Beach Scene

Molly Lamb Bobak loved the poetry of people. In crowds, she found beauty in the spontaneity of their ordering and disordering. Her paintings of beaches on Canada's east and west coasts were from sketching strolls she made on numerous occasions.

“It is an interest I have had ever since I was a kid. I simply love gatherings, minglings, not so much sports although I used to love going to baseball games and seeing crowds. I think that I rationalize it - this is really true - I have been thinking about this and I say that it’s like little ants crawling, the sort of insignificance and yet the beauty of people all getting together.” [1]

Molly Lamb Bobak was one of the premiere Canadian figurative artists of the post-WWll generation. Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, she moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick in 1960 when her husband, artist Bruno Bobak, was hired as the artist in residence at University of New Brunswick. 

Molly Lamb Bobak holds the distinction of being Canada’s first female Official War Artist to serve overseas. She was a strong colourist, perhaps in a fauve tradition, and with a poetry in paint somewhat akin to modern French artists, most noticeably Raoul Dufy. From our personal experience working with her for nearly 50 years, Molly's paintings often reflect the most positive aspects of the human experience, a temperament she herself embodied.

Walter Klinkhoff Gallery was an avid promoter of Molly’s career and had numerous exhibitions beginning in 1967 and then 1968, 1975, 1981, 1985, 1989 and 1993.

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Footnote: 

[1] Ian G. Lumsden, The Queen Comes to New Brunswick: Paintings and Drawings by Molly Lamb Bobak (Saint John: Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 1977), 8.