Jack Leonard Shadbolt, born in Shoeburyness, England, immigrated to Canada with his family in 1911. Growing up in Victoria, BC, Shadbolt developed a deep affection for and understanding of the riches of the natural world. Shadbolt trained initially as a teacher and worked for several years on Vancouver Island and in Vancouver. In 1938, he started studying at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts, where he trained with Frederick Varley and others. Following his graduation from the VSDAA, Shadbolt took a position with the school and taught there, after distinguished war service, until 1966, when he retired as head of the Painting and Design department.

Shadbolt had a rich career as both an artist and a teacher but, perhaps paradoxically, his greatest success came following his teaching career. An important retrospective exhibition, Jack Shadbolt, was organized for the National Gallery of Canada by Anthony Emery, director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, in 1969. Following this major traveling show, Shadbolt’s career was reignited, and he remained a central figure in the art community of Vancouver and Canada until his death in 1998.

Shadbolt and his art were both deeply connected to the natural world. Its life cycles informed much of his artistic expression, but he was equally interested in ideas of abstraction. Shadbolt was an exceptionally gifted draughtsman, and his work often moved from vividly observed depictions of the natural world towards abstraction. This approach, laid out in his 1968 book In Search of Form, characterizes much of his mature work. Shadbolt was not, however, an artist who rested on his laurels; he was constantly exploring new ideas and approaches to communicate his visual and expressive genius. Often Shadbolt’s ideas could not be addressed on a single painting surface, and he developed many works that involved multiple canvases or boards, such as Between No. 5.

The title of this striking work reflects Shadbolt’s deep interest in the transitory life cycles of the natural world. Nature is never static and insects, such as the butterflies that dominate this image, are always in a state of becoming. From his youth in Victoria, Shadbolt had a lifelong interest in Indigenous forms, which often appear in his work. In this painting, a drum, embellished with bound feathers around its edge, provides a striking background for the form of the mature monarch butterfly. Two drumsticks rest on the surface of the drum, either side of the finely delineated insect. The transitory nature of the butterfly’s life is emphasized in the emerging and dissolving forms of the insect in the left and right panels. As Shadbolt’s title implies, a butterfly is always transitory or between—emerging in the left panel, briefly but elegantly mature in the central panel, and in decay in the right panel.

Between No. 5 abundantly demonstrates the range of Shadbolt’s skills and interests. The painting, visually compelling and forcefully executed, shows Shadbolt’s command of colour, form and drawing. The forms themselves, natural as well as abstracted, reveal his deep interest in both the natural world and artistic invention. This bold work also conveys, in its physical form and title, Shadbolt’s acute awareness of our transitory place in the world.

This work is a triptych consisting of three panels each measuring 40 x 32 inches.

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