TO VIEW THE YOUTUBE VIDEO TRIBUTE TO RICHARD KARON'S ART WORK, YOU CAN CLICK ON http://youtu.be/O5ag2JtBef0 OR PLAY BELOW
TO BEGIN, WE MUST CREDIT THOSE WHO ASSISTED OUR RESEARCH
The biography, in chapters, published on this blogsite, was done without compensation for any of the research assistants, the song writer, singer, guitarist, video creator, and for me, the primary writer. This was not designed as a project for profit, and we have depended on the generosity of painting owners to advance the graphics portion of this biography. Many of these contributions have been included in the YouTube tribute video, which you can access from this site. What this inventory of Richard Karon's paintings will provide, in the future, is a reference collection for those who may wish to learn more about the artist, and his range of paintings from abstracts to landscapes. This is not a site to set prices for his paintings, because only the market place, and the principles of supply and demand can determine this. We would be eager to learn of recent acquisition prices, and what auctions of his work may have established, as a price ceiling. But we will refrain from providing evaluations and estimations, for works today, via this biography. We will most certainly assist, where we can, to provide information to auction houses when requested.
In March 2012 I was getting a little concerned about the volume of art work available, to advance our research, and then to companion (as graphics) the eventual online biography, of former Muskoka Artist, Richard Karon. I decided to seek help from our local newspaper, here in Muskoka, known as "The Weekender," which is a free and home-delivered publication, serving our region of Ontario. The news staff was kind enough to publish my letter to the editor, seeking out those readers who might have an original Richard Karon painting, they wouldn't mind sharing with the public, via this planned biography. Within hours of the paper hitting the driveways, through Muskoka, I began receiving emails, with offers, and attachments of original paintings, from their private collections. As well, I was also receiving personal information about Mr. Karon, from those art patrons who had met with him personally, to buy his artwork, during the period of his studio / gallery, near the Village of Baysville, in the Township of Lake of Bays.
In fact, the response from The Weekender's letter was so significant, that we went from having twenty images of his originals, to more than fifty in just over one week, including a photograph sent by well known Muskoka Artist, Janet Stahle-Fraser, also of Lake of Bays, showing Richard Karon's original art easel, that he had given her personally, after the closure of his studio in the mid 1980's. Janet even invited the artist's son, Richard Sahoff Karon, to her studio, to see the easel once used daily by his father, who had died when he was only seven years of age. We are greatly indebted to the kind folks of Muskoka, like Janet Stahle-Fraser, for helping us develop a preliminary biography of an artist few knew much about previously, despite the fact he was one of the region's most prolific painters, during the period of the late 1960's to shortly before his death in March 1987. The biography has been set up, on this blogsite, with the plan to update the text, whenever new information becomes available in the future. It will eventually be re-published on a special "Richard Karon" blogsite, sometime prior to July 2012.
The purpose of this biography, is to help researchers looking into the careers of Canadian, and Ontario regional artists, and will be offered to the research libraries of both the National Art Gallery in Ottawa, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto, as an information resource. It will additionally benefit the many hundreds of painting owners, who greatly appreciate Mr. Karon's palette knife landscapes, but would like to know more about his life and career in the arts. We expect, over time, to be offered more images of his work, to publish on the blog-site, to provide a more diverse cross section of paintings for comparison's sake. We hope to draw on experts in the art field, to make comment on his paintings, which will also be published, on this site, for future reference.
With the larger than expected number of art (image) submissions, thanks in large part to The Weekender's readership, we were also able to create a short music video tribute to Mr. Karon, which you can link onto through this blog. The music was provided by Gravenhurst singer, Dani O'Connor, and guitarist Robert Currie, who also created the video. Both volunteered their time and talents to help out with this interesting biography.
I want to also thank Gravenhurst Banner columnist Fred Schulz, one of the true patrons of the arts in our region, for giving us some needed promotion prior to today's online publication. I must also thank my wife Suzanne, who is my effervescent research partner, who has always been there to guide the frustrated writer past obstacles, onward to yet another completed project. Son Andrew, my eldest, is always a reliable source of information, when I'm looking for music advice, and youngest son Robert, who can pull rabbits out of the hat when only a perfect rabbit will do! The angelic voice of Dani O'Connor, well, she had us in tears. What a kind heart she has, to have volunteered to help us with the tribute video.
