Mark Brennan, Painting The Wild Places

The Wild Place Album by Mark Brennan

2011-05-09T17:04:00.002-03:00

Yes something new!

"The Wild Places" album. The original album is 60 mintues of recordings from Mark Brennan and Wild Earth Voices, soundscapes of 2010. Wilderness locations throughout Nova Scotia feature, including the Cape Breton Highlands, Old Growth Acadian and Red Spruce forests, Boreal Wetlands and the Atlantic Coast. For further information visit our website, www.wildearthvoices.org. Cd also available.
The Wild Places by Wild Earth Voices

New work from an old sketch

2010-10-22T17:47:00.002-03:00

8x10 oil sketch 2005

Time at the easel is always time well spent and this was the case today. I spent most of the afternoon working up a large oil on board from a small oil panel that was painted on location in 2005. It was during the summer, I was in Kejimkujik National Park in Southern Nova Scotia canoeing in the backcountry when I came across the famous, “Haystack Rock”, a huge granite boulder left behind from the ice age. Kejimkujik National park is a canoeists dream, lake after lake of wilderness, with island campsites, portages through old growth forests and the possibility of viewing some truly wonderful wildlife.

The small oil panel has long since been sold but I always like to keep a photographic record of each work, which is what I used today. Here you can see the smaller 8x10 sketch and the new 18x24 piece painted today, both above.

New Work

2010-09-28T10:28:00.003-03:00

September Sunrise, Taylor Head, Oil on board

Last week, which would have been around the middle of September I headed over to the Atlantic Coast. For two reasons, firstly to find some new painting material and secondly to record the calm Atlantic Ocean (an audio version!). I arrived before sunrise, which was spectacular, there was also very little wind, which gave perfect conditions for capturing the waves lapping at the shoreline Kelp. On the Kelp were about 200 tiny shore birds feeding heavily as they continued with their Southward migration. Here you can see the resulting painting and also have a listen to the sounds of that 'perect' morning.

The Atlantic Ocean - 'Sample' by wildearthvoices

The recordings here are all from Atlantic coastal Provincial Parks in Nova Scotia, they all last for about 1 minute and were gathered at various dates over the past year. Best to listen with headphones if you can. The final piece in the 4 minute sample is of the location of the painting! To listen to more of the 'wild' places you can have a look at my new website, www.wildearthvoices.org

The Saguenay Fjord, After The Rain

2010-08-03T15:56:00.001-03:00

After The Rain, Saguenay Fjord, Quebec 18x24 inches Oil on board

Our last few nights were spent on the North Side of the Saguenay Fjord at a more remote campsite that sat on the edge of a river that flowed into the fjord. The first day it rained, the wind howled and we spent our time in a newly erected cooking area, A big fire in the wood stove drying our clothes. Then late that afternoon everything stopped and a calmness overcame the whole area. Dark mountains and churning water turned to rich pastels and clouds hovered in little bunches just meters from the oceans surface. This calm lasted for many hours and I remember just sitting watching and listening on the beach feeling the quiet. This painting “After The Rain, Saguenay Fjord, Quebec” 18x24 oil on board, depicts one of those quiet moments that day.

2010-08-02T13:34:00.003-03:00

Grey Day, Lac April, Saguenay National Park, Quebec 28x31 inches

This is the first piece to come out of my trip to the Saguenay region of Quebec in late July 2010, which is a part of the Laurentian mountains. 28x31.5 inches, oil on board titled, Grey Day, Lac April. It’s not hard to be inspired after spending almost a week here. It’s steep sided forested mountains and a light that reminded me of Scotland throws out subject matter all over the place. I will let the painting ‘rest’ for a while then have another look at it in a week or so to make some small adjustments. Lac April is a steep 1.5 hour hike along a fisherman’s trail on the South side of the Saguenay Fjord. The day I was there the sun wasn’t showing it face, colours were muted and grey and quite subtle.

The Gulf Oil Disaster

2010-06-15T11:36:00.002-03:00

This is a link to a film made by Martyn Stewart, a nature recordist, he traveled to the Gulf to document the unfolding disaster of the oil spill. This film is not easy to watch if you have any type of relationship with nature, but we need to bear witness and also take some of the blame. Our dependance on oil is alarming as is evident here in this film. Please share this, talk about it, think about it... perhaps do something about it. Thanks...

Mark Brennan On Development As An Artist

2010-06-07T15:48:00.004-03:00

16X20 Oil on board, Spring Runoff, Cheticamp River, a breakthrough Piece?

It’s a given perhaps, that anyone working towards something or at least on some sort of ‘improvement pathway’ reaches little plateau’s of achievement that defines their progress. Athletes or artists, these are pivotal moments where getting something right in a long progression of constant improvement helps us to see not only how far we have come but also where we go next.

As a painter these moments are seldom nowadays, but perhaps once a year I produce a painting where I can clearly see that the hard work is paying off. The show at Argyle Fine Art in June of 2010 caused me to reflect on this after hearing from viewers of the show how much I had developed my style in a short time.

There was one painting in this show, “Spring Runoff, Cheticamp River” a 16x20 oil on board that reaches a little higher. Looking at it on the gallery wall I could see that this piece defined a big leap in my development as an artist. This was the point where subconsciously I had become confident enough to ‘let go’, to paint without fear.

I think this is an important point in the development of an artist or athlete. I have coached soccer for going on 8 years now and one of the biggest challenges I face as a coach is to get my players to play with confidence and without fear. It is easier said than done as many of us judge our standards by how we are seen by others. There is a point though with constant good ‘coaching’ whether art or soccer, where the artist or player is allowed the freedom to express themselves without fear, only then can you achieve the growth that will enable you to move to the next level.

There are no shortcuts to achieving the inner potential of someone striving for this. I think it just comes down to one main thing really and that is work. But working properly, facing the challenges that are presented to you and pushing through them with a deep sense of purpose one by one.

“Spring Runoff, Cheticamp River” was painted in a mindset where fear was not present. I remember it well, I felt a need to express this place as I experienced it, the rushing water the overpowering sense of force as it flooded through the gaps in the rocks. This need to express and create had finally overcome the barrier of fear and the paint went on in great thick swaths. So is this to say that I am still learning, yes! Absolutely and I hope to be until they bury me!

New Show, Argyle Fine Art, June 4th 2010, Halifax NS

2010-05-27T22:46:00.001-03:00

The Wildest Place.....

2010-03-26T09:33:00.002-03:00

Through the thickest of spruce

Evening on Caribou Barren, we settle in for the night

Lunch break, day two, Fred and Ken.. leave nothing but footprints

Moments before I fell into the River

Remote Cabin, Oil on board. Tipover Lake, Cape Breton Higlands National Park

Some of the paintings I have done over the years have had to be sought after. Some come through long road trips, others by hiking through dense forests or canoeing wide lakes. There is one though that caused me the most grief than all the others but it was a trip I will remember for a long time. Two friends and myself decided we were going to hike across the Cape Breton Highland National Park from one side of the 1400ft plateau to the other (around 60-70km). When we presented ourselves to the visitors office at the park entrance we did get some strange looks, but after a meeting with the Warden, he seemed quite happy to let us go on our way.

There were three of us, Ken Hetherington a 62 year old miracle man who ran marathons for fun and my good friend and high school teacher Fred Mackenzie. Our start point was a public trail on top of French Mountain, from here we would leave the trail to begin our 3 days of exploration into one of Nova Scotia’s most remote places. The first few hours we managed about 10km and as evening was drawing to a close we camped down for the night. This was very memorable, high up on Caribou Plain we experienced a silence and a freedom that is certainly hard to find in many places, the stars were the brightest I had ever seen, the insects were insane and the company of two, just perfect!

Over the next couple of days we backpacked through mud, waist deep water, the thickest of spruce forests and the largest of bogs using mostly compass work. Eventually we reached Tipover Lake, near the highest point in Nova Scotia which is aptly named Whitehill. Tipover Lake had a small wardens cabin near it and this is where the painting above comes from.

It wasn’t long after seeing the cabin that I slipped into a river and smashed my Olympus camera to pieces. This was in the digital era and I was lucky enough to be able to salvage the memory card, my knee didn’t fare out as well, but we made it back safe and sound a few hours later. I have posted some other photos to give you an idea of the wonderful experience we had that summer.

Kejimkujik National Park - Part 2 'Fall'

2010-03-23T15:21:00.001-03:00

Fall, Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia

Cape Breton Highlands, Deep Snow On North Mountain

2010-03-23T08:04:00.002-03:00

Looking North The Aspy Fault Line, Cape Breton

Survival Hut, on top of North Mountain

Mark, North Mountain, Cape Breton Highlands

The Cutting, On top of North Mountain

A visit to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park is an inspiring thing to do at any time of year. While most people see the park in the summer it can also offer some great experiences over the winter and into early Spring.

I ventured up to the Highlands plateau this past weekend to check out the snow depth and to get a feel for what it might be like in a howling blizzard during the middle of winter. At its peak the top of North Mountain is at 1,460ft, not much by ‘traditional’ mountain standards but it does make for some very different weather. It is mostly exposed on all sides and close to the Northumberland Strait where snow storms and squalls blow ashore.

On March 6th 2010 the snow depth at the top was around 21ft deep, on our visit on March 20th it was about 16-18ft deep. As the photos show there’s no way a plough is getting through there to clear the road so the park uses giant snow blowers to clear a path. This leaves a real appreciation of just how wild and unforgiving North Mountain can be. Just along the road from where we stopped is the small survival hut, which has a woodstove and fuel inside for motorists who might get stuck ‘up there’.

I would think the last of this snow will likely be gone by June, I will keep you posted as my first camping/painting trip will be well before then!

"Lights, Camera....ACTION!"

2010-03-16T13:19:00.003-03:00

Cameraman, Ashley King Rigging Up The Fluid Head

My painting bought me an unexpected ‘extra’ over the past weekend in the shape of being offered two days work on a film set for a short film by Stuart Creswell called ‘Broken‘. I was asked to do the stills photography for the film and also camera assist. It was a great deal of fun, intriguing and entertaining to watch a very professional group of film makers at work. In all a total of about 22 hours on the set for an 8 minute ‘short’ film.

My background in photography certainly helped but also my artistic side was useful, I was really able to appreciate what the director was looking for. Being my first time working on such a stage you would think that it would have been a bit foreign, but I felt very comfortable, almost as if it were an extension of my art and I suppose in a sense they are connected. The conditions for the shoot were perfect, with 2 days of stunning late winter light and no wind, we couldn’t have asked for better weather.

One thing I did notice was the utter and constant persistence for quality, this included everything from the acting, lighting, sound and the visual aspects of the medium. Something I learned a long time ago is that you are measured by what you ‘put out’ there in the world and in order to ascertain some sense of credibility, everything you do must be the very best and this was certainly the case over the weekend. The film has to be edited, a sound track added and then it’s off to a film festival in Ireland. I will be quite honoured to have my name at the end of the credits and would certainly love to do it again.

Dead Coyote, Feeding Bald Eagles

2010-03-09T21:39:00.005-04:00

Evening Light - Westbranch Lake

I was out and about today for a couple of hours in the Trafalgar area of Nova Scotia, it was one of those strange trips starting off with seeing two mature Bald Eagles feeding on a dead Whitetail Deer by the side of the road, then father on a dead, very healthy looking Coyote, being fed on by an immature Bald Eagle, a huge Raven and a Grey Jay.

It always worries me when I see road kill so close to the road being fed on by the likes of Bald Eagles, its a recipe for disaster so I pulled the Coyote into the drain away from the road to lessen the chances of the Eagles getting hit.

The evening light was magnificent as you can see in the photo and its just about that time when the lakes begin to really break up. Over the coming weeks I will be hard at it capturing 'break-up'. That time when winter releases its icy grip and gives way to spring. It wont be long and the first birds will begin to arrive and life comes back to frozen Nova Scotia!

My daughter broke her leg back in January, so when we go out, I drag her around on a plastic sledge. She is happy to be out, I get a workout!

New Work, getting large!

2010-03-02T11:16:00.003-04:00

Open Stream near Perch Lake NS Oil on board 2010 24x28

Winter Meadow, Whitehill NS oil on board 22x24

Spring Runoff, Cheticamp River, oil on board, 16x20

Afternoon At the Alder Grounds wilderness area, oil on board 2010

I have been hard at it recently producing some larger work. The paintings here are all 16x20 up to about 2ft x 3ft and come from trips into wilderness areas of Nova Scotia.

A new Adventure in Sound

2010-02-26T13:14:00.004-04:00

My interest in wild places continues to develop, to the point where I am very interested in bringing this experience closer to viewers of my work. I have created a new website and blog entitled Wild Earth Voices. I hope to bring you these 'voices of the wild places' to enhance your own experience of nature.

What Would Picasso Do?

2010-01-31T01:12:00.001-04:00

Picasso.... thinking

I have been working hard lately, feeling a great deal of passion and commitment to my work. It has been a great week. Mostly though there is a great deal of satisfaction with these paintings which are now drying in the basement.

The temperature tonight is going down to -16 degrees C. When it gets this cold, because we live in a ‘Century Farm’ we drain the water from our pipes to prevent it from freezing. It’s a quick procedure, open up two taps in the basement, turn the water off at the pump and everything drains.

I was doing this tonight, before going to bed and had a look at the paintings from the past week or so. Imagine by shock, when I saw that they were all covered in tiny marks, Upon a closer inspection I could actually see that these marks are that of a mouse. There are 10, still wet, paintings with footprints on them. I gave one a slight rub to see if the marks will come off, alas no. The paintings are so wet they smudge if you touch them.

The first question is a philosophical one, are the mouse prints now a part of the paintings or a complete lack of judgement on my part? What do I do with them? A part of me says to leave them alone, call them ‘the mouse paintings’ but the more serious part of me is frantic. Ten paintings equals a sizeable part of my salary for a couple of months.

I have decided to leave them alone, let them dry and see if I can clean them up afterwards. If they don’t clean up, then a mouse has made a much bigger statement than I have in the sense that there is a contradiction here. As a landscape painter who has a sincere love of the natural world, living with nature, alongside it, is a big part of my philosophy. I wonder what Picasso would do? A solo show perhaps, “The Mouse Paintings!” Would you come to see it?

New Growth

2010-01-20T15:55:00.002-04:00

Finding Rhythm, New Growth, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland, Oil on board

To grow as a person is to take one more, small step, towards our potential. For me this usually begins with a questioning of where I feel I am on a subconscious level. There is a sense of uneasiness or self evaluation that interferes with my painting process. But these periods usually come from being able to see what is possible on the next level. Reaching it is the goal, but the journey is the process. I think it is also important never to be too sure with what I have painted; taking it for granted is setting yourself up for a fall.

In a discussion a few days ago on my work, a client made the comment that they liked it because it was on the ‘edge’. I understood immediately what he meant. It’s that territory between being in your comfort zone and reaching so far out you are working with new ideas or have let go enough that the process of painting hits a rich vein of creativity where the expression, rather than the actual technique, is the stronger of the two. When this happens there is usually some growth for me.

I remember several years ago, the same thing happening, I had just finished a small oil on board of an interior Newfoundland lake, the piece had a wonderful rhythm and flow to it. Studying it afterwards I knew that I had reached the next level. I always look to improve, technique as an artist can really never be good enough but I think to focus too much on being ‘correct’ can stifle the very reason I paint, which is to express my emotions through the brush.

So what I am feeling now is that sense of being on the verge of new growth. It has come from producing some good work over the past year but my new work from the last few weeks is different. I find myself going back to it, to look at it again, questioning myself. It is hard to be your own critic, so I usually leave them alone for a few weeks and then have a look. I never put out work that is substandard, but I have to be careful that I don’t judge myself so harshly that that I miss something new and fresh, something that’s been painted on the ‘edge’.

Lastly, when this happens, which seems to be less frequently these days, there is always a bit of struggle, some frustration and a sense of grasping at something you can’t quite reach. I know from experience that the way through this is to work, to experiment, to waste some paint and most importantly to let go and not panic! Going with the flow and acceptance seem to be the best medicine. In the end growth has to be difficult, if its not, is it really growth?

Remembering Arthur Lloy

2010-01-19T19:44:00.002-04:00

Artist, Arthur Lloy, a native Nova Scotian, died tragically in a motor vehicle accident on his way to a solo show in 1986. Born in 1929, he was a landscape painter, one who’s passion for the woods lakes and rivers of beautiful Nova Scotia can be seen in his expressive work. I had known of Lloy for quite a few years, but a few days ago I was to rediscover him. I had to deliver some of my own work to a collector, three pieces purchased during my solo show last October. It was a wonderful visit, talking about art is something I love to do, especially when you are surrounded by the stuff!

On one of the walls was a large original piece by Arthur Lloy, a fantastic expressive work in which he depicts the very essence of an early spring river somewhere in the wilderness. I looked at each brush stroke and carefully followed his expressive long lines with the pallet knife. It had a wonderful depth and rhythm, the sky held a luminous quality, showing me he understood clearly the idea of hue and colour value. Looking at it, the scene was something I had seen many times myself, I am sure I could even feel the chill coming off the thick impasto foreground snow!

Seeing such work is surely inspirational, in a sense I feel that Lloy’s passion for the land is also my own. You can see it in each piece, he wanted to tell us something, to help us understand that he saw beauty when he worked.

On a website dedicated to him is this quote, “Who can deny the mood or feelings created by the glint of early morning sunshine on a patch of swamp grass, the magic of maple and poplar on an autumn hillside, the wonderment of a quiet still water nestled among spruce and pine, the mystery and serenity of a hardwood hill in the late afternoon of a winter’s day , the breath of a spring wind crossing a lake, the smell of damp moss in the shadows of a forest swamp, the mood and power of the land and the elements.” Here he says it all, but what he felt really comes out in his work spaced over a thirty year painting career, and obviously a deep relationship with nature.

His subject matter is the same, the land, it is something that is always there yet never the same. Since seeing Lloy’s work, he has inspired me to work ‘big’. I have done three large works in as many days. It’s the wonderful thing about being a painter, you leave something behind, in Lloy, he left me inspiration.

Online Link to his work and biograhpy

The Chair, A Fundraiser for Symphony Nova Scotia

2010-01-08T12:08:00.003-04:00

The Finished Product, "Early Spring Lake, Algonquin Park" oil on wood
A time lapse film of Mark Brennan painting a chair. The painting "Early Spring Lake, Algonquin Park" has been enlarged from a small sketch. The Chair was rescued from the garbage, and will be a part of Symphony Nova Scotia's fund raiser for 2010.

