Collection: Aline Myles Banting
(1911-1998) AOCA
Beatrice Aline Myles Banting was born on July 29, 1911 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and died on April 13, 1998. A fourth-generation Hamiltonian, she studied with Eleanor Fiennes-Clinton, John and Hortense Gordon and John Sloan at Hamilton Technical Institute Art Department, then at the Ontario College of Art (currently the Ontario College of Art and Design), graduating in 1935 with honours and earning the degree A.O.C.A. (Associate of the Ontario College of Art), and a scholarship. She was a member of the Art Club of Hamilton, a founding member of the Contemporary Artists of Hamilton, and a long-time member of the Women’s Art Association of Hamilton and the Ontario Society of Artists (OSA).
Aline enjoyed painting flower studies, but principally was fascinated by the world’s variety of faces, rendering sensitive portraits of people of every age, nationality and race, and every social status, from the internationally famous violinist Arthur Garami, to the checkout clerk at the grocery store. She had a knack for both capturing a person’s likeness and bringing out their character in her portraiture.
From the 1940s through to the early 1980s, Aline organized several groups of fellow artists who pooled their resources to rent studio space and pay models to pose for them. She painted with these artist friends several nights a week, and then would return home to continue her work, regularly painting into the wee hours of the morning.
During and for several years after the depression, limited finances forced her to scrape down old paintings and paint new ones over them, or paint on the back side of the Masonite boards on which she had painted other portraits. When these materials weren’t available, she painted on whatever was: such as wrapping paper, Eaton’s cardboard boxes, wallpaper, and even canvas window blinds. Aline continued until unsuccessful corneal implant surgery ended her painting career. She left a legacy of hundreds of beautiful works of art.
Aline Myles Banting, signed her work “Myles,” was a regular annual exhibitor at many major shows, such as the Art Association of Montreal Spring Show; the Ontario Society of Artists; the Elsie Perrin Williams Gallery, and in the Royal Canadian Academy (and with the R.C.A. travelling exhibits). She also received invitations and exhibited at the Canadian National Exhibition and at Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City. Globally, her work may be found in Florence, Calcutta, Capetown, New York, Boston, Los Angeles and Vancouver and in Important private collections, including those of A. Bronfman, W. Watson, and Joseph Bauer. Four of her works are represented in the Permanent Collection of the Art Gallery of Hamilton. In 2008 Mrs. Banting was inducted into the Hillfield Strathallan College Alumni Hall of Excellence.
Aline Banting was married to Gowan Joseph Maitland Banting (May 30, 1911 – May 23, 2003), an advertising executive at Canadian Canners/Aylmer Del Monte Ltd. and Canadian Westinghouse Ltd. and a Hamilton landscape artist.