When I met Richard Sahoff Karon, for the first time this winter, at our boy's music studio, here in Gravenhurst, it's like we'd known each other for years. It wouldn't be a stretch to say we both felt the presence of his artist father, that afternoon, as we planned-out a preliminary plan of action, to create a biography based on, what could only be described as, "thin information," held between us, about his father's life and work. With many coincidences occurring over three months, and serendipitous offers of assistance from unanticipated sources, and all the public kindnesses received, we both felt something wonderful had just happened that, frankly, had caught us by surprise. Richard and I both want to extend sincere and heartfelt thanks, to all those who have offered, in some way, to advance this biography. Before we begin our story, we would like very much to recognize those people who have contacted us, and generously made images of their original art pieces available, to include throughout this biography. Your participation has greatly broadened the gallery collection, and this will benefit visitors to the Karon blogsite for many years to come. And as well, your kindness will inspire other painting owners, to join this collective of admirers, and submit images of paintings they own, to be included in the ongoing project to document his diversity of art work.
Please accept our thanks. As images of art work are still being emailed and posted to us, at this time, we will provide a complete list of all those painting owners, who have loaned us images, at the conclusion of the biography, for easy reference. If for reasons of security or personal choice, you have sent us the image of a painting, and do not wish a credit in this biography, please let us know in advance, and we will omit your name. The photographs of original art work, contained in this blog, are not for re-production, and copying for profit is prohibited. Portions of this biography may be quoted, and in the case of larger sections used, this must be by permission of the author. As it was originally intended, we welcome use of this material by researchers at the National Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Ontario, and other art institutes and reference libraries in Canada.
A DEDICATION TO TWO TEACHERS AND ONE HISTORIAN - WHO MADE ME APPRECIATE THE TRUE MAGNIFICENCE OF BEING OUTDOORS
I feel it is necessary, at this point, to thank posthumously, three people who have influenced me, over the years, to be a more astute outdoorsman, and a more questioning, and restless historian. Teacher / writer / historian, Wayland Drew, author of "Superior: The Haunted Shore," amongst many other books, taught me the importance of knowing nature by immersion; Dave Brown, Out-door educator, who inspired me to listen and learn from the signs nature provides us; and my American historian colleague, Charlie Wilson, who taught me about the excitement that comes with knowing more about history….., challenging accepted fact, by uncovering and liberating the truth. We talked for hours and hours about the Civil War, and Civil Rights, and about what can be learned, from the precedents and disasters of the past. These three gentleman have all passed away, but not without having given me the confidence to take chances, live an adventurous, fulfilling life, and accept the good and the not-so-good in life, as the dynamic of an interesting biography. The biography of Richard Karon is a biography these mentors, prepared me to write.
A FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, THE MUSKOKA LAKELAND
THE BIOGRAPHY OF CANADIAN LANDSCAPE PAINTER, RICHARD KARON
"There will be a one-man art show in North Bay. The artist is a quiet, unassuming professional Canadian Master, and his first show will be his first this far north," reported an early 1970's news feature, published in the North Bay Nugget. "In 1962, he left the bustle of city life for the Muskoka area, and began to devote all his time to painting. It was in this scenic part of Ontario that he began to capture the beauty of the northern landscape in his own rare style of palette-knife painting. Richard Karon's brilliant color combinations and versatility of styles have set him apart from many other artists favoring the more realistic landscape form. The years spent in Muskoka have enabled Richard to capture the area's outstanding spectrum of colors and magnificent sunsets of this favored land."
INTRODUCTION
There will be some who read this brief biography, possibly those who knew his work intimately, studied with him, or joined him as participating members on the Muskoka Autumn Studio Tour, back in 1979 and 1980, who may rightly question, why it was deemed important enough to write such a biography in the first place. Was Richard Karon's art work amongst the best ever created in our region of Ontario? Could he be of the accomplishment, with his landscape art, that he might one day soon, be welcomed into the McMichael Gallery, or his work sought out for the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, or the National Archives? Was he good enough, during the peak of his craft, to have earned the respect today of major art auctioneers in this country? The answer to each question, to be fair, is "no." He wasn't the finest or most accomplished artist to paint in the District of Muskoka. His work might never be purchased and exhibited by any major art gallery in this country. It is only slightly possible at this point in history, that Richard Karon originals will ever set auction records, as compared to the most noted and celebrated artists in Canada.
