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On Monday, August 8, 2005, the Western Canadian visual arts community lost one of this country's most prolific artists, pedagogues and mentors to younger artists. Leo Norman Bushman passed away in his home in Calgary.
Since his retirement from the University of Calgary's Art Department in 1982, Bushman's interests included drawing, painting, and collecting children's art, especially native children's art. The bulk of his extensive children's art collection is currently at the Nickle Arts Museum along with many slides of this work. In 1982, Bushman was one of the earliest founding members of the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society and the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, and always supported the Gallery's progressive and independent point of view relative to various aspects of visual culture.
In his art, as in his beloved game of golf, Leo Bushman applied the dictum, " the fewer strokes, the better the results" . " Less is more, couldn't be better advise for either the novice or the professional watercolourists" - Bushman once said, "it's a kind of determination that comes with practice, contemplation, and sympathetic use of the water-based medium". |
CON
MEMORIAM
On Monday, August 8, 2005, the Western Canadian visual arts community lost one of this country's most prolific artists, pedagogues and mentors to younger artists. Leo Norman Bushman passed away in his home in Calgary. He was 88. Leo Bushman left a great artistic legacy for us, and he remains alive through his exceptional art and personal memories. This impressive corpus of work by one of Western Canada's most distinguished watercolourists reflects Bushman's travels across the globe to indigenous cultures. Over the years, he made significant contributions to the study of children's art among various cultural backgrounds, including: Japan, Korea and the North American Aboriginal communities. His own work shows a spontaneity and transparency, which identify him with the classic masters of watercolour style.
Leo Bushman received his BFA degree with honours in 1941 from the School of Arts Institute in Chicago. In 1939 and 1941, Bushman's works were accepted to the International Watercolour and Drawing Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago and presented along with works by such masters as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse and Wassily Kandinsky. Two pieces from the exhibition are currently in the collection of the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society/Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts. In 1954, he won the South West Drawing Annual in Dallas, Texas. The drawings from that show are now in the counsel of the Nickle Arts Museum in Calgary.
A move to Japan to serve as civilian Director of the U.S. Pacific Air Force Arts and Crafts Program provided him with exposure to Oriental art. He remained in the Orient and became the U.S. Air Force Education Director in Seoul, South Korea, a post he retained until 1963. His eight years in the Far East left lasting impressions on his art. In 1966, Bushman was subsequently hired by the University of Calgary because of his experience working with indigenous cultures. Although initially engaged as a temporary art instructor, he was asked to remain in the Art Department for the entire 1966-67 academic year. It was the beginning of a long tenure, during which he had mentored a number of graduates through their undergraduate and graduate studies. Bushman retired from the Faculty of Fine Arts in July 1982 as an Associate Professor Emeritus of Art. He will be remembered as a great academic and a brilliant pedagogue with an unorthodox teaching methodology, always asking his students to explore unexplored areas of visual articulations.
Since his retirement from the University of Calgary's Art Department in 1982, Bushman's interests included drawing, painting, and collecting children's art, especially native children's art. The bulk of his extensive children's art collection is currently at the Nickle Arts Museum along with many slides of this work. In 1982, Bushman was one of the earliest founding members of the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society and the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, and always supported the Gallery's progressive and independent point of view relative to various aspects of visual culture. "
A painting rises from the brushstroke as a poem rises from the words
"
Jacek
Malec List of Images:
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Born
in 1917 in Mishawaka, Indiana, Leo Bushman grew up in an environment,
where respect to visual culture was highly encouraged. He was introduced
very early to several aspects of the arts, which activated his young
and creative mind. 
In
1947, Bushman received his MFA degree from the Columbia University,
New York, and completed his doctoral requirements for E.D.D. at
Stanford University in California. Following that, he headed the
Technical Illustration Department at the Stanford Research Institute
in Menlo Park, California. 
For
a number of years Bushman served as a Research Associate at the
Arctic Institute of North America (AINA) at the University of Calgary,
where he also worked as a Curator of the Institute's extensive collection,
documenting early explorations of the arctic region (drawings, paintings,
prints, photographs, film and video). 
Leo
Bushman exhibited and lectured widely in the United States, Canada,
South Korea, Japan and was the recipient of various awards in recognition
of his outstanding studio and educational work. Bushman's work can
be found in many private and public collections across the continents.
His major retrospective exhibition, Leo Bushman: Reflections
in Watercolour curated by Nicholas Roukes and Jacek Malec
and held in May 1998 at the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, was
drawn from over six decades of the artist's ongoing career, and
created a forum for Bushman's continued debate on the watercolour
techniques and cultural influences. 
Nicholas
Roukes, a Professor Emeritus of Art, University of Calgary, and
the co-curator of Bushman's retrospective exhibition said in the
exhibition catalogue: "
Leo Bushman is the type of dedicated
artist (some say fanatic) who takes his studio out of doors. The
majority of works displayed in this retrospective exhibition have
been painted entirely on location. With persistent devotion, he
continues to investigate new techniques and ways of capturing the
quintessential spirit of urban and rural landscape, his dominant
subject matter
His outdoor painting sojourns are notable excursions
insofar as many are conducted in less than ideal weather conditions,
particularly those in Canada and the Far North. Some watercolour
paintings, created in sub-zero temperatures, are indelibly marked
with colour that is frozen and crystallized to the paper's surface
- a mute testament to the artist's passion for plein-air painting
". 
Bushman's
exemplary works depict places and cultures he had worked, lived
and studied in. The paintings show a skilful, fluid brush-stroke
characteristic of Oriental art, and an influential source. His brushwork,
particularly in the recent paintings, is bold, spontaneous and intuitive,
and he appeared to be in full control of the often unpredictable
happenings inherent in the use of this fluid medium. In his art,
as in his beloved game of golf, Leo Bushman applied the dictum,
" the fewer strokes, the better the results"
. " Less
is more, couldn't be better advise for either the novice or the
professional watercolourists" - Bushman once said, "it's
a kind of determination that comes with practice, contemplation,
and sympathetic use of the water-based medium". The work by
Leo Bushman is not based on social or political commentary, but
rather on the poetic interpretation and celebration of nature's
wonders, the joy of art making, and his ever-present joie de
vivre. 