John Hartman: Islands

“There is a thrill when I land on an island for the first time, and I am flooded with its light, colour and smell. As I walk around and look, I begin to get a sense of the nature of the landforms, and of how I might paint them.”

BERMUDA

"In late April 2024 I travelled to Bermuda for the opening of the exhibition Looking Out, Canadian Artists in Bermuda, at the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art. Bermuda is a true mid Atlantic island, one thousand kilometers from Cape Hatteras, and five thousand kilometers from Portugal. A kind of splendid isolation.  It is not Caribbean, not North American, no longer British. It is Bermuda."

"While the shallower and more protected waters are teal blue, the deeper offshore waters are a dark indigo. Its many beaches are pink coloured sand. That became my colour palette."

NEWFOUNDLAND

"I first went to Newfoundland in 1996 and I have been so captivated by this island that I have returned yearly, to sketch, often to the same communities. Salvage is the place I come to most often. It sits at the tip of the Eastport Peninsula, exposed to the winds of Bonavista Bay, but protected by a rim of high hills and by Cow Head, a gigantic landform at the mouth of its harbour. By climbing the surrounding hills, I can sketch aerial views of the community from many angles without the aid of an airplane, helicopter or drone."

"In December 2003 I stayed at the Goodridge family home for a week and filled an accordion sketchbook full of images. Some of these were turned into oil paintings almost immediately when I was back in my Lafontaine studio, but other sketches remained that, just sketches.

 

An artist’s development is traditionally explained as a linear progression through time, but my experience is that it is more circular, coming back again to compelling subjects seen each time from a slightly different perspective.

 

And so it was with Salvage. In 2024 I looked again at these sketches and realized there were some that I hadn’t done anything with, that clearly would make good paintings. What followed was a progression through full sheet watercolour paintings and then some of those became mammoth watercolours."

SIKINOS

"Last spring I travelled to the island of Sikinos, one of the most southerly islands in the Cyclades, as close to Crete as to mainland Greece. I often think that time slows down on islands such as Sikinos, but maybe what time does is that it expands, allowing anyone paying attention to absorb into their consciousness what their senses are sending them. That is a perfect place to paint."