This biography will be interpreted by some readers as a tragic story. Others will find the story uplifting and inspirational. Despite the hardships the artist endured, the freedom he found through art, and what he experienced of paradise, in these healing woods of Muskoka, was painted into his art panels. Although he did not live and paint here for decades, as some artists can claim, or have generations of family rooted in the lakeland, his work, none the less, is highly representative of the kindred spirit of nature, he found so alluring and powerful. I have communicated with quite a number of people, from around Muskoka, who own Karon originals, and all have confessed their respect for his interpretations of the region. They've have generously offered to share the images of paintings in their private collections, and provided important insights about how they themselves, feel about Karon's relationship with nature. These are not gushing testimonials. They are honest and humble assessments, of how they have lived, for many years, in the company of these paintings. They have confessed nothing more, or less, than getting a "good" and "contenting feeling," seeing these art pieces day after day. They haven't sent me a single request for an evaluation, of how much these same paintings might be worth on the open market. They consider these paintings to be heirloom items, and some who have contacted me, admit they have already passed some of their Karon landscapes to family members as keepsakes. As I have been regularly communicating with the artist's son, through the past months of research, stories like this mean a great deal to him. Knowing there are people who bought his father's paintings in the 1960's to the mid 1980's, who still find them as attractive now, as they were when first acquired. Richard Karon Jr., was only seven when his father died of lung cancer. So this biography has been a journey of discovery, as much as a text to be published as reference, to assist future art researchers. I have passed on each of the emails to Richard, who has added these kind notes, and generous offers, to his own scrap-book of his father's life.
I have worked on many biographies since the late 1970's, including published work on the career of Bracebridge artist, Robert Everett, (Muskoka Today), and pioneer artist, Ada Florence Kinton, of Huntsville, "Muskoka Sun, Muskoka Today, and Curious; the Tourist Guide," but I have not had one that was so dimensionally intriguing and challenging. Admittedly it is a story that keeps butting up against what most would consider "the tragic," and some readers will feel the story ended as it began…..with misfortune and tragedy. Yet there is something that has held my attention to Richard Karon, that goes back to his own early days painting in Muskoka. Not only had my father Ed, worked with him on the construction of his home, studio and gallery, in Baysville, as a lumber agent, but some of the first news stories I wrote, for the Muskoka press, were about Richard Karon exhibitions; one I remember, that was to be held on Bigwin Island. Some of the first paintings I owned, were Karon landscapes. More than this however, is the fact, my own Muskoka impressions, in part, came as a young writer, who just happened to have a passion for art. I desired the work of regional artists, as I continue to this day. Truthfully, I was living a lonely life, in a tiny, sparsely furnished apartment in uptown Bracebridge……, feeling the inadequacy of a reporter's wage, but having several Karon paintings, my mother gave me, hanging above the desk that I wrote-at, on most quiet nights away from the busy newsroom. I found an escape in his art work, that he celebrated daily, living in the lush wreathing of Muskoka woods, in his Baysville home and studio. At a time when I first began writing my own landscape, pieces about Muskoka, which has been part of my editorial provenance for the past thirty-five years, it was seeded back then, when his paintings were my constant, obliging companions. So when his son emailed me, about the possibility we might partner, to compose this biography, I was understandably pleased the circle had been completed.
Richard Karon chose art and nature to escape from realities that fettered him back to his youth in Poland. His were not the childhood memories we can easily relate. Why would he need to escape at all? What was it about art that offered him this unspecified liberation? What did it mean to him in later life? Did he interpret nature as his protector? His muse? Please enjoy this humble offering, as a long overdue memorial tribute, to a friend of Muskoka.
Artist Richard Karon, 1928-1987.