Original Work Slide Show, The Wild Places, Mark Brennan

2010-01-08T08:38:00.000-04:00

New Gallery Representation

2010-01-07T15:25:00.001-04:00

I am very happy to announce that I am now represented by another Maritime Canada Gallery. Trinity Galleries located in St. John New Brunswick.

My current work in Trinity comes after a special trip to New Brunswick last year when I visited wilderness areas in the Province including Fundy National Park.

About the Gallery

Located in the Trinity Royal Preservation area of Uptown Saint John, New Brunswick, Trinity Galleries opened its doors in December of 1995. Our street level accessibility, with large floor to ceiling front windows, makes Trinity Galleries a welcoming sight for visitors.

Featuring two levels of beautifully restored gallery space, we represent a wonderful array of several of the Maritimes’ foremost fine artists including Alex Colville, Mary Pratt, Barbara Pratt, David Silverberg, Peter Gough, Cheryl Bogart, Don Pentz, Amy Dryer, Peter Cunningham, Jaya Krishnan, Heather Sayeau, Andrea Blanar, Angela Morgan and Amy Ash to name a few.

Contact the Gallery
Trinity Galleries, 128 Germain StreetSaint John, NB, Canada

E2L 2E7

Tel/Fax: (506) 634-1611
E-mail: art@trinitygalleries.ca
web http://www.trinitygalleries.ca/

Snow, A January Morning

2010-01-05T09:50:00.001-04:00

Snow, Whitehill, Jan 5th 2010

Looking across the valley this January morning, between the barns, down through the hay fields and into the black forest, the landscape is grey. There is a gentle snow falling, which gives everything an ‘airy’ feeling or lightness. Yet the trees strain under the weight of snow from days past, there is contradiction but cleanness, like a blanket of the same pattern covering everything in it’s whiteness.

The snow reduces what I see to simple forms, the way life should be, there is a sterility and quiet as sound is muffled by it’s softness and jagged edges give way to rounded welcoming shapes. The snow gives off a uniform diffused light where harsh shadows cease to exist. I have watched this scene many times, it is never drab but calming and gentle. I want to know why. The landscape is soft, like your mother, it is quiet like a Sunday morning, it is consistent, you know what you’ve got and its also full of integrity, change comes slowly to a snowy landscape. It wont let you down. The feeling is that of warmth, cozy ness, like a warm fire as it wraps you in its embrace. It makes me want to paint.

Thankyou

2009-12-24T11:12:00.000-04:00

A note, at this special time of year, to thank you all for your support, your patronage, encouragement and your enthusiasm. Art is a passion, it’s a commitment, to yourself and in some ways to others. Through my pursuit of landscape painting I have come to meet many wonderful, genuine people who have supported me in many ways. The truth is, without an audience artists fade. We create I guess, because we have something to say, it is a circle or a symbiotic relationship. I sincerely hope that I have brought a smile to your face or opened a door into the window of nature and the wild places of Canada that I love to experience and share. If art is a passion, then so is life. Thankyou.

Tom Thomsons, The Jack Pine, I know it well.

2009-12-18T08:17:00.002-04:00

Tom Thomson, The Jack Pine, 1916/17

The sun is rising here, there is a elongated pink swath in the South East that stretches across the horizon and grows brighter by the minute, in all other directions the sky is steeped in blue/grey. The first of the snow is down and here to stay, bright against the dark of the quiet landscape. It reminds me of perhaps my favourite painting, The Jack Pine by Tom Thomson. Painted in the winter of 1916/17, this work stands as a testament to the depth of which Thomson ‘felt’ the land. It is a bold painting for its time and a rare statement perhaps of the clash between man and nature, I know The Jack Pine well.

During my 20’s, I painted a full size copy of this work on my studio wall, it covered about 4 feet by 5 feet. I learned a great deal about Thomson doing this, slowly peeling back his techniques, his brush work and his colour sense, which was magnificent. But it also allowed me a rare glimpse into what he may have been thinking whilst painting this wonderful work in the small studio located far from Algonquin Park in down town Toronto.

I liked what I had done so much that I made a frame from split Birch branches, where it then stayed for about ten years. But like most things, nothing is permanent, and it now lies buried under a coat of paint. If I look carefully, I can still see the thick brush marks. For me Thomson is an iconic figure, a master in the truest sense of the word. I relate to him because I too share his passion for not just art but the wilderness. It is on quiet mornings like this in the depths of winter, in the stillness that I know Thomson also saw the pink swath across the morning winter sky, and he was inspired by it.

Video Link, The CBC Archives, 1995, 2 minute video on this magnificent painting.

The Jack Pine, By Tom Thomson

At the Book Signing, Argyle Fine Art- Halifax

2009-12-13T09:51:00.003-04:00

Mark (left) at the Book Signing Dec 12th at Argyle Fine Art, Halifax, with artists Gorden Macdonald, author Dee Appleby, Steven Rhude and Shelly Mitchell, what a great bunch! Thanks to Argyle Fine art for looking after me! And thanks to Shelagh for the photograph.

Book Signing - Argyle Fine Art, Halifax

2009-12-10T15:31:00.002-04:00

From Argyle Fine Art, Historic Properties, Halifax NS

This Saturday between 1-4 we will be having Steven Rhude, Gordon MacDonald, Shelley Mitchell, Mark Brennan and Dee Appleby here at the gallery to sign copies of FROM LAND AND SEA. If you have a copy and don't have it signed, pop by for a visit! If you do not have a copy, we will have them here to purchase just in time for the Holidays.
Hope to see you then!

Brandt Eisner, Assistant Director

On Location, Taylor Head, Nova Scotia

2009-12-08T17:26:00.001-04:00

A New Gallery......

2009-12-08T13:29:00.001-04:00

I am very pleased to announce that I am now represented by one of Halifax’s best known art galleries. Argyle Fine art is one of Halifax's most progressive galleries, they represent a unique variety of contemporary art by established and emerging Canadian artists. For me it is always exciting to begin a new relationship with a gallery. I sincerely hope this is the beginning of a lasting artist/gallery relationship! Visit them in Historic Properties, Halifax or online.

Argyle Fine Art
1869 UPPER WATER STREET

HALIFAX

NOVA SCOTIA

t: 902 425 9456

f: 902 425 9691

e: gallery@argylefa.com

Wine, Art and Film

2009-11-18T21:13:00.002-04:00

It’s always nice to see Stuart Creswell the film maker who produced the up coming documentary on life as a landscape painter. It was even nicer when he gave me a couple of bottles of wine from the well known Nova Scotia vineyard, Jost. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the label to see it was me! I was on the label.... I was tickled pink, well red,,, and white! Stuart had wanted to get a couple of audio quotes to complete the film, which is now in post production. The photo on the label is me painting on location in Northern Newfoundland at a place called Cape Onion. The next ‘stop’ over the ocean from this location is Greenland! Definitely one of my favourite takes from the film. This week has been busy, working hard producing new work for a gallery in Halifax that is going to represent me. More on that later. In the mean time, a small glass of wine to celebrate perhaps.Read More

Jost Wines

AY Jackson, Canadian Painter, A Film- 1941

2009-11-13T14:54:00.001-04:00

If you have a spare 17 minutes, have a look at this fascinating film from the National Film Board of Canada depicting one of my heroes, Canadian Painter AY Jackson. The film which dates from 1941 follows Jackson into the Canadian Wilderness as he paints on location. We see his winter studio where such famous canvas's were painted. We feel his passion for his work and watch him canoe into remote lakes to find his motif. Truly a Canadian hero from the past.

AY Jackson 1941 Painting On Location from the National Film Board

First Snow

2009-11-06T15:59:00.002-04:00

AY Jacksons First Snow Algoma

It is snowing, our first snow. Winter draws closer and it is around now I begin to work my hardest. I work mostly in my studio in the ‘dark’ months, using photo sketches and small works to paint larger pieces. The feeling is strange, almost like hibernation but I look forward to those bright cold days when there’s a couple of feet of snow down and I can get out on my rustic old snow shoes. It won’t be long!

Today reminds me of a print I have hanging in our living room, Fist Snow by AY Jackson, a founding member of the Canadian Group of Seven. It’s only a small print of an original that I saw back in the early 90’s in the Art Gallery of Ontario. The print seems to have an interesting past for in the bottom right hand corner, written in green it says, “Season’s Greetings, Bob and Signe”.

If you look back through the history of the Group of Seven, two of the more important collectors of their work were Robert and Signe McMichael. They realised the significance of their work to Canada in the 1950’s and began a passionate relationship with these fabulous paintings and the artists themselves. After many years they had a collection of Canadian art that was second to none. They eventually went on to found the, McMICHAEL Canadian Art Collection.

AY Jackson actually lived out the last six years of his life with the McMichaels and is now buried in the grounds of the Gallery near Kleinburg, Ontario. The collection is now publicly owned after the Ontario Government and the McMichaels reached an agreement in 1965.

Jackson painted this work no doubt during the winter after a late fall visit to Algoma in Northern Ontario. If you have ever visited a place like Algoma in Canada you will know by looking at the painting how true it is. You can just feel the snow in the air, the crisp bitter wind and the remaining fall colours muted under grey skies. Today, here in Nova Scotia our day is a mirror image of Jackson’s painting.

From Land And Sea, Nova Scotia's Contemporary Landscape Artists

2009-10-20T14:32:00.003-03:00

Today I got to see, for the first time, a copy of the book Nova Scotia's Contemporary Landscape Artists of which I am a part of. It is a wonderful tribute to the Provinces working landscape painters. Editor Dee Appleby has done a fantastic job, combining beautiful images with thoughtful words to produce an inspiring, much needed, book. It stands out as a testament to the raw talent we have here in Nova Scotia. From well known artists such at Tom Forrestall and Christopher Gorey to the incredible work of Susan Patterson and Native artist Alan Syliboy the book will make for great reading and no doubt inspire others to take an active interest in art. It is available from Nimbus Publishing Online. The official release is set for November 1st at Argyle Fine Art, 1869 Upper Water Street, Halifax 2-4pm.

Peters Point... A discovery

2009-10-19T14:28:00.003-03:00

Peters Point... Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia

I am here in My Tent, in Kejimkujik National Park, in Southern Nova Scotia. It is raining outside, one of those cold fall rains that you know will turn to snow overnight. I am quite warm though in my tent, camped near Kejimkujik Lake in this magnificent National Park by the same name. I have never been here in October when the fall colours are at their peak and what a feast for the eyes! I spent the day around Snake Lake near the Western side of the park and then worked my way by trail to Peters Point which juts out into the far side of Kejimkujik Lake. Peters Point was particularly special, a small rocky, exposed outcrop that was ablaze with reds, yellows, oranges and the creamy brown of the lake shoreline. Pines and Maples grew twisted, clinging, bent over by years of prevailing wind. It was all held together by large boulders left here from the last ice age. Peters point was the discovery of the day, a treasured find that screams “paint me!” Here in my tent I have my heater on and I as I listen to the rain I think I am going to stay in for the night now, to read and plan my day for tomorrow.

Secret Things, the gift of idealism

2009-09-19T18:19:00.006-03:00

On a misson of discovery in the mid 1970's, West Coast, Scotland. You to decide which one I am!

The fall is fast approaching and after a long ‘green’ summer I can say I am looking forward to it. We have had a few frosts here in Nova Scotia and in some of the lower lying areas the leaves have started to change. It is at this time of year I really find what Canadian artist, Robert Genn, calls his muse. Not long ago a gallery described my work as having a sense of nostalgia. I think they were bang on!

I was out ‘photo sketching’ today, in the remote Liscomb area of Nova Scotia. I photo sketch when I am pushed for time and have an over whelming desire to go wandering off! Today though whilst out, I thought more about how I feel when I am in these places or painting in my studio. I am going to try to put this feeling into words.

I feel very connected when in nature, it’s as if everything I see triggers excitement somewhere in my brain. I challenge myself to seek out possible paintings where ever I go. What is that feeling of excitement and where does it come from?

I think nature is beautiful, now that might sound somewhat strange coming from a 41 year old father and ex rugby player. Being out there discovering to me is like opening presents as a child on Christmas morning. I think I would have to search my past to find where this comes from. But I do remember as a child in Scotland being in the woods with my father, my brothers and sister. We would spend hours at a time wandering through the fields and the wooded areas on a mission of discovery. A memory that sticks out more than most is my dad and us ‘kids’ gathered around a big fallen log in the forest and the anticipation of him gently turning the log over. He would build us up and then slowly turn the log to discover what secret things lay beneath it. We would see all sorts, mice, insects, hedgehogs, ants, the list was endless. But you see my dad had a great way of generating excitement and enthusiasm when we saw these things, he still does. There is no doubt that these experiences at such a young age gave me something.

I am somewhat of an idealist, I want a perfect world, where nature is intact, where people live in peace, where species are not in decline and I think when I see beauty when out in the wilderness a little bit of my idealism is satisfied. I go on searching for it and have done for years. It gives me hope. But the next question could be where does the drive come from? I honestly think it is the inner search for my perfect world, for my ideals to be met, and I find this outside in the woods and on the lakes and rivers more than anywhere else. There is definitely a sense of nostalgia and it is exactly this feeling I want to express through my work. Perhaps this will change over the years, but I am still as excited about immersing myself in nature as I was when my dad took us to the woods in the mid 1970’s. Dad… I owe you one! Bring on the fall.

IDEALISM: Idealism is the philosophical theory that maintains that the ultimate nature of reality is based on mind or ideas. It holds that the so-called external or "real world" is inseparable from mind, consciousness, or perception. In the philosophy of perception, idealism is contrasted with realism in which the external world is said to have a so-called absolute existence prior to, and independent of, knowledge and consciousness.

The Wild Places, solo show - online viewing

2009-09-15T15:14:00.002-03:00

You can now view the entire show "The Wild Places, A journey into nature" online at the Art Sales and Rental Gallery's Flickr page.

Follow Mark On TWITTER

2009-09-15T09:50:00.004-03:00

Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world:
You can now follow Mark on TWITTER,

BOOK LAUNCH, “From Land and Sea”

2009-09-13T22:19:00.004-03:00

The Halifax book launch for “From Land and Sea” featuring 70 Nova Scotian Landscape artists published by Nimbus will be held Nov. 1st at Argyle Fine Art, from 2-4 p.m. All are welcome. Participating artists are also invited. I am happy to be a part of this book and hats off to Dee Appleby and Nimbus Publishing for what was a huge amount of work to get this important book published!

From Land and Sea $29.95
Nova Scotia's Contemporary Landscape Artists

Dee Appleby
The raw beauty of Nova Scotia’s varied landscape makes the province a mecca for artists. A near-island bathed in salty sea air and brushed by steady winds, the provincial landscape can be shadowed by dark clouds one moment and lit by a brilliant summer sun the next. From Land and Sea presents over 65 of the province’s contemporary landscape artists and their works. Each profiled artist appears with a short bio and artist’s statement, along with examples of his or her art. The artists covered in this book represent a wide range of styles prevalent in Nova Scotia landscape art today. With a foreword from Ray Cronin, director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

Dee Appleby is the manager of the Fox Harbour Gallery in Wallace, NS. She is past president of the Cobequid Arts Council, a frequent contributor to the weekly arts news column in the Truro Daily News, and an avid collector of Nova Scotia art. Dee lives in Truro with her husband, Brian, and two daughters.

Argyle Fine Art
1869 UPPER WATER STREET
HALIFAX NOVA SCOTIA
t: 902 425 9456
f: 902 425 9691
e: gallery@argylefa.com

Media Coverage

2009-09-12T08:09:00.003-03:00

It is always nice to have some media coverage. The New Glasgow Evening News here in Nova Scotia have always been supportive over the years. Thank you! The response to the show has been excellent including requests for a catalogue of work from across the Country. We had not thought of this beforehand. So the staff at the gallery quickly arranged an email catalogue of work for their clients. If you would like a copy - you can drop them a line at ASAR@gov.ns.ca

The full article in the newspaper can be read here.

News Release, Solo Show

2009-09-09T21:16:00.002-03:00

April, The Canso Barrens OIL ON BOARD

Two Years in the Making, Landscape Painter Holds Solo Show

Canadian Landscape Painter, Mark Brennan who resides in Whitehill, Nova Scotia, opened his first solo show at the Sales and Rental Gallery of The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia early September. His show “THE WILD PLACES: A journey into nature” consists of a collection of almost seventy new works produced over a two year period of extensive travel into the wild places of Canada. Brennan travelled throughout the Maritimes including Labrador, Northern Newfoundland and then into the Western National Parks like Banff and Jasper to produce a significant body of new work.

In this, his first solo show, Mark invites you to take a journey through the Canadian Wilderness to reflect on its beauty, its diversity, and the human connections through which we seek to find peace and solitude.

Mark is an oil painter whose work is inspired by the natural world. His subject matter focuses on the undisturbed natural areas of Canada. His recent work focuses on environmental degradation in Nova Scotia, attempting to convey a sense of hope for the environment while simultaneously moving the viewer to live harmoniously with nature.

Mark’s work focuses on the quality of lines and colour harmonies to create impressionistic, sensitive pieces. His oil landscapes are rich in the thick, unexpected colours found in a sunset - hot oranges and reds, or a lakeside forest - soft turquoises and warm, dusty olives. The fragility of nature is aptly captured in his delicate renderings of tree lines and water grasses. His palette and his pieces maintain a refined, painterly quality. Mark’s landscapes provoke nostalgia and appreciation for the power and simplicity of nature.

Brennan says of his work, “I see the landscape as something pure, containing age old rhythms and patterns, and with each painting I seek this ebb and flow of nature that holds us all together, to form our connection to all things wild." Mark is a member of the Federation of Canadian Artists and CARFAC. Originals will be on display in the gallery from September 1st - 30th, 2009. For more information or images please contact the gallery.

Gallery hours: Sun-Mon 12-5, Tues-Sat 10-5, Thurs 10-9
The Art Sales & Rental Gallery is located at 1723 Hollis Street,
Halifax, NS

Contacts
Gallery, asar@gov.ns.ca(902) 424 3087

You Are Invited!

2009-08-23T13:01:00.003-03:00

The month of September 2009, Art Sales and Rental Gallery (Art Gallery of NS, Hollis St. Halifax) "The Wild Places" 65 brand new works........ from the wild places of Canada.

phone 424 3087

email asar@gov.ns.ca

Caught In A Hurricane

2009-08-23T12:55:00.002-03:00

I am resting quietly on my back porch, it is August and Hurricane Bill is just about over us here in Nova Scotia. Within the past few minutes the wind has picked up significantly, visibility has reduced to a few hundred feet and there is an ominous feeling in the air.

