Brant has been plying the waters of Georgian Bay and the North Channel of Lake Huron since 1998. I am a retired museum exhibit designer and illustrator for natural history museums by trade and live in my sailboat in the summers to sketch and paint outdoors. These landscapes are “plein air” paintings that took about three hours to complete in one sitting. I held the canvas, taped to a board, on my lap and painted with Liquitex acrylics because of their archival stability, quick drying time, and low toxicity. Acrylics also don’t attract insects…and what a sitting duck I have been for those critters!
The pristine beauty of these natural freshwater settings have become intoxicating to many vacationers, yachtsmen, and cottagers. This was also the heartland for the early French fur trading industry in the eighteenth and nineteen century together with intense lumbering activity. It should be noted here that Georgian Bay and North Channel are unique and fragile wetland areas that are presently being studied by the Georgian Bay Association Foundation’s ecological team.
In the winter months I fill orders and work on my studio paintings. These are large canvases using imagery from the Bay and other localities, painted in a surrealistic way to convey my emotional attachment to the natural environment.