A BRIEF PROFILE OF THE ARTIST
Ryszard Jan Karon was born on May 19th, 1928, in the city of Czentochowa, Poland, the fourth child, and only son, to parents Jan and Wladyslawa Karon. His mother's maiden name was Jadczyk. The historic and architecturally beautiful City of Czentochowa, is situated 124 miles southwest of Warsaw. It is well known and revered by Catholics because of the legendary "Black Madonna painting, of Jasna Gora. His father was a trained teacher, who did not practice his profession, preferring instead to work with wood, to create many varieties of religious icons. He was also a well known baker, and hat maker……all three occupations that would be taken-up by the Karon's son in later life, in an attempt to earn a living. There is little available information on his mother, although she was known to be a particularly strict parent, at least in her son's opinion. She was allegedly associated with the fledgling Resistance Movement, following the German invasion of Poland, on September 3rd, 1939. What was known as the "AB Action" in 1940, the Nazi occupiers rounded up all the city's leaders and intelligentsia, including professors, teachers and priests, and executed them. As we have not yet been able to find the date of Mrs. Karon's death, it is possible she was executed at this time. She had been revealed as a member of the Resistance by another citizen…..possibly a neighbor. Even though her husband was a qualified teacher, he was not included in the Nazi effort to reduce political / civil disobedience.
For an unspecified period of time, the young Richard Karon, was placed in what may be described as a concentration camp, although there is no indication where it was located, or the reason he was interred. He had confessed to his wife certain incidents that had occurred, in confinement, such as a situation when his only blanket had been stolen, and he complained to a guard, asking for a new one, being told aggressively there were no replacements…..and to get out of his sight. It was known of his bowel regularity, for example, that he was particularly timely each day, which may have come from his interment, and the fact he was allowed only one trip to the latrine each day. Additionally, he despised carrot soup, because of the daily diet of a vegetable that was most abundant and affordable, even during the war. It is presumed this also had something to do with his period of incarceration. What is known, is that he had been caught stealing a loaf of bread, at one point, whether still at home or after being interred, and was threatened with immediate execution by a German guard. He was let off with a warning, that if he was seen again in the area, he would be shot dead.
After the occupation ended, following the Second World War, Ryszard (simplified in spelling, in Canada, as "Richard") lived with his sister in Poland, but there is no reason given why he left his father's home at this time. During the period of intrusive Russian influence, immediately after the war, and sensing his freedom as an artist would be crushed by a communist regime, Karon fled to Germany with a group of refugees, in company of a German national (who had been residing in Poland) named Frieda, and another woman, pregnant at the time. It is known that just before he had planned his escape, he sought-out advice from a fortune teller, about his prospects of crossing the border, unchallenged, and the woman found him so nervous, she requested he come back when he was calmer…..as she couldn't provide a reading to someone so agitated. It is likely he was worried she would report him to authorities. He never returned to the fortune teller, but he did escape successfully, crossing half-frozen rivers, and miles of difficult overland travel, eating sugar cubes they had brought along, to keep up their energy. He would later travel to France, where he was employed as a baker (burned his eyebrows off) sometime in 1948, and where he found enough work, as a hatter and potentially a laminator, to feed himself….., and eventually secure the cost of passage to Canada, sponsored through the International Refugee Organization as a displaced person. It was a derogatory reference, to be referred to as a "DP," as many refugees from Europe were called, that he found easier to live with, in a free country, than to be smothered by communist rule in his native Poland.
He landed in Halifax, Canada, in 1951. It is alleged he had emigrated with the same German woman, named Frieda, (he had escaped from Poland with) who he may have had a common law relationship, later in this country. It is known she took his last name but there were no marriage papers. In Canada, another woman, who had emigrated from Germany, (some time earlier), by the name of Kathy Rickard ( we believe this to be the correct spelling), became hugely influential in the young artist's life, encouraging him to continue painting. It is believed she was also his model for many of his early career paintings. This information is vague, but what is known, is that this same woman, continued to be a key inspiration, to the advancement of his career in art, and became friends of Karon's future wife and son, during the years of the Muskoka home-studio. There is no evidence that he ever returned to Europe, following his arrival in Canada, although he had talked of this in the 1980's. His illness later in the 1980's, limited his travel capability, and he decided against returning to Poland. His father, Jan, had wished to see his son before his own death, in 1984, but members of the family in Poland, had not contacted the artist, to relay this death-bed request.
