Remembering Joy MacFadyen
Joy MacFadyen was a prominent leader, and often president and executive leader, for The Art Guild of Scarborough for decades, and won many cultural awards for her promotion of The Arts in Scarborough. Her life has been celebrated by the members of The Art Guild on a previous occasion when members gathered to celebrate her life. This exhibition of her work is more a celebration of her life as an artist, with a large representation of her painted works preserved digitally, and presented in a digital exhibition which is now archival in nature. The Existential Art Gallery of Scarborough, more fondly known as “Gallery X” is aware that this is not only a celebration of Joy’s life but an attempt by the gallery to preserve the work of a Scarborough artist in an archival fashion. At present there is little to no archival storage for the works of Scarborough artists. The small galleries we do have are lacking in space for such an undertaking, but they may have a small collection. It was one of Joy’s last wishes that the attempts to obtain a bricks and mortar gallery of substantial means would be successful.
Joy was born in 1932, in the middle of the depression, in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Her adult life after school led her to South America and North America and finally to Canada in 1967 with her husband Don MacFadyen, a survey executive, and a decorated flying ace for the RAF. Canada became her permanent home, whereas her south American travels had led her impermanently to a goodly number of countries there.
Having established herself in Canada Joy looked to the Art Guild of Scarborough for some art experience and never looked back. Exhibited here are approximately 100 portraits and many other ‘portraits’ of animals. Additionally, Joy’s good humour, she had a great sense of humour, is expressed here in a selection of assemblages that graced many events in Scarborough and pleased her friends and neighbours as unexpected gifts.
It is also important to tell that the establishment of an arts council in Scarborough was largely carried by Joy’s leadership and cooperation with other like-minded people in Scarborough. Joy was recognized for her public work with prestigious civic awards, newspaper stories, and at one particular time some significant funding. Always recognized for her good humour and readiness to help Joy will now be permanently remembered for her considerable artistic accomplishment as a portrait painter of striving and commitment.
Peter Marsh, August 2024
