Kirk Wipper Paddles into Peterborough
©2010, 20" by 16", Watercolour

This painting was an absolute pleasure to create.

It started as an idea that I had in late 2009 in which I wanted to take the opportunity to paint the Peterborough liftlocks (arguably our most recognizable local landmark) with a person paddling out of them in a canoe. It occurred to me that, with Kirk Wipper's legacy of bringing the Canadian Canoe Museum to Peterborough, he was the ideal symbolic choice as paddler.

I approached Kirk and his wife Ann with the idea, and they were kindly enthusiastic. They provided a number of pictures of Kirk for me to work from, and Kirk also chose his favourite birch bark canoe, his favourite mode of dress, and his favourite hat.

I then went about getting an appropriate picture of the liftlocks. It might interest you to know that the picture of the liftlocks on which this painting was based was taken in the dead of winter. I was able to walk out on the ice at the base of the structure, and take it from the exact location, and from the exact angle that I wanted. I then set about the task of figuring out what the area would look like in summer with water in the canal, and leaves on the trees.

The last detail was adding the reflective image of the pictograph (the logo of the Canoe Museum) in the wake behind Kirk as he paddles off of the painting into an unknown future.