Alma Duncan

Infobox Artist
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name = Alma Duncan

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caption = Alma Duncan - Self Portrait with Braids (1940)
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birthdate = October 1917
location = Paris, Ontario, Canada
deathdate = December 15th, 2004
deathplace = Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
nationality = Canadian
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Alma Mary Duncan (October 1917cite web|url= http://mikan3.archives.ca/pam/public_mikan/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=106884&rec_nbr_list=2996882|title= Alma Duncan and Audrey Mclaren fonds [multiple media] |accessdate= 2008-02-23|publisher= Library and Archives Canada] - December 15 2004cite web|url= http://www.delake.com/estatescollections/page2.htm|title= Alma Duncan|accessdate= 2008-02-23|format= HTML|publisher= D & E Lake, Ltd.] ) was a Canadian painter, graphic artist, and filmmaker.

Early life

Alma Duncan was born in the southwestern Ontario town of Paris, but attended high school in Hamilton, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. Though largely self-taught as an artist, she studied with Canadian painter Adam Sheriff Scott as a teenager and later took studio drawing courses at the Roberts-Neumann School of Art.

War Work

In 1943, Duncan obtained permission to document the lives of war workers and the members of the Canadian Women's Army Corps with her sketches. Several of these pieces are now held by the Canadian War Museum in its Beaverbrook Collection of War Art. [cite web | title = Résultats de la recherche/Search Results | work = Rivetting ships' boilers | publisher = Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation | url = http://collections.civilization.ca/public/pages/cmccpublic/emupublic/Display.php?irn=1019134 | accessdate = 2008-02-23] [cite web | title = Résultats de la recherche/Search Results | work = Interior of boiler shop (ship building) | publisher = Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation | url = http://collections.civilization.ca/public/pages/cmccpublic/emupublic/Display.php?irn=1019135 | accessdate = 2008-02-23] [cite web | title = Résultats de la recherche/Search Results | work = Shaping hot metal under hammer (ship building) | publisher = Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation | url = http://collections.civilization.ca/public/pages/cmccpublic/emupublic/Display.php?irn=1019136 | accessdate = 2008-02-23]

National Film Board

In 1943, the National Film Board of Canada invited Duncan to join its Graphics Division. She worked first with the Information Display department, designing posters, publications, and travelling displays for National Film Board projects. She moved to the NFB's Animation Department when the Graphics Division was disbanded and produced her first film, "Folksong Fantasy" (shown at the 1951 Edinburgh International Film Festival) while under contract with the NFB as an independent producer.

Dunclaren Productions

In 1951, Alma Dunan and her longtime partner, photographer Audrey McLaren, formed the film company Dunclaren Productions. Their first film, "Kumak the Sleepy Hunter" (1953) was a retelling of an Inuit legend using puppets and a stop-motion animation technique. It was nominated for a BAFTA award in 1954 as a documentary filmcite web | title = IMDb: BAFTA Awards: 1954 | url = http://media-imdb.com/Sections/Awards/BAFTA_Awards/1954 | accessdate = 2008-02-23] . They produced two other films, "Hearts and Soles" (1955), which used the same animation techniques as "Kumak", and "Friendly Interchange" (1959), which was made with chalk drawings. Though the production company never disbanded, it became inactive after 1960.

Canada Post

In 1970, Canada Post commissioned Alma Duncan to design stamps. She produced the series "The Maple in four Seasons" (released in 1971) and the series "Floral Aerogrammes" (released in 1973). Her "Autumn" stamp from the "Maple in four Seasons" series was selected as the stamp of the month by the "Scott Monthly Journal"cite book | last = Macdonald | first = Colin | title = A Dictionary of Canadian Artists | edition = 5th | year = 1997 | publisher = Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd. | location = Ottawa, Canada | isbn = 0-919554-21-0 | pages = pp. 662a-664a] , a periodical from the creators of the Scott catalogue that commented on stamps worldwide.

Later life

From 1960 until her death, most of Alma Duncan's time was devoted to her painting and drawing, much of it done on location near her home outside of Cumberland, Ontario. However, she maintained her interests in both industrial subjects (which began during her World War Two project and resulted in a traveling retrospective of her industrial drawings in 1987, mounted by the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario) and the Canadian North (spending two months in 1975 on a sketching trip to Baffin and Ellesmere Islands).

She died on December 15th, 2004, after a long illness.

References

Persondata
NAME = Duncan, Alma
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Duncan, Alma Mary
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Canadian painter, artist, filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH = October 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH = Paris, Ontario
DATE OF DEATH = December 15, 2004
PLACE OF DEATH = Ottawa, Ontario, Canada