The E J Hughes Book Of Boats

Winner of the 2021 BC and Yukon Book Prizes' Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award Boat lovers of all ages and people who enjoy the scenery of BC’s coast will delight in this charming gift book, a worthy addition to books about BC’s art history. In the course of his career, one of BC’s most beloved painters, E. J. Hughes (1913–2007), depicted paddle wheelers, steamships, fishing boats, and car ferries. Now The E. J. Hughes Book of Boats brings many of his coastal paintings of boats together in one handsome volume—a book for art lovers and boating enthusiasts alike. Robert Amos is the official biographer of E. J. Hughes, and works with the participation of the Estate of E. J. Hughes. The Book of Boats follows the success of his two geographically-based volumes, E. J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island (2018) and E. J. Hughes Paints British Columbia (2019). This new compendium features never-before-seen sketches and photographs accompanying full-page illustrations of some of the artist’s finest works.

Winner of the 2021 BC and Yukon Book Prizes' Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award Boat lovers of all ages and people who enjoy the scenery of BC’s coast will delight in this charming gift book, a worthy addition to books about BC’s art history. In the course of his career, one of BC’s most beloved painters, E. J. Hughes (1913–2007), depicted paddle wheelers, steamships, fishing boats, and car ferries. Now The E. J. Hughes Book of Boats brings many of his coastal paintings of boats together in one handsome volume—a book for art lovers and boating enthusiasts alike. Robert Amos is the official biographer of E. J. Hughes, and works with the participation of the Estate of E. J. Hughes. The Book of Boats follows the success of his two geographically-based volumes, E. J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island (2018) and E. J. Hughes Paints British Columbia (2019). This new compendium features never-before-seen sketches and photographs accompanying full-page illustrations of some of the artist’s finest works.

The latest instalment in the award-winning series on the life and work of E. J. Hughes brings the reader into this very private artist’s home and studio on Shawnigan Lake. In the most intimate volume yet about prolific Canadian painter E. J. Hughes, the artist’s official biographer Robert Amos brings us Life at the Lake, capturing the years Hughes and his wife Fern spent at their home on Shawnigan Lake, Vancouver Island. Following Hughes’s service as a war artist, in 1946 he and Fern looked for a place to buy in Victoria. Then, in 1951, they spotted an ad for a property on Shawnigan Lake, about 40 kilometres north of the city. The quiet lakeside existence he and Fern established suited his temperament and artistic needs perfectly. In addition to reproductions of all of his Shawnigan-themed oils and watercolours, the book includes dozens of sketches, colour notes, local news clippings, letters, and illuminating excerpts from recorded interviews with Pat Salmon, Hughes’s longtime friend and assistant. With a keen appreciation for the quotidian, Amos captures lakeside life at Shawnigan, with Hughes’s observations on birds and trees, and trips to local shops and restaurants. He tells of an unusually snowy winter that slowed the delivery of finished paintings to the post office and, on a more sombre note, the gradual progression of Fern’s muscular dystrophy. The book shares insights into the relationships—with Fern, Pat, and agent Max Stern—that allowed Hughes to achieve great success as an artist while living a quiet existence at Shawnigan Lake. For the Hughes fan and anyone who enjoys learning about the everyday lives of artists, this latest addition to the Hughes pictorial canon is a must.

A retrospective on one of BC’s most famous artists that features beautifully reproduced landscape paintings from all over mainland BC, and unveils new photographs, sketches, and ephemera from the artist’s estate. E. J. Hughes (1913–2007) is British Columbia’s best-loved landscape painter. His unashamedly picturesque views of the province are appreciated by art professionals and the public alike. Following the success of his previous volume, E. J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island, author and artist Robert Amos now follows the footsteps of the artist as Hughes travelled throughout mainland British Columbia from Stanley Park to Savary Island, from Fraser Valley to the Okanagan, and from the Kootenays to the Rockies between the 1930s and 1970s. Working the with Estate of E. J. Hughes, Amos has created a nuanced representation of the activities and life of this extraordinarily talented and very private man. Both biography and monograph, this book features full-page, full-colour reproductions of Hughes’s finest paintings, many of them published here for the first time. Each painting is accompanied by supporting sketches, drawings, and photographs from Hughes’s personal archive.

Now available in paperback, this handsome retrospective on one of BC's most beloved artists unveils photographs, sketches, and ephemera from the artist's estate. The reputation of E. J. Hughes in British Columbia is second only to that of Emily Carr. His paintings, collected by every major gallery in our country, fetch more than $1 million at auction. Yet Hughes lived a notoriously private life. Hughes painted scenes from all over BC, but he especially loved Vancouver Island, and lived most of his 93 years at Shawnigan Lake and Duncan. This book features paintings from his beloved island home--from Sidney, past Goldstream and the Malahat to Cowichan Bay, Genoa Bay, and Maple Bay. With stops along the way, he painted scenes from Ladysmith, Nanaimo, Comox, and Courtenay. Hughes recorded the passing of an era, capturing the coastal steamships, log booms, fishing boats, and the landscapes he treasured. This book includes a biography of the artist, highlights more than 60 of his finest works alongside sketches and photos revealing his studio methods, and shares his handwritten notes.

The latest instalment in the award-winning series on the life and work of E. J. Hughes brings the reader into this very private artist’s home and studio on Shawnigan Lake. In the most intimate volume yet about prolific Canadian painter E. J. Hughes, the artist’s official biographer Robert Amos brings us Life at the Lake, capturing the years Hughes and his wife Fern spent at their home on Shawnigan Lake, Vancouver Island. Following Hughes’s service as a war artist, in 1946 he and Fern looked for a place to buy in Victoria. Then, in 1951, they spotted an ad for a property on Shawnigan Lake, about 40 kilometres north of the city. The quiet lakeside existence he and Fern established suited his temperament and artistic needs perfectly. In addition to reproductions of all of his Shawnigan-themed oils and watercolours, the book includes dozens of sketches, colour notes, local news clippings, letters, and illuminating excerpts from recorded interviews with Pat Salmon, Hughes’s longtime friend and assistant. With a keen appreciation for the quotidian, Amos captures lakeside life at Shawnigan, with Hughes’s observations on birds and trees, and trips to local shops and restaurants. He tells of an unusually snowy winter that slowed the delivery of finished paintings to the post office and, on a more sombre note, the gradual progression of Fern’s muscular dystrophy. The book shares insights into the relationships—with Fern, Pat, and agent Max Stern—that allowed Hughes to achieve great success as an artist while living a quiet existence at Shawnigan Lake. For the Hughes fan and anyone who enjoys learning about the everyday lives of artists, this latest addition to the Hughes pictorial canon is a must.