Anne and I are back from our two-year project. Footsteps East took us to places throughout Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario.
This June 2023 started out rocky. Storms greeted us near Québec’s Lac Témiscouata.
While painting at Petite Saguenay, a sudden storm thundered 20 km away at our campsite at Baie Eternity. Multiple road washouts trapped over 200 people at the campsite. Many were airlifted out and escaped by boat. Overland flooding, tragically, washed two people to their deaths. It took us over a week to be able to follow a Saturday convoy to our site and recover our belongings. More heavy rains prevented further recovery of cars, RVs, and camping gear for 2-3 weeks.
Over twenty times we set up and broke camp during our journey — only a few times, thankfully, in the rain.
Our journey was filled with adventures — tenting, painting, hiking, canoeing, riding the rails, and visiting art galleries. We filled two sketchbooks and submitted over 40 original paintings to the Teichert Gallery, adjacent to the Nova Scotia Art Gallery in downtown Halifax for our exhibition in September.
So, what’s next? What can grow our love of art and geography in Canada?
We figured an artist residency where we could explore the boundaries between spatial technologies (GIS, remote sensing, drones, etc.), the visual arts, and the culture of Place, would be a fruitful challenge. I’d love to develop a project, say, on “The Nooks and Crannies of Fogo Island”. Maybe you could help me out here.
Ernest Blair Experiment 