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Item Name: Painting
Title: The Red Umbrella
Maker: Bea Harding
Year: n.d.
Country: Canadian
Materials: acrylic paint; canvas
Measurements: overall: 82 cm x 61.25 cm
ID Number: PC2001.9
Legal Status: PERMANENT COLLECTION


Extended Label Info: The vibrant, primary colour of red in this painting by Bea Harding stands out energetically against the composition of wet blues and sandy browns. Entitled “The Red Umbrella”, this artwork invites us to imagine looking out into the saturated colours of a rainy day. As stacks of rain fall, a person walks past, catching our eye. Concentrating on colour and brushstroke, Harding builds an emotional impression of scene perhaps based on a memory, a quick sketch, or a fleeting idea. Beatrice Louise (Lewis) Harding (1913 - 2006) Educator, activist, traveler, photographer, printmaker and writer: Bea Harding was a groundbreaking artist. Born in Morden, Manitoba, Harding was part of the first generation of prairie women to attend university in the 1930s. She earned her BSc from the University of Manitoba. After marriage, she moved to Saskatchewan and worked as a community builder with the CCF. A pioneer of the Medicare movement, she held the first membership at Regina's Community Health Clinic. After a career in teaching, she travelled the world with her husband, working for the UN in Liberia, West Africa; Guyana, South America; Somalia, East Africa; Philippines and New York. In these years, she wrote for the CBC, Winnipeg Free Press and Asia Magazine, and studied journalism in England at the Regent Institute. She learned printmaking in the Philippines, and through the Pratt Institute in New York, USA. Retiring to Regina in the 1970s, she earned a BFA in Printmaking, and set up a printing press in her home studio. In 2005 she was awarded a Saskatchewan Centennial Medal.