Pat Fairhead, whose paintings hang in many buildings throughout Muskoka, has passed away at the age of 96.
According to her website, Fairhead came to Canada from England when she was 10 years old. Only days after stepping foot in Toronto, she travelled to Muskoka and “fell in love with the Canadian landscape.”
“This sparked a life-long love affair with the wilderness,” it says on her website.
That love affair pushed her to travel through the Arctic nine times, paddle up the west coast of British Columbia, hike the outback in Australia, explore South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana, sail down the Nile, and tour Europe.
Fairhead’s accomplishments include the proficiency prize from the Ontario College of Art, which she received at 16, being elected to the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1966, the Ontario Society of Artists in 1986, and becoming a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 1993.
According to Wendie Donabie, a family friend, Fairhead’s most recent showing was in Bracebridge at the Britton Gallery in Oct. 2022.
“I consider myself blessed to call her a friend, a mentor and an inspiration,” writes Donabie.
Fairhead’s work has been displayed at many other galleries throughout Cottage Country and others internationally, including the Royal Collection of Prints and Drawings at Windsor Castle in London, Eng. and Queen’s Park in Toronto.
Fairhead has done 70 solo shows, according to her website, and has been represented in over 200 corporate collections, government buildings, and universities.
In Nov. 2022, Fairhead donated multiple paintings to be displayed at the Bracebridge Sportsplex. The largest of the four paintings can be viewed in the main lobby while the three smaller ones are positioned at the lifeguard stations.
“Pat loved Muskoka and was a faithful patron to the Bracebridge Sportsplex,” wrote Bracebridge Mayor Rick Maloney in a Facebook post. “I last chatted with Pat at a Chapel Gallery show a couple of months ago. As always, she was her charming self, engaging and always complimentary. Her life was rich and colourful, captured for us through her art forever.”
Donabie says a celebration of life will be held at St. Thomas Anglican Church at 4 Mary St. in Bracebridge on July 29 at 11 a.m.
