Impressions of the heart

Pilar Izzard with works by her late husband Daniel Izzard at the Park Royal North gallery

Todd Coyne photo

The inspiration he couldn't find in Toronto or Montreal, Daniel Izzard would eventually find in West Vancouver.

In 1952, the young Royal Navy seaman had freshly quit his post and his native England, pointing his prow instead toward the New World and the new life he hoped to paint there.

Inspired by the Canadian wilderness and determined to make his name in its rendering, it was a slow migration from the east before Izzard discovered that the country he most wanted to paint was particular to the West Coast.

Exactly 30 years since taking leave from Queen and country, Izzard would be asked to present his canvas, "Mountain Mists, Whistler, BC," to Queen Elizabeth II in a ceremony marking Canada's own independence from the Crown. It was Proclamation Day in Ottawa, April 17, 1982.

Four years later, Izzard got a new heart, becoming, at 62, the country's oldest heart transplant recipient.

To know all this of Izzard's background is to know his art, says Pilar Izzard, Daniel's widow since his death in 2007.

And that background is a big part of Daniel J. Izzard, a new retrospective curated by Pilar at a gallery space in Park Royal North.

For the exhibit, Pilar has exclusively trotted out oil canvases painted in the couple's shared West Vancouver home. All of the pieces are from Pilar's private collection and some are being offered to the public for the first time.

She's doing it, she says, because she's afraid Daniel and fellow impressionist painters are unduly falling out of fashion in the art world.

"Everything in art galleries now is modern, modern, modern," Pilar tells The Outlook while wandering the Park Royal gallery. "I want especially the young people to know about this work."

But there's another reason Pilar is hosting the retrospective.

After Daniel's successful heart transplant surgery, he went on to serve as an honourary chairman of the BC Heart and Stroke Foundation. And so Pilar hopes the exhibition will not only pay homage to her husband's artistry and philanthropy but pay real dollars to the Heart and Stroke foundation through a portion of the proceeds of the artworks sold.

On until March 30, visitors are welcome to visit Daniel J. Izzard in Unit 750 outside The Bay at Park Royal North, West Vancouver. The gallery is open daily until 6 p.m.

For more information, visit danielizzard.com.

tcoyne@northshoreoutlook.com
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