Sylvia Tait


Sylvia Tait is a Canadian abstract painter and print-maker.

Life

Tait attended the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School of Art and Design from 1949 to 1953, completing an undergraduate degree. Her instructors included Arthur Lismer, Jacques de Tonnancour, Marian Scott, Eldon Grier, Gordon Webber and William Armstrong.
Tait married artist and poet Eldon Grier in 1954. He had long-standing connections in Mexico and they spent extended periods in San Miguel de Allende in the late 1950s. The couple moved to British Columbia in 1968 and Tait set up her studio in West Vancouver.

Exhibitions and influences

Tait has exhibited in Canada, Mexico and Ecuador since the 1950s. Since 1977, Tait has been affiliated with the Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver, BC. Tait's work Aquascapes was installed at the West Vancouver Pool in 2004, and fully restored in 2013.

Notable exhibitions

Among her influences were the Abstract Expressionism art movement and classical music. Although Tait's early paintings were representational, her mature and current works on canvas and on paper are purely abstract, showing a complex use of layered high key colour. Tait's paintings have been described as "visual image-like poetry, using colour instead of words."

Publications

Tait collaborated with Grier and John Huberman in the design and illustration of several books, including: