" she said in a 2013 interview.
....
'Pratt's early paintings were as simple as the cluttered table left by a family meal, as well as luminous fruit held in a bowl.

'"She shows us ourselves. She shows us our daily life," said Mireille Eagan, a curator who worked on Pratt's National Gallery exhibition in 2015.
.....
'Divorcing Christopher Pratt after decades of marriage, Mary Pratt remained a constant in the Canadian arts scene, often campaigning for issues that mattered to her — including free trade in the 1980s, which put her at odds with more left-of-centre contemporaries.
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'She also played a significant role in lobbying for the construction of The Rooms, the arts complex in St. John's that opened in 2005 and which houses the provincial art gallery, museum and archives.
'"She was the one who bullied the government, bullied those politicians, they had no choice," said Emma Butler, a St. John's gallery owner who represented Pratt for much of her career.
"She just made sure we were going to have it."...

'She said Pratt lived her life "with guts, but with grace, always with grace."
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'The subject of several books over the years, Pratt said her perception of her own work changed over time.

'"As you get older, you don't see this long extension of your life, but you can see an extension of your art," she said "So gradually I'm beginning to think that art is more important to me than life."'

We share this thumbnail of an example of Mary Pratt's art, which dates to the late 1970s.