Several years ago I got caught out in a hurricane on a remote part of Nova Scotia’s North Western coast. Myself and a close friend had backpacked from the tiny village of Pleasant bay in the Cape Breton Highlands to Polletts Cove, a desolate but stunning place of rugged beauty. We camped there for two nights and decided to trek back late afternoon along the coastal hiking trail amid the forests and cliffs of this special place.

That afternoon a severe storm hit and we were caught. There’s not much you can do in a situation like this but make plans to hunker down and ride it out, which was what we did. We found the thickest part of a forest amidst small spruce trees, pitched our tent, then waited. That night was to be a memorable one. The wind was well over 100km/hr and at times felt like a freight train was bearing down upon us. Most of this would have been fine in the daylight but this was the middle of the night, pitch black, the shore line only a few hundred feet away with waves crashing onto the rocks, the salt water being whipped up and thrown onto our little green tent that was in its way.

Neither one of us could sleep it was just too crazy, I remember taking out my sketch book and penning a poem in the dark, my headlamp flickering in the blackness. That sketch book is around somewhere and I will try to find it and post the poem in the next few days. I remember one line, “undying incessant wind, cuts its swath time and again over haggard stunted ground.” Looking back it was a wonderful experience, living life on the edge and at the mercy of mother nature. But we were also fighting fear, neither one of us were willing to admit this to the other at the time. There is strength in that, but also a bit of foolishness! I think times like this are not only inspiring but also have a way of waking us up to the fragility of our lives, they push us to get on with life, not to make excuses about our failures but to live in the moment, to stretch ourselves and the way we see things.

Hurricane Bill is upon us now, it is teeming down, the trees are at its mercy as they sway with each gust of wind, but for now, I am happy to be sitting on my sheltered porch taking it all in!

A New Outlook - underwater

2009-08-06T14:54:00.001-03:00

On August 5th, I decided to venture back into a lake where I did my first on location work. That was back in 1996, just after I had purchased my first canoe. The lake is picturesque with a lovely shoreline of old pines, black spruce and bog. This time I was there to get a different look, from below the water!

I purposely left without my camera and sketch book, I think sometimes I put too much emphasis on ‘working’ instead of just enjoying a place without asking questions or looking for new subject matter. I think it’s important to let go and simply let things happen sometimes. I made my way to a slow moving fen that is the outflow for the lake about half a mile away in my old beat up, but trusty, kayak.

Slipping into the water that afternoon in my wetsuit, snorkel and flippers would have been quite a sight for any trout fisherman close by. But the lake was empty so I had no apologies to make! The lake was clear and warm, like a heated aquarium and full of vegetation. It was the clarity I was amazed with at first as I made my way into the stream in about 3ft of water. The colors were so vivid and strong, lily leaves floating underwater, bright red swaying in the nothingness. Fish soon started to appear, small at first, perhaps two inches long, inquisitive towards this thing floating around in their space. Then suddenly I was wrapped in a constant stream of hundreds of fish swimming around me not 2ft away. I just lay there motionless and mesmerized.

I was struck by the silence in this moving, living eco-system, it is complete and really forces you to see with your eyes, and you do. All the little details, like a minute bubble on a plant or tiny red invertebrates and every shimmer of passing underwater light, even the shape of the fishes eyes or the stems of plants, a deep red at the base changing to green as it neared the surface. It was like the discovery of a new world.

That hour made me think about what we miss in our everyday lives, we miss the details, the little things that make us a part of the present moment. It is so normal for us to see the same things everyday and we ignore them most of the time through habit. Yet when under the water you become so aware, so present and in the moment. It was a great exercise for me as a painter, that hour or so was a reminder to just look to see and to experience. Now if I could ever find a waterproof housing for my camera, the paintings, the possibilities!

Labrador, The Big Land Part 1

2009-07-09T19:34:00.001-03:00

The ferry ride from St. Barbe on the Northern tip of Newfoundland to Blanc St. Blanc on the Labrador coast is a relatively short but ‘sharp’ crossing. Winds stream out of the North whip their way down through the Straits of Belle Isle, causing rough seas at times. There were a few green faces the day I made the trip, most though ventured outside into the fresh air which gave them some reprieve from feeling sick. The passengers were either locals going home or those heading further inland to fish the many lakes and rivers. Some were photographers and tourists heading for Red Bay, the ancient Basque whaling station located about 50 minutes further North up the coast.

I have had a desire to visit Labrador for many years, perhaps because I see it as the last frontier where man really hasn’t made much of an impact like we have in other places. The further North you go, the wilder this place becomes. This first trip I would be just scratching the surface, paying attention to the landscape along the Southern coastline. The people of Labrador call it “The Big Land” and it certainly lives up to its name.

Upon arrival I disembarked quickly and headed North East, there is only one coastal road which winds its way through small fishing villages eventually turning to dirt just north of Red Bay. The coastline is barren, treeless for the most part along the coastal headlands. Further inland in the sheltered valleys and along the lake shores the predominant tree is the spruce.

My first stop was the Pinware River Provincial park to pitch my tent for a couple of nights. From there I would explore the area. I picked out a ‘cozy’ campsite in amongst the thick spruce trees, which would provide some shelter from the wind. I was the only person there with a tent, others had camper vans. I wasn’t thirty seconds out of the car and the mosquitoes and blackflies were doing double duty on me! I have experienced both species endless times before, this time was different! I have read stories of the Labrador blackflies, and today they lived up to their reputation. I must say I did keep calm, no panicking but it sure was nice to finally get into the tent for a reprieve. Even then there were hundreds bouncing off the roof, franticly trying to escape and much less interested in fresh European raised meat!

The next morning I was up at dawn and took a walk along the sandy coastline. The ocean was shrouded in mist as sunrise approached and through it I could see two otters playing on the shore about one hundred meters away. To the left of them there were countless thousands of Terns and Gulls in a giant sandbar colony, all in a frenzy as daylight approached. On the now calm ocean rafts of Eider ducks bobbed in the safety of the swell, the males and females easy identifiable. Caplin skeletons, a tiny fish, could be seen everywhere along the beach. They were in balls and each one contained the bones of about thirty fish, knotted together, they reminded me of delicate sculptures made by an artist with lots of patience.

Later in the morning I drove North, passing hunting Short Eared Owls on the barrens and hearing the calls of the White Crowned Sparrow on their breeding territory. The first location I had found that was interesting for me to paint was along the Pinware River further inland. The river pounded its way through a narrow gorge, its waters a torrent, as if spring had just arrived, and here it was late July. Salmon fishermen were dotted along the rocky shorelines, one wrong step would send them to certain death the water was that fierce. There was lots to paint, and I made a quick pencil sketch near a bridge over the river looking North and then headed further along the isolated coastal road to experience more of this incredibly wild place.

NEW* Follow Mark On Facebook

2009-06-28T08:59:00.002-03:00

You can now follow Mark on Facebook, updates on new work, new writing, discussions on art and nature, or add your own comments to each post, share your own thoughts, insights and perspectives on art and life.

Morning

2009-06-28T08:16:00.003-03:00

Morning, Devils Eddy, Liscomb River, Nova Scotia

It is early morning here in Northern Nova Scotia. Overlooking the forested valley behind my home the mist is rising and each grey minute reveals another line of trees. There is a fresh breeze, it sounds like the ocean as it moves, like waves breaking on a shore. In the hayfield below, not far from where I sit, Bobolinks, Savannah Sparrows and Song Sparrows sing. There is the constant ‘chebek’ of the Least Fly Catchers calling on the other side of the road, and Robins make haste, gathering food for young. The edges of the garden are tinged with the pink of swaying Wild Roses and my wheel barrow sits upright, motionless against the barn, waiting for me.

Yes morning, the early morning, what a feast for our senses. Mornings are special times for me. They are times where much of my thinking is done, when plans are made and the excitement of a new day brings new ideas and work. They are moments when a relaxed mind and new outlook can nurture unexpected creativity. When the first thought of the day is a positive one, surrounded by nature.

I have always been a morning person, even whilst on camping trips in remote areas I am usually the one up before the sun, I want to soak it all up, to be a part of it, to have it reach inside me and gently tug at my emotions. The morning raises my awareness, calms my spirit and begs me to embrace a new day fully.

Much of my work comes from the morning, many pieces are titled as such and I think this comes from my emotional connection with this time of day, a time when I feel the most alive. I remember one such morning, canoeing the Liscomb River in Nova Scotia several years ago with my good friend Fred Mackenzie. I had just got the fire going and the smell of wood smoke filled the air as it crackled, the only sound except for the gentle rush of the distance rapids. Looking out over the river the sun was rising, burning off the mist that hovered over the water. Sitting there in front of the fire each second bought something new, the world around me went from muted greys to one of colour, the silence became the morning chorus of songbirds and beams of light shone through the trees through the mist onto the black water of the river. It was mystical experiencing the awakening of the forest that morning, the contrast as we move from night into dawn and then daytime, so apparent in only a few minutes.

Looking out over the valley now, the mist still rises, I can see the distant summer hills, white farmhouses dotted here and there, new birds sing and the breeze is now hushed for a second. The insects are awake now and the first beams of sunlight caress the distant tree line, another feast for the senses, another perfect morning.

Lost In The Fog

2009-06-13T10:59:00.000-03:00

I am writing from the South Eastern shore of Nova Scotia, near a famous stretch of coastline of which a part is Oak Island. This low lying small, forested Island, sits over looking Mahone Bay, and further out, the Atlantic Ocean. The morning is foggy, to be expected this time of year, but it creates an atmosphere or feeling of the unknown as I look out over the coastline. There is little wind and the gulls call incessantly from somewhere in the fog.

Oak Island which is a legend unto its self, is said to hold buried treasure, put there by pirates as far back as the late 1700’s. The quest for this treasure, which is supposedly sunk in a deep ‘money pit’, has claimed lives and made fools of many treasure seekers as they spent years digging for it. From here Oak Island looks like any other island on this beautiful stretch of wild Nova Scotia coast.

I haven’t painted in this area at all and it is nice to see something new for a change. Every few months there is an urge to seek out a new place or area to explore. I keep a huge file of photographs from areas I have been for reference and there are days when sitting in my studio going through them, that nothing seems to inspire me to put brush to canvas. It’s at times like this I leave the studio for somewhere new. Sometimes the trips are further a field, perhaps to the Rocky Mountains National Parks, or recently, a return to the UK to see family and to also seek out the variable landscapes of my ‘old’ country. Other occasions will be simply taking a different turn down a local road that will lead to new places to explore.

It’s all about staying inspired for me. I need this newness, it generates ideas and fresh perspectives and also creates a feeling of excitement and passion in my work. It is during the summer months from June to September I spend a little less time painting and more time exploring or sketching on location with pencil and paper, these are the months for me where a fall and winters worth of new work will grow from.

As mid June approaches I am feeling restless again, It has been a few weeks now since I have been into the wilderness with my canoe. Too long for my liking, I think it is time to plan something.

The fog is still with us here at Oak Island and I get a sense that it has silently hidden away some amazing landscapes. It creates a lovely atmosphere of stillness and quiet but not being able to see more than 100 meters is daylight robbery to an artist! So I will have to return to this stretch of coastline again, for a third time. I was here several years ago with the same results!

Thinking about it though, it’s not the new landscapes I seek, but more a re-bonding with nature. Like blowing on a smouldering fire, turning the smoke into flame, restlessness into inspiration, ideas into work. If staying three days fog bound has taught me anything it’s that like the treasure seekers who failed on Oak Island, as artists we must keep trying, searching for our own treasure, the alternative is getting lost in the fog and that surely is daylight robbery.

Oak Island - Wikipedia

Going Home, Scotland

2009-06-05T21:07:00.006-03:00

The Royal Mile, Edinburgh

Claude Monet, Haystacks, Snow Effect

'Wandering Shadows' Peter Graham

I am in Edinburgh, Scotland. An ancient city with an incredible history. Edinburgh’s biggest attraction is the Castle, located on top of an extinct volcano. Dating back to the 12th century it’s architecture covers several hundred years and equally impressive is the surroundings including the Royal Mile that leads to Hollyrood Palace, a Scottish residence of the queen. The Royal mile simply oozes character and history from every nook and cranny. Every building seems to have had some role in the development of Scotland as a country, whether it’s the small room Robert Burns, the famous Scottish poet, stayed in, or at the bottom of the Royal Mile the newly constructed Scottish Parliament.

My visit held a bit of a hidden surprise, and that was stumbling across the Scottish Art Gallery which houses an amazing collection of art ranging from the Dutch School, French Impressionism and Scottish Landscapes. It was here I got to view several works by French Impressionist Claude Monet and an equal number of works by other artists like Vincent Van Gogh, Renoir and Georges Seurat. They really are a sight to behold and as you move through the gallery starting with the landscapes of the Dutch school who’s work was predominantly earthy browns into the fresh ‘new’ style of French Impressionism, who’s technique and style changed landscape art forever, you can really begin to understand the development of landscape painting over the past few hundred years.

If I were to pick one or two pieces from my visit to this gallery that stood out one would be Claude Monet’s “Haystacks; snow effect”. A smallish work that is simply stunning. Monet has created a light where you can almost reach out and touch the haystack as it casts a winter shadow across the surrounding field. The work was painted partly on location and partly in his studio near Giverny, France in 1890. Money painted several of these and his fascination for light and attempt to capture it has surely paid off in this work. Monet for me continues to be the Landscape ‘master’. Other works in the Gallery include Van Gogh’s ‘Head Of A Peasant Woman’. A simple portrait of a woman from early in his career when he spent time with Dutch farmers in the mid 1880’s.

I think though the piece that hit home for me was one painted by Peter Graham called “Wandering Shadows”. Many Scottish poets, painters and other artists have written or sung about the light of the Scottish Highlands, having grown up here on the West Coast, this light is something near and dear to me and also something I rarely see on my travels elsewhere. But this stunning work has captured what I feel about the fleeting light of the Highlands of Scotland. You can see this work here, it is certainly worth a look and perhaps a daydream!

Scotland never changes, each time I go back, it beauty is still as breathtaking as the first time I saw it as a boy.

National Galleries of Scotland

Rememberance

2009-05-29T10:57:00.004-03:00

Private Memorial, Menin Gate, Ypres

Evening, Tyne Cot Cemetery, Mark Brennan

Frederick Varley, For What, Canadian War Museum Collection

I am here at Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest Commonwealth cemetery on the Western Front in Flanders, Belgium. This is one of the main areas where the First World War was fought and countless soldiers and civilians have died in and around this area. The headstones are many, close to 12,000, gleaming white in the afternoon light, each one a statement to the horror of war, and remembrance. There are fathers, sons, brothers and husband buried here. It is hard to image the carnage in this place where the Battle of Passchendaele was fought in 1917.

As I walk slowly through the rows adorned with flowers, every so often I see the graves of Canadians, most of them dated 1917 when the biggest of battles was fought. But here and there are other Canadian graves with earlier dates, all a testament to the first time poison gas was used in the Great War by the Germans against French colonial soldiers and the Canadians very near this place in 1915. Walking around this cemetery the sights and sounds of war are gone, replaced by the spring chorus of song birds and the hum of distant traffic.

Many of the headstones are nameless, the soldier beneath never identified. It is a reality check to be here, it reminds me of my ignorance to days gone by, to the suffering of the many for us who sometimes take our lives for granted. But here, in these Belgian fields is where we can be honest with ourselves and come to understand that this place stands as one of the many places where our freedom was fought for and paid for. It cost lives, human lives, in countless thousands and to be here, remembering, draws a curtain of humbleness across me. I am truly thankful to be alive today, breathing and able to do the things in life I feel like doing. I am thankful for my freedom and today in a quiet Flanders field I come face to face with those I have remembered each November since a boy in school, and I thank their white headstones, and wonder to myself why this had to happen.

Many of Canada’s finest artists like Frederick Varely and AY Jackson painted around this area. Varley’s “For What’ canvas can be seen in the Canadian War Museum. It depicts a new cemetery and a wagon full of dead, Varley said after painting this work, “"We’d be healthier to forget [the war], & that we never can. We are forever tainted with its abortiveness & its cruel drama."

This is my third visit to Passchendaele over the past 15 years, and each time it draws a raw emotion from within that is overwhelming for me. It is a reminder of my responsibility as a painter to seek the truth through my work. I will let this experience settle for a while and see if I am ready to perhaps paint these places 90 years after. But I ask myself, how can I possibly express what happened here, or is there something deeper that needs to be said?

Frederick Varley, For What..

Tyne Cot Cemetery, Flanders

Inner Success, Maud Lewis

2009-04-27T18:56:00.005-03:00

Maud Lewis

Some of you have perhaps heard of the success of the singer Susan Boyle who’s appearance on the television show, Britain’s Got Talent turned her into an overnight world phenomena. Out of pure interest I looked her up on you tube. I love it when the so called underdog comes out on top with a smile and this was certainly the case, especially after having been written off by the audience and those who watch the show.

So you ask, what does this have to do with the arts? Well of course singing is one of the arts but if we delve a little deeper this story opens a door into a world where brilliance, dedication and everyday toil never pays off for some. It seems that these days an artist needs more than just raw talent to reach what we define as success. But there is a catch. Who defines success and further more what is its definition in a society that is seemingly overcome with ‘successful’ Hollywood type ‘role models’.

Take for instance the case of a once little known folk artist by the name of Maud Lewis. Maud lived in rural Southern Nova Scotia in a tiny house with her husband Everett. A life of poverty coupled with severe physical ailments, including her hands, did not deter her from doing the things she loved, one of which was painting. Maud used everyday house paints and despite a life of hardship it was her spirit and inner beauty that shone through in her whimsical paintings of everyday life in rural Nova Scotia, back in the 1950’s and 60’s. In every picture I have ever seen of Maud Lewis, she is smiling. Her tiny house is actually on display at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.

My point is that success seems to come from within us, like the way Maud saw the world. It’s in our attitude and to how we react to the everyday things that life deals us, good or bad. I think it’s also that feeling of contentment of the way we see the world as artists, of the joy we take in our work and the joy we sometimes give to others. Perhaps we seek out success too much, missing the point when really it is there staring us in the face in the simple, good things, we do in our lives and the contentment we feel when we work.

Maud Lewis is a fine example of an artist who never really had success using the financial definition, but I would like to argue that people like Maud are successful in a greater realm that not many of us think about. Maud left an incredible body of work that is now highly sought after, and like so many, she didn’t reap the financial rewards of this.

But I think Maud was born successful despite everything life threw at her, the sun always seemed to shine in her world. If you don’t believe me, have a look at her work or even better visit the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, where her tiny house is adorned with hand painted flowers and other happy images inside and out. She was successful because she chose to be! It comes from inside. I define my own success as being able to do the work I love to do, to get out into the wilderness and feel that exhilarating connection to nature, my art comes from this.

