Landscape artist E.J. Hughes, best known for capturing British Columbia's coast on canvas, has died at the age of 93.

Hughes died of cardiac arrest on Friday after being rushed to a Duncan, B.C., hospital.

The 1946 Hughes painting Fishboats, Rivers Inlet sold for $920,000 at a Heffel Fine Art auction in 2004.
(Courtesy Heffel Fine Art Auction House)

Often hailed as the successor to Emily Carr, Hughes received the Emily Carr Scholarship in 1947 after being nominated by Lawren Harris.

Born in North Vancouver in 1913 and partly raised in Nanaimo, Hughes studied at the Vancouver School of Applied Art and Design under such teachers as Jock Macdonald and Group of Seven member Frederick Varley.

Following graduation, he began working as a commercial artist and, during the Second World War, served as an official war artist.

In 1951, Hughes was discovered by influential Canadian art dealer Max Stern of Montreal's Dominion Gallery. Stern signed him to a contract that allowed the West Coast artist to paint full-time.

With his work held in private and public collections across the country, including in the National Gallery and the Vancouver Art Gallery, Hughes is often praised for his bright, detailed, realistic depictions of his home province — its mountains, forests, valleys and coastline — and how it is changing.

Over the years, he was named to the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, the Order of Canada, the Order of British Columbia and also received honorary degrees from the University of Victoria and the Emily Carr College of Art and Design, which administers the Emily Carr Scholarship.

With files from the Associated Press