Happy Place

by Phil Chadwick

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Dimensions

36.000 x 48.000 x 1.750 inches

Title

Happy Place

Artist

Phil Chadwick

Medium

Painting - Oil On Canvas

Description

This is a large version of #1826 "Stern Seat". I was working very hard on #2069 "Flooded Land Wood Duck Drake" and worried about stroking it to death. The best way to avoid overkill is to just start another canvas. I had this idea waiting in the wings and plus it was spitting rain outside on a winter day. It is an unusual composition and sadly beyond the experience of many. I am hoping that it connects with a few and that is enough for me.

Let me explain the title. I am not fond of injections or needles. I don't "cry" but I do go to my "Happy Place" which is the stern seat of my canoe. The location of the specific waterway in my mind's eye doesn't really matter but I certainly do have my favourites. From the stern seat I can paddle the canoe silently almost anywhere and you would be amazed at what you can find and see along the way.

This old canoe leaked when I put it in the water. My carbon "Margaritaville" canoe was on top of the car but it was a privilege to take this antique canoe for a spin around Buck Lake of the Limberlost area just west of Algonquin. The water filled up the low sections of the elderly cedar strip canvas canoe. The water would occasionally overflow one of the cedar strips and into the next low area - the same process that gradually filled all of the hull sections in the Titanic. I was in no danger of sinking and the water was still warm anyway.

There are a lot of hidden meanings here. The stern seat was empty. I was paddling from the bow seat and looking backward. The antique cedar strip canoe was symmetric so this is the typical manoeuvre to paddling a longer canoe solo. It was windy in the main portion of Buck Lake so I needed to shift my bulk to the middle side on several occasions in order to keep the canoe stable and going forward in the direction that I wanted to go. It felt good to paddle the old cedar canoe. It had a lot of character.
I would much prefer to have the seat in the back empty than have a stern person anywhere in the same canoe with me.

There is a Yin Yang side to this painting. One side was in shadow even with the midday sun. The lower solar elevation still put the starboard side of the canoe in the shade. I was paddling easterly. The light lit up the layers of old varnish covering the old cedar strips. This is an unusual composition for me as I paddled into and through the vegetation in a shallow part of Buck Lake. I felt that I could push through the weeds and get to the deeper water on the other side. I was on my way to the outlet of Buck Lake.

There are a lot of very wild and loose stokes in this painting even though from a distance it is impossible to tell the difference. At one time I signed my name large like my mentor Mario Airomi. Over the years I have changed that so that my signature is only an inconspicuous portion of the art... often scratched in the thick and wet oils with a stick, tooth pick or nail. The art really needs to be more about the quality than the signature... just my opinion :>)

Uploaded

March 11th, 2018

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