After a period in Callander, Ontario, and a lengthy association with an art gallery in North Bay, he found a small tin-wrapped cabin, situated near Baysville that accommodated him, until 1972, when he was able to purchase the property on the opposite side of Highway 117, in the Township of Lake of Bays, where he commenced construction of a future home, and place to work on his Muskoka landscapes. It is known that he paid for some of the construction work, on the property, with a number of his framed landscapes, which will appear later in this biography, as generously provided by the gentleman who was offered them, by the artist, for work clearing the lot of trees. He married his partner, Irma in Februrary 1978, in Mexico. Their only child, Richard Sahoff Karon, was born in 1979. He was a member of the first two Muskoka Autumn Studio Tours in 1979 and 1980. He did participate in numerous outside exhibitions and sales, and at the time of writing this brief biographical overview, I was contacted by Bracebridge resident, Joyce Medley, who remembers purchasing a large landscape of a lake scene, near the Karon Studio, from the artist himself, during a sale at the Bracebridge Memorial Arena in and around 1972, during what may have been one of the annual autumn home shows, that were often held in this venue. The home and studio in vicinity of Baysville was sold in 1985, and the artist used some of the proceeds to purchase a motor home for a planned trip. He gave the motor home to his wife as a gift. The couple had separated prior to their motor trip west, which was most likely, a final attempt at reconciliation. The family would take a lengthy motor trip to British Columbia, in the summer of 1985, and there was some discussion entertained, while on the travel adventure, about moving to Western Canada for a new start. It may have been understood by the artist that this was going to happen, but Mrs. Karon decided against making the move after they returned to Ontario. When the couple sold their property in 1985, an auction sale was held to settle dispersal of some contents. The artist and family would move to Toronto, where they lived apart, Mrs. Karon having custody of their young son. Karon then opened up a small framing shop, and had a large motor home, that he often stayed in, while visiting his son at his wife's Toronto apartment. He would eventually move from Toronto, to open a framing shop in Aurora. Suffering with the advance stages of lung cancer, he managed to keep the business going until his death in March of 1987. His wife Irma had to run the business, known as Artistic Frame Shop, immediately after her husband's death, which she carried-on until well into this new century. After re-marrying Irma Karon opened a new framing store, in Mildmay, Ontario, known as "La Galeria." Richard Karon is buried in a Catholic Cemetery in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
BY TED CURRIE
In 1971 Richard Karon was part of the same gallery exhibition, in North Bay, Ontario, as legendary First Nation's Artist, Norval Morrisseau. The event was sponsored by the "K.Brothers Art Shoppe and Gallery," who he had been associated for some time, and the Algonquin Chapter of the IOOF. Karon was not only a part of the art show, but was asked to demonstrate his palette knife technique to patrons. Other participating artists for this event included Ernest Taylor, T.C. Cumming, James Lindsay, Carl Ray and Ron Hartvickson. At the same time, the artist was planning to open an art school in the North Bay area, but decided against, when he had the opportunity to purchase the studio property near Baysville. During his years in North Bay, where he had a rented house, and the use of a property (with trailer) near the Dionne Quintuplets birthplace in Callander, Nick Kripotos acted as Karon's sales agent, through the K. Brothers Gallery.
A clipping from a newspaper, in the early 1970's, pasted into the family scrapbook, contains an exhibition notice, with the following description: "beautiful Ontario landscapes captured on canvas, in the inimitable palette knife style, of Canadian Artist, Richard Karon."
Canadian Group of Seven Artist, A. Y. Jackson, in his biography, "A Painter's Country," (1958 Clarke, Irwin Co.) wrote a summary passage about his painting colleague, Tom Thomson, and his approach to both nature and his efforts to interpret what he witnessed, that seems appropriate when examining the art work of Muskoka landscape painter, Richard Karon.
"There is an old saying that 'Gazing man is keenest fed on sparing beauty.' To most people Thomson's country was a monotonous dreary waste, yet out of one little stretch he found riches undreamed of. Not knowing all the conventional definitions of beauty, he found it all beautiful; muskeg, burnt and drowned land, log chutes, beaver dams, creeks, wild rivers and placid lakes, wild flowers, northern lights, the flight of wild geese and the changing seasons from spring to summer to autumn."
Richard Karon, a prolific painter of Muskoka landscapes, also found inspiration where other artists would pass by, finding nothing remarkable to record or depict. It might even seem, looking at a large cross-section of his art work, in and around the District of Muskoka, that he purposely sought out these little over-grown alcoves of rock and forest, where shimmering pools of dark water reflected the wreathing of tall evergreens, and the old leaning birches, poet Robert Frost bestowed dignity in his poems. It was if the artist was trying to uncover some hidden mystery of the landscape, by breaking trail into these places of gentle solitude, thriving with tangled growth, and the habitat of so many woodland creatures, he witnessed frequently on this travels.
