Welcome to Paint and paddle
A Brief History
The tradition of painting by canoe can be traced to its roots in North America’s first civilization where the First Peoples painted pictographs on vertical shoreline rock surfaces from the platform of their canoes. Remnants of the numerous depictions of everyday life, hunting, history and religious beliefs are scribed all over the Canadian landscape and waterways and are still visible today.
The tradition of painting by canoe can be traced to its roots in North America’s first civilization where the First Peoples painted pictographs on vertical shoreline rock surfaces from the platform of their canoes. Remnants of the numerous depictions of everyday life, hunting, history and religious beliefs are scribed all over the Canadian landscape and waterways and are still visible today.
Frances Anne Hopkins, Canoes in a Fog, Lake Superior, 1869, Glenbow Museum, Calgary
Group of Seven member, A. J. Casson (Canadian, 1898-1992). White Pine; oils on canvas.
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This practice of painting by canoe was a natural fit to newly arrived cultures that adopted the canoe for trade and discovery purposes. These newly arrived peoples ventured forth into the Canadian wilderness and artists of the time recorded daily life and captured the vast beauty of new landscapes they encountered with drawings and paintings.
The works of art that were produced from this period are now national treasures and a part of the psyche of Canadian culture. Such artists as Frances Anne Hopkins, Tom Thomson and The Group of Seven brought the Canadian landscape to the world capturing on canvas the rugged beauty of this country discovered by canoe. Today with the progress of civilization these places of iconic Canadian beauty are becoming rare but there still exists locations best accessed by canoe that offer the opportunity and inspiration to again capture the raw Canadian wilderness on canvas. |
Join us in this Canadian tradition of painting by canoe and discover for yourself the inspiration these wild Canadian places had on past and present artists.
FEATURED plein air and paddling art ADVENTURE's
By Lauren Satok
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This season we will be offering tours in various locations which will feature local artists from the area. A certified ORCKA canoe guide will guide participants and a landscape artist will facilitate Plein Air, on-site painting, where some of our beloved Canadian painters were drawn to due to the sublime beauty and wildness of these areas.
Locations: Bruce Peninsula, Georgian Bay and Algonquin Park 2, 3 or 5 Day Tour Guest Artist: TBA |
