BY THE SHORELINE, THIS TIME is a series of three paintings which respond to one of the world’s greatest waterways. It is the border between Canada and the United States, the passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the heart of the continent: the St Lawrence River.These paintings look through the lens of a summer community at Butternut Bay in the Thousand Islands. It is a story that stretches across five generations, weaving friendships, family ties, fallings-out and patchings-up over a century. MOVE WITH THE RIVER shows the main dock. Its deep posts are anchored to the riverbed, with structures built out into the water: the bridge, finger dock, floating docks. I don't see this as colonisation, more a movement towards, a longing to join the river.Acrylic on Stone paper, 42 × 29 cm
LEGEND OF THE FISH acknowledges the generations whose lives have flowed through the community with a painting of a Murano glass fish, a gift for a family wedding in the 1960s. A fine piece of art that missed the mark and, despite attempts to return it to the happy couple, has remained at the family cottage ever since.Acrylic on Stone paper, 29 × 42 cmJUMP, DIVE IF YOU DARE captures for me the fear and thrill of the waterways and waterplay, where you can turn yourself and everything else upside down. It took me fourteen years to find the courage to jump from the High Tower, an iconic local structure. You surrender your land-self when you enter the water. Supported, weightless, vulnerable - out of your element and in it, all at once.Acrylic on Stone paper, 29 × 42 cm