The story behind the painting by Lloyd Pretty. My Father use to walk from Deer Lake to Hawks Bay back in the early days. There was just a horse cart path back then and a bunch of men would get off the train in Deer Lake and walk the 216 KM to work in the lumber camps. They did this in the spring and again in the fall. They would stop along the way at either boarding places or some one would invite them in for a bed and a meal. The camps were made of logs with wood stoves and earth for the floor. The bunks were made of small railings placed a couple feet off the ground. The mattress was either bags of hay or boughs laid on the rails. There was no hot water, no electric lights, no heating other then a wood stove in the back of the bunk house. My father had decided to come home that Christmas but because of bad weather he accepted an invitation from a camp mate of his from St. Anthony to go to his place for Christmas. While he was there, the man told my father that they were going to visit his brother who was a light keeper on Quirpon Island. My father told us that the keeper lived there year round with his family on very little wage and the Island was completely bare of trees. The only way to get a Christmas Tree was to go off the island by boat to the mainland and walk inland for miles. In winter, they used a dog team to go to and from the mainland and for hunting seals. The story stayed with me all through my life and when I was approached about doing a painting for the Christmas Ornament it was the first thing I thought about. So the image I saw through my fathers eyes is now on canvas as Guiding Lights. There are four sources of lights in the painting, The Lighthouse, The Moon, The Lights in the house and The Lantern. Thus, the name Guiding Lights.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 22:31:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015