- Sep 8, 2014
I was recently browsing in a Fredericton bookstore when I came across a book called “In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven” by Jim and Sue Waddington. After about three minutes with it I bought it.
Years ago the authors were on a camping trip when they realized they were looking at a landscape that AY Jackson had painted. They decided to search for more sites and the book is the result. It’s full of examples of the Group’s paintings set beside the Waddingtons’ photographs of the places as they are now.
The book delights me first of all because I have always loved the Group of Seven. I will never forget my first visit to the National Gallery – at the old location on Elgin Street - and the impact of seeing that remarkable work after looking at only prints and photos for so long. I have often thought that I would one day like to make a pilgrimage to Thomson’s cairn and to soak up some of the landscapes in which he spent so much time. This book offers something of that pilgrimage for all the members of the Group.
Another reason I love the book has to do with the integrity of the painting. Some time ago, I was visiting an artist in his studio and I felt a little shocked when I asked him about the location of one of his landscapes. He tapped the side of his head and said, 'It came out of here'. I suppose there is no reason at all that one should not paint an imaginative landscape but, in my own work, I would not feel right about it.
In my comments on the Gallery page here I note how it is important to me to be familiar with the places I paint. I have always felt that my work needs to be grounded in an actual location - a piece of this earth that I know. It is
affirming for me to know that the members of the Group of Seven were so faithful to the land they painted, as the Waddington’s book so clearly illustrates. I envy the authors the surprise and delight at finding themselves in those precise places.
Finally, I love the book because, with the photographs of the landscapes and the paintings that represent them, one is given additional insight into how they translated sky and soil, rock and trees, light and water into the language of paint.
As I take up my own brushes I am one of many who would walk in their footsteps as I have been inspired by their work.