Chilkoot Lake
Ruth Massey
Watercolour
10 x 14 in.
Value: $215.00
Rental per month: $5.00
Ruth Massey trained at the Ontario College of Art, the Montreal Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the Vancouver School of Art.
In 1954 she bought a place in West Vancouver and asked her friends Geoffrey Massey and Arthur Erickson to design a small house for $15,000. To save money, she served as the general contractor, and male friends were pressed into assisting with unskilled labour. When the house was nearly complete, with just the painting and finishing work to do, Ruth and Geoffrey Massey were married.
The house became a landmark in West Vancouver and the Masseys had many distinguished visitors. Bert (B.C.) and Jessie Binning, Bill Reid and Gordon and Marion Smith were among the notable friends who regularly dropped by to see them.
The Masseys were central to the developing arts community. When Abe Rogatnik and Alvin Balkin opened the New Design Gallery, the first private gallery dedicated to contemporary local artists in the Lower Mainland, they used the Masseys' wedding guest list to send invitations to their first opening reception. Their involvement was not limited to visual art; the Arts Club in Vancouver was founded by Geoffrey Massey and his friends, and opened by his father, Raymond Massey.
Ruth Massey has continued to paint over the years, producing a beautiful body of work generated by her appreciation of the nature that surrounds her.