Embarking on a mission to paint the great Canadian Landscape there is an inescapable “article”of truth, and an unavoidable “wall” one confronts. The inescapable “article” is simply there is an awful lot of it! Complicating matters further it is all mostly different! Accepting this “article” one then confronts the unavoidable. That would be the Group of Seven. The monolithic spiritual shibboleth that casts it’s long shadow over every aspect of the Canadian landscape, Canadian Art, and the Canadian collective conscience. In conversation the great American critic Clement Greenberg intimated to me that Canadian Art History is written in landscape. It was a fascinating revelation! At the time I was trying to lead the New York International art movement from the third floor of the Fine Arts College Avenue Campus in Regina Saskatchewan. His off hand comment had the ultimate effect of freeing me from my Herculean labours, and ultimately re-directing my life energies.

Those who have some notion of chronicling “it” quickly discover the likelihood of ever being able to do so tends to become more impossible the more one does. As one of those who had pretensions along this line of enquiry I see three principle obstacles as stumbling blocks. The obvious are those already mentioned. With the Pacific on one side, the Atlantic on the other, and the Arctic Ocean in the far North there is diversity indeed. Add to that the rain forest on the west tumbling into mountains which gives way to Foothills, prairie, the shield country of Ontario and Quebec, and of course the windswept rugged eastern coast. The immensity of attempting to chronicle these changes, and differences, is daunting indeed. Presiding over all there is the ever present shibboleth of the group of Seven looming over whatever subject one casts their eye on.

For most the foregoing reasons would seem to be enough. However there is another iron to throw in the fire, and for me, it is this last that becomes the most intriguing of all. I have been more fortunate than most painting, and chronicling, the landscape from the east arm of Great Slave Lake to Nahanni, to Kluane, and Whales Island on the north west coast. From Telegraph Cove, the Gold River, and the Cowichan on Vancouver Island to BC mainland, lake Moyie, and the many wilderness streams and lakes of Alberta. In Saskatchewan I have painted north of LaRonge, and the streams of the south in the Cypress Hills as well as the Swan hills of Eastern Saskatchewan. In Manitoba it was the Fir River north of the Pas, and in Quebec the Kenauk series, which was my first encounter with the eastern Fall colour their hardwoods are so noted for. This current series of work is from a trip I made to Newfoundland. It was in the Fall with some good colour, and chronicles an afternoon in particular on a small stream on the Avalon peninsula. The former recitation is not given in the manner of a boast; simply a matter of record to put the following confession in context.

Having experienced so many different and diverse places I am forced to realize that there is a definite pattern to the subject I seek, and use. It seems that I seek landscape formats that conform to a paradigm pre-set. One of the great themes of art that repeats throughout history is the notion of “la source.” At it’s simplest it is the great womb of Mother Earth giving forth it’s life source of “living waters”. It is a theme that crops up time and again from the maid with the endless waters flowing from a vase at her side to the rocky mountain streams of Leighton, Phillips, or one of the Seven. This begs the question “do I look for Landscape that is aesthetically satisfying as something in it’s own right or do I look for something that conforms to the pre-set parameters of a model already well defined that fulfills an existing inner need. One of the uncomfortable truths I have had to face is that I do indeed look for the landscape I already have codified and pre defined in my mind. This was especially brought home to me by the material I gathered in Newfoundland and what I seemed to be able to use of it. While I took many pictures of the archetypal Newfoundland Landscape themes none seemed to get the requisite juices flowing when I returned to the Studio. It was just a small section of the Manuels River on the Avalon peninsula that seemed to get, and hold, my attention. Within a small section of the actual stream I was able to find enough material for the entire exhibition. I look at all the source material of boat sheds, blueberry hills, wharfs, docked boats etc. and while I can see the material as paintings I just can’t see them as “my paintings.”

So these works end up being “my” Newfoundland. My trip was successful in that I found this lovely material to work with which reinforces my notion of what I feel important in Landscape. The archetypal “Peggy Coves” that are themes common to most Newfoundland artists and grist for the mill for Newfoundland artists, and others are probably best left that way. While I look at those sorts of images and say to myself I should do something about them I seriously doubt that I ever will, especially there is so much material from Nova Scotia waiting in the wings.

Ted Godwin
Calgary, Alberta