40” x 60” Oil on Canvas 2024

“It was finally my turn to get up to Lake Ohara.  Thanks to the Whyte Museum celebrating 100 years since J.E.H. McDonald and the museum’s collaboration with the Alpine Club of Canada; I was one of 18 artists selected to participate.  I hiked for three days and spent 2 nights in the Elizabeth Parker hut.    I filled a sketchbook, an iPhone 9 with support material and completed a few plein air wood panels down by the lake to bring back to the studio.  

Before I went up to Lake Ohara, I poured over the new book “To See What He Saw” by Patricia Cucman and Stanley Munn, and studied maps of the area.  I planned my hiking loops and even read the back of the map for extra clarity.  I was ready.  By the time I was there, I knew what I was looking at and what some of the peak’s names were.  In my mind's eye I saw MacDonald’s work at the same time.  The Group of Sevens’ images are steeped deep into Canadian culture and this artist is no exception.  

Throughout my younger years,  I pushed back against being linked to Canada’s Algonquin school of fine art style.  It felt generic and I did not want to do my masters as a landscape painter so I waited on that…… I might have to keep waiting I guess, because I have embraced it along side my BFA and Environmental Planning Degrees.  Scenic Inheritance is in my blood, in my step and seeps into my studio practice.

Over the past few months I have been painting this body of work.    I made sure not to look at any images in the above mentioned book. However, I did return to the Whyte to revisit the exhibition of J.E.H. MacDonald.  I felt emotional.  My new body of work is intended to celebrate Canada’s National Parks, our pride in Mother Earth and of course show the viewer my individuality as an artist.  I paint like me. I celebrate paint, this place and this privileged honour to get to represent O’Hara with the long line of fellow artists before me.” ~Chrissy Nickerson~