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Toni Onley
Exhibitions:
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Toni Onley was born in 1928 on the Isle of Man, where he received his early training and was influenced by the work of the great British watercolorists.He came to Canada in 1948.
After moving to British Columbia in 1955, he
studied in Mexico, at the Instituto Allende, and in London, England, where he studied etching and re-established his landscape roots with the Norwich School of Watercolor Painting. His course was now set toward the work he is best known for today:
landscape of simplicity and power.
Public collections of Toni Onley's work include those at the Tate Gallery and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London England; the National Gallery of Canada; the Seattle Art Museum; the Vancouver Art Gallery;
the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Mr. Onley was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, 1999. In 1999 he was also bestowed with an Honorary D. Litt. from Okanagan University College. Toni was killed tragically on February 29, 2004 at the age of 75. He had been piloting his LA4 Buccaneer amphibious plane when it crashed into the Fraser River and became submerged.
Books: A Silent Thunder.Prentice-Hall,
1981 Onley's Arctic.Douglasd McIntyre, 1991 The Walls of India.Onley/Woodcock, Lester & Orpen Dennys, 1985. Toni Onley's British Columbia, A Tribute.Raincoast Books, 1999. [photo: Yukiko
Onley]
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Browning Bay, North Pender Island, B.C. 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1995
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Entering Glacier Bay 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1997
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Mt. Baker across Boundary Pass, B.C. 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1987
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Chehalis Lake, B.C. 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1999
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Anthony Island printer's proof 12 x 16 Inches serigraph $950
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Wudang Mountain, Hubei Province, China 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,200 1988
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Divided Landscape 11 x 15 Inches silkscreen on paper $950 Edition 2 of 9
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Spirit Island, Pointe au Baril, Ontario 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,200 1984
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Low Water, Silver River, Harrison Lake 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,200 1987
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Franklin's Last Camp, Beechey Island 19.5 x 23.5 Inches oil on canvas $10,000 1974
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The Lyons Over Burrard Inlet 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,200 1985
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Rain Door Pass 20 x 24 Inches oil on linen $10,000 1986
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Quiet Inlet 20 x 24 Inches oil on panel $10,000 1985
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Phantom Glacier 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,200 1986
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Black Island Harrison Lake 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,200 1984
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Morning Mist, Lookout Island 19.5 x 23.5 Inches oil on canvas $10,000 1984
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Landscape of the Megaliths 19.5 x 23.5 Inches oil on canvas $10,000 1974
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Pond, Asuka, Japan 30 x 40 Inches oil on canvas $15,000 1984
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Driftwood, Vargas Island BC 30 x 40 Inches oil on canvas $15,000 1986
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Cloud, Chilliwack Mountain BC 30 x 40 Inches oil on canvas $15,000 1984
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High Tide Mark 30 x 40 Inches oil on canvas $15,000 1987
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Old Steam Boat Channel 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1981
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Point au Basil 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1983
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Drift Logs, Harrison Lake 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1983
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Chain Islands, Ganges Harbour 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1983
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Khumtzeymateen River, B.C. 11 x 14.5 Inches watercolour $3,250 1991
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Cape Cranford, Borden Peninsula, Baffin Island 22 x 30 Inches watercolour $9,500 1986
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Ancient Tomb, Asuka, Japan 19.5 x 23 Inches oil on canvas $10,000 1985
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Garden at Trevaylor, Cornwall 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1981
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Stackhouse Cove, Cornwall 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,200 1981
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Carfury Farm, Cornwall 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,200 1981
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Hillside, Grenada, Spain 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1985
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Canal 11 x 15 Inches silkscreen on paper $950
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Tokatsu Valley Japan 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1983
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Fire Reflection, Fukurode, Japan 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1983
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Rain, Choyonuma, Kyushu, Japan 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1981