Maud Lewis - Wikki

Susan Boyle - Britain's Got Talent, heartwarming!

Maud's House - Yvonne Butorac

The Spring Breakup Window

2009-04-23T20:54:00.003-03:00

It is early April and I have made my way out to a remote area in Central Nova Scotia, Canada, in search of some new work. April is a wonderful time to be on the look out for new paintings. There’s a very small window at this time of year when the lakes and rivers begin to breakup from a long winter and today that is what I am in search of. The little streams I pass by are swollen from snow melt, they run into huge cascading cold rivers that will easily carry you away if you’re not careful. I follow one of the rivers to where it flows into a long lake and find my place amongst the tall shoreline spruce. I sit to take it all in.

Through the trees the lake is still partially frozen, but open where the river flows into it. In the first few minutes, it is the silence that I am aware of first. The forest is still and the morning light is perfection its self. The longer I am here the more I sink into my surroundings. Deeper into the woods a Red Breasted Nuthatch is calling, a familiar voice I always seem to relate to wilderness areas for some reason. High in the spruce the breeze is rocking the tree tops and a pair of Black Backed Woodpeckers work their way through the trees. They chatter and squeek to each other, the male splendid in his black cloak and orange, yellow hat. I can hear their bills fall heavily into the trunks as they search methodically for food buried just under the tree bark. I usually see one perhaps two of this species each year, so this is a special treat today, to see what is likely a breeding pair feeding together.

The area where I sit is mostly moss covered with little patches of remaining snow lying here and there in various shades of blue. Where the sunlight hits it’s whiteness, it gleams, reflecting the light into all the nooks and cranny’s of the forest. Further away in front of me the semi frozen lake stretches off into the distance slowly reclaiming it’s self as the ice retreats. The sun is warm today, I can feel it on my back, and I am glad for this. It’s heat confirms the promise that spring is here, throwing crisp shadows of the tangled forest, scattering patterns in all directions. The shadows are darkest near the base of the trees and the further they venture the lighter they become, infused by light reflected from other surfaces.

I have been here now for about an hour and the paintings are beginning to show themselves. I see dark areas next to light on the forest floor and dead branchless snags reach skyward the light hitting them randomly as they climb into the sky. Smaller trees still bow down after a winter of heavy snow and young Maples are showing signs of budding. There are compositions everywhere, I look for angles, things that are unfamiliar, for thick against thin, light against dark, trees that have fallen and are hung up, gaps where the forest lets in the brightness of the frozen lake behind, it is all here on this spring day.

After such a long winter, it is so very nice to sit here, in the quiet, soaking in the rebirth of a new season. In another month this area will be alive with birds and insect life, but for now, I am just as content to relish this discovery, new to me, for a few more minutes.

Why I Paint

2009-04-17T13:13:00.002-03:00

Well, the 10 month adventure into film making has finally finished. Stuart Cresswell the film maker was in my studio this morning for a final shoot. We took a close look at my work produced over a long snowy winter. There were some 30 paintings hung on my studio wall, framed and ready for the solo show in September. It has been a wonderful journey, the past 10 months, having Stuart follow me around into the wild places, camera in hand.

The film has helped me learn more about myself than anything else, some of the questions Stuart asked caused me to pause and not only think about an answer but to reflect on my life as a painter. He has helped me hammer out where I have come from, where I am now and where I want to go, including redefining my place in the world.

The six hours of HD tape will now go to an editor where it will be put together into what I hope is not just a story about me and my work, but about nature and how we as humans relate to it. One of the messages I have tried to get across is the ever increasing distance between the natural world and ‘us’. There are still those out there who enjoy the wild places for various reasons and I am sure those of you who subscribe to my weekly newsletter feel the same way.

Nature gives me a sense of belonging most of the time, I feel as though I am a part of something larger than myself, where I am not the centre of the universe. In nature we find a reflection of ourselves, it’s moods, the stillness, the raging storms, the unforgiving weather or quite serenity. I am most attracted to water, I love the way it moves, it is the life force of the wilderness, the arteries of these magnificent places, shaping and changing everything it touches. I am most at peace paddling a still river in my canoe, watching the paddle dip and pull through the black water, the only sound the birds and the swirl of the water as each stroke advances me further. I even feel a sense of guilt sometimes when my paddle bumps the side of the canoe, a man made sound that echo’s like an intruder off the river bank. High above ancient pines watch over the river, Cedar Waxwings fly out from their high perches to catch insects, hovering for a second then darting back to their branch.

I think when you come to know a place, a wild place, you begin to first appreciate what it gives to you then over time a fondness develops and eventually a love and quietness inside that we seldom experience in our busy lives. Like many of you, I need to express myself in some way, to tell the world what I think and this is why I paint. I want to share my joy, my amazement and my passion for the wilderness. As Thoreau said, “All good things are wild and free.”

Henry David Thoreau

Return To Gully Lake

2009-03-31T16:13:00.004-03:00

It has been 8 years since I made the trip into the remote wilderness of Gully Lake in central Nova Scotia. The 3,810 hectares of Acadian Forest was designated a Provincial protected area in June of 2003 and I am happy to say that I was a part of that process. The lake its self was home to the late Willard Macdonald also known as the Hermit of Gully Lake. He lived there in isolation for fifty years after jumping off of a troop train during the Second World War. I had the pleasure of meeting him at his tiny hand built log cabin in 2001, when I ventured into the area with a CBC Reporter and a local resident.

The meeting and subsequent chat was incredible, after all it’s not every day you get to speak face to face with someone who has spent fifty years living in the wilderness, alone. Willard knew that I was a painter and had come to see him to talk about protecting the place where he lived. A road had already been cut close to the lake and forestry operations had begun clear cutting part of this sanctuary. We talked mostly about what he read, how he passed the time and what it had been like to live here for so long. At one point he played his home made guitar for us, then showed me his art he had scratched into the small smoke stained window of his cabin. Sitting close to his window I could see into one dark corner where a small wrapped package sat containing unprocessed tobacco leaves from Quebec, Willard ate these leaves when he felt he was getting sick, he said it seemed to help him stay healthy. To the left, under the window was his simple bed and in the far corner his homemade wood stove, fashioned from what looked like an old oil can.

Around me, close to where I sat, Chickadees flitted, gleaning some bones that hung in a small Moose Maple tree. The Acadian forest stretched off into the distance, a seemingly endless brown maze of Maple, Beech and Birch. Looking towards Gully Lake, it shimmered through the dense shoreline, it a twisted mass of wind blown spruce.

It is now March 2009 and I recently revisited the area with film maker Stuart Cresswell. It was our last outdoor shoot for his documentary, ‘Painting The Wilderness’. Stuart had wanted to get me into Gully Lake to get a sense of my past as an environmentalist and forest campaigner. We hiked in from the dirt road near Earltown, which took over an hour. The forest was still deep in snow but was packed enough that you could walk easily on the snowmobile trail that runs near the lake. It was a bit of an emotional experience for me, knowing that every living tree, every bird, every mammal we saw that day was here because not only of my efforts but the efforts of a community of like minded people.

I had never had the opportunity to paint or sketch here and was eager to see the landscape again and to talk about it with Stuart on film. The lake was mostly frozen and we found a solidly built beaver dam near the outflow where Stuart set up the camera. Visually the place was stunning, my senses were boiling over looking at the earthy March colors and the contrasting remaining snow. The gently gurgling water flowed over the top of the dam made its way down past me where further on it became the Salmon River. This river runs into the famous Bay of Fundy. Sadly Willard, The Hermit of Gully Lake, passed away several years ago, a search party finding his remains near the lake, his spirit though is still very much in this place. If I learned anything from that meeting with him it would be that we don’t necessarily have to conform to the way we are expected to live, but with courage we can go where our hearts take us. For Willard that was fifty years alone, deep in the Nova Scotia wilderness, living a life he chose and living it without compromise, to the end.

Willard Maconald, remains found CBC

Gully Lake Wilderness Area, Nova Scotia Government

Video, Return To Gully Lake

Winter Island

2009-03-21T22:56:00.000-03:00

In March there is one place I regularly visit on Nova Scotia’s Eastern shore. There is still usually two feet of snow in the woods further inland, but because of the warm Atlantic drift current that pushes its way past this provinces coastline, the snow depth is next to nothing on the coast at this time of year.

The location I like to get to is a large privately owned island, it has a wonderful hiking trail that winds its way through the predominantly Boreal forests out onto the Atlantic coast where you are met by granite beaches and stunted leaning spruce, looking very haggard from years of being beaten by the prevailing wind and salt air.

The whole island makes you feel as if you have stepped back in time. From most of the hiking trail there is not a building to be seen, the place is barren like and pristine. Off shore, granite treeless islands rise out of the ocean, their cliff sides worm smooth by a constantly agitated Atlantic Ocean.

The light was good the day I hiked the 2-3 miles out to the headland. The wind though was frigid, with nothing to block its path from the Arctic, it made for quick hiking and extra clothes. Walking through the sheltered forest the temperature rose in the warmth of the spring sun and at one point I saw a healthy Porcupine feeding on some wind fallen spruce on the trail. He had clambered up the nearest tree as I approached him.

I love the earthy colors this time of year. The browns and deep red of the low lying Crow Berry, which covers the Coastal Barrens, gives the painter the warm foreground hues and the dark spruce makes for a crisp contrast against a blue sky. Here and there giant pieces of grey drift wood will help the composition come together.

On trips like this when the weather is cold enough to numb your fingers in minutes I tend not to take my paints but spend more time just looking, examining and studying my surroundings. I pay close attention to the subtle changes in color and form and look deep into the shadows. Mostly a photograph or two will do to use as a reference for painting, but the real work is done in the field, being there to feel the elements and experience the spirit of a place for me is the most important component of being a landscape painter. I feel this gives life to my work, the overall impression still apparent as I work in the studio.

After reaching the end of the trail there is nothing to do but look! Off shore Loons were busy diving, catching crabs, while waiting for the inland lakes to break up in a few weeks. This island is an important over wintering area for many species of aquatic bird. The day here was a very productive one; I also took a little film which you can see below, to give you, the reader, an idea of what a lovely place this is.

On Rejection by Mark Brennan

2009-03-16T21:13:00.008-03:00

I think one of the toughest ways to make a living is as an artist. The average income for a Canadian visual artist now, is just $15,000 per year (Canada Council). It takes many years of barely making ends meet before the fruits of ones labor and love eventually pays off financially, if ever. So given that, it’s blatantly obvious that those who are a part of the Canadian art scene do it for much more than just money!

My own situation is really no different, if I didn’t paint, I would paint! I have learned a few things over the years that all artists need to adhere to. For me, the number one rule is to produce the very best work that you can, it has to be quality. Always be looking to improve technically and pay attention to the people who support you. I have made many friends over the years; I have also met some of the most generous, genuine lovers of art who have helped me through the hard times. But equally as important is to keep it all in perspective, the good and the bad.

I have been rejected from my share of galleries, especially in the early years. Most rejections are what I call ‘silent ones’, when the gallery doesn’t respond. I think rejection can be a positive thing, for me at least. It keeps me humble, appreciative of those who purchase my art and also ensures that I continue to stay focused. There is one other positive thing I get from a rejection, and that is it helps me to appreciate the relationships I have with galleries who currently represent me. Working as an artist is really about building relationships.

To be rejected is like a first time marathon runner, going through the pain barrier at 20 miles, being smart about it and always staying focused on your overall goal which is not to win but to complete the distance. There will always be setbacks no matter what we do in life. If we are a runner or rejected from a job application or like me, trying to build new gallery relationships that don’t come to fruition. The important thing is how we react to these set backs. How can we grow from them and most importantly do we ask the right questions of ourselves when we fail, in order to learn about ourselves?

Vincent Van Gogh lived a life of rejection, as did many other painters. Some of the best could barely make ends meet in their early days. Canada’s Emily Carr painted and wrote in poverty on the West coast. Many artists have had to hold down other jobs while creating their art. At the end of the day I think the very best advice we can give ourselves is to be passionate about what we do, find success in the little things. The joy is in the journey, it is in the doing, the self learning and the wonderful people we meet along the road.

I can’t be bitter about my perceived failures; instead I see them as opportunities to better myself. They are clues to the jigsaw puzzle of life; one that I hope never becomes complete, that way the journey is always more important than the end result. Rejection is a blessing in disguise!

Emily Carr from wikki

Gem Of The North, Gros Morne, Part 2

2009-03-14T00:20:00.003-03:00

Part 2

At one point whilst descending into a valley we could see a storm in the distance moving quickly towards us. Knowing we only had a few minutes to find shelter before this wall of water opened up we quickly stumbled for cover. The three of us managed to get into a small rocky overhang. Then the deluge began. One minute there was blue sky, the next we couldn’t see any more than 5 meters, the rain was torrential, we were soaked through in minutes. It is unpredictable weather like this that could force a few days of hunkering down, tent bound. There was simply no hope of us getting any kind of bearing on a compass when you can’t see. Today we were in luck, the rain storm that blew in with the wind was disappearing into the distance after about half an hour, marshmallow skies prevailed, we continued on.

I was getting hungry and burning much more energy than I had been taking in. It was August and each little thicket of shrubs offered blue berries in abundance. I would reach down for a handful here and there, the little amount of energy they gave was actually enough to keep me going until we could take a rest. When we did it was a quick energy bar then off again.

After a few hours we eventually we reached the head of Western Brook Pond. For me I think this was the highlight of my trip into the wilderness of Newfoundland. The whole area was glaciated granite slabs all pointing in the same direction, they caused slippery ridges we had to climb over. The reward for our efforts was similar to something you would read in an explorer’s diary. Western Brook Pond could be seen hundreds of meters below, lined by sheer cliffs, it was prehistoric looking. Waterfalls dropped over cliff tops with nowhere to land but somewhere out of sight deep in the fiord bottom below. Looking down we could just make out the location where the boat would drop off ambitious hikers. Apparently, from this wharf to where I was standing was a six hour hike.

Our second campsite wasn’t far away, I was eager to get unpacked and explore the rugged terrain around us. The whole area was a feast for a landscape painters senses. The going was easier now, animal trails led off in all directions, it was just important to make sure we stayed on one that led us to where we needed to go. We reached the second campsite later that day, high up in an alpine meadow, next to a sizable lake and surrounded by sheer cliffs on 3 sides. The mountains here were somewhat rounded, no jagged points, Mother Nature had been at work for millions of years making this place.

A waterfall was our backdrop as we pitched our tents, some 30 meters high, it cascaded down into the lake, forming crystal clear pools here and there. The falls had worn the rock to a smooth finish as it swished and slid its way down, slowly and calmly to the patiently waiting lake in typical Newfoundland style. We were in good spirits, sore but nothing a good nights sleep wouldn’t fix.

As evening approached I left to explore on my own, wanting to get to higher terrain to search out hidden vistas. I made mental notes and took plenty of photo sketches. Upon my return to the campsite, about an hour later, as the sun began to dip below the horizon, I saw that we had company. They were friendly fellows but a little overbearing and made quite a bit of noise when eating. It was two of the largest Moose I had ever seen. They had taken refuge perhaps 15 meters from our tents and were quite content to ignore us and concentrate on their task at hand, which was filling their bottomless bellies! Soon enough it was dark and as each star began to show itself we headed to our tents. I slept deeply that night, only to be disturbed by the muffled sounds of Moose stomachs rumbling periodically!

Morning came, fresh and cool, mist had settled into the low areas and a thick blanket of morning dew covered my tent and the lush green ferns around the campsite. I pulled down the zip to the door, picked up my soaking cold socks, stood up, and within a few steps I saw that one of the moose had spent the night only 3 meters from my tent! He had left gifts, large ones! I laughed to myself, as I gingerly stepped around the steaming piles, I still in bare feet! He obviously enjoyed my company!

Western Brook Pond, Mark Lane Photograhpy

You Tube Video, Mark Brennan, Studio Time Lapse Painting, Gros Morne National Park.

Lesson Learned by Mark Brennan

2009-03-13T13:29:00.004-03:00

Perch Lake Afternoon, DETAIL

Perch Lake Afternoon, Oil 10x12 after cleaning

My usual routine after finishing a painting is to clean up and take the newly finished work to the basement where it is allowed to dry for up to two weeks. We live in an old farm house in rural Nova Scotia, and the basement as you can imagine, is unfinished, dug by hand by my father in law and his brothers many years ago. The walls are field stone, it is a rustic place full of character and memories when the old homestead supplied food to those in the towns of Westville, New Glasgow and Stellarton nearby. Old receipts still hang on the ceiling from the 1960’s when family used to supply the nearby Sobey’s grocery stores with vegetables. The floor above is built from hand hewn spruce that date back to well over 120 years ago. My paintings while they dry, sit on a large table, face up, in the basement, and here lies the problem.

I usually go downstairs to check the drying new works about once a day, either to add newly finished pieces or to look at those I feel I may have to retouch a little. Today was time to bring a dried work up to my studio for storage. Once upstairs I usually check the painting, photograph it for my records then store it in a dry box, upright and out of the light.

Looking at this new painting, I noticed it had been dripped on from above and the grime had now been varnished into the painting! Any painter would go into panic mode when seeing something like this. I was no different; I was upset at myself for not noticing the grime before I varnished it. There were drip stains all over the surface and it didn’t look good at all. I was in luck though; I always use a type of varnish that can be removed with warm soapy water. Going to work, I lightly scrubbed the painting with an old tooth brush, trying to get below the varnish and bring the painting back to its original condition. It took a while but slowly I managed to remove the layers and get down to the stains, they slowly disappeared. It takes patience to clean up a painting and this experience gave me a new appreciation for art restorers. It must be pain staking, slow work.

I am happy to say the painting is back to its original condition. It is a lovely little work I had painted after a ski on a frozen lake back in January. You can see the painting here, I have also included a close up photograph of the cleaned surface. I have learned a valuable lesson, time to do a little carpentry, install a real ceiling and clean up my act!

Art Restoration from Wikki

Gem Of The North, Gros Morne, Part 1

2009-03-10T23:08:00.007-03:00

Bakeapples for breakfast...

Western Brook Pond, Gros Morne National Park

Myself Overlooking Bakers Brook Pond, Gros Morne National Park

My Companions Fred and Ken on a 'game' trail

Morning Hardy Pond oil sketch 5x7 inches

The Falls, 2nd Night, Gros Morne, Oil on board

Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland is one of my all time favourite places. This wilderness gem is to be found on the Western side of the provinces Great Northern Peninsula. It is a perhaps one of the wildest places I have visited. In 2005 myself and two friends ventured North from Nova Scotia, taking the ‘Newfoundland Ferry’ from North Sydney to Port Aux Basques on the Southern Coast. It was an uneventful overnight ferry ride on calm misty seas.

