Antonia was born and brought up in Paris, France.
She became orphaned as a young lady and lived with her aunt.
She was always interested in language, literature and art.
She studied painting at the Studio of Fernand Leger in Paris.
She met Professor Mack Eastman in Paris and they raised their two children in Geneva, Switzerland, until the pending second world war catalyzed their move to Mack’s native Canada.
In Canada Antonia continued her study of painting at the University of Saskatchewan, Banff School of Arts, and began to display some of her work. She exhibited in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in Canada, and in London, England.
Antonia was a mentor to Ian McNeill, her son-in-law, married to her only daughter, Isabelle Francoise Eastman, and they occasionally painted together during the summer on Bowen Island, B.C. where the skies and the tides made the views forever changing and appealing to an artist’s eye.
Although she worked primarily in oils, she also experimented with other mediums.
Antonia spoke and wrote beautifully in both French and English and along with the legacy of her paintings to represent her, are her beautifully expressive letters to family and friends.
Antonia’s husband passed away in 1968 and she followed in 1972.
Dr. J. Ian McNeill was born on January 20, 1920 in Kinglassie, Scotland, the only child of a Scottish minister father and English businesswoman mother. He spent his formative years in New Zealand, and in Calgary, Alberta and Newfoundland, Canada.
Ian met the love of his life and wife of over sixty years, Isabelle Frances Eastman, on a tennis court at the University of Toronto. They married in 1945 and had their first son, Ted, in Toronto, before moving to Rochester, Minnesota, where their next three children, Catherine, Harry and Charles, were born.
Ian studied pre-med at Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, and received his MD from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. He served in the Canadian Army and then did his residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Ian was then invited to join the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and practiced Internal Medicine there for over thirty-five years until his retirement in 1987. He was loved by his patients and colleagues alike and was particularly gifted in the art of diagnosis and patient communication.
In Palo Alto, California they raised their children and Isabelle completed her PhD in French Literature at Stanford University and taught classes in French language and literature. Isabelle’s Parisian mother, Antonia Larribe Eastman, inspired Ian’s natural love of sketching and introduced him to the medium of watercolors. She provided him with coaching and encouragement especially in the early years of his painting.
Upon his retirement, Ian and Isabelle were able to spend time together at her beloved Bowen Island (near Vancouver), travel in Europe, play tennis and walk through Foothills Park. At all of these places, Ian sketched and painted resulting in dozens of spiral notebooks filled with his art. Along with being an accomplished water color artist, Ian was a great lover of literature. He read prolifically especially throughout his final decades.
After Isabelle passed away in late 2005, Ian focused on his children and granddaughters, his close friends, his love of nature, his books, his art, and, he considered his avid support of the San Francisco Giants Baseball Team to be instrumental to their success.
Ian is survived by his three sons, Ted, Charles and Harry McNeill, his daughter, Catherine McNeill Parrish, his daughter-in-law, Judy McNeill, his son-in-law, Bill Parrish, his three grand-daughters, Jenna Dwyer (Ian), Analise McNeill and Suzanne Parrish, and his three nieces, Julia, Alice and Harriet Eastman.
All of us invite you to enjoy the legacy of Ian and Antonia’s art.
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