The Whyte Museum Paint Out at Lake O’Hara
This September, I was selected by Banff’s Whyte Museum to go on a very special en plein air paint out to Lake O’Hara with 19 other painters from BC and Alberta. The event was organized in celebation of the exhibit “To See What He Saw” featuring Group of Seven artist, JEH McDonald. The exhibit showcased a variety of his plein air paintings from private collections to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the artist’s painting expeditions to Lake O’Hara which spanned over a decade. The exhibition also coincided with the release of a new book entitled “To See What He Saw”, where the writers researched over 18 years and documented the specific location of each McDonald plein air painting. They even found broken tea cup shards and paint scrapings at a few of the locations! All 20 painters and a few of the museum staff stayed at the historical Elizabeth Parker and Wiwaxy huts for 3 days and 2 nights. It was an increbible experience connecting with the other artists and opportunity to paint one of the Canadian Rockies most iconic locations.