Ontario landscapes

August 18: Prince Edward Island farmland


paulintoronto said yesterday's photo reminded him of a favourite painting at the Louvre: "Le coup de soleil." Dramatic clouds and plays of light characterize Ruysdale's landscapes. One of my favourite artists, John Constable, adapted Ruysdale's realism. He said, "No two days are alike, nor even two hours; neither were there ever two leaves of a tree alike since the creation of the world." He never went abroad, concentrating on the English landscape.

A traveller experiences contrasting vistas. A person who stays home can observe the land more intimately than any visitor could, becoming familiar with seasonal rhythms, changes of light, sounds, and textures of vegetation. Of all places I visited this summer, Prince Edward Island's landscape seemed most familiar, although the ocean creates different cloudscapes. Returning home, I was surprised by the unique, familiar quality of Ontario's light. One could spend a lifetime expressing it.

Last year at Tom Thomson Gallery I was startled by a Homer Watson painting, "The Old Mill." In Constable's style, he painted Southwestern Ontario farmland, portraying clouds and water like I've never seen anywhere else. I was thinking of Watson on Saturday evening when I stopped to photograph the bucolic scene along the Conestogo River.





Glen Allan, Ontario: another view of the Conestogo River from the same spot as yesterday's photo

Interests meme

From daisydumont

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