A colorful abstract artwork featuring two large bird-like shapes in vibrant hues of red, blue, green, and yellow. The background displays a gradient sky transitioning from blue to brown and features a stylized green-topped mountain. Various shapes and colors overlap at the bottom, suggesting a landscape.

Jack Shadbolt, December Birds, 1983, serigraph on paper. SFU Art Collection. Gift of the Shadbolt Estate, 2008.

Victor Ballesteros
A colorful abstract artwork featuring two large bird-like shapes in vibrant hues of red, blue, green, and yellow. The background displays a gradient sky transitioning from blue to brown and features a stylized green-topped mountain. Various shapes and colors overlap at the bottom, suggesting a landscape.

Title

December Birds

Artist

Jack Shadbolt

Year

1983

Medium

Serigraph on paper

Collection

SFU Art Collection

Donor

Gift of the Shadbolt Estate

Year Acquired

2008

Artists

Jack Shadbolt (1909-1998) is known for his vibrant, expressionistic paintings that draw from his own personal experience and from the social and political events that have shaped British Columbia and world history, such as the struggles of First Nations, the Second World War, and the environmental movement. A gifted teacher and longtime faculty member at The Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University of Art + Design), he was tireless in his fight to establish a space for the visual arts in contemporary life, not just for himself but for younger generations of artists. The SFU Art Collection has significant holdings of Shadbolt’s work and has held the copyright for the estate of Jack and Doris Shadbolt since 2011. His work is represented in all major galleries across Canada as well as in numerous corporate and private collections. Shadbolt received the Order of Canada in 1972.