User:Curiocurio/Harold Elliott (artist)

Harold Herbert Elliott (1890–1968) was a Canadian artist.

Biography
Elliott's parents were pioneers in Killarney, Manitoba, in the 1890s. Before arriving in British Columbia in 1920,, Elliot was variously a homesteader in Fielding, Saskatchewan, a school-teacher , a prospector and a poet. He ran a pickle-manufacturing business for 10 years. Elliott began painting in 1948, as recommended by his doctor following a heart failure. Often described as eccentric, Elliott was a closet cross-dresser who liked to wear long gypsy-like robes in order to evoke the old masters. He asked extremely high prices for his works, and completely refused to part with some of them. Elliott claimed to have painted over 5000 pictures. His paintings are often signed "Van Volkingburgh", after his mother's family name." In 1964, three of his paintings were featured in New Talents B.C. at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Style
Most often constructed on cardboard, his paintings are generally small. In Elliott's early work, he used materials like shoe polish and red ink, overlaid with thick varnish in order to achieve an effect like the old masters. He liked to concentrate on one colour at a time. His landscapes often have wandering, vaguely human figures. A melancholy mood is often established by the sun never really breaking through the clouds. The moon frequently recurs as a blotch of vivid paint, and there is a preoccupation with circular shapes. Later paintings have faceless figures with large blank eyes. Doris Shadbolt remarked that Elliott "is a kind of visionary painter. His work is completely apart from the historical stream of art," a summation echoed by David Watmough. His paintings have an overall "unlearned" aspect, anticipating later trends.

Solo exhibitions

 * Painting Against Time, Or Gallery, Vancouver, 1987
 * Danish Art Gallery, Vancouver, 1965

Group exhibitions

 * New Talents BC, Vancouver Art Gallery, 1964.
 * Seattle Art Museum, 1961–1963

Collections

 * Seattle Art Museum