Our arrival in Gros Morne later that evening, was met by August rains and a 45 minute meeting with one of the senior park rangers. Rangers are required to interview anyone who is venturing into the seemingly endless interior of the park. For safety reasons you are asked to take with you an emergency transponder which transmits your position to park staff if you are lost or are late coming out. Our plan was to backpack some 30km inland, towards the head of Western Brook Pond, the famous deep fiord that runs inland for miles, then we were to hike out towards Gros Morne Mountain adding another 35 to 40km to the trip.

We took a taxi to the starting point from the small village of Rocky Harbour and within a few kilometres of brisk hiking we were off the general tourist trails and beginning the steep climb to the plateau some 600 meters above us. The terrain at this level is stunning, giant boulders left by glaciers are strewn everywhere and ancient spruce cover the low lying areas. These trees are old growth, yet they are no more than 2 meters tall and so thick you feel a slight sense of being smothered as you make your way through them.

There is no trail, you have to trust your map and compass and at times your intuition. Here and there you can use the Moose or Caribou trails which is a relief from hacking through the spruce. Progress was slow. We skirted the edges of unnamed lakes, jumping from rock to rock trying to stay out of the trees, eventually finding ourselves at the first campsite. Tired and hungry we picked tangy bakeapples or ‘cloud berries’ for breakfast the next morning. As my friend Fred was to find out, too many Cloud Berries with oatmeal and you need to go to the bathroom….lots!

It wasn’t long and we were fast asleep, all three of us quite tired from the day long hike. Early next morning we pulled down our tents with the efficiency of the military and were well on our way before the sun had risen too far.

This second day was full of surprises. It was very fulfilling from an artist’s point of view. The thick stunted spruce forests gave way to high alpine meadows that overlooked countless lakes and rivers. Everywhere I looked there was something to paint. The landscape was a lush green, the lakes seemed bottomless as more mist rolled in from the North, giving a rich earthy colour to the granite cliff faces. This was true wilderness, for me, mostly a comforting feeling. You feel so small here though, so insignificant, like you really didn’t matter here in this place. It was a humbling feeling too, where at times I felt like an intruder entering into some place I didn’t deserve to be. It was a moving experience, strangely familiar though, like I had reached somewhere after a long journey, I felt somehow complete and at home, like breathing a sigh of relief after finding out all was well with the world. The silence and peace of this wild place was church like, making an impact on all three of us.

Links

What is a Bakeapple?

Gros Morne National Park

Wonderful Photos of Western Brook Pond by GIORGIO ZANETTI

Rocky Harbour Village

Learning To See By Mark Brennan

2009-03-04T20:37:00.004-04:00

Early Spring Rocky Lakes, oil On Board 14x18 inches 2009

The ground breaking French Impressionist Claude Monet once said, “It's on the strength of observation and reflection that one finds a way. So we must dig and delve unceasingly. “I can relate to that this time of year. It is approaching the end of February and still very much winter here in Nova Scotia. It has been a long winter, a productive winter, but a long one. The days are showing signs of lengthening and the snow runs in little trickles as it melts in the afternoon sun, the end is nigh!

I get restless in February, being between seasons the landscape appears somewhat overbearing after four months of snow. I am eagerly awaiting the spring break up, when the rivers begin to slowly re-appear and the lakes being to open up. The changes are so very subtle at first but the strengthening sun will reign in the end. I make it a point to closely observe the changing landscape as spring approaches. This dramatic change lasts for such a short time.

Last March I made a day trip into an area of central Nova Scotia that holds some wonderful wild rivers, one such torrent was in full flow, still semi frozen as it snaked its way through the wilderness, drowning the surface ice underneath rising waters. I stumbled down a steep bank to an area where the river joins another much larger body of water. The surrounding forest was flooded, mist slowly rising from the snow into the warm air, it hovered there like a ghost of winter in the forest stillness.

It wasn’t long and I was wet through, mistaking solid snow for rotten ice where underneath freezing water had collected. I think what amazed me most on this little venture was the many colours of the ice and snow in various states of melt. The ice below the waters surface had a golden tint to it, the old forest fallen snow holds a greyness, the kind you see at sunset when the sun has dipped too far below the horizon to bring any more colour. Under the tree branches the snow surface is covered in tiny fleas. At first they look like dust, but when you get on your hands and knees you realise they are little creatures living their short lives exposed on this diminishing crust. One wrong step and you kill thousands.

I think as a painter one of the hardest things for me to learn was to stop relying on my preconceived ideas of what I was looking at and actually learn to see. One way of doing this, and you can try this at home, is to bend over and look at the world upside down, the untrained eye can then see the landscape in an abstract way, the colours, forms and hue’s show themselves, there are no preconceived shapes for the brain to fill in the blanks. One other idea I have used to learn to see was to pick a little area about a foot square and lay down on the forest floor and simply look into it, spend 10-15 minutes studying everything you see in this tiny space, I was amazed as this new world unfolded before me. Every shape and colour known to man existed here, Monet would have been proud of me!

If I am working from photographs, I like to increase the colour saturation of the photo on my computer. This brings out the underlying colours and is the catalyst for all kinds of new ideas. Of course the trick when painting is to take what you need and leave the rest. As Monet said, “we must dig and delve unceasingly”. So when I get a bored with four months of snow, it is then I travel to somewhere new, Always digging and delving in an endless quest to rid myself of the trappings of familiar places.

Claude Monet

All about snow fleas, yes they are real!

Early Discoveries Of Canadian Art, by Mark Brennan

2009-03-01T07:59:00.005-04:00

Sunset, Northern Newfoundland, oil on board 2008

An Early Canoe Trip Into The Liscomb Area of Nova Scotia

Years ago, when I had first come to Canada from the UK, I embarked on a train trip across the country. I wanted to get a real feeling for my new home. Traveling from Nova Scotia in the East to Toronto, and then onto Vancouver, some six thousand kilometres away in the West. This journey was to be my enlightenment into the vastness that is Canada and the uniqueness of its art.

I was in the very early stages of my ‘art’ career at the time, still very much a beginner. I had managed to obtain a job as a framer in a local art gallery near home in Nova Scotia, and it was here I began to explore Canadian Art in the fullest sense. The owner Jean Stewart, was an artist herself and frequently left her paintings in the basement where I worked cutting and joining frames. I still remember many of her works, there was one though that was to instil in me a genuine love of Canadian art and the grandeur of it’s yet to be discovered wilderness.

That painting was a well done copy of Tom Thomson’s, “The Birch Grove’ a 1915 oil from Algonquin Park in Ontario. I began to explore the work of Thomson and then of course discovered the Group of Seven. They were Canadian artists who began a movement towards defining a national identity through their work as painters of the Canadian Wilderness in the early to mid part of the last century.

I had grown up on the West Coast of Scotland and the wilds of the Scottish Highlands were very much still running through my blood at the time! I was enthralled by what I could find in books on the Group and this prompted me to pack my bags and board the train to seek out and experience the Canadian Wilderness!

I was lucky enough that whilst on a one night stop over in Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario was having a major exhibition of the work of Tom Thomson and The Group of Seven. I braved the freezing March temperatures and walked to the gallery from the train station beneath the Royal York hotel. It was after seeing this show that I began to seriously think about painting as a career. Many of Thomson’s best paintings were on display, and Algonquin Park where he worked and painted became something of a place of a possible pilgrimage for me. Inspiration for his works like ‘The Jack Pine’ and ‘The West Wind’ emerged from here.

I have always made a point through the years of never painting anything I haven’t seen with my own eyes. I guess I am big on integrity! The train journey was incredible, seeing places pass before me, different each day, the wilderness of Northern Ontario under a rising full moon, the early spring Prairies and the mesmerizing snow laden mountains West of Edmonton. I was awake constantly through the night and day, I wanted to soak it all in.

Fast forward to 2003 and I am arriving at Algonquin Park, on my way to see where Thompson had painted, lived and died. I remember dipping my paddle into Canoe Lake for the first time and setting off towards the small peninsula where members of the Group of Seven initially buried him after his drowning at barely 40 years old. I saw the original grave marker and went on to portage and canoe into another lake further North that now bears his name.

It took me 10 years to finally get to this place and to connect my experiences of first learning about Thomson. Finally I had come full circle and was able get a glimmer of understanding of what moved him to paint such passionate work.

I think though, it is important not to compare my own work to another’s, really if we are being true to ourselves, our lives are on a different path in a different time, individual and separate from those who came before us. I think the thing I have learned from him is that he has set such a high standard, it is likely I will spend a lifetime trying to reach unobtainable goals with my own work. But after all, isn’t this what keeps us going? And really, who could ever match the brilliance of Tom Thomson.

Filming On A Frozen Lake

2009-02-23T17:57:00.010-04:00

Sketch, Lake Edge Liscomb Nova Scotia oil on board 5x5 inches

The Lake Shore, Winter oil on board 7x9 inches Liscomb Nova Scotia

Since July 2008 I have been working with Simple Films to produce a documentary on my work as a landscape painter. It has been an insightful and interesting process. The filming is drawing to a close as the project becomes completed. We had one more shoot though, one that will no doubt add a different dimension to the film.

I was stood on the edge of the frozen Dayspring Lake in the Liscomb area of Nova Scotia, I had been here before, a couple of winters ago. The lakes in February are usually frozen quite solid. It was no different today as I waited for a radio call from the aircraft Simple Films had rented to get an aerial shot of me skiing across this winter gem. The radio blurted out some noise and off in the distance I could hear the plane approaching over the forests of the area. I had a few minutes to get to the centre of the lake and begin my trek across it.

The experience of today put me in mind of landscape painter Toni Onley. Onley was a British/Canadian painter who used his flying skills to get him to some of the remotest places in Western Canada. His simple serene watercolours painted on location are testament to his adventurous sprit and love of the wilderness. Onley, originally from the Isle of Mann off the West Coast of England, has painted all over the world. He was even noted for sketching in pencil from his plane as he flew across the West Coast of Canada. His work is in the collections of the National Gallery, Ottawa and the Tate Gallery in the UK. Sadly he passed away in 2004 aged 75 after an airplane accident in Maple Ridge, British Columbia.

I didn’t think it was particularly risky, skiing solo on a frozen February lake, I had a friend hidden in the woods for safety. The lake ice and packed snow was perfect, the winter afternoon light cast deep shadows of French ultramarine. At first I was tempted to look upward, but knew that would ruin the shot. After the initial thrill of being filmed from the air wore off, I continued on my way as if I would have done normally. I watched the light drift towards me through scattered clouds and great wisps of tornado like snow twisting and turning over the lake, conforming to each gust of winter wind. The shoreline was a mass of pine trees in various states of living and dead, here and there one had fallen into the water, and being on the ice, ‘off shore’ I had the perfect vantage point for these natural compositions.

The pilot made about twenty minutes worth of sweeps and turns past me, never coming too close, but I felt they were getting some good footage. Before long the plane dipped its wings and was gone, I continued to the Southern end of the lake in search of open water where possible paintings were waiting to be found. As Toni Onley had no doubt discovered, the use of an aeroplane can yield another dimension to the work of a landscape painter. You can read Toni’s fascinating story in his book, Flying Colours, published by Harbour Publishing, http://www.harbourpublishing.com/title/FlyingColours

At the Southern end of the lake where I found the open water, I ventured too close to the edge and of course went through the ice. Luckily it wasn’t too deep and I was wet to just above my knees! It was time to head back, feet soaking and cold, and just over a mile to go, I made quick progress back to the car, stopping briefly to finish my hot chocolate and admire the winter lake one last time before the warmth of spring sets in!

Toni Onley's Web site

The Long Apprenticeship

2009-02-23T17:38:00.005-04:00

Shimmering Light Bonne Bay, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland 6x8 oil on board

Winter Shadows, oil 12x14 Whitehill Nova Scotia oil on board

An art show is an important event in any artists career. To pull off a successful exhibit takes dedication, this could be months or maybe years of effort to produce the quality work the gallery needs to fill its vacant walls. And so after the offer of a solo show from the Art Gallery Of Nova Scotia’s sales and rental gallery early last year, I decide it was indeed time for such a venture.

My work had been selling very well, seldom do I have to return to pick up unsold work, and so, I took the plunge. That was about ten months ago now and I am happy to say the body of work need for such an event is coming together nicely. There are about 18 large works completed covering areas of Canada from Jasper National Park in the Rocky Mountains, right up into Northern Newfoundland and Labrador. Each piece is telling a story of where I have been over the past few years to paint. Mostly they are pieces I have worked up in my studio from either ‘photo sketches’ or smaller works done on location.

As I go through this experience of working towards a significant goal it is very interesting to note the subtle changes in my work and my attitude to the process of work. I don’t want to just have a ‘show’, I want to be able to entertain, enthral and engage the viewer through my art. Working towards such a goal forces the artist to remain focused and sets within ones self an established disciplined approach to what I do every day in my studio. This pressure to paint is good on many levels. Not only does it give the artist the necessary mental tools to actually apply ones self, but it also improves the quality and artistic strength of my work. Perhaps 4 to 5 years ago I would have struggled occasionally, to get the correct hue or composition, but this is all a part of the learning process for me. Now though after consistently focusing on quality and developing a busy concentrated work ethic I find that the struggles are fewer, the frustration lessened and the results fascinating.

All of this takes a certain amount of trust in yourself. You have to be confident that setting a goal like a solo show is achievable. There was a moment in Newfoundland not long ago, on my way back from Labrador, that was a turning point in my development. I was wandering around a small Out port called Rose Blanche, built into the rugged the coastline of the South Coast. I had said hello to one of the residents as I was looking across the water towards the lighthouse. We got chatting and I discovered that he too was an artist. We exchanged emails and went our separate ways. It wasn’t long after getting home I received an email from Canadian Pastelist Horace Champagne, the first line was what I had been waiting to hear for so long, it simply read, “Your painting is just fine and your future awaits you.” For me it was like receiving a permission slip to be the artist I had set out to be many years ago. I felt that finally my apprenticeship was over, and I could now go out into the wild places and work with confidence in my ability.

The strangest things hold us back sometimes, of course we really don’t need a permission slip to do the things we want to in life, but for me I think it was more about inclusion, after questioning my lack of a fine art degree for so long, Horace had really said to me….”Welcome aboard, your apprenticeship is finished.” Even although it took me 15 years! Of course, I will always be learning, like anything worth while in life to learn is to grow. You can have a sneak preview a painting that will be in the July 2009 show, at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, sales and rental gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Horace Champagne

Art Gallery Of Nova Scotia sales and rental gallery

February Full Moon

2009-02-23T17:08:00.004-04:00

Moon Over Lac Cascapedia oil on canvas 16x20 2006

It is February and there is a full moon brewing outside, casting cold shadows underneath an apple tree in the back garden. I glance over towards the distant woods, they are a deep Prussian blue, nearby hedgerows are dark against the ghostly white fields, the moonlight brings to life a fridged winters night. Blue is everywhere, so apparent on the white snow, a colour easy to pin down in this light. It is a night like this that makes me want to rush away to paint somewhere. I have contained and stifled this idea for a while now, perhaps years, and never quite made that leap to venture out into the moonlit winter night with paint and brush in hand.

The moon has a mind of its own when it comes to painting, I remember just a couple of years ago in the Gaspe area of Quebec, Canada, sitting at 4am in the morning on the shoreline of the Chic Choc Mountains, Lac Cascapedia. I was watching a hovering moon pierce every nook and cranny with its light. It is the contrast that the moon creates I think I am attracted too, the crisp jagged edges of the forest, the trees absorbing the moons light, while the lake like a mirror that night, shimmers for all its worth. The landscape seems pure and simple, void of the little details we see in daylight, to be left with a bold starkness that gives the impression you really are in the middle of no where.

About 10 years ago I saw a painting in a private collection here in Nova Scotia, it was by a Canadian icon, Tom Thomson. Thomson had painted a remote lake in Algonquin Park, Ontario, at night, with a moon hovering overhead. It was incredible too look at, a simple composition, but Thomson’s expert eye and incredible sense of colour added another dimension to the piece. The painting was spot lit nicely, a soft light cast around the area of the moon but what came next was to stay with me for years. The gallery attendant slowly turned down the spot light and Thomson’s moon glowed with a force only a master could create. When you see things like this, you realise how far you have to go with your own work and that genius is as rare and special as Thomson’s painting.

As a painter, I did venture into painting the moon over Lac Cascapedia. The painting has long gone, yet every time I see the full moon I am taken back to that night in the remote Chic Choc Mountains of the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, when my inquisitive nature just couldn’t let me lie in my tent! I wanted to see the moon, paint it’s light and attempt to feel what Thomson felt so many years ago. It is these fleeting experiences that seem to stay with me, and after twenty years of painting, I still feel the urge to rush out and paint every time I see that full moon hover over the boreal landscape.

Tom Thomson images from the Tom Thomson Art Gallery Owen Sound, Ontario

Gaspesie National Park, Chic Choc Mountaina, Quebec

Spring In The Rockies

2009-02-23T16:30:00.006-04:00

Winter, The Mackenzie River, oil 12x16

Frozen Lake, Algonquin Park, oil 5x5

Late Winter Farm, Cape Breton Highlands oil 6x8

Winter Birches, Whitehill, Nova Scotia, oil 10x13

It’s been two years since I took a week long trip to several National Parks in Canada’s Rocky Mountains. I purposely traveled in May, when I hoped it would be much quieter, and the landscape would be bathed in the earthy colours of spring. I found cheap lodgings in a remote motel at a place called Saskatchewan River Crossing, and at sixty dollars a night I was quite happy. My first sighting of the mountains was approaching from Calgary, off in the distance I could see the Rockies rising above the rolling foothills, gathering the afternoon light. Quickly the peaks were upon me, and so began a week long adventure where each day was like the opening of a gift.

There was much to do. I had planned to write, to sketch, explore and to take many photographs of the landscape for future reference. I was also eager to experience my first Grizzly bear encounter. I have seen many Black bears in the wilds of Nova Scotia near home, but had yet to stumble upon the king of predators. That first evening I ventured out of Banff National Park following the North Saskatchewan River eastward by car, here I had my first look at a glacier fed river. I was amazed by the mineral rich, aqua colour of the water, as it snaked through the river valley, here and there cascading over ledges and slowing to a meander further east. In the distance I could see Mountain Goats perched upon cliff tops and an early Mountain Blue Bird flitted across the meadows its blueness, eye catching and beautiful.

The next few days were a wondrous treat for the senses, the Ice Field Parkway was simply mesmerising. This is a tourist road that links Banff and Jasper and is usually packed with traffic, this time of year though I mostly had the road to myself. I visited as many locations as I could over that week, places like The Athabasca and Sunwapta Falls, Crowfoot Glacier, the giant burned forests of Kootenay National Park, Mt Robson, the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies, and numerous glacier fed lakes where the likes of our own JEH Macdonald, a member of the Group Of Seven, painted.

