Christopher Pratt. Photo by Ned Pratt (via The Rooms on Facebook.)
A Newfoundland artist who became one of the most famous and famous Canadian painters and engravers of modern times has died.
Christopher Pratt was 86 years old.
He was born in St. John’s in 1935 and, while attending Mount St. Allison of Sackville, New Brunswick, discovered her love of the fine arts. Encouraged by painting by Group of Seven member Lawren Harris and Nova Scotian painter Alex Colville, he studied at the Glasgow School of Art in the 1950’s.
While still in school, he worked summers at the Argentia Naval Base, a period that inspired many of his early works. For decades he was married to fellow artist Mary Pratt, with whom he raised four children.
A fiercely proud Newfoundlander, he designed the provincial flag in 1981. He was named a Fellow of the Order of Canada in 1983 and received the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2018.
Christopher Pratt. Trongate Abstract, Art School Fire (2018). Through The Rooms on Facebook
His paintings and engravings were scarce and disturbing, and represented a variety of places and people he encountered throughout his life.
Pratt moved his family to the Salmonier area of St. John’s Bay. Mary in the 1960s, where she maintained her home and study for the rest of her life. He also established an art gallery at the former cable station in his mother’s hometown, Bay Roberts.
Among those mourning her loss are her four children and a large circle of family, friends and admirers.