THE ARTFUL REMINDER OF HISTORY - THE ANTIQUE HUNTER ON THE PROWL

To head my blog submissions, this morning, (Gravenhurst and Nature of Muskoka sites), I wanted to publish the image of two wonderful Canadian landscapes, painted sometime between the 1860's and 1880's, by a British artist, named W. Cosford. We found these two large canvases in a small but interesting antique shop, situated in downtown Orillia, Ontario. Suzanne and I are both attracted by early Canadian paintings, and art generally, and these fit beautifully into the old homestead here at Birch Hollow. Of course we had to move ten other works to get these two large canvases situated, in the perfect light.

Since I was a kid, I was attracted to original art. Even though my family only had two original paintings, a seascape by T. Looksooner, and an autumn pond-scene by W. Kranley, they did the work of an entire gallery, inspiring the Currie kid. When I was home sick, I can remember laying on the couch staring at these two interesting and inspiring images. The seascape was perfect for a fever, and for a feeling of liberation if I was tired of being confined at home. The autumn scene was calming and soothing, when I had a stomach ache or a sore throat. Those two modest paintings, now hanging in my office, are still inspiring me today. I can’t tell you how many hundred times I’ve pulled back in this office chair, frustrated by something or other in a story-line, and attained the same liberation and calming influence, as I’d found as a youngster...... knowing next to nothing about art and the folks who create it for our benefit.....yet as if jumping onto a magic carpet, letting them ease me from my fetters, into the wide open world.

The two Cosland paintings (one on each blog site) have already worked their magic on a needy writer; and they are precisely what I like to view when on some wild historical mission, as I have been most recently. Paintings like this.......not the bombastic forays of politicians, (all we hear and view these days) remind me of how it all truly began in Canada, and the haunting beauty of the wilderness that has inspired so many artists and writers over the centuries. Seeing as most of my large book collection deals with history, my reading is adequately backed by vintage art images. My collection of Hudsons Bay Company inspired “Beaver” magazines is never far from reach, and these lakeland scenes are the perfect in-house recreation, when we can’t get out in the canoe for a traverse of a Muskoka or Algonquin Lake ourselves.

While I’ve never really figured out whether I’m a writer first, antique dealer second, or the other way around, both careers began at roughly the same time. Truthfully, when I’d get mad at writing, especially looking back at my frustrating years with the local press, antique hunting was a great way to break away from the office stresses. When I’d run out of money or the means of transport to get to all the antique auctions and markets, writing about antiques would suffice. For quite a few years, when I couldn’t get to sales, for whatever reason, I’d write about them, and collecting generally. I’m still writing an antique and collectible column, for a new publication in the Almaguin area, known as The Arrow. Writing and collecting have long been crossing paths since my first year of university in Toronto. That was the fall of 1974.

As I’ve mentioned previously, in this and other blogs I write (Nature of Muskoka and Walden just for two), like the kid staring at paintings for inspiration, the two professions most often appear as oil and water. On days I want to antique hunt, I’ve got no interest in penning a simple sentence. I might borrow some inspiration from the day’s travel, but you wouldn’t find me at a roadside parkette, penning some tome, with a pine flat-to-the-wall cupboard hanging out the back of the family truckster. As for writing, I don’t work off-site any more. I used to, in my ambling poet days. Today I like the comforts of my office, and the inspiration afforded me by wonderful art pieces, like those of W. Cosford, who has offered me a most wonderful glimpse of Canada once.

This is now officially the season of antique hunting. The winter’s harvest was better than I expected. On weekend jaunts I was able to find better pieces than usual. I just didn’t find the volume of collectibles we typically find out on the hustings, which we sell online and at summer season sales. I’m hoping for an action-packed yard sale and auction season in Muskoka. So for the next six months or so, the blogs will be greatly reduced in size and frequency, and the political-critiques a tad gentler. Antique hunting season is the time of year when the bear leaves the den.......contented by the winter’s hiatus, eager to fill the void of hunger. For this antique hunter, I’m on the prowl and enjoying every moment of this liberation from the routine of....well, being of the writer-kind.