More from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and the Group of Seven!

Quote by Lawren Harris on the wall of the
McMichael Canadian Art Collection

My work is often compared to the paintings by the Group of Seven.  For a long time I wondered if all landscape painters in Canada were compared to them simply because we paint landscapes?  I think it's more than that.  Then of course, I thought people were just being nice and paying me a huge compliment?  But I think it's more than that too.  Once in a while I do see glimpses of their influence in my work.  My mentor Shane Garton recently commented on my blog "Next time you are at the easel Caprice, imagine as you are painting that one by one your favorite artists are quietly coming in looking over your shoulder. The studio is full...then slowly as you progress into your work they leave...gone. Then magically as you lay down the final strokes...even you leave. You then see your work and are amazed and ask yourself...wow, where did that come from?"  I love the idea that each one of my art heroes is with me while I paint!

What is it that draws us to the paintings by the Group of Seven?  So much has been written about them that I hesitate to write more but thought I would write from a painters perspective.  Since visiting the McMichael Canadian Art Collection last month, I've had many of the paintings I saw swimming in my mind.   Something magical happens when you see their original paintings rather than seeing them in a book.  It's a strange sensation but I really feel like I got to know them just by being with their work.   

From my notebook...notes on my impressions of
Emily Carr painting!

"Edge of the Forest" by Emily Carr
McMichael Canadian Art Collection

 For one thing, their brushstrokes were simply amazing and each painter had their own individual style.  It was a thrill to be able to view the paintings right up close and memorize individual strokes!  How did they do that?  Tom Thomson's paintings have such thick paint that you would expect it to almost fall off the canvas.  On the other hand, Lawren Harris must have done layer after layer of thin paint.  His strokes are barely visible but still handled with so much grace.  In books his paintings look very hard-edged but in real life his ability to handle paint in such a spectacular way is very near to genius.  If you look at the crazy notes I took during my visit to the collection, you will see that on occasion it was a single stroke in a painting that drew my attention.  In the Emily Carr painting called "Edge of the Forest" I took note of a single bright blue stroke in the middle of the trees.  How did she come up with that?  It's a stroke I would have never noticed if I had not been sitting in front of the original...in fact, as I look at the reproduction, I can't even see this one brilliant stroke!

 

3 versions of "Mt. Lefroy" by Lawren Harris
McMichael Canadian Art Collection

Seeing the original paintings also gave me ideas on the processes the artists used.  Several of the artists would do small studies of paintings before turning them into large oil paintings.   I can certainly see how they worked out difficulties in the small paintings prior to tackling the large canvases but I personally find that when I try to do that, some of the magic is lost along the way.  Can you imagine trying to paint the exact same subject matter four or five or more times?  It worked very well for Lawren Harris as these photos prove.

"Mt. Lefroy" by Lawren Harris
McMichael Canadian Art Collection

"Mt. Lefroy" was not on display at the McMichael this time, but I had the priviledge of seeing the large original at the Glenbow Museum in 2002 during the "Group of Seven in Western Canada" exhibition.  This painting continues to be one of my favorite Harris paintings.  For some of the other painters, I found that I preferred the small study over the large studio painting.  An example of this would be these 2 Tom Thomson paintings: 

"In Algonquin Park" by Tom Thomson
McMichael Canadian Art Collection

"In Algonquin Park" by Tom Thomson
McMichael Canadian Art Collection

 

Two small Tom Thomson paintings
McMichael Canadian Art Collection

The Tom Thomson exhibit was a thrill.  I had the pleasure of seeing a larger exhibit of his work at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2003 but the McMichael presented his work in a more intimate way.  Some of my favorite pieces that were on display were his tiny on location paintings.  I know they would have been done very quickly possibly only taking minutes of his time.  Thomson had some art education but it was his raw talent that makes his works stand out above so many others.  Very difficult to believe one man could produce so many masterpieces in only four years when his untimely death took him way too soon.  Thomson's death is one of Canada's greatest mysteries.  He was an exceptional outdoorsman and was most comfortable alone in nature.  He was an experienced canoeist and swimmer, yet somehow drowned in a lake that he was extremely familiar with.  There was a large bruise on his head and many that new him felt that foul play was involved.  Thomson died in 1917 and therefore was not an official member of the Group of Seven since it was not formed until a few years later.

Lawren Harris painting in his studio.

I am currently re-reading one of my favorite books called "Inward Journey: The Life of Lawren Harris" by James King.  Since returning from the McMichael Collection, I like to try to put myself into the mindset of the painters.   I try to imagine their lives and what it would be like to be a painter during two World Wars and the great depression.  How on earth did they do it?  I love to imagine the Group all working together in the Studio Building in downtown Toronto.  Lawren Harris painted while wearing his suit and tie...always a gentleman!  He even wore his tie on his hiking trips through the Rockies! Can you imagine doing that?  At the McMichael, they had Lawren Harris' paintbox and brushes on display.  I wished I could have touched them and maybe some of their paint magic would flow into me!  J.E.H. Macdonald's paint box that he carried for miles through the bush was on display as well.  What a thrill to imagine that strapped around his shoulder as he travelled to painting locations throughout Canada!

