Jack Shadbolt (1909-1998), was an influential Canadian artist. He had a long, succesful career and is acclaimed throughout the country. This webpage is dedicated to him, his painting A Given Number of Owls in the National Arts Centre, and his journey as an artist.
There are several interactive media components to this webpage that are designed to reflect the artstyle of Shadbolt and tell his story in an engaging manner. You will find a biographical map, an important painting that has been animated and given sound effects, as well as an image of A Given Number of Owls that has been made interactive.
This is a semester long project I have been working on for MPAD2002 at Carleton University. I have done my best to incorporate different design principles and media tools we have learned while studying in the Media Production and Design program.
Although considered a Canadian artist, Shadbolt was actually born in England. This map was made using the colour palette from A Given Number of Owls. The three location markers show places that were important to the development of Jack Shadbolt, both as an artist and a person.
During World War II, Jack Shadbolt was sent to London as a war time artist in the Canadian military. He was tasked with organizing and cataloguing photos taken from various concentration camps. After the war, Shadbolt would return to Canada and made several paintings from the horrific images he saw. This was a big change in the direction of Shadbolt’s art, who had previously focused on The Group of Seven inspired landscape paintings. It’s speculated that the shocking photos he saw in London, pushed Shadbolt to modify his style towards social realism. The painting below, Through the Wire, was painted by Shadbolt in 1946. I have added visual and sound effects to the painting to help give it more weight.
Below you will find a modified version of A Given Number of Owls. There are interactive tooltips that will tell the story of how the NAC got the painting, explanation to the imagery in the piece, showcasing another painting by Shadbolt, and a fun story about how the painting survived in the NAC bar.
I initially chose A Given Number of Owls as the focus of this project because I thought it looked funny. I had never even heard of Jack Shadbolt. Throughout this year, I have done lots of research and learned a lot more about Canadian art then I had ever anticipated.
It was a lot of fun to be immersed in this painting for the year and I have developed a new appreciation and respect for this painting and its artist. I hope this webpage helped you see this painting for more than just a bunch of goofy owls, like I initially did.
The Art@NAC project is a student assignment within MPAD2002: Basics of Visual Communication. Research, narratives, and development are conducted by Bachelor of Media Production (BMPD) 2nd-year students at Carleton University and it is not an official National Art Centre (NAC), Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS), or Carleton University project. Special thanks to the NAC, CIMS, and Carleton University for their support.