Frank Panabaker

Frank Shirley Panabaker was a painter of landscapes, with his focus on Southern Ontario. Panabaker was born in Hespeler, Ontario, on August 16, 1904. He was the son of the local wool Mill manager and one-time Mayor of the town. Panabaker studied art in many locations, beginning in Hespeler under Farquhar McGillivray Knowles and his wife, Elizabeth McGillivray Knowles who gave him lessons. He was able to attend the Ontario College of Art under Arthur Lismer and J.E.H. MacDonald. He continued his artistic studies at the Grand Central School of Art in New York City, became an award-winning member of the Salmagundi Club also in New York. A self-supporting professional artist for his entire adult life, Panabaker began his painting career during the Great Depression in Hamilton, Ontario, where he lived with his wife Katherine. He would drive across Southern Ontario, to the shores of Georgian Bay, through Haliburton, Muskoka and Algonquin Park painting in all seasons, in all kinds of weather. Panabaker ventured to paint the Rockies several years and even traveled abroad to Nassau and the British Isles. He was never without his painting box, making sketches and notes for when he was back in his studio, where he worked-up his timeless images of what he had seen. Panabaker also marked the times by painting scenes of the Hamilton Farmers Market, the Royal Yacht Britannia in Hamilton Harbor and documenting the Steel City in all its elements and growth. He used various empty buildings in Hamilton for his one-man shows, once renting the old Birks building for an exhibition in 1933 where he sold eight paintings during the first four days. However, it was a visit to the gallery by Sara D. Roosevelt, mother of Franklin D. Roosevelt, that boosted his fortunes as the Toronto Mail and Empire reported that Mrs. Roosevelt had purchased a small seascape. Panabaker sold 18 more pictures in the following two days. Early in his lengthy career, he was hired by Cootes-Hallmark to produce a painting of a winter scene each year, to be reproduced for Christmas cards and sold nationally. He was a long-standing member of the Allied Artists of America, one of a handful of Canadians ever to be elected, as well as an associate member of the Royal Canadian Academy. He was a member of the board of trustees for the National Gallery in Ottawa for six years. Panabaker painted up until the last weeks of his life, dying at the age of 87 in 1992 in Hamilton.