mural 18
3.05M X 1.5M (10’ X 5’),
Julia Askew-First Child Of European Ancestry Born In The Chemainus Valley
Painted in 1986 by Elizabeth Smily
West Vancouver
The Artist
Upon graduating from the Royal Academy School in London in 1949, Elizabeth Smily won the Lord Leverhulme award, accorded the best student in painting, sculpture or architecture. Three years later she moved to Montreal, where she taught portraiture and life drawing. During her stay, she exhibited her work in the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.
Smily and her husband came to Vancouver in the late 1960’s. She has continued to paint portraits, including that of the family of the Canadian High Commissioner to Hong Kong, and of the retired Archivist of the United States. In addition to works in numerous private and public collections, Elizabeth Smily has three of her portraits hanging in the Royal Academy in London, England.
The Art
Julia Askew was the first of seven children born in Chemainus to Thomas George and Isabel Julia Askew. An older brother was born in Victoria two years earlier, but Julia was the first child actually born in the young town of Chemainus. She was delivered on February 22, 1871 at Horseshoe Bay, with a Native midwife in attendance.
Julia’s parents were the builders and owners of the second mill in Chemainus, and Isabel Askew continued to act as resident manager for many years after her husband’s death.Painted in 1986 by Elizabeth Smily,
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