Following in the Footsteps of the Group of Seven Painters (1/13/2011)

Sue and Jim Waddington have tried to locate some of the places that inspired the Group of Seven painters.

They particularly like to search for sites that can only be reached by canoe and on foot. The talk will compare photographs of some of the 180 painting sites they have found with the corresponding artwork. They will discuss how they find the painting sites and what they have learned about the painters and their choice of painting sites.

Although the Group of Seven worked throughout Canada and produced many of the iconic images that we have of the north, there are very few photographs of the actual scenes that inspired them.

Sue is an artist - a traditional rug hooker. In 1977 she was making a rug hooking based on A.Y. Jackson’ s painting “ Hills, Killarney, Ontario (Nellie Lake).” During a canoe trip in Killarney Provincial Park, Sue and Jim paddled to Nellie Lake and were surprised to find that they could locate the exact spot where Jackson had sat when he did the painting. After this initial success, they have continued to search for other painting locations. Since the artists did not keep detailed records of where they worked, each painting represents a puzzle to be solved. For each of the 180 places that they have located, they have recorded what the view looks like now and have compared it with the artist’ s impression of the same scene.

Jim is a retired physics professor from McMaster University who likes maps and the sport of orienteering. He has no artistic talent at all.

This talk will illustrate some of the works that were featured at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection exhibition "Following in the Footsteps of the Group of Seven". Art works that were made in the beautiful La Cloche hills of Killarney Provincial Park will be presented along with the photographs of the same scenes.

Driving: Marlee Avenue runs parallel to Allen Road, Chalkers is between Eglinton and Lawrence.

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