Elizabeth Shatford
1919-2010
With sadness the family of Elizabeth Eleanor Shatford , age 90, of Amherst and formerly of Halifax, announce her peaceful passing at the Northumberland Hall, Amherst, on Saturday March 6th,2010.
Born, August 10, 1919 in Charlottetown, P.E.I. she was the daughter of Robert Douglas Lindsay and Emily Eleanor (Wickwire) Bligh of Kentville, NS. She spent her youth with her family and younger sister Barbara (Ganong) in Kentville . She attended Dalhousie University graduating with a B.Sc ( Biology ) in 1941. After graduation she worked at Imperial Oil in Dartmouth as a lab technician where she met and married her husband Ralph Grant Shatford. From there they moved to Calgary in 1948 where they had their first son Douglas(1949) and then in 1952 to Sarnia, Ontario where second son James (1955) was born. In 1965, Toronto was the next stop until the move to Sydney Nova Scotia in 1967 . Her husband Grant died in the fall of 1968 and she returned to Toronto. She enrolled at the University of Toronto in the Fine Arts program and started her artistic career in earnest. In 1972, she attended a summer long course of instruction with faculty members of University of Toronto in Nice, France. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from U of T in 1974. She explored many mediums including printmaking, painting in acrylics, oils, watercolors and sculpture .
In 1974 she moved to Halifax and attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1975. She continued to paint and teach art and painting to a number of private students. She was the curator of the Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery’s Slide Registry of Nova Scotia Woman Artists. In 1985 her works were put on display at the Mount Gallery as a solo exhibition entitled “Doric Column/ works by Elizabeth Shatford”.
Betty was active in the Antiquarian Society (Halifax) and regularly presented papers on art , architecture and history. She became an avid traveller and went on excursions to New York, London, Ireland, Paris and Russia to visit galleries, museums and attend the theatre. She had a particular fascination with the Bloomsberry Group of artists, writers and academics and was a voracious reader of every volume written about the group.
In 2003, she moved to Centennial Villa in Amherst where she enjoyed in her later years being close to her Amherst family. She was also a sun worshipper. On a sunny warm day you could always find her in her favourite chair on the porch or deck basking in the warmth for hours at a time. She was able to be with her family for all the Christmas and other holiday celebrations and to have visits from her sister Barbara and her son James and their families . She would always attend the theatrical performances, band concerts and all graduation ceremonies for all her grandchildren. In August 2009 family and friends gathered in Amherst to celebrate her 90th birthday. She recently moved to the Northumberland Hall where she impressed everyone with her painting skills. She was happy to be home again.
She will be sadly missed by her sons Douglas Bligh( Heather ) , Amherst, N.S .and James Grant(Clare Almack) , Vancouver,B.C. , sister Barbara Alice(King) Ganong of Vancouver B.C.; grandchildren Julia Alice,(Toronto, Ont.) ,Rebecca Marion,(Moscow, Russia) Laura Elizabeth,(Earltown) and William Grant Shatford (Halifax) and niece and nephews Jane Elizabeth Hicks ,(Vancouver,B.C.), David Bligh Ganong ,(Victoria,B.C.), Bruce Lindsey Ganong ,B.C., (San Francisco, Calif.)
Elizabeth’s remains have been entrusted into the care of Furlong Jones Funeral home Amherst to be cremated and then to be interred at the Oak cemetery in Kentville , Nova Scotia . Funeral and family memorial service will be held Christ Church in Amherst on April 10th, 2010 at 11 a.m.