Canadian Featured Artist of the Day

 Flowers in a Yellow Vase

Sam Borenstein

1958

Born in Kalvarija, Lithuania, in 1908, Borenstein immigrated to Canada in 1921, and moved to Montreal with his father and one of his sisters. He spent two years in Ottawa, then returned to Montreal, where he worked in the garment industry. Although he had little formal training, Borenstein took evening art classes, studying sculpture with Elzéar Soucy and drawing with Adam Sheriff Scott and John Young Johnstone, and associating with local artists Alexandre Bercovitch, Fritz Brandtner, Herman Heimlich, and Louis Muhlstock. His first solo exhibition took place in 1934 at the Coffee House café in Montreal. During a six-month painting trip to Brittany in 1939, Borenstein saw the work of painters such as Vincent van Gogh. Within months of his return to Canada, he had a show at the Sidney Carter Art Gallery in Montreal and was invited to join the Contemporary Arts Society. He painted in the Laurentians from the 1940s.