ALEEN AKED. [1907-2003]. AOCA. SAA. SSAL.

Aleen Aked was born in Kildwick, Yorkshire, England and moved to Canada at age three. At fourteen she won an Arthur Lismer Junior Course Scholarship at the Ontario College of Art and later a fulltime scholarship. She studied under Group of Seven members Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, F.W. Varley, and A.Y. Jackson. She also studied under J.W. Beatty, George Reid, Fred Haines, Yvonne McKague Housser, Emmanuel Hahn, and Sydney March and at the Ontario College of Art (her classmates included Doris McCarthy and Isabel McLaughlin). From 1929 until 1944 she spent Winters in Sarasota, Florida and Summers in Ontario. She exhibited regularly in Florida and became a member of the Southern States Art League and the Sarasota Art Association. In 1942 she served as president of the S.A.A. She also studied at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota and privately under American painters Abbott Graves (still-lifes) and Robert Brackman (portraits). She exhibited regularly in Canada at the Canadian National Exhibition, the Royal Canadian Academy, and the Ontario Society of Artists. In 1989 a major retrospective of her work was held at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario.

Exhibited: “Exhibition of Oil Paintings by Aleen Aked”, March 3rd to 17th, 1940, Sarasota Art Association, Florida, (#2, illustrated on the printed brochure, proceeds from the sale were to be given to the Finnish Relief Fund).

Provenance: Estate of the Artist, Tyrone, Ontario.