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| Painting with Janine in Huntsville 2016 |
In COVID spring 2020, I asked my friend and artist Janine Marson to paint a couple of paddles. I have known and painted with Janine for many years.
At the early age of only eight, Janine experienced a life changing encounter with iconic Group of Seven artist A.J. Casson who was painting up at Oxtongue Lake. Janine's chilhood stomping ground was the family resort "Timber Trail Inn" in Oxtongue. Tom Thomson sketched his swamp picture standing at the future site of Cabin 12. That patch of Canadian wilderness would grow into the studio masterpiece and quintessential piece of Canadiana named "Northern River". It was preordained that Janine would make art her life. Some of that life story and Janine were featured in the March 2020 copy of Muoskoa Life. You may also visit Janine's site at www.janinemarson.com.
Art is an individualistic and creative process. One does not describe the final product if something brilliant is the goal. Janine had free rein although I did specify that one paddle was to be a tribute to Tom Thomson and the other was intended for Vincent Van Gogh. I wanted them painted in a vertical format to match my other home-made paddles.
The results were spectacular and I think they deserve to be shared - the purpose of this entry. Here are the stories of two paddles and artists whose work I find very inspirational.
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| Tea Lake Dam in Algonquin Park, c. 1915 |
Thomas John Thomson August 5, 1877 – July 8, 1917 died at the age of only 39 years.
As an artist Tom painted seriously for just a few years. He was
brilliantly talented and truly unique but his career was mysteriously ended just before his
fortieth birthday. A google search of "Tom Thomson" produces 46 million hits so I will leave the details of Tom's life to the Web.
Janine selected some of my favourite Tom Thomson quotes. Janine and I relate to these words.
• Take everything as it comes; the wave passes, deal with the next one.
• I’ll stick to painting as long as I can.
• Some day they will know what I mean.
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| Tom Thomson Was a Weatherman Presentation |
Sunsets are greatly reddened due to the sun position being very low or just below the horizon. The light passing at grazing incidence upon the earth must pass through a much longer path of atmosphere than when it is overhead. Since short wavelength light is more efficiently scattered by Rayleigh scattering, most of the blues are scattered out of the beam of sunlight before it reaches our eyes.
Aerosols and particulate matter also contribute to the scattering of blue and even longer green wavelengths out of the beam. This helps to explain the brilliant red sunsets seen when there are many airborne particles such as after volcanic eruptions. The cataclysmic 1883 eruption of Krakatoa contributed to the blood red skies of many sunset paintings in the following years. “The Scream of Nature” and a series of similar paintings collectively referred to as “The Scream” by Edvard Munch may have been influenced by the Krakatoa eruption. Of course, there are those who disagree saying that Munch was not influenced by what he had seen – in strong contrast to Tom Thomson. Alternatively, the skeptics suggest that the close proximity of both a slaughterhouse and an insane asylum to the painting location may have offered some inspiration to Munch.
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| West Coast Smoke June 25th, 2020 |
The summer of 2020 bears many similarities to the explosion of Mount Larsen. The smoke from the fires that cover much of western North America can be traced eastward across the continent. Climate change and the destruction of nature would have devasted Tom... as it does Janine and me.
Tom's artist friends who would later form the Group of Seven, accused him of colour exaggeration. Actually Tom carefully mixed the colours that he saw. Paint on Tom...
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| The paddle shaft inscriptions. |
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| Thomson - Marson Paddle Collage |
Here is Janine’s story behind the Thomson paddle.
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