"The Berry Picker, Greenspond"

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are paintings that, when looked at months after completion, transport you back to that place and time instantly. "The Berry Picker, Greenspond", oil on panel, 50"x35", is one such painting. When I look at this painting it I feel an invisible thread with the strength of a thousand mountains pulls me back to that remote and windswept hill on the northeast coast of Newfoundland last August. 

The wind was a major player, of course. The wind, the wind in Newfoundland....it is ubiquitous and as reliably next to you, all the time. Greenspond is a tiny town in the Northeastern area of Newfoundland. There is a beautiful hiking trail that wraps around the mass of land that lies at the end of a small causeway. On the crest of the large hill that is contained within the trail network I saw this woman, Milly, collecting partridgeberries in her scarlet sweater. She was wading through tall golden grasses that covered the hillside as I approached her and asked if she would mind if I took her picture. She was humble and sweet, as Newfoundlanders are by nature, and I appreciated her obliging me.  

Sometime when you shoot reference for paintings, you can feel the painting already there, just waiting to be created. This blissful feeling happened while I shot the pictures of Milly filling her bucket with bright red partridgeberries...I envisioned the painting then and there. The little town sloped away on the horizon line and I knew it would be fun to render the buildings off in the distance while keeping the foreground nice and expressive with broad strokes of colour.

Berry pickers are themselves ubiquitous in the latter months of the summer and early autumn. Wherever we drove we saw a car here or there parked by the road, invariably one or two figures in sweaters could be seen about a hundred feet or two hundred feet out, bending over the spongy ground, filling containers with cloudberries, partridgeberries and wild blueberries.You can read a little bit about these commonly found berries here.  Milly was focusing on partridgeberries, and I thanked her profusely after the mini photoshoot as I think she might have been a bit shy. I am so thankful to her for helping me capture a moment of the beauty of Newfoundland, the simple pleasure found in a meditative act such as picking berries to nourish your family and yourself and to simply enjoy the fruits of the land. Beautiful New-Found-Land, a small bit of it hopefully contained within this painting. 

Technically it was a lot of fun doing this piece, and I am sure that also had to do with how much I enjoyed the subject. Painting on larger panels and canvases can be a little intimidating sometimes but I had such a belief in the theme and composition that I simply flung myself into painting it with lots of gusto, and lots of paint. The colours of Newfoundland are so vibrant and immediate, so unfiltered and pure, and I tried focus on rendering them as accurately as possible. 

Time is flying towards the Newfoundland show in November! Although still months away I have to budget time because these paintings take time and patience. We must balancing life, family, travel and time to create within the mind too, to turn over ideas for paintings that might not be fully resolved. There is much to be said for not creating, for distilling and assessing, for contemplating. Only after contemplation and consideration is it prudent to act, however there IS a lot to be said for spontaneity too! I suppose each approach has its own time and place. The important thing is to march to your own creative drummer, for if you are true to yourself you cannot go wrong. 

"Yes. Feet on earth. Touch stone. Knock on wood. Good luck to all."~Edward Abbey 

Here is some information on the exhibition in November of 2009. I hope to see you there!

Newfoundland Portraits

November 5-22nd, 2009

Abbozzo Gallery, Oakville, Ontario

Opening Reception November 6th, 7-10pm

"Camp On Stampede Trail"

"We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain." ~Henry David Thoreau

"Camp On Stampede Trail", 2008, Oil On Canvas, 9"x7" was a present to my dear friend Ed who accompanied me out to Bus 142 on The Stampede Trail in the Alaskan Interior. You can read about our entire journey here and also when I returned to the bus, by helicopter a week later here.

This little painting represents a very special time, one of those journeys that stays close to your heart and never far from your mind. Ed kindly offered to take me out to where Chris McCandless spent the last four months of his life in 1992, a place where he communed with nature and lived out his philosophy until his tragic passing in August 1992. Many have traveled to the bus where Chris spent his time, so for Ed to help me get there the hard way, over land, was truly wonderful. 

Ed is an enthusiastic outdoor adventurer and he loves to pack very lightly. It makes sense really, as there is less wear and tear on your body. The tent that you see in the painting did not reach to the ground and only weighed 1 lb. You can also see our sleeping bags and some of the rest of our things beside the tent. I remember the yellow orange glow of his tent against the cool greens and muted tones of the surrounding landscape and had to capture some reference. It was about 9pm when we set up camp but the sun was pretty high still and really did not entirely go down until around 11:30pm.  

We spent a good portion of our time on that gravel bar beyond the bus. We did not want to be in the way if others should visit Bus 142  while we were there. Oddly enough, when I returned on impulse to the same spot the week following my trek out with Ed, there was an army helicopter "parked" right where our camp had been. It was quite surreal and brought civilization right into this relatively remote place, 20 miles off of the George Parks Highway. 

I am not being melodramatic here when I declare that visiting Alaska changed my life. I am a figure painter primarily, and yet between visiting Alaska in August 2008 and Newfoundland in September 2008 I have been surrounded by landscapes that cannot help but be painted. I will certainly return to the figure but for now, landscapes dominate my mind when it comes to subject matter. Yet we are within those landscapes, our bodies and minds exist within that time and space, often within a visual field too large and beautiful to fully process. 

I believe that technique is what coheres a painter's work. A mountain, and eyelid and a wrench are all very different obviously, but it is HOW they are painted that connects them. I will take the same approach when painting my landscape pieces as I would to painting the folds of a sheet. 

"Camp On Stampede Trail" is small but mighty to me. It is a thank-you to Ed, a little reminder of our time spent living in the moment, paddling across a river that would sweep us away if it had the chance, climbing mile after mile to our destination...for the road is just as important as what lies at the end of it, if there ever is an end.

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."~Edward Abbey

If you are interested in reading about my entire journey out to Bus 142 along the Stampede Trail please check out "Journey to Bus 142" and "Journey to Bus 142: Redux" from my other blog "Heather's Paintings And Musings". 

I am going to be doing more paintings about my voyage to Bus 142 within the next year, as well creating more paintings from Chris McCandless' own pictures taken along his 2 year journey as well. It is a huge honor and I look forward to continuing these bodies of work.

Here are some sections of paintings that will appear in my solo show on Newfoundland in November at Abbozzo Gallery in Oakville, Ontario. 

I am working steadily on new pieces each day. It will be an exciting show! You can find out more information about the exhibition on my website here. One of the paintings has already sold and the show is still 10 months away! If you are interested in seeing the pieces please contact Abbozzo Gallery. The show will run from November 5-22, 2009 with the opening reception happening on November 6th from 7-10pm. I hope to see you there!

 

Have a wonderful day,

Heather