Brenda Carter, Canadian artist and adventurer, dies at 67. Brenda Helen Carter, of Merrickville, died on February 18, 2010, after a long illness with a brain tumour. Carter is recognized in Canada and abroad as a wildlife and landscape artist; she traveled and painted for over forty years. Often challenged by powerful elements and her subject matter (including lions, musk ox and polar bears), her adventure-packed expeditions to the Canadian Arctic resulted in a rich legacy of work. She painted on location throughout the world: the Canadian Arctic, the Antarctic, Africa, Australia, the U.K., Ireland, the Galapagos Islands, Central America, and South America. The first woman to receive both the Duck's Unlimited Stamp Award as well as the Wildlife Habitat Canada Art Award, Carter conducted extensive research in the field. Much of her painting was done on location in acrylics and watercolours. Later in her career, influenced by European artists, her painting was in an impressionistic plein air style. Her work was exhibited and commissioned in North America and abroad by the Canadian and National Geographical Societies, Chimo Hotels, Remington Art Museum, Canadian Museum of Nature, and Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. For many years, she exhibited at her own gallery in Merrickville, Ontario, and wrote a monthly bird column for local newspapers. Born in Calgary (January 22, 1943) and raised in the Ottawa Valley, Carter studied at the Hilton Leach School of Art and the Ringling School of Art in Florida. In 1964 she was employed by the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Canadian Wildlife Service; her work deepened her understanding of biology, animal behaviour and anatomy. She then worked for several years as an assistant to T. H. Manning, tagging polar bears for the Canadian Government on a circumpolar project involving Canada, the US, Scandinavia and Russia. The Canadian Government sponsored a painting summer for her to travel throughout the High Arctic, under the same format as used by A.Y. Jackson. She continued her high arctic work by accompanying other scientists in research camps, learning valuable observation techniques, and gaining the opportunity to paint in otherwise inaccessible areas. Brenda Carter was an accomplished horsewoman and had her airplane pilot’s license. Carter started the Merrickville Studio Tour in 1984. The original artists formed the Merrickville Artist's Guild. She was also one of the founding members of a group of established and emerging landscape and wildlife artists in northeastern United States who met annually to view and critique one another’s work. In 1999, she began an unusual project, to draw and paint as many species of birds in North America as possible in one year. By year's end, she had completed 514 species - all sketched in the wild. Her total reached 600. During that time she filled many sketchbooks with thousands of drawings from life. To keep in practice, she began sketching from a live model with the Go Figure! art club. She was a member of the Merrickville Artist's Guild, the Society of Animal Artists and the Ottawa Watercolour Society. In ¬¬¬¬¬March 2005, Carter married Gerard Phillips, an avid birder, photographer and artist. Combining their life styles, Carter and Phillips worked and traveled together. They also served as nature leaders for the Voyageur Canoe trips to the Rideau River Bird Sanctuary. Their volunteer work included five years (2001-2005) with the Breeding Bird Atlas for Ontario, finding new regional breeding species; Carter designed the Atlas T-shirt logo. For several years they lead Durham High School students studying art and birds at Point Pelee. In recent years, Brenda overcame her disability and continued her creative work by dictating and illustrating a series of short novels: Albatross; A Birder Murder Mystery (2009), and The Roc That Flew (2009) a children’s book. A third book, The Keeper of the Chant, is almost complete. Brenda Carter is survived by Gerard Phillips, her devoted husband; Doris Brenda Carter, her mother, in Venice, Florida; her siblings Rand Carter, in Venice, Florida, Charlotte Carter, Hannacroix, New York, and Richard Carter, Altus, Oklahoma; her nieces and nephew, Rachel, Sadie and Carter Neugarten; her brothers and sisters-in-law in Ireland; Laurenne Petrie, her god-daughter. and many loving and supportive artists, friends and neighbours. Brenda’s work reflects her deep knowledge and appreciation of the natural world. Her interpretations provide a rich panorama of the land, animals and people by one of Canada's most dedicated field artists. A celebration of Brenda Carter’s life will, according to her wishes, be planned by her family and friends. Donations in Brenda’s memory may be made to Theatre Night in Merrickville, The Merrickville Library, The Merrickville Historical Society, The Prince Edward County Bird Observatory or the charity of your choice, in recognition of the cooperation between people, aboriginal communities, and our natural world.