Jack Shadbolt is one of the most highly respected and important artists working in Canada today. His passionate and intense study of the dynamics of colour and organic form for more than sixty years has rendered him a "tour de force" of abstract painting in the world of art. Much of his early painting career was also paralleled by a career in teaching that has left a lasting legacy with countless British Columbia artists and teachers over the years.

Jack Leonard Shadbolt was born February 4, 1909 in Shoeburyness, England and passed away in Vancouver in 1998. His parents were trades people who provided a home life that respected things made by hand. His father Edmund, was a signwriter, and his mother Alice, a dressmaker. The Shadbolts left England for Canada when Jack was three and after a brief stay in Nelson, settled in Victoria, British Columbia in 1914.

Jack credits his home life for his love of making things. He had a strong interest in technical drawing and athletics in high school, but it wasn't until he met fellow artists Max Maynard and Emily Carr that he began to seriously pursue his art. After completing studies at Victoria College and the provincial Normal School, he began to teach art; first in Duncan, then after moving to Vancouver in 1931, at Kitsilano High School. Following a series of sabbaticals which led him to Chicago, Toronto, New York, London and Paris; he began to teach at the Vancouver School of Art in 1938, a tenure which he continued until his retirement in 1966.

Throughout his long teaching career, and now, more than twenty five years later, Jack Shadbolt continues a prolific "search of form" in drawing, painting and in printmaking. Since his first group show with the Island Arts and Crafts Society in 1932, he has held solo exhibitions or been part of group exhibitions virtually every year.

His work has been shown across Canada, the United States, Venezuela, Brazil, England, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Australia and in Japan. He was awarded the Order of Canada in 1972 and has been the recipient of numerous other awards including the prestigious Gershon Iskowitcz Prize for his contributions to Canadian art.