Article

William Paterson Ewen

Published Online May 22, 2008

Last Edited December 24, 2015

William Paterson Ewen, painter (born 7 April 1925 in Montréal, QC; died 17 February 2002 in London, ON).
Moon Over Water II
Acrylic on plywood by Paterson Ewen, 1987, 228.6 x 243.8 cm.
Tornado #3
Tornado #3 With Northern Lights, by Patterson Ewen, gouged plywood (courtesy Maclean's).
Ewen, Patterson
For more than two decades Ewen has transformed hardware into lyrical works of art (courtesy Maclean's).
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William Paterson Ewen, painter (born 7 April 1925 in Montréal, QC; died 17 February 2002 in London, ON). Studying at McGill and the Art Association of Montreal's School of Art and Design in the late 1940s, Ewen was attracted to abstract art through the Automatiste and Plasticien movements. In 1968 he moved to London, Ontario, where painting on gouged plywood sheets led to his return to figuration and a new subject, meteorological phenomena.

Included in numerous Canadian group shows, he had several retrospective exhibitions including in 1996 a full career retrospective at the Art Gallery of Ontario and in 1982 represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. Through his intentionally awkward drawing, emotionally charged images and exceptional handling of materials, he revitalized Canadian landscape painting. In 1987 he received the Banff Centre's National Award and in 1995 he was the winner of the Jean Chalmers Prize. He was the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Concordia University.