Œuvres d'art

This is an excellent painting and one by a highly celebrated Canadian artist. In the early 1950s, "Tony" Law and his wife, Jane Shaw, made long-term plans to settle permanently in Nova Scotia and built their future retirement home near Williams Lake in Boulderwood, a subdivision of Halifax. In the Williams Lake area, he painted some of his finest paintings, including ours, “Colourful Skaters (Head of Williams Lake, Nova Scotia)”, 1991. Anthony Law has any number of accreditations as an artist. The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia had a big exhibition back in 1989 in celebration of his career. Law had been chairman of the museum ten years before the exhibition. He had served as an official war artist for Canada at the end of World War II. A sub-lieutenant in the navy, active during the war, Anthony Law was often referred to as “The Painting Commander.”

In recognition of his work at the university and his contribution to the arts generally in Nova Scotia, Law was made an honorary Doctor of Letters by Saint Mary’s University in 1981. ‘Much of the high level of activity in the arts in Nova Scotia is due to his interest and enthusiasm,’ reads the citation for the degree (1). ‘Through his many talents and accomplishments as a naval officer and war artist, as a painter of renown, and as a promoter of the arts, he has contributed beyond telling to the cultural life of this university, this city, this province and this nation. (2)’

Notes
1. As paraphrased by Bernard Riordon in “C. Anthony Law: a Retrospective” (Halifax, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia: 1989), 14.
2. Honorary degree Doctor of Letters Citation to Anthony Francis Law, DSC, CD, RCN (Ret’d), 11 May 1981, cited in Lieutenant Commander Jessup, Pat, C. Anthony Law And ‘an Artist’s Paradise’, Thesis (Saint Mary's University,Halifax: 2009), 133. http://forposterityssake.ca/RCN-DOCS/TONY-LAW-THESIS-by-Pat-Jessup-LCdr, RCN.pdf.