Unity Bainbridge

Bainbridge married in 1946, moved to San Francisco, CA for five years, then moved back to British Columbia. She was a long-time resident of West Vancouver, British Columbia. She died there on November 30, 2017 at the age of 101.

Bainbridge received the Order of British Columbia in 1993.

In 1976-77 she compiled her research and images from repeated trips to communities between Pemberton and Lillooet. The works comprise Songs of Seton and Lullaby of Lillooet, two small books Bainbridge published in limited editions."

Bainbridge studied in Vancouver at the then newly formed Vancouver School of Art from 1932-1936 under Grace Melvin and Charles Hepburn Scott. After graduating from the Vancouver School of Art, she attended the Cornish School of Art in Seattle briefly but returned to Canada within the year.

In the early 1930s Bainbridge trekked through a vast area of British Columbia's remote wilderness. She preferred to work alone and shunned most art groups. She was invited to join the Canadian Portrait Academy as a Founding Academician, but declined this offer.

She met Lawren Harris in Vancouver in the 1930s and A.Y. Jackson in Toronto and considered Arthur Lismer and A.Y. Jackson among her many mentors.

Unity Bainbridge OBC (July 6, 1916 – November 30, 2017) was a Canadian artist and writer of poetry inspired by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast and its landscape.