Janet Mitchell | Featured Artist

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Janet Mitchell RCA (1912-98), "Cat In The Flower Bed," 1964, ed. 1/15

colour clay print on paper, 11.5 x 15.5 inches, original framing, provenance: Toronto Collection. Courtesy of the Gallery.

For Women's History Month: 

Janet Mitchell RCA (1912-98)

A painter of landscapes, streetscapes and delightful people in watercolour, oils and acrylics, she tended towards impressionistic interpretations in a very creative way. Her work is colourful and spontaneous, and noted for its combination of humour, fantasy and colour.

Janet Mitchell was born in Medicine Hat, Alberta. She was adopted as an infant by a Calgary couple and attended school in Calgary. She worked as a chambermaid at the Palliser Hotel, took evening classes at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (now the Alberta College of Art), attended a seminar at the University of Saskatchewan and in 1942 attended the Banff School of Fine Arts on a scholarship. She was, however, largely self-taught.  Before taking up painting full time, she worked at Calgary's federal income tax office, 1940-1962.

She first exhibited her work in 1947. Her first one-woman show was held in Toronto in 1949. She received a number of awards for her watercolours and in 1977 was accepted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Mitchell was commissioned by Reader’s Digest of Canada and the Montreal Club to paint the John F. Kennedy Rose for the Rose Festival at Expo ‘67, in Montreal. She was a member of the Canadian Society of Watercolour Artists. She was also an active and influential member of the Alberta Society of Artists.

She held several one-person shows. Her work is represented in many collections across Canada, such as the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Glenbow Museum, University of Calgary, the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), and the London Public Library and Art Museum.