Georgia Jarvis

Georgia Jarvis was born in 1944 near the village of Boyle in Northern Alberta, where she was raised on a farm. These rural roots would profoundly shape her artistic vision throughout her career. She initially studied at the University of Alberta, pursuing nursing, and worked as an operating room nurse in the early years of her professional life. In the early 1970s, following a skiing accident, Jarvis discovered her passion for art when she received a painting kit to help pass her recovery time. Entirely self-taught, she began developing her skills and by 1974 had committed to pursuing art full-time, quickly attracting the attention of art dealers across Canada.

In the mid-1970s, Jarvis and her family, including her husband Warren and their two young sons, temporarily relocated to Ontario due to Warren's work transfer. They spent several years in Sarnia and then Don Mills in North Toronto, where Georgia established studios and built her art practice. During these Ontario years, she obtained representation across the country and showcased her work at galleries in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia. Her paintings from this period reflected her love of the outdoors and extensive travels across rural Canada, featuring colorful autumn landscapes, forested streams, mills, and bridges. Her early technique was heavily textural and relied on the palette knife, though her work evolved over time to incorporate more detailed compositions using both brushwork and palette knife.

When the Jarvis family returned to Alberta in the early 1980s, they established a ranch outside of Calgary. Beyond her painting, Jarvis was an avid rider who could often be found in Western gear riding her quarter horse. She was also actively involved in Calgary's 4-H Club, showing champion animals from the family ranch. Her work became increasingly popular with local collectors who sought her oil and acrylic paintings depicting iconic Alberta scenes: Foothills homesteads, Rocky Mountain landscapes often featuring mounted riders, harvest scenes, and quaint rural narratives. In a 1987 interview, she aptly described her art as "totally country." Working in a detailed, realistic style, her paintings reflected the natural beauty of Western Canada through images of snow-covered mountains, golden wheat fields, and picturesque lakes.

Throughout the 1980s, Jarvis was a fixture at the Calgary Stampede Western Art Showcase, where her booth almost always sold out of paintings. She continued to take private commissions and maintain gallery exhibitions. Due to high demand for her work, some popular images were also produced as limited edition prints and collector plates to make her art more accessible to all collectors. Georgia Jarvis passed away in 1990 at age 46 after a short illness.