Jennifer Dickson, 1936-2025, was an accomplished artist, unconventional mother and secret sorceress

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The internationally renowned Canadian artist Jennifer Dickson, who made her home in Ottawa and was honoured in 2023 for her influence on the city’s cultural scene, died peacefully earlier this month, not long after fulfilling her desire to see the ocean one last time. 

She was 88. 

Her son, Bill Sweetman, who often travelled with his mother, accompanied her on a recent getaway to the Dominican Republic. It was their last voyage together. 

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“It was very special, more special than I realized,” Sweetman said in an interview. “She got to experience the ocean and I took her around to show her the flowers. She loved the landscaping and flower gardens, and we had quite a few cocktails.” Her favourite was gin and tonic, he added

Mother and son returned to Ottawa on Jan. 13. The next day, Dickson was admitted to palliative care. She died Jan. 18.

Sweetman described his mother as a “wonderfully unconventional” person who loved to make an entrance in a “statement” hat. She hated being called “Mom,” and preferred that her only child address her as Jennifer.

As a visual artist, she was skilled and passionate, establishing an international reputation for her evocative hand-tinted etchings, prints, photographs and watercolour paintings. She had more than 60 one-person exhibitions in six countries, and participated in more than 400 group exhibitions.

Dickson was also widely known for her studies of ancient gardens in England and Europe and for her lectures on gardens, which ran in Ottawa, Montreal and Australia in the 1980s and ’90s. 

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What’s more, she was an outspoken advocate of artists’ rights, and one of the people instrumental in rallying support for a gallery that focused on Ottawa-based artists, who were often overlooked by the National Gallery of Canada. 

On her side was former mayor Marion Dewar, Dickson recalled in a 2023 interview, and the Ottawa Art Gallery was born in 1986. The city handed over the old courthouse and police station building at the corner of Daly and Nicholas streets to a board made up of businessmen and members of the arts community. The first exhibition was held in 1988. 

Decades later, their vision for a spacious and modern gallery was realized in 2018 with the grand re-opening of the Ottawa Art Gallery after a $38-million renovation. 

Dickson exhibited her work at the gallery many times over the decades and in 2023, was one of five senior artists honoured by the institution for their influence on the evolution of the arts in the nation’s capital. Dickson was the only woman in the group, which also included artists Norman Takeuchi, Russell Yuristy, Duncan de Kergommeaux and Michael Sproule. 

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Born in South Africa, the second eldest in a family of six children, Dickson was drawn to art as a child. While bedridden with polio, her mother gave her some art supplies, “unexpectedly launching a prolific art career that spanned seven decades,” as her son put it. 

After attending Goldsmiths’ College School of Art in London, England, Dickson had the opportunity to study in Paris with Stanley William Hayter, the master printmaker who was known for his work with the likes of Picasso and Chagall. She spent five years in Paris, where she met a chartered accountant named Ron Sweetman, the jazz enthusiast who became her husband. 

The couple moved back to England, where Bill was born, and then lived in Jamaica. They immigrated to Canada in 1971, first settling in Montreal. Dickson became a Canadian citizen in 1974. 

When Ron landed a job in the federal government in 1976, they relocated to Ottawa. Dickson’s first impression was not highly favourable. “Ronald, where have you brought me?” she said to her husband after their first night out at the National Arts Centre. She was aghast that people in Ottawa didn’t dress up like they did in Montreal.

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“We arrived in the foyer of the NAC, and I looked around: jeans, sweatshirts, sneakers. I couldn’t see anyone dressed properly to go to a fairly formal cultural event. It was just unbelievable,” she said in 2023. 

One little-known aspect of her character was an affinity for witchcraft. Bill referred to his mother as a “sorceress,” not only because her hair remained naturally dark and lustrous throughout her life. Dye was unnecessary. 

“She was, at different times in her life, a practising white witch,” he explained. “She cast spells for people she cared about, including me as a child when I was being bullied in grade school. It seemed to help.”

Dickson’s final project was a book of poetry and photographs entitled Poems for a Phantom Lover, dedicated to her late husband. It was published in 2023. 

One of her proudest achievements was being elected a Royal Academician by the prestigious Royal Academy of Arts in London, England. She was the only Canadian in the 200-year history of the institution to have been so honoured. 

She was also named to the Order of Canada in 1995.  

Dickson did not want a funeral or visitation. Instead, her son is organizing a celebration of life in the form of a cocktail party to be held later in the year. Details will be available at www.jenniferdickson.com. 

lsaxberg@postmedia.com

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