J.E.H. Macdonald's Paintbox

Lawren Harris' painting supplies

I think one of the reasons we are so very drawn to the Group of Seven is because of all that they were able to accomplish and the fact that it will never happen again!  Why do I think that?  They worked and painted together and fully supported each other and artists today rarely do that.  In fact when I rented an art studio in downtown Calgary many years ago, I didn't talk to a single artist that worked in the building.  How sad is that?  Times are certainly different.  They managed to create an entire art movement here in Canada and went out into the wilderness and painted the landscape in ways that had never been done.  As I sit here in my Studio and contemplate the paintings that I saw, I am deeply humbled by the fact that I would not be doing what I am if it had not been for them.  The old saying is true that all artist's stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.  I owe the Group of Seven a tremendous amount of gratitude.  When I look at their paintings, I am forever inspired but I also have a feeling of being completely inadequate!  This is a hurdle I have to overcome every time I go to art galleries.  It always takes me a while to get back into the groove and just let it all come through.  I am in awe of them but it also gives me hope when I see that not all of their paintings are great.  Yes, you read that correctly. In fact there are quite a few of their paintings, in my opinion, that are simply awful.  Nice to know that even the very best of the best can't win them all!  The Group of Seven represents so much more than what I have written here.  I have photos and notes on so many more paintings but decided to write today on my "big" impressions from my day at the McMichael.  They left an indelible mark and will stay with me for the rest of my life....so grateful!

Here I am having some one-to-one time
with my favorite paintings!

The Accidental Artist -Part 4 and then we move on...

As I was preparing to write this post, I received a very special gift from my friend and mentor Shane Garton.  He featured me on his website and told me he was proud of me!  This meant the world to me and I am deeply humbled by his words.

Day Dreams #1 by Shane Garton

If you have been reading my blog posts, you may see a trend developing in the way I "found" my art teachers!  Call it fate?  Call it what you want...whenever the time was right, another art teacher would magically appear in my life.  It was the same way when I met Shane Garton in 1999.  Prior to meeting him, friends kept telling me "you have to meet Shane".  Next thing I know, I wound up meeting him by accident at a coffee shop here in Kimberley.  We had an instant connection as we shared a love and passion for art!  The only problem was that Shane and his wife Edith were packing up and moving back to Tasmania where Shane was originally from.  If only we could have met sooner as we had so much to discuss and so little time!

Hanging out with Shane was very cool!  One day we were downtown having coffee on the patio of a coffee shop and all of a sudden he was struck by the fascinating shapes that were reflected in my sunglasses.  It was at that moment when it occurred to me that yes, artists truly do see things in a different way than everyone else!  It was great to be with someone else who could see things differently.  To quote Jack Shadbolt - "It is one thing to have roamed museums and to have received stimulation to the imagination from great forms of the past or present.  That is a permanent and understood phase of any artist's development.  It is another thing to receive clarification of ideas from a teacher or mentor."  This is what Shane did for me.  By the time I met Shane, I had already learned a great deal of art theory and art history but Shane helped me to really cement all that I had learned.

Homage to Kandinsky by Shane Garton

On our last evening together before he left, Shane and I went into my studio and he decided to teach me absolutely everything he knew about art...IN FOUR HOURS!  My head was spinning and as I look back I wish I had taken notes.  I learned so much from him and somehow everything he taught me in that short period of time sunk in!   He did tell me that someday the mountains will quit talking to me.  Through the years, there have indeed been those moments when I cannot hear the mountains and no doubt the day will come when it will be time for me to leave the mountains.  For this moment, the mountains are still talking and I will continue to listen!  Shane also told me that the way I was painting was not how I will always be painting.  As I study the painters that I truly admire and look at their early and late works I am mesmerized by how their work evolved and changed.  It is very exciting to imagine how my work will change.  What will I be painting when I am 50, 60 and 70 years old?  Will I still be painting landscapes?  What direction will I go?  I am eager to find out and maybe you will join me for the ride?

Day Dreams #3 by Shane Garton

As with my other mentors, Shane helped open the door to a whole new area of art that I had never experienced before.  His paintings were like nothing I had ever seen.  They were abstract and his work was very much guided by emotion and inspiration. Art really is an adventure....you just "gotta take a line for a walk" as Shane always says!  He would simply begin with one line and let it take him to some amazing places!

One of Shane's favorite artists was Kandinsky.  I have studied Kandinsky and this lead me into other abstract painters. I was then able to understand the work of Jackson Pollack, Clyfford Still, Borduas, and Riopelle.  The world of art truly is a wonderful place and I hope I never quit learning!

My time spent with Shane was way too short before he moved to Tasmania.  I miss him terribly but we have been able to stay in touch through the wonders of the internet.  Please take the time to check out his website at shanegarton.com. I feel that I received the best art education possible...with not one, but four great mentors.  With all the advice, encouragement and knowledge I received in my early days, how can I possibly go wrong in my art career?  So blessed!  Thank you Shane. 

Shane, Mom & I, Kimberley, BC
September 1999