by Isobel Harry
GORE BAY—This summer, Manitoulin Island’s most widely-acclaimed painter, the artist Ivan Wheale, is being celebrated in an exhibition spanning the two large galleries of the Gore Bay Museum.
The show, composed of 39 framed works, mainly of his most beloved subjects—the Canadian Shield’s two billion-year-old Precambrian rockscapes—also includes close-up studies of sculptural bleached driftwood, a water-smoothed pile of mesmerizing beach stones and an abandoned beaver pond where you can almost hear the buzz of insects in the still air.
Born in England in 1934, one of Mr. Wheale’s fondest memories as a young airman in the Royal Air Force was standing in ranks as a member of the honour guard on the route to Westminster Abbey for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
He first picked up a paintbrush at age 14 to depict old farm buildings and abstractions, he says, but once he had moved to Canada in 1957 Mr. Wheale began to paint professionally; he has lived on Manitoulin Island since 1975. The artist’s long career as a painter of Canadian landscapes has seen him travel to the Atlantic provinces, Newfoundland and the Northwest Territories and his work exhibited in solo, touring and retrospective shows across the breadth and width of Ontario, without a doubt his spiritual home. Close to a hundred public and corporate collections hold his art, including the Queen’s and Dean’s Collections in Windsor Castle, the Parliament Buildings, Ottawa, and the collection of the Government of Ontario, Queen’s Park.
Mr. Wheale has been represented by the Perivale Gallery on Manitoulin since 1981 and is honored with their opening exhibition each year in May. He is a founding member of the annual juried La Cloche Art Show and is its Artist Emeritus; he has taught, written and hosted a television series about art while often supporting charitable causes with donations of his work.
To view the paintings of Mr. Wheale currently on exhibition in the Gore Bay Museum’s spacious, beautifully lit and temperature-controlled galleries is to take a virtual tour of the incomparable panoramas of the near North.
Nicole Weppler, director of the Gore Bay Museum says, “This is a very inspirational show. Ivan is inspired by the terrain we have here; each rock is individual, no two rocks are alike. You see in his poetic expression that the love of one element can be interpreted in so many ways.”
“On Manitoulin I bought a boat and started to explore,” recalls the artist from his home on the North Channel. “From McGregor Bay to the French River and the small islands on the way,” he says, “I painted what I saw.”
According to Mr. Wheale, he creates his own version of what he sees, transforming the scene with his artistic vision. He adds or leaves out elements, “depending on the mood and feeling. God has already done all the work, after all, what I see is where I begin my creative process.” He calls his high-realism style “Whealism.”
“I’d lay down cedar boughs and sleep on an island at night; up at 4 a.m. when the sun goes up, paint until noon and back out in the boat when the sun goes down. That’s when you get the magic light.”
The massive rounded quartzite and granite rocks formed billions of years ago “are like a family,” says the artist. “The big ones are the parents and the small ones the children. I am very moved by these rocks, and can get quite emotional. I can cry over a blade of grass, over a small detail of the whole of which it is part. It’s the contrast between the blades of grass and the strength of the rock that attracts me the most.
“I always traveled by myself, I’m a bit of a loner, and I felt there was also an aloneness about the rocks.”
From small sketches on canvas or from photos, Mr. Wheale takes a week to finish a 24 x 36 painting. He uses watercolours “for delicacy,” he says, and “oils for a more dramatic punch.” The largest painting he’s made is 18 ft by 65 ft in the headquarters of a corporation in Alberta, and the smallest are tiny watercolours measuring 1.5 by 3 inches.
Mr. Wheale continues to put brush to canvas every day, still rising at 4 a.m. and painting “mostly from memory” in his home. “When I begin to create, I go right back to where I saw the subject,” he explains. “Things become reality again, I even remember the smells. I have to be receptive to it. I look at the trees, all the leaves are beautiful, all different. I’m observing all the time. Every time you blink, you’re taking a photo in the mind.”
The studio on the shore of the North Channel near Little Current that was built of logs by his son-in-law is where Mr. Wheale stretches his canvases and makes the frames for his finished works. In his home nearby, the bedroom of his beloved wife Jean, who passed away in 2014, is now his studio. “I don’t paint on the spot any more,” he says. I have to be more careful these days, I use a cane. I’ll be 90 in November.”
His love of Manitoulin Island is undimmed. “I’ve been made an Honorary Haweater. The peace you acquire as you cross the bridge is so important in my life.”
When pressed, Mr. Wheale says he’d like to be remembered for his paintings. “And people say I have quite a sense of humour. I see a lot of funny things in this world.”
“I’m not about to stop painting,” he adds with a chuckle. “When you’re hot you’re hot!”
The Gore Bay Museum, 12 Dawson Street, Gore Bay, is open Monday through Saturday from 10 am until 4 pm. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for seniors and $2 for children. The exhibit runs until September 15.
