J.W.G. MacDonald

Famous painter and educator, James Williamson Galloway (J.W.G) Macdonald was born May 31, 1897 in Thurso, Scotland. Macdonald became an Architectural draftsman in Edinburgh, but his training was halted when he enlisted in the 14th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1915. MacDonald was demobilized from the army in 1919. He then studied commercial advertising, textiles, and woodcarving at the Edinburgh College of Art. He graduated in 1922, with a Design Diploma and an Art Teacher’s Certificate. Macdonald and his wife moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in the fall of 1926, when he took the Head of Design position at the Vancouver School of Art. Frederick Varley, fellow educator at the school, encouraged Macdonald to take up painting. From 1927-1934 Macdonald and Varley travelled in British Columbia and painted the majesty of the land. Macdonald’s work at this time is highly influenced by the Group of Seven, and other 20th Century artists, such as Kandinsky, Miro, and Paul Klee. In May of 1933, MacDonald and Varley opened the British Columbia College of Arts. Although the College quickly gained a positive reputation, it ran into financial trouble and closed in 1935. In financial distress, he and his family moved to Nootka, a small village on Nootka Island, British Columbia. The Macdonald family lived in a tent, while he created landscape paintings. The influence of nature can be seen in his abstract works and his landscapes from this time period. His work gained national attention, and he exhibited with the Canadian Group of Painters, the B.C. Society of Fine Art, and the Royal Canadian Academy. In 1939, he had paintings shown at the New York World’s Fair and the San Francisco Exposition. In 1947, was appointed Head of Painting and Drawing at the Ontario College of Art and Design, where he taught until his death in 1960.