#2357 "Mattawa Woodland Waterfall"

The Mattawa River is a river in central Ontario. It flows east from Trout Lake near North Bay and enters the Ottawa River at the town of Mattawa. It is only 76 km in length including the portion in Trout Lake. Seven modern, white water canoes were following the down-river path of the historical voyageurs in early June 2016. The spring rainfall had brought lots of water to make the rapids passable. The boulder fields at the low water outlet of the rapids did provide a few obstacles but we made it through just fine. Two hundred years ago there would have been much more traffic on this water highway. The Mattawa would have been one of a very few routes into the heart of the continent. We were virtually alone in 2016.

We spent Sunday night camped beside the river at Elm Point at the mouth of a mountain stream. My son and I explored up the slope behind the campsite to find the source of the very chilly water that fed the stream beside our tent. We were the only ones to go swimming. The water was beyond chilly - it was downright cold! It took a couple of thermos bottles of hot tea to raise the core temperatures of our bodies. Memories are made that way.

I wanted to play with the oils while enhancing the motion in the waterfall and the trees. It was a fun canvas although it lived on the easel for a month of COVID quarantining. In my first and only sold out gallery show in 1980, one reviewer commented that my work was too diverse. She did not know where I was going. Well that made two of us.

My continuing goal has simply been to learn and maybe get better at interpreting nature in oils. Spending quality time and solitude with the natural world was maybe why I paddled, fished and brushed. Nothing has really changed since those first days in 1967 painting with my friend and mentor Mario Airomi in his Maitland Studio. How I wish I could paint again with Mario!
The artistic journey must take many twists and turns and I still do not know where it is going. The journey is the fun part and it would be a shame to try to contain that trip within any confines of expectations.

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