The mountains were very inspiring, each day was a pandora’s box of possible paintings as the late spring light shot like a waterfall over the mountain tops. I didn’t want to waste a single second. I would wake before daylight and return after dark to the motel worn out but buzzing with excitement of the days work!During one of the last days, my dream encounter with a Grizzly Bear happened. I had just locked the motel door and was walking slowly towards the rental car early one frosty morning. I sensed something behind me, I turned around, and there in real life, on the path I had just walked was the biggest male Grizzly Bear I could imagine. I was impressed with myself, I didn’t panic, but calmly raised my video camera and started filming as he came closer. Now just meters away, I decided enough was enough, trembling a little; I flew open the door and scrambled into the car, still watching, mouth agape as he walked past, not 5 meters away! That experience will live with me for ever, and over the next few days I was to see 12 more Grizzly Bears, one group a mother with two cubs that I stayed very well away from.

During that short stay I got a real sense of what the National Parks were like in all seasons. High up in the pass between Banff and Jasper National parks the snow was two meters deep, on the Kootenay Plains, it rained so hard I couldn’t see to drive, and during the day the temperature would sometimes peak to summer conditions whilst hiking.
Looking back I think the best part is now re-living the experience when I paint, each new work brings back the little details of having been there, the Rocky Mountains in late spring is surely a painters paradise, Grizzly Bears and all!

Above you will also find some recent new work from the winter period.

The New Canoe

2009-02-09T21:40:00.004-04:00

Winter Evening Whitehill, oil on board 14x18

The Margaree Near Big Interval, Cape Breton Highlands OIL 6X8

Sunrise, The Labrador Coast, Oil 14x18

I was in the basement of our house yesterday, looking for something, and of course I got side tracked and ended up rooting through some older paintings of mine. It was similar to one of those moments we all experience, where you have a drawer dumped on the floor in search of a lost item and you begin to come across old photographs, and there you sit for the next hour reliving memory after memory. It was a little like that for me, seeing these works again after ‘so long’. A few I cringed at and wondered why I should keep them, others impressed me enough to tuck away a little longer and with a few I could measure my growth as an artist in leaps and bounds.

Most of them were small panels painted in oil, somewhat amateurish, yet each one showed an underlying passion for painting and for nature. There was one work though that will end it’s dark existence in that box and perhaps come into the light of day on a wall in the house very soon. I had found the first ever painting I had done on location at a lake in Northern Nova Scotia. I still vividly remember that day, It was May, one of those biting May days where you think winter might return. What was special though was that I had the chance to use my brand new canoe that morning to get myself further into the Wilderness than I had really gone before. The lake is named Perch Lake, and was at the end of an old logging road, littered with huge boulders. I remember it was a nightmare getting into that place with my small car, canoe on the roof, dodging the rocks, all alone.

I can still conjure up images of the exact location. I had canoed about a mile Eastwards with the wind at my back and climbed ashore sitting in a somewhat swampy area eager to get started. The landscape before me was perfect for a painting, there were huge pines overhanging a peninsula that jutted out into the bay, beyond stretched the shimmering lake, it’s shoreline receding into the purples and blues of spring. Black Spruce lined the water, thick and haggard from a long winter under snow. The foreground was a scattering of rich, gold winter grass and a warm blue sky seemed to take the chill away, at least for a bit.

I learned a lot that day, it was the beginning of a journey that continues to teach me, to surprise me and most of all inspire me. I learned that when your canoeing back from painting on location with your fresh new paintings sitting on the front thwart of the canoe, you had better not hit rough water! I learned that you take a folding seat with you to sit on, rather than sit in the wetness of the swamp, I learned to hug the shoreline when it was windy and that if you tell yourself enough times you can make it back to shore despite the wind. I learned not to forget my brushes on the water’s edge, they are still there somewhere! Most of all though I taught myself that good things in life come by setting goals and steadily paddling towards them, despite the wind, waves and a lack of experience, anything is possible, if we try.

I will leave you with this quote by Dan Millman, “When we feel stuck, going nowhere--even starting to slip backward--we may actually be backing up to get a running start.” Kind of like paddling for the first time, going nowhere!

Dan Millman, The Peaceful Warriors Way

Painting The Wild Places -News letter

2009-01-16T11:47:00.002-04:00

Welcome, an exciting new feature I have been working on lately is the set up of a weekly “Painting The Wild Places” news letter. It will feature my personal journal entries, reflections on art, sketches, ideas and thoughts in an informative weekly newsletter designed for the collector, nature lover and artist. To subscribe simply fill out the form below. Your privacy is guaranteed. SUBSCRIBE

Filming In Winter

2009-01-13T08:56:00.005-04:00

Stuart Cresswell Of Simple Films Working On Location for the Documentary 'Painting The Wilderness'

"Winter Algonquin Park" Mark Brennan 2009 oil sketch 4x5 inches

It’s about 7.30am here in northern Nova Scotia and a cool -19 degrees Celsius outside. Warm in my studio, I look out towards the East and watch the sunrise, it changes in fleeting moments from deep red to orange and finally to yellow intertwined with warm winter greys. I cherish these mornings, it seems that everywhere outside becomes wilderness and no matter where I venture into the woods when there is a deep blanket of snow down, there is never a soul to be seen. Then there is the silence, a quiet so profound your ears whine, not used to the stillness that seems so natural in the forest at this time of year, with perhaps the exception of the sharp crack of a tree giving way to the frost as it splits another frozen trunk.

In about an hour a film maker will be arriving to venture with me into the deep woods of Whitehill. I have perhaps 2 miles of snow shoeing trails winding through the Acadian hardwood forest, now buried under almost a meter of the white stuff. Stuart is from England and this will be his first foray into such a place on snow shoes carrying a $12,000 dollar camera! We are nearing the end of filming the documentary he is calling, “Painting The Wilderness”. A film that has taken us from one end of Eastern Canada to the other. A fitting place to end perhaps.

Today though will be the real test. On days so cold it is virtually impossible to paint on location, so I prefer to sketch with my camera, picking out areas of interest, looking, seeing, feeling and just being in the woods this time of year is as important to my work as the discipline of sitting at the easel every day. Without this constant interaction with nature my artists soul withers. It wont be long though, perhaps just eight weeks, and I will once again be outside working on location next to breaking up rivers and hearing the wild chorus of spring. Stuart is arriving now, the light is wonderful, warm and wintery, soft shadows, and every branch on every tree carries it’s weight in great white cotton balls…..perfect!

Disaster in the woods! Filming on location Winter 2009

The Film, coming alive!

2008-11-25T12:02:00.002-04:00

Nova Scotia had its first snow fall last week, a huge dumping that turned the landscape into winter overnight. With it came a pleasant surprise in the form of a DVD that arrived from Simple Films a few days ago. This was the film ‘promo’ I had been waiting for. It contained a multitude of creative shots all knitted together to produce about a five minute ‘display’ giving the over all essence of the film. I was amazed by the clarity and unique perspective Simple Films had taken in its production. They have captured nicely the general subtleties of my life as a landscape painter. The cameraman Stuart Cresswell captured some stunning creative passages that will engage the eye and mind of any viewer.

As I write this in late November, filming is not quite complete, there are still winter shoots to do which should give an interesting contrast to the relative warm outdoor comfort of the summer footage. The film makers also have to track down gallery owners for interviews and one or two collectors that could also give the film more balanced perspective. I am very much looking forward to the feedback from TV station program co-ordinators, and once aired, the general public. I really haven’t up to this time thought too much about what kind of exposure the film will give my work. I see it more as a statement than a story.

With winter closing in it is now time to settle into a routine of ‘work’. I made several visits to the Margaree Valley in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia this fall. One of the works from these visits you can see above.

Go Where everyone Else Isn't!

2008-10-08T19:45:00.004-03:00

The Falls, Cape Breton Highlands

View From Above The Falls, Cape Breton Highlands

The past weekend I was in the Cape Breton Highlands for five days. Painting a little, and seeking out new areas for working on location. I was also using my small Canon camera to capture possible paintings that I could work up in my studio. It’s always an adventure when I head up that way, just a mere three hour drive and I have access to some of the most incredible landscapes in the Maritimes. My secret is always to go where everyone else isn’t! I am interested in getting to know the park, really digging into it’s soul by going places I haven’t been before. It’s about immersing myself into the landscape, becoming a part of it.

I was alone for the last three days of the trip, and after the film makers had left I ventured out on my own. Of course there is always some risk associated with going out alone, so I always tell someone where I hope to be headed and am always prepared with a small survival kit, bear spray and that kind of thing. The first order of the day was to head North, I had wanted to get into a gorge that held a bubbling stream which came right out of the mountain, and I knew there must be some spectacular falls in there somewhere.

Starting off was fairly easy, moving from rock to rock and slowly working my way upwards into the gorge, leaving the road slowly behind, it seemed every twenty meters or so there was a waterfall or pool that would make a lovely painting, The whole ravine was crisscrossed with fallen trees, at the edges fall maples hung golden yellow leaves contrasting with the grey granite car sized rocks that dotted the stream bed. It was an artists dream to be here.

I sensed that something unique was close. I could hear the faint roar of a huge falls and sure enough after climbing about three meters up a slippery incline I was met by a cauldron hiding deep in the bed rock, it was where the rushing stream had suddenly lost it’s floor five meters above and was forced over the edge of a precipice, straight down into a bottomless swirling pool. It came over the cliff with such a force the water didn’t touch anything on it’s way down, like it was shooting out of a giant hose. The falls were surrounded on three sides by large cliff’s, leaving about a two meter wide opening all the way to the top. I just sat there in awe of the scene before me and amazed that this secret place was perhaps unknown to many who visited the park. This was exactly the kind of thing I looked for in a painting. Somewhere unknown, spectacular and probably never painted or even photographed before.

Looking upwards it seemed as though the adventure had come to an end, the bank stretched away at a steep angle then abruptly stopped where the cliff took over and went up another ten meters to the top. I took off my small pack and jacket and armed with my camera and a firm grip I headed upwards, slowly and methodically, always thinking safety first. Eventually I reached the rock face and saw a route up between two giant boulders with good hand holds all the way up. I continued on, and when I reached the top I was elated to find a magnificent view of the valley below stretching off into the distance. I had climbed perhaps half a mile up into the gorge from the road. I could now see the falls below me cascading over the edge into it’s cauldron, I shook a little as I edged closer to the cliff face to take some film. Job done, I headed downward, again stopping at the falls to take it in one last time.

Sharing an experience like this might perhaps seem that I am some sort of ‘extreme’ painter, but I genuinely have an adventurous spirit and have found myself doing this kind of thing ever since I was a young boy. I enjoy the risk I guess, as a mountain climber knows he or she is truly living when climbing, I know I am experiencing my life to the fullest at that moment. There is also the wonderful aspect of the real reason for challenging myself in such a way and this is to paint what I feel and see in these secret places where humans don’t venture too often. I want my work to be unique, so many painters have painted all the usual scenes, the broad inviting landscapes but I am interested in digging into those landscapes, to find a treasure trove of subjects and experiences that I can take through life. It is finding places like this waterfall that motivate me and challenge me to do it justice when I paint such a place.

Being Still, Cape Breton Highlands National Park

2008-10-06T14:51:00.003-03:00

I am in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, sitting alone in my tent next to a tributary of the Cheticamp River, darkness has fallen, outside I can hear the gentle gurgle of the stream and if I listen carefully I can hear a Barred Owl calling up in the river gorge to the North of me. There is not another soul for company except for some Blackflies who bounce off the roof of the tent and a yellow moth that flutters by looking for a way out. I will let it go in the morning.

It is interesting for me to be alone, there is a need for it sometimes, to be silent. In a world where silence is more a figment of our imagination. It seems we have forgotten how to let the mind be still. I often wonder if there is a fear of some sort associated with silence, our minds are constantly being entertained in this technology laced culture, where machines give us our daily fix of never ending stimulation that borders on the insane. It is as if we are all constantly searching for something, never to find what we are looking for. What we do find however is the dull end of a brain that is capable of so much more.

I purposely stayed an extra night here, after a couple of days filming and painting, I was looking for some answers for myself. I wanted to know why, when I am at home, I find it so hard to cease all activities and just be still. It’s as if I am on a quest for something, for knowledge for more ‘amazing’ experiences, for what? So here I sit, the tent envelopes me, there are no computers, no phone, no books, nothing, yet I feel at peace in the quiet of this October night. I have let go of trying to live and stepped over the fence into a strangely blissful experience where I feel more alive than I have done in years. I have let go, being in the present, going no-where, yet everywhere, stillness…. the river still spills 'nature music' into the night.

A day painting on location with CBC Radio

2008-10-01T21:13:00.003-03:00

Stuart Cresswell and Phlis Macgregor of CBC Radio Prepare An Afternoon in the Wilderness

September 30th 2008 was spent at a location known as Abrahams Lake. This is a preserved old growth Red Spruce forest nestled next to a small lake in the eastern part of Nova Scotia. Today though was quite significant, I had some company, namely Stuart Cresswell from Simple Films and Phlis Macgregor of the CBC. Phlis was there to interview me as I painted on location and also talk to Stuart about his experience making the documentary on my work.

It was an enlightening day out with a constant barrage of thought provoking questions from Phlis that included my ideas on the environment, art and the human place in the world. My own focus was to paint of course, and after a little while I eventually found an area near the lake shore that appealed to me. Phlis, who was there to produce a documentary and morning radio piece for the CBC, continued with the questions as I worked, eventually turning out a little 8x10 oil sketch in between questions! The CBC hope to air the piece in the coming weeks on Radio one in the Maritimes. I look forward to hearing it!

New Online Gallery, Big Land Gallery.....

2008-09-30T10:19:00.008-03:00

I am pleased to announce that there will now be a permanent online sales Gallery where collectors can now purchase my work. Big Land Gallery has been developed to enable clients to purchase my art in a safe online environment indefinitely. They will be carrying my latest paintings from various locations around the Country.

Big Land Gallery has established it’s gallery through eBay which will ensure that transactions are safe and secure. You can visit their web site at http://www.biglandgallery.ca/ or email them at info@biglandgallery.ca

I felt there was a need to provide this service, especially for clients who cannot physically get to the galleries that represent me in Canada. Paintings listed in Big Land Gallery are consistent with current gallery prices that also represent me, they ship my original art unframed, so there is a slight deduction in price for the original, usually less the frame cost of 10-20% (depending on size). They also offer custom framing of purchased works.

The words ‘Big Land’ comes from a local Labrador name for the vast open expanse that is wild Labrador, on Canada’s North Eastern Coast. It’s seemingly endless wilderness is one of the last remaining true wild frontiers in the world.

Fall, Hunting Lake...Back in time..............

2008-09-30T10:01:00.006-03:00

Approaching Hunting Lake oil sketch 5x7 2008

My Canoe at Hunting Lake with the cabin nestled in the woods at the rear

The small oil painting on the cabin wall done almost 12 years ago!

Just this past weekend I took the documentary film crew on a jaunt down the Liscomb River in central Nova Scotia. It’s a considerable feat just to get your boat in the water here. A seemingly endless maize of old woods roads eventually leads you to a small narrow stream that connects into the main river. The film maker had hired the services of a local guide and his boat to ensure stability and safety whilst filming. I was quite at home going solo in my 16ft canoe!

The Liscomb River is a canoeists paradise. The upper part of the river from the Golden Fleece brook offers a lot of still water with easy canoeing and only one or two simple portages. Our destination was a remote cabin located on Hunting Lake which I had spent a couple of nights in almost 12 years ago. Back then I was just beginning my ventures into the Canadian Wilderness and painting on location. I had taken the time to paint a small sketch on the west facing inner wall in May of 1997 and thought it would be interesting to see if we could get into this area and have a look at this memorable little work. The cabin might see only 10-20 visitors in a whole year and there is such an overpowering feeling of isolation here that one false move could put you in serious trouble.

We really took our time on the 5km trip down the river enjoying the fall woods either side of us. By the time we had reached the lake I had fallen in up to my waist as I was trying to help rope the 14ft aluminium boat down a small rapids. I should have known better but there was simply no other way to get a boat of this size down. I am used to being wet through and of course had my dry bag and change of clothes for later. The water was actually quite warm for September! For me it was interesting to see the expression on the faces of Stuart the Cameraman and Josephine his assistant as we ventured further into the wilderness! I could tell we were beginning to leave their comfort zone and they were now experiencing something very special, this feeling is something I hope to bring out in the documentary. When we are in true wilderness we really don’t have an upper hand on our surroundings, the safety net is removed and I enjoy this experience immensely. It’s a feeling that I can only describe as ‘coming home’, I always know I am really living in these places.

Our arrival at the lake gave us some great footage, panoramic shots of distant shorelines laced with huge pines and red maples. A grey sky overhead diffused the light and gave everything a depth of colour we don’t see on sunny days. I found a place to paint on a peninsula and began to set up. Imagine my surprise when I reached into my bag for my white paint and found it wasn’t there! I had come all this way only to leave the most important tube of paint in my studio. Try explaining that to the camera as it hovered overhead!. I came up with a plan to paint the darks and mid tones and leave the lighter areas for finishing up in my studio. Everything seemed to work out well and we started our journey back to the Golden Fleece where we had started our day trip, eventually arriving home well after dark.

As I write this in my studio overlooking the hills of the valley below us, the sun is finding gaps in the clouds and lighting up the fall colours as if each tree were saying goodbye one last time before the first snow flies. The shadows race across the landscape laying ribbons of fleeting light that give the artist a visual depth and intensity you can really only find at this time of year. I am just about to ready myself for another trip this afternoon with the film crew and also a CBC arts reporter who is also coming along. We are heading for Abrahams Lake, a virgin Red Spruce forest nestled on a remote lake. The forest interior here is church like, it will be a challenge to bring out this feeling as I paint this afternoon, this time though I will remember my tube of white paint!.

Tell The World About It.....

2008-09-03T15:36:00.003-03:00

Interior, Algonquin Park- oil on board

Just a few days ago the film documentary depicting my artistic endeavours was put into motion again. This time it was a local shoot, not as ‘extravagant’ as the recent shoot in Northern Newfoundland perhaps, but equally as in depth and revealing. We had hiked down into a ravine straddled by old growth Hemlock, Maple and Birch near my studio in Nova Scotia. A small stream gurgles and spits its way through the bottom land and we found it in full flow due to recent heavy rain. I was looking around for something simple to paint, something that bought out the lovely late summer light that caught it’s self in the tree tops and turned everything to gold.

