Canadian ingenuity: Artist captured 'beauty and harshness' of Arctic life

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The artist won the hearts and trust of the indigenous people living at Eskimo Point in the Northwest Territories (now Arviat, Nunavut). In the mid-20th century, Winifred Petchey Marsh captured the activities, landscapes and daily life in watercolors. After living in the North with her pastor husband for over 40 years, the family home has been transformed into a community center. Petchey Marsh's paintings depicted indigenous culture before their northern customs were lost to modern society.

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Petchey Marsh was born in England on March 31, 1905 and came to northern Canada as the 28-year-old bride of Rev. Donald B. Marsh (b. 1903). The couple met when they were children and living near London, England. When they grew up they went their separate ways. She dabbled in art, taking classes for three years, then honed her perceptual skills as a teacher at the Hornby School of Art. Donald Marsh crossed the ocean to train as a clergyman at the University of Saskatchewan's Emmanuel College in Saskatoon.

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When Marsh accepted a position in northern Canada with the Anglican Church in 1926, he immersed himself in Arctic culture. The determined young man became fluent in the Eskimo language, now known as Inuktitut, and developed strong bonds with the people of his mission. The community was huge, covering well over 100,000 square kilometers. Marsh was ordained in 1929 and became the second bishop of the Arctic Diocese in 1950.

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Petchey Marsh married the minister and joyfully accepted the role of missionary wife. Before moving to the Arctic in 1933, she and her husband completed a series of self-paid training courses to prepare for the extraordinary change in their lives. Midwifery, dentistry and home care were critical skills that were “constantly in demand once we were alone on the mission,” wrote Petchey Marsh in People of the Willow: Padlimiut Tribe of the Caribou Eskimo (Oxford University Press, Toronto 1976). . ). She delivered babies and nervously performed dental work for her husband to extract his painful wisdom teeth.

Living as missionaries in the North was not a wealth-generating activity. “My husband received a stipend of one thousand dollars a year from the Church of England in Canada,” said Petchey Marsh, “and when he married me this amount was increased by two hundred dollars a year as a wife's allowance.” Some sales of her photographs and paintings However, added the Marsh's income: “We were able to live on well under two thousand dollars a year.”

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For the diocese's services, the federal government donated $200 annually, and the Department of Indian Affairs provided basic medications for Padlimiut care. Shipping to the region was expensive, and “freight from the South cost sixty dollars a ton in 1933,” said Petchey Marsh. Coal for heating had to be shipped together with food. “Fresh potatoes and a hundred pounds of onions were almost our only fresh staples.” The Marshes “exchanged flour, sugar, and tea for caribou and fish flesh.”

In the winter, school classes were held in the Marsh kitchen, with Petchey Marsh also adding music and singing lessons. Indigenous children “learned to read and write in their own language and we taught English and simple math.” The pastor and his wife maintained a close bond with the Padlimiut people, which continued throughout their years at Eskimo Point. Marsh supported his wife's talent and wrote notes for her. He encouraged her to keep an eye on her talents and reminded her that she was an artist.

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Petchey Marsh recorded their surroundings, painting the flowering plants, wildlife and icy winter scenes, as well as the colorful, intricate Indigenous beadwork. “One day a visiting Danish archaeologist asked her why she didn’t paint the local people,” said Peter Larisey, reviewing People of the Willow in Canadian Art Review, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1978 .The artist then put her reticence aside. She started painting people.

When the Padlimiut people understood what the British woman was doing, they helped Petchey Marsh as best they could. “For example,” the artist wrote, “they built an igloo on our doorstep where I could study the shape and color effect of each person who posed for me.”

Recognizing the specialness of life on land and in the sea, Petchey Marsh wanted to share the “beauty and hardship” of indigenous life in the north – their existence was something most others would never see or understand. She chose watercolors “as a medium of expression because of the need for speed and clarity of color.”

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Aside from rapid cultural change that brought deadly diseases and changing means, there were also environmental reasons for the need for speed. Winter temperatures dropped to a freezing -40°C (same values ​​for Celsius and Fahrenheit). When the experienced painter was unable to depict the settlement outdoors with watercolors, Petchey Marsh painted her impressions in colored pencil. When she returned to the warmth of her home, she transferred the artwork onto paper and completed the image with vibrant watercolors.

At times the summer wasn't much better for painting. During a trip near the shores of Hudson Bay, Petchey March's brush “suddenly became unwieldy and the painting looked as if a stone had broken a pane of glass in the sky,” the artist described. The puzzling problem? “The painting was frozen.”

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The scenes of human life before Petchey Marsh's eyes were touching. While she was painting, her husband was also taking photographs. During his mission, the cleric frequently traveled to indigenous camps. While tending to the community's needs, he took photographs, collected specimens for natural history museum collections and recorded “many valuable anthropological observations,” said David E. Pelly in “Above & Beyond,” November/December 2006. Marsh wrote a number of magazines and diaries and is often published in church newsletters.

Petchey Marsh appreciated the Padlimiut women's immense skill and artistic talent and “collected beaded parkas and beaded plates,” said the Vancouver Art Gallery. She recognized “the creativity in these forms and the cultural significance of beadwork.” The pieces are now part of the collection of the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg. Petchey Marsh documented the work and created watercolors “of the clothing, paying careful attention to the design details of the beaded panels, rondelles and fringes.”

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When her husband died in 1973, Petchey Marsh left Eskimo Point. In 1976, an exhibition of her paintings was held at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ontario. Her delicate but dramatic works describing the human experience of northern peoples received widespread acclaim.

Petchey Marsh's stunning art depicts the joys and challenges of life in the Arctic. Her paintings evoke similar feelings to her husband's endearing photographs. Pelly noted that the heartwarming images of “healthy, fulfilling lives unfolding way out in the country would never be seen again.”

On July 23, 1995, Winifred Petchey Marsh died at the age of 90. (The missionaries had a son.) The inspiring power of their artworks and their extraordinary cultural significance must be celebrated.

Susanna McLeod is a Kingston-based writer.

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