John Hartman

John Hartman: Parry Sound — Joseph Boyden, 2014

Parry Sound — Joseph Boyden, 2014, oil on linen, 60 x 66 inches

Parry Sound — Joseph Boyden

The head on the horizon is Joseph Boyden. His family until recently owned Sandy Island, located right underneath Joseph. They still have cottages on the west side of the island. John Cloarec is in the lower left of the painting. He and his brother Charlie were boat builders whose homestead was in Clear Bay. When I was a young boy I canoed to Clear Bay with a group from Camp Hurontario to see a wooden launch being built by the Cloarecs, largely without the use of power tools and from wood they had cut and milled in the nearby bush. I was impressed. Above John’s head is an image of the young Andy Trudeau walking from Spider Bay to Manitou carrying a catch of fish and a beaver trap. Just underneath the town of Parry Sound is Dave Thomas test driving the scoot he built for the coast guard. The C-clamp is essential to boat and scoot building so the hand dropping down from Highway 69 as it cuts through Parry Sound is holding a C-clamp. As you head up the shore toward Jacknife Lodge you start to come back into a part of the shoreline popular with painters. Goodridge Roberts, Vince Thomas, and most notably Doris McCarthy painted here.