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Seifuso Ryokan, Kyushu, Japan 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1981
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Three Pines, Yamatsuri, Japan 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1983
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Fukuroda Ryokan, Japan 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1983
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Pine, Parsimmon, and Birds 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1983
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Four Pine Trees of Seifuso, Kyushu, Japan 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1981
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Tree at Fukurida, Japan 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1983
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Namas Fuji Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. 11.75 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1983
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Neko Dake, Kyushu, Japan 12 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1981
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Nujubashi Gate and Moat, Imperial Palace 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1984
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Morning Shower, Mt. Fuji 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1988
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Misagisho Eastern Gate, Meiji Jingu Shrine, Tokyo 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1988
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Nujubashi Gate, Imperial Palace, Tokyo 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1984
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Asuka-ni-imasu Shrine, Asuka, Japan 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1984
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Tsurugi-no-ike, Asuka, Japan 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1984
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Bamboo, Tsurighi-no-ike, Asuka Japan 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1984
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Ishibutai Barrow, Asuka, Japan 11 x 15 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1984
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Tiger Pagoda, Suzon, China 11.75 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1988
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Raining on the Left Bank of the Li River 11.75 x 15.5 Inches watercolour $3,000 (unframed) 1988
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| Please email the gallery to view more works by Toni Onley. |
Biography |
Toni Onley is one of Canada’s most celebrated artists. His landscapes have always provided a special significance for Canadians in reviving an appreciation for our surroundings. Onley viewed the landscape with an exceedingly distinctive character. His scenes are unpopulated and figures, either human or animal, are absent from his paintings. Toni Onley has taken his place in a distinctive Canadian succession, however, he has done so as an individual, and without any sense of breaking with his tradition.
Onley was born in 1928 on the Isle of Man, just off the west coast of Britain. This location provided him with the perfect setting to develop his talents for landscape painting. Onley loved to paint and draw at a young age, and at 14 he began his formal education in drawing, watercolour painting, and etching at the Douglas School of Art. After World War II, difficult times forced Onley to immigrate to Canada in 1948. He stayed briefly in southern Ontario, where he studied with landscape painter Carl Schaeffer, and discovered the inspirational watercolours of David Milne. Following his move to BC, in 1955, the urge to travel took Onley to Mexico where he studied Abstract Expressionism at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel. While in Mexico, he began to experiment with collages. His collages, shown in a one-man exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1958, launched Onley’s career.
Onley saw Mexico as a “black and white landscape with occasional primary colours” which limited his artistic inspiration. He had initially painted a series of paintings in oil, however, he was discouraged with the results and ripped the paintings into small pieces. He discovered the beauty of these pieces when he decided to place them together in a collage of shapes and images.
Studying the work of great watercolorists, such as John Sell Cotman, David Cox, Peter De Wint and J.W.M. Turner, at the Norwich School of Watercolour Painting in England, prompted Onley to return to landscape painting in 1964. He returned to Vancouver to revitalize his connection with the Canadian landscape. Since 1967 Onley has captured the Canadian landscape through a unique artistic lens. He became a pilot and flew throughout BC and Alaska, landing his float plane in remote locations. Armed with his watercolour painting kit and his eye for capturing the essence of the moment, Onley created works that continue to have a profound effect on Canadians.
Onley has been credited as a “modern day explorer with an insatiable curiosity to travel to the reaches of the world in search of line, shape and colour.” In addition to exploring the Canadian and British landscape, Onley travelled to Italy, Japan, China, New Zealand, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Alaska, Ireland, Egypt and the Arabian Gulf.
Japanese watercolour painting and his experience with Abstract Expressionism gave Onley’s later works a strong feeling of the flux between time and space. These works depict a profound awareness of the moment, light and the powerful presence of what he witnessed while viewing the land around him.
Toni Onley’s art is found in several distinguished collections, some of which are the Royal Albert and Victorian Museum and the Tate Gallery in London, England, the National Gallery of Canada, as well as the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
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