Joy Laking, Blueberry Fields near Five Islands, 2020.
Congratulations to Joy Laking on the publication of her new book, The Painted Province, Nova Scotia through an Artist’s Eyes. This attractive paperback features over 200 paintings of Nova Scotia. Accompanying the pictures are stories of people, places, travel and adventure. Joy describes her first memories of landscape painting, growing up in a family of artists. She fondly remembers day excursions, painting with her father. They made an odd pairing, with Joy content to paint familiar things–subjects surround her at every turn–while the father searches out the perfect scene, which leaves little time to get impressions down on paper.
Joy is an inveterate traveller. Her book covers 40 separate areas of the province. Each image conjures up a strong sense of place. Once the artist sets up, working like the Impressionists and the Group of Seven, en plein air, she paints for hours and becomes a local curiosity. Villagers bring her food and pepper her with questions. Joy makes friends easily and her travelogue includes stories of her encounters and friendships.
The variety of landscapes and townscapes is impressive. Most images are watercolours. The water medium gives a sense of spontaneity to images full of detail and precise observations. In her book, Joy also shares some of her experiments with different media: her hooked rugs are delightful, as are her hand-painted furniture and collages made of things around the house. Throughout we see Joy’s tenacious pursuit of a theme through a hundred changes in weather, season, light and location. Water is a favourite subject. Bays dotted with islands and marked by tides, viewed from berry fields, through clusters of houses, wildflowers and clotheslines. What a wonderful record of the province! The personal stories and behind-the-scenes revelations of how Joy works add another layer of interest.
