Landscape Lovers Get An Eyeful At Bon Echo Art Show

Aug 01, 2013

From epic to whimsical, the 2013 Bon Echo Art Show and Sale had something for everyone - especially for those who enjoy landscape painting. The annual show, which takes place under the towering pines of Bon Echo Provincial Park, continues to draw an eclectic mix of landscape artists, each of whom have their very own personal take on the nature that inspires their work. This year many newbies joined the ranks of the veterans in a show that continues to attract art lovers and connoisseurs from near and far.

Margi McInnis Laurin was one such newbie and she had on display numerous acrylic works, each of which has as their focal point a bright red canoe or parts thereof. The inspiration for Margi's pictures are two canoes, both her own. The first, an old red Huron Canoe made by Eaton's, is the same model canoe that her father purchased for her mother years ago. The second is one that she built herself at a 10-day workshop in Huntsville, a cedar strip canoe modeled after an EH Gerrish. After getting the second canoe home, Margi decided to paint it red and it was then that inspiration struck. “I hadn't painted pictures for years and the canoe brought me right back to painting.” Margo works from several photos that she takes of her boats. “I'm trying to get the boats from different angles because although a canoe seems a simple shape, it is quite complex and there is a lot of math involved.” Her paintings are in no way subtle; are all very bright and very direct. In a leaflet she hands out at her booth she states, “A red canoe is such a Canadian icon and I am not the first to paint it and without a doubt, will not be the last.”

For those who prefer nature on a grander, more epic scale Leonard Carlyle Skinner, another newbie to the show, had large oil canvases that viewers could easily lose themselves in on display. Skinner, who lives in Odessa, was trained at Sheridan College in Oakville and has been painting professionally for 22 years. His all-Canadian landscapes, though graphically realistic, also have a touch of post-impressionism as demonstrated by his choice of colours. In his work titled “Maples”, an unworldly and impossible yellow sky is the backdrop for a stand of bright red and orange maples that line an azure blue waterfront. It is Skinner’s unique use of colour that make his paintings stand out. “I like to paint epics and though I paint Canadian landscapes, if something is missing I have no trouble romanticizing things.”

Further on at the show I came across A.J. Van Drie, an abstract landscape artist whom I visited with years back when he was just starting out as a new painter on the local scene. Van Drie, who is Chippewa by birth and who was adopted, graduated from the Haliburton School of Fine Arts and began painting as a way to identify more with his birth parents after their deaths. He continues to create landscapes reminiscent of native artists like Norval Morriseau and it was interesting to see how his style has matured over the years. While much of his highly stylized, abstract, colourful imagery remains similar to his first creations years ago, certain subtle stylistic changes in colour and form demonstrate a young artist who is continuing to come into his own.

Visitors to this year’s show were also treated to a BBQ lunch courtesy of the friends of Bon Echo, a Sciensational Sssnakes presentation and live music. Also, as usual, visitors had a chance to enter a raffle for a number of impressive prizes to take home.

For those who have yet to visit the park this summer here is a list of other upcoming events:

Sat. Aug. 3, 7pm: Group of Seven Painter A.J. Casson's daughter Margaret Hall and Chris Jackson will be speaking about the famed Canadian painter. Sat. Aug. 10, 8pm: Dr. Robert McLeman on climate change. Thurs Aug. 15, 1pm: “Speaking of Wildlife”. Thurs. Aug. 22, 7pm: Margaret Axford on Bon Echo - The Early Years; and Sat. Aug. 24 at 4:30pm: Bill White and White Pine will be performing. For more information and to confirm times and dates of these upcoming events visitwww.bonechofriends.ca or call the park office at 613-336-2228.