Rick Janson Art Studio

And now for something completely different, well, almost. I wanted to challenge myself with a painting that would be as much from my imagination as it was from reference sources (eg. photos). I also, as usual, wanted to keep it loose and painterly. Digging through my parents collection of snapshots, I found one of Wasaga Beach that brought back a lot of feelings and a certain amount of nostalgia.

Back in the early 1960s Wasaga Beach was the Coney Island of Canada. Huge numbers of people would jam the highway north from Toronto every summer in search of sand, sun and fun, including our family and various guests. We often would rent a cottage for our summer stay, sometimes on the beach, sometimes back towards the Nottawasaga River, notorious for its undertows where it meets the lake.

At the time visitors could drive their car on the beach, many families setting up next to their vehicle for the day. It is hard to imagine now, especially given the sensitive nature of the dunes and the bird life that lives there, that this could have ever happened. Eventually the province moved in, expropriated many of the businesses set up along the beach, restored the dunes, and established a park. Wasaga has always claimed to be the largest freshwater beach in the world with its 14 kilometres of white sand and still draws beach-goers each summer. But good or bad, that past is definitely gone.

The car was not only handy to organize your stuff, but gave you somewhere to hang your towels after a swim in Georgian Bay. It also gave you a degree of privacy between you and the next family over. The only problem was all the cars and the traffic it generated. To go from our rented cottage to the water meant crossing a makeshift road on the sand that was filled with cars and motorcycles, some doing little more other than cruising the beach. Not the most peaceful environment. But hey, it was the 1960s.

The original black and white photograph I worked from shows my father’s 1957 Chevy parked right up to the edge of the water. It looks to be late in the afternoon, although many swimmers are still out in the bay. The clouds have come in, making the photo my father likely took possible — with the light coming from across the bay, the two figures (my Aunt and Uncle) would have otherwise been in silhouette had their been direct sunlight. It also meant a lack of shadow. The actual photographic print is quite small, the picture a little overexposed and damaged, a number of creases criss-crossing the image. I thought, could I paint this?

I really liked the chaos at what looked like the end of the day, the wet towels drying on the car, various cushions, cups and a six-pack on Canada Dry Ginger Ale on the sand. There wasn’t enough detail to make a serious run at a double portrait, although the figures do somewhat resemble these family members, likely from the way they are standing, my uncle’s hands, as ever, in constant motion. Even on the larger canvas, their heads are a little less than three inches in size. But it didn’t matter.

The bigger challenge was the lack of colour references in the original. To that end I went looking for other beach pictures to get some clues, and I happened to have a model of a 1957 Chevy Belair that would give me some idea of how the reflections would look on the blue-teal surface of the vehicle. In the original over-exposed photo the sky is simply white. I searched through my images for a cloudscape that would amp up the interest but also be faithful to the light sources in the image. From memory I tried to figure out the colour of the umbrella — somehow I remember there was a large green one that often lived in the storage of our basement. I tried to use period specific colours for the bathing suits and the towels.

I’ve had this painting in my rotation since last fall, it finding its way on to the easel most weeks. Oddly, despite the lack of detail to work from, it felt like I was connecting with my Aunt and Uncle who have long passed.

Will I return to it? I’m not sure. No painting is safe from reworking as long it remains in my possession. But for now I will move on.

Last year I did another retro piece, mistakenly believing it would fit a theme I had gotten wrong. That one was of a grandchild out on Hallowe’en. Neither paintings were taken from photographs I took, although there was some fiddling with the images to make both work.

While many of pieces deal with issues around travel, I find that time is another form of travel worth exploring. At least for the winter months, it was good to spent a day at the beach most weeks, even if it was only in my head.

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Want to see more? Check out my gallery page by clicking here. The current show I am in at the Leslie Grove Gallery is in its final week. Check it out if you haven’t already. Other exhibition dates are listed as they are confirmed here.