Molly Lamb Bobak, Canada's first female overseas war artist, dead at 95

Molly Lamb Bobak, a long-time resident of Fredericton who was the first Canadian woman to be sent overseas as an official war artist, has died.

She was 95.

Bobak was born on Lulu Island, B.C., and studied art in Vancouver before joining the Canadian Women’s Army Corps in 1942. Three years later she went overseas as an official war artist.

"I’d been in the army three years, just begging to be a war artist," Bobak told the CBC in 1993.

She married her husband Bruno Bobak, a fellow artist, in 1945 and remained with the women’s corps until 1946.

After the war, she returned to Vancouver and taught art. In 1960, she moved with Bruno to Fredericton.

"That proved to be the start of a lasting relationship of love for the city and the province and the genesis of what was to become their extraordinary contribution to the visual arts scene in the city," her obituary said.

Bobak received numerous awards during her artistic career, including honorary doctorates from Mount Allison University, the University of New Brunswick and St. Thomas University.

Her work is found in collections across Canada. In 1993, she spoke about her love of painting crowds and flowers.

"I see something and it's spontaneous and it's moving and it's about the movement of something, like crowds and colour and flowers and colour," she said. 

Bobak was awarded the Order of Canada in 1995 and received the Order of New Brunswick in 2002.