Talk:Harry Heine

Reference
The full text of the obituary from the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper:

Harry Heine RSMA, SFCA, CSMA, NWWS, succumbed to his battle with cancer just before sunrise September 25th, at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, British Columbia. His passing is a blow to the Canadian art community and the thousands of students and fellow artists he inspired throughout his 76 years. During his remarkable career, Heine toured the world and shared his unique vision. He is most renowned for his evocative watercolour interpretations of life on Canada’s rugged west coast, where his work has become synonymous with British Columbia’s natural beauty.

Harry, the youngest son in a family of five, was born in Edmonton Alberta in 1924. Self taught through the aid of Albert Dorne, Norman Rockwell et al’s Famous Artists Course, Harry’s artistic career began as the art director for the Alberta Worker’s Compensation Board. He soon went on to establish himself as one of Edmonton’s leading designers and illustrators, and moved into architectural design and interiors with the founding of the successful Designs of Canada company with another noted Edmonton artistic visionary, Dave Maclagan.

Motivated by a particularly glorious holiday on British Columbia’s West coast, Harry relinquished the design business and moved his family to the idyllic seaside town of Qualicum Bay on Vancouver Island. Lending his hand to fine art, he opened the first Spindrift Studio in an original log cabin off the Island Highway.

The misty character of the coast progressively seeped into his artwork, as Harry’s new home became the focus of his artistic inspiration, with signature images of rocky seas, sheltered west coast inlets and working harbours. Harry’s use of watercolours perfectly suited the coastal hues and light, capturing the spray of the Pacific’s waters as a boat crested through waves, or the daily struggle of life upon a gillnetter or seiner off the shores of Vancouver Island or the Queen Charlotte Islands.

Harry’s grasp of light and perspective, along with an inherent style that grasped the emotion of his scenes and the windswept majesty of the coast, garnered the attention of the Royal Society of Marine Artists (“RSMA”) in the United Kingdom, a group of less than 50 masters, based in London. In 1980 the RSMA inducted Harry as their first and sole Canadian member. Since his induction Harry’s works have exhibited regularly with the RSMA in London and in gallery exhibitions around the globe.

Harry was also recognized with the Stobart Foundation Award for marine and nautical art, and he has continued to show at the Mystic Seaport Marine Museum of the Americas in Connecticut. Harry’s “grasp of composition that could take daily life along the coast and transform it from the mundane into the breathtaking, without deviating from the veracity of the subject” set him apart, and created the signature style for which his watercolours and acrylics are so well known.

Harry was also one of the founders and Charter Members of the Canadian Society of Marine Artists (“CSMA”) and the Federation of Canadian Artists (“FCA”), and was a past vice-president of both Societies. He was also a member of the Northwest Watercolor Society (“NWWS”). In 1983, he was named as an Honorary Alberta Artist in recognition of his contribution to the Visual Arts and, in 1985 he became an Honorary Citizen of the City of Victoria and an Honorary Crew Member of Canada 1, Canada's entry in the America's Cup yacht race. In 2004 Harry was nominated by admirers across the country for the Order of Canada.

Harry’s contribution to the Canadian art scene did not end with his paintings of coastal images. Harry has painted murals for Expo ’86 in Vancouver, Syncrude Canada, the Royal Canadian Legion in Edmonton and the towns of Chemainus, Vegreville, Fort Saskatchewan, and Chetwynd. Harry has also illustrated numerous book covers, and painted images still in use by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans as posters all over the world.

Notable painting commissions include the Canada I Society (America’s Cup), Telecom Canada, the Shell Canada Collection, the Oak Bay Marine Group, H.M.C.S. Malahat, the Government of B.C. and Beautiful British Columbia Magazine. His work hangs in many public collections including the Legislative Buildings of the Government of British Columbia; Washington State Arts Commission Collection; Captain Cook Birthplace Museum (England); Mystic Seaport Museum (U.S.A.); The Provincial Maritime Museum (B.C.); The British Columbia Government House Collection; The Mendel Gallery (Saskatchewan); Edmonton Art Gallery and the Alberta Art Foundation.

Harry’s life was also marked by continual support of innumerable causes, chief amongst them the Sail and Life Training Society (“S.A.L.T.S.”), BC Cancer and the Canadian Cancer society, the Eye Appeal, and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and many other local and Canadian charities. In recognition of his contributions to he has been made a Life Member of the Sail & Life Training Society and the Vintage Vessel Registry. Harry was also selected from a national list of artists to participate in the judging of the Canadian Mint Coins for the 2000 millennium special edition coins.

Harry also taught in earnest to thousands of students across the Province. Never a man to shy away from the crowds, Harry would proceed through paintings in front of wonderstruck students, intent on demonstrating his creative process from start to finish. His teaching style was marked by a humble demeanour while he continued to answer technical questions about pigments, brushes, paper and his inspiration. While he demonstrated the key techniques that he had mastered over the years, he would continually sing the praises of his three children Caren, Mark and Jennifer, all of whom have gone on to become successful artists.

Harry also led students around the world, with the aid of his wife Tess, to paint across Canada as well as throughout Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Harry has not only enriched the lives of those he has taught, but also the people he has met in his travels as he sat sketching at the base of numerous monuments be they in Italy, the former Soviet Union, China, or wherever his travels took him.

Harry Heine’s art was an extension of his robust passion for life. Although the man himself has moved on, he lives in our hearts through his rich artistic legacy and the many lives he has touched. He will be fondly remembered as one of Canada’s premier watercolourists, and also as a loving husband, father and friend to all that knew him. Harry is survived by his artistic legacy as well as by his wife Tess, and children Caren, Mark and Jennifer, and grandchildren Charlotte and Sarah.


 * Cut from main article text Tyrenius 06:13, 17 February 2007 (UTC)