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Canoescapes
By Bill Mason
Boston Mills Press
Erin, Ont. 160 pp. $50 Cdn/$40 US
Review by MICHAEL PEAKE --
Che-Mun Editor
Canoelit Home Page
Though, incredibly, 1996 marks the eighth year of the passing of Bill Mason, he is with us still. His legend has only grown and he is woven into the very fabric of Canada and canoeing.
Canoescapes is a valuable addition to the Mason collection. While Bill was an accomplished film maker, lecturer and writer what he loved best was painting. He devoted the last few years of his life to it and many canoeists are familiar with some of his work. What Canoescapes does is gather all this artwork together in one volume along with Bill's comments on his art.
The book opens with an acknowledgment from Bill's wife Joyce. She writes that the book is presented as Bill designed it. Some of the text was deleted because the accompanying artwork could not be found. The whole family worked on the book including his children Paul and Becky. Joyce reveals that the publication of this book is the fulfillment of a promise made to Bill a few weeks before his death.
The Foreword is written by Christopher Chapman, the film maker who first met Bill and used him as the anonymous subject of his Film 'Quetico' done 40 years ago. Chapman became famous when his film on Ontario called A Place to Stand won an Oscar in 1967.
While this reviewer makes no claims to be an art critic, there are a few observations to make. Most of Bill's work was done with a palette knife. This small trowel-like instrument gives great texture to a picture. The problems with photographing art like that is you lose that texture in a reproduction. Even though Bill's art is faithfully reproduced, it looks flat, which is why great art should be seen in person. Bill was a great admirer of John Mallord Turner, the English landscape painter who, though highly criticized in his day, is now considered one of the titans on the art world. There is much of Turner in many of Bill's works. They try to convey a sense of the mood and the feel of a particular scene - an often swirling, raw sweep that transports the view to the spirit of the place, though not the precise "visual" reality. Okay, enough attempts at art criticism.
Each picture is displayed on a full page of this 10-inch square book. On the opposite page of almost all works is the commentary from Bill on what he remembers about the scene or just some accompanying thoughts on the piece.
One of his most popular works - as Bill admits to his consternation - is Pine Island Storm (pictured above) one of his last watercolours before he switched to oil. He's frustrated by its popularity because he didn't want to go back to watercolours. The wind and wave-whipped island is located in Lake of the Woods where Bill went to Pioneer Camp in his youth.
Many of the 160 pictures are from Lake Superior and most involve crashing water, surf or rapids. Bill was clearly fascinated by water; what it did and what it does to us. One of the nicest reproductions is Cascade Falls on Lake Superior. These famous falls were featured in many of Bill's films. One of the great scenes in Waterwalker is Bill doing a wonderful rendering of the falls from the adjacent beach - and then crumpling it up and throwing it in the fire!
The final section in the book is a two page Afterword by Bill Mason, perhaps the last words we shall read from him. He reminds us all that it is important to listen to Nature and that this takes time. He writes, " We can enjoy the view from a car, train, aircraft, motorboat or snowmobile, but to achieve a relationship with the land we must on foot or by canoe. . . Too often it's the destination that's important, not the journey itself."
While Bill Mason's own destination on this earth has been reached, he is still leading us on a wonderful journey.
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