While many artists in Muskoka, have long subscribed to the commercial art ideal, creating landscapes that are alluring and beautiful in their thick wood frames, of identifiable locations, Richard Karon seemed at times in his work, to have little interest in what his colleagues in the art community were painting. Scenes of familiar and popular lakes, that were proving profitable to other local artists, on the Muskoka market, didn't appeal to Karon in the same way. He may have sacrificed a much more substantial income, by preferring instead, to depict those curious little bays and lowlands, almost lost in the tangles of spruce and cedar, and points of land overlooking the lake, with a narrow, precise focus. His work was not extravagant. He didn't over-paint, or complicate his canvases with too much, just as he didn't cheat the panels, or art patrons with too little detail. Generally, his art panels were of modest proportion, but effective in creating the sensory perception, that there was a gentle commotion going on, with insects flying about, the water rippling at, and over the moss-covered rock shore, birds chirping and squirrels shaking the overhead boughs. One might hear the croak of a frog in the shoreline grasses, or sense the wind was picking-up, by the caress against your cheek. Karon has taken his patrons on many adventures to these curious places, these portals from which to study the natural paradise, as if in the bow of a canoe, traversing the waterways, leading to his own liberation, his own escape from the rigors of commercialism in art. He wanted patrons to buy his studies of natural places. His interpretation of the seasons. He seemed to shy away from painting well known and identifiable lakes, preferring it when an admirer begged him to admit where he found such a scene.
Even when he confessed where a painting had been inspired, such that you might feel it possible to retrace his steps, you would not find the exact spot……and even if you did, you would not see precisely what he saw, that inspired the initial sketch. Karon saw it as a great privilege, of his new life, a robust career, to provide his own unique impression of a landscape or lakeshore, a winterscape or azure sky, he had witnessed, but they were not photographic in content and detail. It was his form of poetry, within paintings, that he shared with his art admirers, although he would never have admitted being influenced by literature. Instead of wasting his time reading, he painted to relax. But he was influenced, on these sketching trips, by not only what he saw, but the sounds he heard, the temperature that prevailed, and the scented wind or breeze that etched over the elevated points of land, he often found himself perched, staring over a white-capped lake, or out upon a silently reflective pond, surrounded by dark, almost threatening evergreens. His emotions were ingrained in his art pieces, and his moodiness would reflect through his cunning use of light and shadow. His ethereal joy, at experiencing a sunrise, or the subtle melancholy he felt, witnessing a sunset, prevailed in his depictions, such that a future owner can detect the rigors of a day in the life, of the artist, who painted the scene.
Richard Karon could have made a career, of painting traditional landscape panoramas, of recognized Muskoka scenes and well known landmarks. He could have greatly profited by his choice of lakes to paint. Creating art panels of lakes like Rosseau, Lake Joseph, Muskoka and Lake of Bays, would have been of infinitely more commercial success, than his studies of these landscape nooks and crannies, bogs and hillsides, and so many other unidentified bays and river-sides. He must have known this, but opted to follow his own aspirations, to represent nature, not just for its inherent majesty, but still as a place of vast mystery, he felt compelled to seek out. So many places undiscovered……locations he wanted to show us, because he found something remarkable within. A talented painter, with the intent of a poet, soul of a musician, curiosity of a philosopher, he took nothing for granted about the integrity, and responsibility of being an artist. It was as if he felt obliged to represent this region of Ontario, with an historian's dedicated respect……much as I feel honored, to be afforded this opportunity now, to profile his life as an artist. Karon handled each study of the landscape, much as if it was a visual biography of the seasons. A heartfelt mission to capture its intrigue. Incorporating into his sketches, the subtle changes of light and shadow, from sunrise, through the hours of the day, the ever-changing hues of the deep water, from black to silver, until that final glory of sun setting over the dark band of evergreen. Without a doubt, he found a liberating quality, to his nature studies, and his many forays into the wild areas of the district, must have been so profound for him, considering the bleak period he had experienced, as a young man in Nazi occupied Poland…..copying the images from old postcards he had been given by neighbors, onto scraps of paper he had been able to find, the nub of a pencil held tightly in his hand.
