Think Like an Artist Imagine yourself alone on the shoreline of Lake Louise. Gaze
last day skiing, try to paint a particular shade of gold that you
across the milky, turquoise lake towards Mount Victoria. The
recently observed in a sunrise, or would you write about or
only sounds you hear are birds chirping, the rustle of wind,
dance out your experience? And how do you come away from
and the occasional tumble of rockfall off a distant cliff. No
that day with enough source material to create something of
human chatter, no sounds of cars or bus engines, no throngs
real artistry? For that, to create something meaningful, you’ll
of tourists blocking your view. Just you, the lake, and the day.
have to really engage with what you are seeing.
Pretty hard to imagine, isn’t it? To really get into the artist’s headspace, spend some time in When researching the art history of the Canadian Rockies, I
one of the many galleries and museums that now house their
often find myself considering the idea of the artist alone in the
work. The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff,
mountains. The watercolour painter extraordinaire Walter
and the retail galleries in Canmore, Jasper, Lake Louise, and
J. Phillips (1884 - 1963) lived in Banff for twenty years and
other mountain towns offer multitudes of interpretations of the
walked to his most favoured sketching locations, where he
landscape. Choose a work you like, and take a good, long look.
would sit with his paint box on his knees, working for hours without seeing another soul.
Studies have shown that the average visitor to a gallery spends less than fifteen seconds looking at any one painting. Rather
Group of Seven painters Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson went
shocking, considering the amount of time the artists spend
into the backcountry in the 1920s, spending days in relative
making them. How lucky these painters and photographers
solitude at places like Maligne Lake and Mount Robson,
were, to stay engaged with their chosen subject for so long.
intensely looking and sketching. The requirements of their
This is where my kernel of jealousy sits. So be less concerned
craft necessitated remaining still for extended periods of time,
about the number of kilometers you have hiked, the elevation
contemplating, then arranging and capturing, their unique
you have reached, or the number of bucket-list spots you have
versions of the scene. I have great admiration for their work,
seen. Leave the distractions of technology behind. Be open
but what I really envy are those by-gone days, times when one
to the joy that can be found in sitting still and just looking, in
could be alone in paradise.
listening for the birds, in absorbing the essence of where you are. See, truly see, the colour of the lake or the sky. Touch the
As the author of three mountain art guide books with a fourth
trees, feel the rocks, smell the air.
upcoming, I feel responsible for the congestion on some of today’s trails. But I also understand the thirst for beauty that
Quality art, in every media, requires serious intent, a deeper
draws us — with an overwhelming pull — to the mountains. So
kind of interaction with the subject. The artists I have studied
how can we experience the mountains like Phillips, Jackson
spent their time keenly observing. It took Phillips multiple
and Harris, despite the crush of people we might encounter? I
journeys to reach the uppermost waterfall at Johnston Canyon.
would suggest that we think like an artist.
On his first forays, he stopped and painted each waterfall he encountered in turn, and from a variety of angles, as he slowly,
Thinking like an artist will enrich your experience. It forces
over the course of one summer and multiple trips, made his
you to slow down, to extend you viewing time, to enter a state
way to the top. Heed his example, spend some time seriously
of deep contemplation of what you see, with consideration of
looking, letting the beauty of the natural world wash over you,
how to capture it. If you set out to express your most recent
and you will be rewarded with a richness of experience that
mountain days’ experience creatively, what would it look like?
you otherwise might have missed.
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By: Lisa Christensen
