Rural Requiem

If one was to search for something that could be considered the symbol of America... or Canada one need need not look much further than our forests for an answer. As difficult as it may be to accept such a statement in the face of skyscrapers, automobiles, space age accomplishment and the current cyber world that most of us are trapped in... or party to ... it was the "tree" that gave us our initial leverage on pioneering and developing our path to modernity... as we know it today.

William Cullen Bryant, a beloved and respected early American poet stated that "the groves were God's first temples" and he embraced the notion of creating Central Park in New York... the first designed urban park in North America and that refuge today stands as a monument to the thinking then... that trees and forests formed "the backbone of America."

In looking over my own artistic journey and the library of books that I have used "to school" my Self... I came across five books dating (in reprinted versions) all written by Eric Sloane. Those books in tandem with my numerous books on the Group of Seven... would form the crucible in which my own vision and artistic direction would be forged. The equivalent of Sloane in Canada was C.W. Jeffreys. Both were fine painters... but it was their pen and ink renderings of Americana and Canadiana that drew my attention to what would become my lifelong focus and pursuit of "things wooden"... and in particular the recording of Canadian barns.

Things wooden... include tools, utensils, decoys, carvings, canoes, boats and architecture... particularly barns. I was blessed to have been born and raised in a part Canada where many barns... derived from American, French-Canadian, British and European traditions were still present to be sketched and studied without having to travel more than a stone's throw to do so.

I continue to sketch and photograph barns ... searching them out and to record them before they finally vanish due to the mindless sprawl of urban development. Many of my sketchbooks and my photo reference materials from the past house ghost images of these relics... already gone forever along with our rural traditions.

Harrowsmith Magazine's December 2010 issue contains an article entitled "Ode to the Barn- A Vanishing Landmark". This post's introduction draws upon the shared ideas from one of Eric Sloane's books published in 1955... entitled "Our Vanishing Landscape."How ironic that Sloane... Harrowsmith Magazine ... and "I" should be aligned in our elegiac view of the sad plight of our barns! How ironic too, that my brother and I both contributed artwork to that same magazine depicting the declining population of barns back in the 1970's. I lived and operated the Gingerbread Gallery in Camden East, Ontario... the very place where Harrowsmith Magazine conceived and born.

This "green"magazine was aimed at "back-to-the-earthers"... offering editorial and state-of-the-art ideas and techniques that encouraged a Whitman/ Thoreau vision of self-sufficiency.... blended with the appeal for responsible stewardship to accompany land use. The meteoric rise and success of Harrowsmith was followed by the creation of Equinox their second success story... a glossy, eco-friendly Canadian version of National Geographic. In months, it became equally successful in grabbing a huge and responsive readership. Living in the small village of Camden East... being part of this experiment was one of my greatest blessings. It had the feel of family. It had a sense of community... where that term existed physically... beyond being just a word. They were both heady and halcyon days where the respect for rural life and tradition were given value and recognition!

Back to the Present... or sort of . I quote from another of my favourites from my library...The Owl Pen written by Kenneth McNeill Wells... and beautifully illustrated using the crisp woodcuts of his wife Lucille Oille. Wells was a highly successful columnist with the now defunct Toronto Telegram. They both became disenchanted with urban life in Toronto and purchased a rather dilapidated pioneer home in the Oro-Medonte not far from our Gallery. They chose "the road not taken".... long before it was in vogue in the 1970's. Their saga began in the mid to late 1940's... when homesteading was really the only life available to this beautiful, hilly and undeveloped area of Ontario.

The book chronicles their homesteading adventures and the hardships they encountered in finally discovering and enjoying the benefits and peace of rural living. The book is well-written... Wells is a trained writer whose heart and soul seeks to find a place out of the din. The wisdom of Wells' perceptions and discoveries further illuminate and give credibility to our need to retain contact with the land... and the traditions of stewardship that ensured its maintenance and survival for succeeding generations.

The demise and rapid disappearance of wooden barns from the American and Canadian landscape are simply visible scars of a deeper illness. It is the illness of a kind of greed that has no conscience... no plan for a sustainable future... nor more dangerously to us all... no concern for the land that provides food for the masses of population who depend upon it. The land that we are developing will never in our lifetime be ever reclaimable as an arable resource. That situation of imbalance is more damning to mankind around the planet... than the depletion of fossil fuels. Both are in fact not only inevitable... but imminent in this century.

My blog is indeed intended as a forum and resource for artists to openly share ideas, feelings and their paintings. It is also an opportunity to verbalize our awareness and concerns about the landscape and heritage that each of us enjoys. While there may exist differences in each because of location and culture... the observations we make are first hand beyond most citizens or politicians. Our cumulative voices ... together can perhaps provide "a canary in the mine" signal to those we meet and speak to... to address the very serious consequences we face globally... if we continue to be silent... and to ignore what we know we know is wrong... and is happening unchecked around us.

I earnestly believe in the "Power of One".... and that change begins ALWAYS ... with "Me." All revolutions of change in history have begun through the actions and hands of the "ordinary" man. All revolutions occurred because the ordinary man's interests and welfare were taxed beyond reason, or his physical well-being. Be assured that corporate controls such as we have already born witness to in the Monsanto seed monopoly and the various governmental-run boards for milk, wheat, corn, poultry, beef... the list is endless... have no interest beyond their ledgers and dividends to improve the lot of food producers... or consumers. These same injustices and poor management of land and crops existed in the time of the Pharaohs... and ultimately led to the rapid and eventual decline and fall of their vast and rich civilization.

I will end the post with a quote from page 105 in The Owl Pen... which I feel prophetically supports my appeal here:

"It is a queer thought, but a demonstrably true one, that except for the reeking manure spreader there would be no silvery old barns, nestling down among gnarled maples and beside quiet farm houses or gurgling creeks. Medonte would still be, or would be on the way to becoming again land of savage huntsmen. And our cities, denied the endless bounty of our fields, would starve and crumble. Famine and disease would sweep them.Nature has her own pitiless way of dealing with people who grow proud of their machines and indifferent to their soil, and in their own minds superior to the mound by the stable door."

Avarice and arrogance are solely the characteristics of Man.

"My name is Ozimandias, king of kings!Look upon my works , ye Mighty, and despair!"

Ozimandias

-Percy Byssche Shelley

I have included a few samples of barns I have enjoyed painting... in various parts of Canada for your viewing and enjoyment. Maybe you have a few barns that might be interesting to record and share with other artists.

Good (barn) Painting to All !