Abstraction by Toni Onley

Widely known for his distinctive landscapes, British Columbia artist Toni Onley was born in 1928 on the Isle of Man and was educated in England and Mexico. He made his first trip to the Arctic in 1974 and later published “Onley's Arctic: Diaries and Paintings of the High Arctic”. His work has been the subject of a critical study by Roger Boulet entitled “Toni Onley, A Silent Thunder”. A recipient of the Order of Canada, Onley published Toni Onley's “British Columbia: A Tribute”(Raincoast, 1999) and an autobiography, “Flying Colours: The Toni Onley Story” (Harbour Publishing, 2003), as told to Gregory Strong, which recounts his victory as a 'Rolls-Royce rebel' who fought against Revenue Canada on a personal taxation issue, threatening to burn his paintings.

Onley died on February 29, 2004 in a single-plane accident when he crashed his plane into the Fraser River while presumably practicing landings and take-offs.