A Rocky Day

Today was Labour Day here in Canada.  The weather was cool and gloomy, but as it wasn't actually raining I went sketching for a couple of hours.  Quite unintentionally I ended up drawing stone masonry and stone sculpture as a theme.

 I have had a hankering to get up to Moorside, the Mackenzie King Estate in the Gatineau Hills for some time.  On the way into the property I met   John Shaw-Rimington of The Dry Stone Wall Association of Canada who was doing a dry laid stone wall demonstration.  Well, in fairness, his assistant Shim, was busy, while John chatted to interested visitors.  In addition to shattering the stereotype of what a mason looks like, Shim also demonstrated that it is possible to build very regular walls with rounded field stone.

John has a blog about dry stone masonry entitled Thinking With My Hands".
http://thinking-stoneman.blogspot.com/

Mackenzie-King found the Moorside property in 1900 on a cycling trip.  He spent 50 summers there and over those years created an estate complete with perennial gardens and several faux ruins.  The largest is an amalgam of artifacts including a stone relief from the English House of Parliament that has been damaged by bombing in the second world war and the fireplace of his famous, great grandfather William Lyon Mackenzie.

Mackenzie-King had his "L'arc de Triumphe" constructed from a parts of a demolished building to commemorate his 1935 election victory.  It marks the edge the meadow which surrounds the house and the forest and looks like some sort of "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" portal.

On the way back into town I stopped at the Remic Rapids on the Ottawa River where John Felice Ceprano has been balancing rocks as elegant and unexpected sculptures every summer since 1986.
www.jfceprano.com

People stop by all day long and John seems to be a constant presence, even on weekends and evenings. It is a popular destination for photographers, although you'd be better off to just buy the amazing photos John sells right there on site.


John is very friendly and chats and jokes with people  between moments of fiddling and adjusting small rocks and hefting large ones to start new sculptures.

A Prime Minister with Presence

There are statues of many of our Prime Ministers scattered around the perimeter of Parliament Hill.  William Lyon Mackenzie King is one of my favourites, both as a leader and as a sculpture.  His figure has a presence of command out doors in the Parliamentary landscape - imagine how he commanded a room.

As a man Mackenzie King lead Canada through most of the depression  and the Second World War.  He got on with Churchill and Roosevelt, in part through the guidance of his dead mother as channeled to him by his faithful Irish terrier, 'Pat'.  He was also responsible for instigating the major planning and urban design initiatives that have made Ottawa such a distinctive Capital.  I also enjoy visiting his estate, now part of Gatineau Park, where he built faux ruins incorporating some stone elements from the bombed House of Parliament.  Legend has it, that he asked his friend Winston Churchill for a few pieces and they were shipped here by submarine.

As a sculpture, the figure is boldly abstracted and stands apart from the realistic style of the neighbouring works.  I just wish the sculptor had added Pat, for company.  After all FDR, at his fantastic Washington monument has his Scottie, Fala, with him.

Oh, and an obscure note - some of the roofs on Centre Block are green and others are bronze in colour.  They are all copper, but the more recently replaced portions have not yet oxidized to the beautiful green patina of the Peace Tower.  As for Mr. Mackenzie King, he's bronze, and as long as the birds stay off likely to stay that colour.