"The power of the imagination is put to very feeble use if it seems merely to preserve and reinforce that which already exists," A.Y. Jackson stated of his colleague Tom Thomson. "He gave us the fleeting moment, the mood, the haunting memory of things he felt."
I have no capability, other than as an admirer of art, to say, with any certainty, that Richard Karon was one of our best regional artists. This district of Ontario, from the earliest days of settlement, has been profiled by thousands of painters, including talented artists such as Thomas Mower Martin, Seymour Penson, George Thomson, his brother Tom Thomson, and members of the Canadian Group of Seven. Even in the modern era, our region has hosted so many talented painters, sculptors, artisans and craftspeople, who have taken inspiration from the hinterland, and incorporated this enthusiasm into their art forms. Muskoka has been interpreted well and abundantly throughout its own history of occupation, and it is still very much the case today, that creators in all art endeavors, are motivated by their surroundings to create and flourish doing so. I have long been a fan of the Muskoka Arts and Crafts Community, and the various other art-support groups working within the region, including the Muskoka Autumn Studio Tour, Mr. Karon was once a part. It is the same environs that Richard Karon chose, over a life in the city for his family, to build a home and studio, on a picturesque acreage, near the Village of Baysville, in the Township of Lake of Bays. It was the powerful allure of the landscape, that pulled at him to explore the wilds, looking for these hidden jewels of water, rock and forest, bathed in sparkling sunlight, windswept and scented of pine and moss. He created his place amongst the evergreens, and with his wife and son, began a lengthy relationship with Muskoka.
His art panels evoke a sense of open spaces, and haunted places. They are all signature pieces, exemplifying not only his appreciation for the intricacies of nature, but his appreciation of freedom, and the right to express this liberation through art. His had not always been a life without confinement. Richard Karon understood what it meant to be denied basic rights and freedom. Even as a youngster, he was quick to learn how quickly one, in occupied Poland, could be executed just for having a look of defiance, or even profound nervousness. He knew what it was like to have a gun barrel pointed at his head. He grew up quickly. When the Germans invaded Poland, during the Second World War, death and confinement were a part of daily life. His own mother, who was suspected of being part of the Polish Resistance, was executed without anything more than a soldier's suspicion. What the young Mr. Karon, the future artist witnessed, was beyond what most of us can comprehend. Life altering events tumbling upon citizens hourly, not knowing if they might be executed next. Would they be rounded-up and loaded into boxcars, for excruciating transport to concentration camps? The lack of food a compounding misery. Bodies of friends, neighbors and friends strewn along streets and highways, frozen in the mind of the young voyeur.
This was the early life experiences of Richard Karon. He escaped death many times during his time spend under German authority. Danger was everywhere. Murder might occur with the wrong answer to a guard, or being perceived a trouble-maker to an occupier, insisting on compliance and submission. When this Muskoka artist, wandered along the shoreline, of a mirroring waterway, passing through the lowland mire of bullrushes, hitting against his shoulders, how did that early history play upon his emotions, experiencing this vast open space and unlimited freedom? Could the personal experiences of a young man, amidst such horror of war, ever truly liberate to the prevailing freedom afforded by this new life? Was nature amplified for him? For someone who had been restricted and confined, and threatened with death, what was the transference of emotion, from mind to palette knife, to canvas? Were these landscape depictions, his truthful, biographical joy, for the unfettered existence, he found in the Muskoka wilds? Could it be said, that because of the turmoil and day to day danger, of once, that he appreciated freedom more than others….who had never stared down horror as a day to day reality? How did it influence his creativity? Did the ever-wandering, unsettled landscape painter, use his career as an artist, to escape in perpetuity? If he didn't succeed at this for himself, there will be lose admirers of his work, who would re-affirm, that his paintings have long provided such pleasurable, ethereal escapes from the burdens of imposing realities.
"He had that rare inner vision that sees beauty in subjects which would not commonly be called beautiful. Through the windows of his own eyes he interpreted intrinsic truths with unerring accuracy," noted author Albert Robinson, in a 1937 biographical sketch of artist Tom Thomson. I could not find any better description, to apply to the work I have studied, painted by Muskoka's Richard Karon. "In his work he adhered to the broad base of representation, weaving a selective concrete realism into a lyrical pattern glowing with vitality and sparkling with individuality."
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