I needed contrast to bring this light into the painting. I wanted a dark foreground with a few trees reaching up out of the ravine into the bright sky above. Eventually I found a perfect location and settled in to paint. The piece progressed quickly, mostly because of the mosquitoes nipping at my arms, they have a way of piercing through the thickest of cloth! One of the film crew then asked how did this location, relatively close to home, differ with something on a grander scale like that of British Columbia or Labrador?

I guess having thought about it, the question in a larger sense is more about how we relate to the natural world. There is always an excitement when I venture into a new area. It’s like an undiscovered land and there is a burst of creative energy that seems to flow like a river whilst there and also for a few weeks after returning. More closer to home things are more ‘expected’ with few surprises, but there is always something new to see in the forests and lakes near my studio. Nature is constantly changing through the seasons, the light always brings a new dimension to a place, flirting with our perception of what we feel is real.

Deep down what I want to say with my work is much more important than the actual place I am painting in. Each piece becomes an expression of not just my immediate surroundings but also my overall reaction to my own place within the natural world. Different locations obviously evoke an emotional response on differing levels. To compare in a physical sense the snaking North Saskatchewan River in the Rocky mountains and a small stream in my own local area is not the point, the point is what does each place say to the artist on a deeper level.

Equally, some of the most wonderful written expression of art by the likes of Robert Frost or Thoreau was produced in the most simplest of natural places, each provoked and moved the author on a level that inspired them to tell the world about it. For me, my art is of course an expression of what I feel about being in a place, but a painting I have painted on location, can only come from spending a lifetime building a relationship with the wild places of Canada and Scotland, and it is this relationship and more importantly the attempt to understand it that inspires me, no matter where I am. Rocky Mountains or my local area, both evoke a response that moves me to the point of also wanting to tell the world about it.

Thorn Morrow, Artist

2008-07-29T14:06:00.002-03:00

I was in Fortress Louisbourg on Nova Scotia’s eastern Atlantic coast attending the re-enactment of the 1758 siege between the English and French this past weekend. It was a hugely attended affair with hundreds of people dressed in period attire, the canvas tents, muskets, open fires with skewered roasts, and even the odd loin cloth clad Native attending, a wonderful event that even smelled good! On our way home we stopped in at the Gallery of Thorn Morrow, located on the main road into Sydney from Louisbourg. Thorn has been at this location for 37 years living and painting. He has quite a story to tell.

In the 20 minutes or so we chatted I learned that he was in the RCAF in the second world war and helped build the first runway for Spitfires to land in Normandy, France, just 6 days after D-Day. After the war he had worked in Hollywood as an artist with ABC and other TV Corporations, then on a visit to Cape Breton Nova Scotia, he decided to stay and make his life there. Originally from Montreal, Thorn paints mostly landscapes of Nova Scotia in oil and watercolour, he is also known for his work depicting the coal mines of the area around the town of Glace Bay. His work is pleasing to the eye and captures a nice light that draws the viewer in. There is something to be said for an artist who has worked day in day out for 37 years in the same place making a steady living through tough times and good times. Seldom can artists make a living with their work and those that do deserve a pat on the back, such dedication is hard to find.

Thorn was a delight to meet, sincere and easy to talk to. Look him up if you are in the area, his well worn gallery was once an antique store and it has an atmosphere of a cherished attic full of paintings to delight the eyes. Pictured above is Thorn with one of his works.

The First Labrador........

2008-07-22T21:15:00.003-03:00

Evening, Pinware River, Labrador Oil on board 10x13 inches

Yesterday was a bit of a landmark for me, not in the sense that anything big developed or happened but something quite simple really, I painted my first work of Labrador. Getting to Labrador and producing a body of work from “The Big Land” has been a goal of mine for a long time, and I expect if your from Labrador and reading this your thinking what’s the big deal! Labrador is one of the last real wilderness areas on earth, it encompasses everything that man cannot quite get his hands on. It is remote and still teeming with wildlife, the rivers still run with Salmon, Caribou still cross the barrens in their thousands, and the Great Whales continue to feed off it’s coast ,and of course, the bugs are still biting!. I hope sincerely that it remains this way in Labrador for millennia to come.

My first Labrador painting was of the Pinware River on the South Coast, a quick oil sketch, but painting this work bought a sense of accomplishment and relief, like I had finally achieved a goal that was set many years ago. I have painted many places in Canada, some still elude me, like the arctic, but it is seldom these days I get into a new place to paint and I suppose thinking about it this was part of the lure of Labrador, to get into a place in which I had no pre-conceived idea about, something that was new to my brush and new to my soul. And that’s where the paintings come from, the place within me where I feel these wild places deep down and it is this emotional response that I place upon the canvas.

My journey as an artist seems to be about chasing something, I am not sure what it is I am chasing yet, or perhaps I am running away from something but again I think I am many hikes and many canoe trips from finding the answers to those and many more questions. I had a lovely email today from someone who runs a Gallery in Nova Scotia, she said,

"Your work is so compelling, It speaks of the ruggedness of the Nova Scotia landscape, the wildness. It takes the eyes of an artist to show us how beautiful our land is...."

Reading this tells me that I am accomplishing something with my work, something as simple as helping people to realise what wonders await them in the places we call ‘wild’.

On location- Northern Newfoundland, with Simple Films

2008-07-18T17:38:00.003-03:00

Morning, Cape Onion, Northern Newfoundland 6x8 acrylic, painted on location

If you have ever wanted to feel like you are at the end of the earth then there is a place in Northern Newfoundland that you should perhaps be acquainted with. The location is Cape Onion near the most northerly tip of the province. It is a prehistoric looking place, boasting massive cliffs and a swirling endless ocean that is restless and constantly changing. This was where Stuart Cresswell began filming the documentary that Simple Films is making on my artistic endeavours.
We climbed to the top of the headland to overlook the raging sea below to find a place where I could paint and he could film. Cape Onion looks towards L’Anse Aux Meadows, the 1000 year old Viking settlement that was found back in the 1960’s. Every few minutes the light would change as another bank of fog came in from the Atlantic ocean. I had an initial idea of what to paint upon arrival and I stuck with it through the seemingly endless changing landscape before me. Once minute I could see 3 or 4 miles, the next, visibility was reduced down to only a few hundred feet. It wasn’t going well in the early stages of the work, I had an undecided feeling each time I looked up. “Do I paint the fog or do I paint the whole landscape when it appears?”. Eventually I settled on painting the whole scene, and managed to scratch out this little 6x8 acrylic in about an hour and a half.

It was cold and a strong wind threatened to blow everything away including myself. Each time I needed more paint I had to take care that the tube wouldn’t blow over the edge of the cliff. Eventually the work began to come together and I felt a little relief that both the painting and the filming were ‘in the bag’.

On the way back down, Charlie, the sound man, was busy collecting sounds from crashing waves breaking on the nearby shore to be used in the film. It was all a fascinating experience for me, this film business. We had arrived around 6.45am and finished up by about 8.30am, just in time for breakfast at the lodge.

There is something magical about painting on location, I have talked before about actually feeling a place and being able to put these raw feelings down onto a blank canvas. It becomes an immediate reaction to the landscape and for myself I try to seek the truth when working like this. The famous poet EJ Pratt (1882-1964) wrote in his poem “Newfoundland“ :

Here the winds blow
And here they die
Not with that wild exotic rage
That vainly sweeps untrodden shores
But with familiar breath
Holding a partnership with life

He has said it all really hasn’t he in this small verse? I think all artists will continue to search for the Newfoundland as described by Pratt, it is not an easy task, but certainly a worthy one.

Labrador, The Big Land

2008-07-18T11:19:00.003-03:00

Red Bay, Southern Labador

When I had thought of Labrador in the past there was always somewhat of a ‘romantic’ idea swirling around my head. I wasn’t sure what it actually looked like, of course I had seen many photos and heard first hand accounts of how wild it really was. Well finally, I did make it to Labrador for the first time, and it was everything I thought it would be.

This is July and on the South Coast of Labrador it seems that spring has just arrived, the rivers are in full flow, the black flies are merciless and there is still snow in some places. Upon arrival into the little port town in Northern Quebec called Blanc St. Blanc, by a rough ferry ride from Newfoundland, we headed East along the coast as far as the Pinware River provincial park. The whole place earns it’s nick name “The Big Land” honestly. As far as I could see towards the horizon there was nothing but rock and windswept tundra and the odd thicket of densely packed black spruce.

It was challenging to find areas that would work as paintings, each and every hill was draped in a thick grey fog most of the time reducing colour to it’s barest shades. As the road dipped and swerved along the coast we were met each time by huge headlands protruding out into the Strait of Belle Isle, each one pointing to the shores of Northern Newfoundland. The headlands were barren, without trees, yet held a stark beauty that seemed timeless.

At one place, early one morning, the fog was lifting, I watched Sea Otters playing along the shore, while terns and gulls dipped over head. Little skeletons of Capelin were to be found everywhere on the high water line, wrapped in tight balls, an important part of the food chain in the North where everything seems to feed on them. We camped at the only provincial park in the area, the Pinware River where black flies and mosquitoes devoured us as we set up the tent, but for me I guess this was a part of the appeal, I like to experience all of a place, including the flies, and this experience will no doubt go into my work and keep it honest.

We travelled the next day to Red Bay and the end of the paved road. Red Bay is a National Historic Site and aptly named because of the 16th Century Basque Whalers who did their work here. There is a sadness to this place, and most of it is an education on the life of these hardy people, yet little account of the affect on the hundreds of whales that met their end here. It seemed to me that this was one of the first places where human kind began their exploitation of the natural world in a truly industrial sense. Something I hope that is changing with our changing attitudes.

I have plenty to work from, I took many ‘photo sketches’, and look forward to a winter of painting Labrador in all its natural glory. And as I scratch the last healing Black Fly bite, I still look forward to my next trip there with an eagerness and a certain amount of naivety.

News Release June 27th 2008

2008-06-27T14:27:00.003-03:00

Bog On French Mountain, Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia oil 6x8

News Release June 27th 2008

Nova Scotia landscape painter to be subject of documentary film

Nova Scotia based landscape painter, Mark Brennan, known for his work depicting Canadian National parks and wilderness areas will be the subject of a documentary film exploring his work and life as an artist.

Brennan was approached by Simple Films of the United Kingdom and River John, Nova Scotia, to produce a documentary style film for the Canadian and British markets. Simple Films will send a crew with him on an upcoming painting excursion into Northern Newfoundland and then follow the artist as he paints on location in remote areas of Nova Scotia.

“This is an exciting opportunity for me, I consider this an honour and of course a step in the right direction with my career, I am very much looking forward to working with Simple Films.” said Brennan.

Stuart Cresswell of River John based Simple Films says, “Mark's paintings are a bold statement about the Canadian landscape and the way it affects his life. Simple Films is fortunate to be able to follow Mark through what will be a pivotal year and to be part of his breakthrough into wider public awareness. I have no doubt that he will be seen to be one of the most important landscape artists of the modern era."

Brennan’s recent and main artistic focus is to produce a body of work in an attempt to record the remaining wild areas of Canada. Selected paintings from this series will be the subject of a solo show in July 2009, some of these new works will appear in the documentary.

On commenting on what inspires him Brennan said, “Nature defines and sustains us as a Country, and in recent times has taken somewhat of a back seat to our industrialized life styles. I try to light up the eyes of Canadians to the beauty that is Canada and to rekindle that bond with the natural world that we seem to be missing in today’s society. I think that’s key to solving some of the environmental problems we face. If I can inspire a few to work towards protecting the remaining wild places, then there is a purpose and direction to my work”,

Growing up on the West Coast of Scotland, much of his time was spent exploring the Highlands of that country and after settling in Canada some 20 years ago he still finds inspiration with all things wild. Brennan works from his studio in Pictou County and on location across the Country and has painted in most of Canada including British Columbia’s magnificent Yoho and Kootenay National Parks and Algonquin Park in Ontario.

Filming for the documentary begins in mid July, on location in Northern Newfoundland, and is expected to take a year to produce.

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Contacts
Canada Office: Simple Films Ltd, 2224 West Branch Road, Welsford, Nova Scotia, Canada, B0K 1N0Tel: Canada 902-351-2400 General Enquiries: info@simple-films.comStuart Cresswell, Simple Films, email, stuart@simple-films.com phone (902) 351 2400

Mark Brennan, email: mbrennan@ns.sympatico.ca
phone (902) 396 4397
Web: http://www.markbrennanfineart.ca/

A New Challenge - Film Company To Produce A Documentary On Landscape Painter, Mark Brennan

2008-06-10T11:59:00.005-03:00

"And Miles To Go, Interior, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland" 7x9 acrylic on board

It wont be long now and I will be walking the trails of Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, scouting for ice bergs on the Great Northern Peninsula or having my first look at Labrador’s Mealy Mountains. I have made one back packing trip to Gros Morne two years ago, but this time I am going to reach into the more distant areas of L’Anse Aux Meadows on the tip or Northern Newfoundland and several areas in Southern Labrador including Red Bay and the Pinware River.

This year however I wont be alone, my family are coming along for the trip but also a small film crew based in the UK that are hoping to produce a documentary on my life in Canada and my work. The film company, Simple Films, hope to produce an insightful look at a living artist originally from the UK making a living in the ’New World’ of Canada. Filming will begin in early July and progress through several more painting trips including canoeing into Kejimkujik National Park in Nova Scotia and several short stay visits to various wilderness areas in Canada’s Maritime Provinces. I am very much looking forward to working with Simple Films and of course hope to learn a great deal about the process of film making.

The Labrador/Northern Newfoundland trip this summer will no doubt produce some wonderful vistas and be quite challenging for the film crew. I am very much looking forward to painting on location in these new areas, especially the chance at working up a canvas or two of the 10,000 year old icebergs that make their way from the arctic to the shores of St. Anthony’s on the tip of Newfoundland.

May In The Cape Breton Highlands National Park

2008-05-20T21:06:00.003-03:00

This past May long weekend I made the spring ‘pilgrimage’ to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park here in Eastern Canada. I had wanted to explore the park closer to the visitors centre this year instead of heading out into the more remote areas like I usually do. I chose the west, Cheticamp side, which boasts the river of the same name running down through a huge gorge for several miles. There is a trail that takes the hiker up to three well known salmon pools. I have been interested in painting these pools for a while now and took along my sketch book and digital SLR to try to get a feel for something I can work up in the studio, perhaps even a series on the river.

I find my first spring camping/sketching trip a breath of fresh air, being lulled to sleep by Spring Peepers (frogs) or the tumble of the close by river rekindles the connection to nature. I seek these wild places for my own sanity, there is a ‘complete’ feeling that I seldom feel in other places. Having grown up close to nature in the Scottish Highlands I learned to love it and experience it on level terms and to become a part of it. It’s like a warm blanket wrapped around myself when I venture into places like the Cape Breton Highlands.

Water also seems to be a never ending theme in my work, I love the clarity and force of the streams and rivers in this National Park as they tumble from the plateau into the depths of the gorges creating deep ‘bottomless’ black pools that are fed by huge waterfalls. The Maple trees were in full bloom the day I hiked the river, I found one young maple with its bright red flowers right next to the shoreline of a deep dark pool with cliffs reaching, to a primeval forest above, a sight sure to inspire a new work (see photo above). I seem to remember a painting by the long gone Canadian painter AY Jackson of a similar theme but painted during the fall.

Most of the weekend thick fog blew in from the Gulf of St Lawrence reducing visibility up on the plateau of French Mountain to just a few feet at times. French Mountain boasts a high number of Moose this time of year and it’s Boreal forests, bogs and lakes are also an inspiring place for a landscape painter. I love the ruggedness of the place where trees only grow to a few feet because of the acidic soil and the harsh arctic winds that blow in during the winter. Anything that protrudes above the snow dies in the most exposed areas.

Along the coastline Northern Gannets scouted the inland coastal areas for fish while on the horizon each moving warm grey mass of cloud bought new showers and fog banks to awaiting cliffs, interspersed with the diffused light artists can only dream of! The Cape Breton Highlands truly is an artists or naturalists idea of perfection, to spend just a few days here warms the soul, plays havoc with the senses and gives the type of inspiration that will sing through my work for months to come.

Mary E. Black Gallery - show opening

2008-04-17T22:06:00.002-03:00

I recently attended the opening for the Nova Scotia Governments Art Bank purchases for 2008 at the Mary E. Black gallery in Halifax. I was fortunate enough to have one of my paintings chosen for inclusion into this public collection. The ceremony honoured 24 Nova Scotian artists and was attended by the Deputy Minister of Culture, Kelliann Dean.

My own work “Storm Over Cape Smokey” Acrylic on canvas 20x24, was purchased by the department for inclusion into the Nova Scotia Art Bank Collection. The painting evokes my sincere passion for nature and wilderness and explores the current anthropocentric relationship humans have with the natural world. A jury of peers looked at over 1000 submitted works of art from 120 working professional artists. Deputy Minister Dean said, "The creativity of our artists enriches Nova Scotia and makes it a more vibrant place to live and work. The Art Bank Purchase Program celebrates artistic excellence, preserves a history of art-making and showcases our best local artists."

The Nova Scotia Art Bank Collection established in 1975 is a ‘working’ collection used by Government offices and public spaces. It is a real honour for me to be recognized publicly after many years of painting, I am delighted to be a part of this collection. The newly purchased works will be on public display at the Mary E. Black Gallery, 1061 Marginal Rd., Halifax, from April 17 to 27 2008. In the photograph above Native Nova Scotia artist, Allan Silliboy can be seen chatting with another artist at the opening.

Going "Public", the Nova Scotia Art Bank

2008-02-29T08:26:00.004-04:00

"Morning, The North Saskatchewan River" Acrylic on stretched canvas, 10x12 inches

"Storm Over Cape Smokey" acrylic on stretched canvas 20x24 inches

The week of February 21st was a big week for me. Last November 2007, I had submitted several works to the Nova Scotia Department of Culture for consideration of being purchased and placed into the Nova Scotia Art Bank collection. The art bank is a collection of original art selected by a jury of peers that the Provincial Government acquires for use in it’s departments and other selected ’entities’ The painting selected (above) is titled “Storm Over Cape Smokey” the location, the Cape Breton Highlands of Nova Scotia. It is an acrylic on stretched canvas and measures 20x24 inches. I consider this a significant breakthrough, after wonderful rising sales in recent years to at last have my work contained in a ‘public collection’. In April the Government will honour those artists chosen by holding a show hosted by the Minister Of Culture, Bill Dooks, at the Mary E. Black gallery, Halifax, something I am very much looking forward to.

