Molly Lamb Bobak
Born just outside Vancouver, Molly Lamb Bobak began her career during World War II as an official war artist, the first woman to be given that title. Posted around the country and then overseas, she documented the day-to-day, ordinary activities of the Canadian Women's Army Corps. Before arriving in Fredericton in 1960 with Bruno Bobak, named resident artist at UNB, Molly had flourished as an artist with national and international exposure. She was of the first generation of women artists to make their way as professionals in the Canadian art world.
Watercolour was her preferred medium for her flowers; their random beauty is what drew them to her. She expressed their fragility and temporality with simplicity of line and washes of colour blotted over white paper. Her oils on canvas, being more rigid in media, chronicle impressions of gatherings around one or another communal event. Joyous in flavour and riotous in colour, texture, and movement, these crowd scenes were the artist's direct perceptions of her immediate surroundings. They captured the essence of the occasion, rather than its details. Over the years, Bobak captured skaters on the St. John River, action on the UNB football field, parades and processions, lighting of the communal Christmas tree, sunbathers on the beach, and such landmark events as the raising of the cross on the restored copper spire of Christ Church Cathedral. Even in more solitary themes like interiors, the artist's perspective was human-focused, enlivened, never static.
Yet the seemingly effortless calligraphy of her watercolours or the quick-silver brushstrokes of her oils are the dressing on a structured armature. The artist, as a teacher, often spoke of the 'language of painting' and the 'architecture of a composition' - the significance of form in painting (apart from subject) as key lessons learned from her teacher and mentor Jack Shadbolt at the Vancouver School of Art. Disciplined and committed to her art, she set an example and offered encouragement and support to many aspiring artists. In fact, her influence spawned an identifiable ' school of Molly Bobak ' in the work of many admirers.
