Low Down Articles
Artist Profiles - Becky Mason
Article 41 of 73
From the book Artists of the Gatineau Hill by Catherine Joyce. This article first appeared in the "Artist Profiles" column in the October 19, 2005 issue of the The Low Down to Hull and Back News.
Reprinted with permission. Search complete list of Low Down Articles.
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Dancing on Water
Becky Mason is happiest with either a paddle or a paintbrush in her hand. Her remarkable career as artist, master canoeist, writer, public speaker and filmmaker springs from the passion for the land that has shaped her being since birth.
Daughter of legendary canoeist, photographer and filmmaker, Bill Mason, Becky has lived her whole life in the Gatineau Hills except for her years studying at the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, 1983-86. Growing up on Meech Lake, she and her brother Paul shared the backyard with 13 wolves her father was raising. From an early age she accompanied him on canoe expeditions with the family, where his Song of the Paddle took shape on location on the North Shore of Lake Superior.
"My father always encouraged me to pursue my art but he wanted me to know what it takes to become a professional artist - to be able to do it all day, every day, and still enjoy it, without any illusions about money or success. My mother taught me how to manage a life of creativity - she was the emotional support, our sounding board."
The love of the land is in Becky's blood. It ties together every aspect of her life. From April to October she teaches canoeing on Meech Lake, drawing people from around the world to experience her techniques. She has captured her reverence for the ancient art of canoeing in her video on Classic Solo Canoeing, and in the many slide presentations and lectures she gives across North America.
Throughout the winter she paints, gathering inspiration from the canoeing expeditions she undertakes with her artist husband, Reid McLachlan. In 2003, as part of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society's (CPAWS) northern wilderness canoeing project, they paddled the Berens River in celebration of the boreal forest and its diverse rivers, an experience she documented for the exquisite 2004 book, Rendezvous with the Wild, The Boreal Forest, edited by James Raffan.
Since 1987 Becky has had to contend with environmental allergies to oil paints and other chemicals; therefore her materials have been limited by her health. And yet there is an aptness in her choice of watercolour on Japanese ricepaper - a delicacy and grace in her painting that mirrors the fluid elegance of her canoeing. Water ballet on paper. In her most recent series on the boreal forest she attains the ethereal purity of grasses flowing under water, in colours as light and fleeting as music.
"I paint what I know - my vision of how I see the land and water. Out in my canoe, I absorb my feelings. I am awestruck and bring back my memories and arrange them in my mind. Then I paint, trying to recapture the emotions I felt when I was out on the water. I sink into a dream and lose all sense of time. A series can take me years to express the feelings that lie layered inside me. I try to bring that depth to each painting, to evoke that stillness of perception."
Becky Mason's art bears the mark of such reverence - a quality of stained glass with the wilderness, her cathedral. Each season her paddle and her paint brush bring her vision home.