In other ‘news’ I have been working hard recently on my Banff National Park series, it’s not hard to be inspired by the incredible mountains, lakes and rivers of the region. The painting (the top image) is titled “Morning, the North Saskatchewan River” 10X12 acrylic on canvas. It’s location is in the northern area of Banff as you approach Sunwapta pass. I still remember as my daughter and I traveled up the Icefields parkway road the amazing atmospheric light that lit up the entire valley. I spent a great deal of time in this location searching out possible new works and ‘sketching’ with my camera. It is always a nice feeling that although the trip out to Western Canada was almost a year ago, I can still capture the feelings I felt whilst there in the flesh.

Time Lapse

2008-02-15T14:45:00.003-04:00

February is fast disappearing and we are flying towards spring. It is hard to believe but the first spring birds will be here in perhaps another month. I get somewhat excited as spring roles around, it means I can get out of the studio to paint, it’s not -15 deg c during the day but a temperature in which I can at least paint in relative comfort. Many times I have worked up a piece in the cold and had my paint freeze to the canvas only to take the finished work inside where the heat destroys it! I think sometimes the passion overcomes the common sense! I have eighteen 10x12 inch stretched canvas’s on order, a new size for me, which I hope to put to good use this spring, somewhere in Atlantic Canada.

I guess the other news is that I have been producing small time lapse films from within my studio of me starting and completing new works. Currently they can be seen here from my web site. They are set to classical music and are really quite interesting to view, especially if you have wondered about the actual painting process. A great tool for any artist to promote themselves.

New work the past few weeks includes a new 16x20 from Gros Morne National Park, a small acrylic on canvas of Moraine Lake in Banff National Park (the image on this post) and a large 24x24 of Middle Head in the Cape Breton Highlands, among others. Good sales out of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia recently has prompted me to send them 14 new works. Give them a call at 902-424-3087 if your intersted, Thanks for reading & have a great week!

Part Time Painters? I'm not so sure.....!

2008-01-22T10:31:00.000-04:00

Its always nice to be featured in a news paper, especially when it’s a full page on the second page! This was the case last Saturday 19th January when the Northern Nova Scotia daily ‘The Evening News’ did such a thing. I had their reporter come out to my studio to do an interview which went very well. They did a balanced story and gave a nice outline of where I have come from and what I hope to accomplish. If I had one tiny complaint it would be that article had said I was a part time painter. I am begging to differ! I think anyone that is in pursuit of their ‘art’ or their dream knows quite well that’s such a thing consumes ones life.

I don’t believe art can be defined in such away, there is no such thing as a part time artist. Artists tend to be passionate about what they do and eventually come to realise that success comes from hard work. If I am not at the easel then I am maintaining my web site, communicating with galleries, cataloguing work, doing financial ‘stuff’, out on location photographing for reference. I would even say that a gentle walk in the woods is a part of my art. And when I am not doing these things or painting then I am certainly thinking about it. There is also the cold hard facts that in today’s world an artist has to be more than just creative, they need to know the business side of it, they need to know how to promote themselves to do tax returns, follow ups with galleries and then there’s the added joy of raising a family on top of all this.

So in closing I will say that being a landscape painter tends not to fit with the usual descriptions of a job. I guess I would say it’s a way of life. Certainly there is a business to run, but above all of this when I am dead and gone, who is going to care how much money I did or didn’t make, I want my work to answer those kinds of questions and I can only do this by painting until I cant! The only other thing I would have to say about the article is that judging by my photograph I need a hair cut! You can read the article here, http://www.ngnews.ca/index.cfm?sid=99573&sc=49

Galleries

2008-01-09T21:24:00.000-04:00

2008 is here and it’s going like a steam train! I have been working hard in the studio the past few weeks. A new gallery contacted me recently and requested 12 pieces. I am of course happy to oblige!. Details Gallery is located in downtown Charlottetown at 166 Richmond Street They currently represent some of Atlantic Canada’s finest artists. You can visit their web site here, http://www.detailspastandpresent.com/ or you can call them at 1 (902) 892-2233. I look forward to many years of working with them. It is always nice when a gallery contacts an artist for their work instead of the other way around. It makes me feel that I am on the right track! While I am talking galleries I should give a brief list of galleries that represent me:

Lyghtsome Gallery,166 Main Street, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, phone: 1 (902)863 5804
Sales and Rental , Art Gallery Of N.S, Hollis Street, Halifax, NS ph (902)-424-3087
Clarus Gallery, Toronto online at http://clarusgallery.com/home.html
Details Gallery 166 Richmond St. Charlottetown PEI, at 1 (902) 892-2233

There have also been some exciting developments with film making, I hope to use film to redefine the artist/client relationship through the internet. My hope is to share more of my actual process of producing my art by making short films that bring the viewer into ‘my’ world in a way that hasn’t been done before. For example I hope to take footage of painting on location in wilderness areas where the client would then get to ‘travel’ along with me, but more on that in my next entry!

REFLECTIONS

2007-12-22T09:03:00.000-04:00

JANUARY AFTERNOON, WHITEHILL, NS, oil on board 6x8 inches

TANGLED LAKESHORE, MAPLE LAKE, Pictou CountyNS, oil on board 5X7

Morning Hike, Malign Lake Jasper National Park, Oil on board 9x11

Another year has come and just about gone. I find Christmas is a time for reflection, to think about new direction, about what transpired in the previous 12 months and to set some goals for the next 12. Looking back I am pleased to say I see some growth in my work. I seem to be developing more of a directness with the brush, both in style, technique and colour use. I have been painting for 20 years this year & I feel that I am only just scratching the surface with what is possible to put down on a canvas. There is always room for improvement and development, not just as a painter but also as a person.

Perhaps the biggest thing for me is that I still very much feel that hunger to ‘say something’. The passion for wanting to paint still burns within me and at times flows like a river in flood. On a physical level I made several painting trips this year, the most significant being the trip out to Western Canada to visit four of our most beautiful national parks. That body of work is progressing nicely. It is a whole new ‘ball game’ for me to paint a mountain! So I am very much enjoying this new challenge. I keep a digital record of every painting I produce and as I look through my work from 2007 I see a body of work that is pleasing. I will post some of what I feel are significant works above in this post.

I have made many new friends this year. I find there is a warmth to those who appreciate and collect art. They are genuine and there seems to be is a mutual love of the natural world. Many of my clients either spent a great deal of time in nature as a youngster or continue to do so. Having said that, I would like to thank all of you who purchased a painting or print from me this year for without you none of this would be possible.

So as 2008 approaches and we say goodbye to 2007 I hope for more growth on a personal level and also as an artist. I hope to find and be represented by at least one more gallery in 2008. Travel plans this year include another painting trip to Newfoundland as in 2005 but this time I hope to take it a bit further and make it to Labrador. I am enthralled by Labrador. I spent some time recently with a geologist who did some research there, he told me of going to his tent one evening and waking to a herd of Caribou that was ten thousand strong! These are the experiences I seek, I want to paint the wildest places in Canada! For the rest of the year I will be working towards my July 2009 solo show at the Art Gallery Of Nova Scotia (sales and rental gallery). Lots to look forwared to.

I will leave with you with the words of the wonderful English landscape painter John Constable who said, “The Landscape Painter must walk in the fields with a humble mind”. ….Peace to you all.

WE ARE ALL ONE IN SPIRIT"... Norval Morrisseau

2007-12-05T19:58:00.000-04:00

There was some significant sad news today in the Canadian Art world that deserves a mention here. Norval Morrisseau died today aged 75. Morrisseau was significant in so many ways. He was the first Native Canadian artist to make a deep impression on the mainstream art scene in Canada. He basically paved the way for many Native Canadian artists to begin their road to self expression in the Canadian art world. He also defined a new movement in Canadian art that drew together nature and art in a form that had never been seen before. This new movement became known as the ‘Woodland’ school.

There is a wonderful quote from Morrisseau in which he says, “I am merely a channel for the spirit to utilize, and it is needed by a spirit-starved society." How true those words are today. I admire this great artist, his love for his traditional Ojibwa heritage and his stark paintings depicting nature and shaman storytelling have inspired my own work, not so much in style but certainly in motivation. Anyone who paints nature in any form can feel a bond of sorts with all things wild and it was this bond that Morrissea brought out of the Ojibwa nation to release into society by way of his art.

Morrisseau’s work can arguably be defined as the true Canadian art that was born of thousands of years of living close to the land, and in doing so he put down in his paintings the story of his people. You can read more about Norval Morrissea at http://norvalmorrisseau.blogspot.com/. WE ARE ALL ONE IN SPIRIT"... Norval Morrisseau

Sweating The Small Stuff

2007-11-23T14:35:00.000-04:00

View From the Rock Pile 5x7 Oil on Board, Moraine Lake, Banff National Park

The Caribou Land 5x7 oil on board, Banff National Park

Grey Morning, Kootenay River, 5X7 oil on board Kootenay National Park, B.C.

The three paintings above are what I call the bread and butter of an artists existence. They are part of a series I am currently producing on the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and British Columbia. All five inches by seven inches and oil on board. They are compact works with a little flair and executed with a smile! I love to paint smaller works where I can loosen up and give an immediate response to a landscape that takes my eye. When I paint small I seem to hit a subconscious ‘vein’ that is creative, loose in style, and most of all enjoyable. That is not to say that painting larger works is not enjoyable, on the contrary, while larger pieces take much longer to work up, they go down on the canvas much tidier but perhaps holding a little of that fear artists can feel when faced with a big white canvas!

It’s the spontaneity that I enjoy, once finished the painting is put away until dry. when I will look at it again and perhaps make the smallest of corrections, careful not to take away from that initial burst of creative energy. When painting I regularly get ‘into the zone’, it’s almost a meditative state where the hand simply seems to do the work, and me, unaware of anything else that’s going on in the studio. I find myself just there, ‘in the moment’.

There are times however, when I am hit by artistic block and cannot paint for perhaps a week or more, my mind needs some rest and new inspiration. During these times I will continue working on something large at a slow pace and take lots of walks along my trails in the woods here in Whitehill, Northern Nova Scotia. After a while the urge returns once again and I get on with it! So why do I consider the smaller works my bread and butter?. Well, they are the paintings that find themselves on the gallery walls, they are reasonably priced for most collectors but above all else, they definitely fill that urge to paint that is there on an almost constant basis.

There is also a ‘high’ that comes with producing a well executed work, it doesn’t last long and I usually feel it towards the end of the painting process when I can see if I have captured what I wanted to. I may look at it for a few hours afterwards but mostly I move on seeking the next creative fix!

I Gaze At These Paintings ~ And I Am There

2007-11-20T15:19:00.000-04:00

Fall, Maple Lake, Pictou County, Nova Scotia 5X7 inches, acrylic on board

The offer of a solo show comes rather rarely for me, but that is what I was recently offered at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax. Their art sales and rental gallery regularly showcase solo shows featuring various artists from around the Province. I have accepted a July 2009 date for mine. Ask me if I am energized about this! Of course I am, it will be a first for me. After numerous group shows and even a dual show with Nova Scotia painter Daniel A. Munro it is a timely offer that I feel I am ready for. I am not so sure it is a milestone but perhaps after 20 years of painting it feels like a coming of age! I have five large works put aside for this show already and hope to work towards 30-40 never before seen paintings featuring a cross section of my recent travels across the Country. I look forward to the challenge of a one person show and want to use this occasion to inspire those who attend it, to rejuvenate their relationship with the natural world.

While on this topic I had a lovely email this morning from a collector who said,

“Why your paintings appeal so much to me is that they speak to my past and hopefully the future. Although I have not been to that part of the Gaspe [area of Quebec], I can hear the water rushing over the rocks at Ste. Anne’s Falls. I can feel the sun’s warmth and appreciate the quiet of the forest clearing in winter. [the painting] “Fall by Maple Lake” Lake might sometimes be cold and grey, but there’s the juxtaposition with the vibrant fall colours and the solidity of the rocks and trees. I gaze at those paintings and am there. It gives me a brief respite from the world."

These are the kinds of thoughts that encourage me to work hard, to spend time in nature and share my ‘gift’ of painting with those who also value such things. Reading letters like this no longer boost my ‘ego’ as it used to (I have been working on this!), but tell me that I am on the right track, that my work is indeed an inspiration in the everyday lives of people who love both art and nature. The painting pictured above is 'Fall By Maple Lake', I hope that when the new owner does indeed gaze at this painting they are there, by that fall lake, taking it all in.

Nearing Devils Eddy

2007-11-12T13:28:00.000-04:00

There is a river, here in Nova Scotia, known as the Liscomb, it flows through a large swath of Boreal wilderness to eventually surge into the Atlantic Ocean on the Provinces Eastern coastline. Several years ago I had canoed a part of this river and was suitably impressed with its ruggedness that I have been back on several occasions to paint. On one trip I reached the lonely ‘Hunting Lake’ where Wardens from the provincial department of Lands And Forests had built one of several small log cabins in the 1950’s. This spruce hut, now fallen in, was located on part of a circular route around the Liscomb Game Sanctuary, a once huge protected area that has now sadly gone to the pulp and paper companies. On this route the Wardens would patrol the boundaries of this pristine area by canoe.

Nowadays much of the area surrounding the Liscomb has succumbed to modern forestry methods, however, there are some significant sections located along the waterway that are now protected, mostly because of their unique qualities for recreation and bio-diversity. Just opposite the Hunting Lake cabin is another abode, a private dwelling, that has seen it’s fair share of beer drinking trout fishermen!. It too is on the verge of collapse. I spent an hour here, years ago, painting a small oil on the west facing wall of this cabin, returning only last year. Sure enough the painting is still there, untouched by countless scratched reports in the wall of weather and how many trout were caught .

To me the area around Hunting Lake stands as a testament to the woods of Nova Scotia, the type of which are written about in the famous book, “The Tent Dwellers’. by Albert Bigelow Paine, where he chronicles his journey through the deep woods of the Province in early part of the last century. Paine was on the hunt for the elusive Brook Trout. I was on the lookout for new areas to paint. Several months ago the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia announced a new juried show which they were calling ‘Reflections’. I thought this was a good opportunity to introduce the people of Nova Scotia to the Liscomb and the area around Hunting Lake. The work above is called, ‘Nearing Devils Eddy’ (oil on board, 9x11 inches) and was recently chosen to promote the show and was published in one of Nova Scotia’s Provincial news papers. I have visited and painted some of the wildest areas of the Country, yet this little part of Nova Scotia brings me back time and again, when I slip through the gentle river in my canoe and peer into it’s black depths, I feel that nature will indeed survive the industrial age., but that of course is up to us.

The End Of The Earth

2007-11-03T15:21:00.001-03:00

The End Of The Earth, Photograph, Louisbourg Light Cape Breton Nova Scotia

The Nova Scotia coastline is world renowned for it’s rugged beauty. In twenty years of living here I have visited just about all of it, with the exception of the Louisbourg area of Cape Breton Island. I finally made it to Louisbourg in October of this year. I was awestruck by this ragged wilderness, fierce Atlantic waves were pounding the shoreline and for as far as they eye could see there was not even a trace of human habitation. I really felt as though this was the end of the earth.

I worked quickly to capture the changing early morning light as clouds sped by as if in a race to some other far off ocean. The photograph above was taken at about 9am near the lighthouse. It was near here in 1758 the English lay siege to fortress Louisbourg to push out the French. They attacked with 13,100 troops supported by a 14,000 crew with 150 ships, the British captured the fortress in 7 weeks. The whole area is painters heaven, small fishing villages, lakes and stunning coastlines give endless inspiration. As with most places I visit, I will paint a series of new work over the winter months from photographs and memory. When working on location like this I like to create a portfolio of sorts of large professional quality photographs and also add to my digital library, the images of which I use to paint from.

Beginnings

2007-11-03T09:49:00.000-03:00

Morning! I’m just sitting here wondering what on earth to write about. I think I should fist tell you about me. I was born in England, grew up in the Highlands of Scotland and spent a huge amount of time roaming the wilderness of that amazing land. I guess this was where that connection to the natural world was made. In 1984 I joined the Royal Navy and ended up emigrating to Canada in the late 80‘s, I had been working as a photographer by this time and was just breaking into painting. My photography covered mostly daily life at sea on a Royal Naval warship, things like official visits and photographing strange ships on the oceans! I read a great deal at this time, mostly about art, I devoured the biographies of artists like Andy Warhol, Pollock and of course the French Impressionists.

My move from the UK to a Nova Scotian farming homestead was quite a culture shock, the forest near to our home was 5 miles long and a mile wide, no roads, no trails and lots of wildlife and a great deal of silence. I would sit in 300 year old Hemlock tree stands and watch everything that moved. It all sounds rather idyllic doesn’t it, but this became the force that pushed me into taking my art seriously, quite simply I wanted to express what I felt in the deep woods of Nova Scotia.

In the early 90’s whilst on a cross Canada train journey I happened to view a major retrospective show of the Group of Seven and Tom Thompson, this show had a huge affect on me, I had grown to love the natural world and they had expressed exactly what I felt. It had already been done! Sitting here thinking about that show 15 years later, I think it gave me a real clue to what was possible with my work. I had seen the vast collections at the National Gallery in London and visited the Museum of Modern Art in New York, but nothing had the affect on me like that the Group of Seven Show did.

In the mid 1990’s I made my first serious forays into the wilderness by canoe, I was broke but managed to save $350.00 to purchase a canoe by cutting a hole in our bathroom wall and filling it with coins! This allowed me to advance deeper into the wilderness, to canoe lakes and rivers and seek out what I wanted to paint. I have a few of those early sketches, but most of them are long gone now, I have my first work, painted on location in oil at a lake called Perch Lake in the Liscomb area of Nova Scotia. I enjoyed the silence of those times, I enjoyed the physical challenge of paddling alone and most of all enjoyed expressing myself with my art. You can see this first ‘on location’ painting in the upper left of this entry. Titled "May Morning Perch Lake", 8x10 inches oil on panel. My work since then has been a wonderful journey of travel and painting in places like Algonquin Park, Gros Morne in Newfoundland, the Rocky Mountains, Quebec's wild Gaspe Bay region and of course the rugged coastlines and wilderness areas of Nova Scotia. I hope to share a lot of my recent and new stories with you as my blog evolves.

Welcome

2007-11-03T09:07:00.000-03:00

Welcome to the daily doings of me, Mark Brennan. I am a Nova Scotia based landscape wilderness painter and photographer. In this, my new blog, I hope to give you an insight into how and why I work, what drives me to create and my thoughts on my daily life as a working artist. I hope to post my new work, tell you where I’ve been and record successes and failures. I want this blog to express my frustrations, my joys and hope to be able to keep your attention for perhaps a little while! Thanks for finding me and enjoy the rest of the show!