ART SHOW REVIEW, JULY 7TH, 1978, THE MUSKOKA SUN
(SHORTLY AFTER HIS MARRIAGE TO SECOND WIFE IRMA, IN FEBRUARY 1978)
"The artist's weekend started slowly with few visitors and disappointing sales, despite beautiful weather and heavy traffic," reported The Muskoka Sun, who sent a reporter to the Lake of Bays exhibition. "But by Sunday evening the studio had become a place for celebration. The artist's spirits were high following a busy afternoon of visitors, attracted to the Muskoka scenics which have been the driving force behind Richard Karon's art for ten years. Last weekend the Baysville resident celebrated his tenth anniversary as a Muskoka artist, with a two day show at his gallery on Highway 117. The weekend was successful but erratic, much like the way of life, to which he has been accustomed."
The article notes Mr. Karon as saying, "If you get too many buyers, you become lazy. If you get too few, you get discouraged. You have to keep plodding along, never stopping your painting and always concentrating on what you see and what you say on the canvas."
"Over 150 canvases are produced annually by the dedicated artist who uses palette knife to capture the beauty of the Muskoka landscape. The knife moves quickly and confidently across the canvas, as he displays a technique unique among Canadian landscape artists. Within minutes the scenic is finished. To assess how good the finished product is, you have to listen to your audience. 'If you listen to another artist, he will transmit his style on to yours and you become discouraged. He sees your paintings as he would do them not has you would,' Mr. Karon explains (to the reporter)."
The article continues that, "Nicholas Kane, of North Bay, seems to be an exception. The two began painting together ten years ago (which would be 1968), and work on the same philosophy that simplicity and expression should receive priority over detail and exactitude. Mr. Kane joined Mr. Karon for his weekend show, which displayed over 50 paintings and Mexican jewelry, created and arranged by Mr. Karon's wife, Irma. Although the artists use similar approaches, their work is very different. While Mr. Karon uses a variety of color, Mr. Kane specializes in monochrome, which combines white and another color, to present a canvas of contrasts. Both men prefer the knife over the brush, as they say it lends more scope and expression to the finished product."
In 1976, a short biography for his one-man show, at Phillip's Gallery, in Don Mills, Ontario, noted that, "Richard Karon was born in Poland, in the late twenties, studying and practiced his calling in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany, France and Canada. He lived in Hamilton and worked as a designer, prior to his decision to devote his time to art. Richard Karon now lives in Muskoka, and reflects his feelings of nature in his palette knife paintings. He has had numerous showings in Europe and Canada, and is considered an outstanding landscape artist."
Another clipping, in the scrapbook that was kept of published articles, notices and reviews, contains some interesting observations about his painting days prior to the opening of his Baysville studio / gallery. It was published in the North Bay Nugget, prior to 1972, and was entitled, "Landscape artist to present one-man show at North Bay.
"Richard Karon's brilliant color combinations and versatility of styles have set him apart from many artists favoring the more realistic landscape form. A shy modest man, Richard Karon was commissioned by his friend, Nick Kripotos, of North Bay, to spend the summer of 1971 in the Lake Nipissing area. Richard's work and his individual style have been readily accepted by the people of the area. Many hope that he will spend more of his time in the Nipissing district, in order to assist in developing the cultural understanding of the area through the medium of landscape art."
"HAVE A PART OF MUSKOKA HANGING ON A WALL IN YOUR HOME"
In the 50th Anniversary, Lake of Bays Association Yearbook, published in the summer of 1977, there is a full page advertisement, for the art work of Baysville / Lake of Bays artist, Richard Karon. The top line of the ad reads, "Have a Part of Muskoka Hanging On a Wall in Your Home." It may have been more appropriate, to the the Association readership, if Karon had used "cottage," instead of "home," but it was an idea that worked for the artist. Cottagers did like the prospect of taking a little bit of "Muskoka" home with them, as the artist suggested, when they left after the summer season. They also purchased panels for their cottages, and it is known, that quite a large number exist in the cottage community. Many were taken back to the United States, when those seasonal residents trundled home after their vacations. The painting in the ad is typical of Karon's enduring fondness for birch trees, bogs, swamps and lowlands in general. He could have created a more marketable painting, of a township heritage property, such as Bigwin Inn, for example, to go with his ad, or a depiction of a vintage wooden watercraft, motoring on the sparkling expanse of Lake of Bays. Both more appealing, and marketable, even in 1977, than his birch trees above what may be a large pond. The painting, in reprint, lost much of its detail, so it's difficult to tell. We have re-produced an image of this particular ad.
Despite picking much less marketable landscapes, and lake scenes to paint, which was common throughout his years of work, he stubbornly stuck to the belief, the amazing intricacies of nature were infinitely more important and enjoyable to portray, than architectural themes to satisfy the market-place. It is the contradiction, of the artist as manager. An advisor, knowing how the market was expanding, for historic themes, and identifiable Muskoka landmarks, might have advised him to visit Sloan's Restaurant, in Gravenhurst, to see the outstanding watercolors, by local artist, Frank C. Johnston, who at this time, had been painting Lake Muskoka scenes, featuring the old steamships from the Navigation Company fleet, still today, considered a legendary period in the community's history. Johnston might have passed on a little wisdom to Karon, around this period, that history sells, and sells well. Karon was capable of painting just about anything, but he was prepared to suffer for the integrity of his craft. He didn't find buildings of great interest, as an artist, and with his own background, growing up in an historic city, in Poland, he would have been exposed to a cityscape, hundreds of years old, composed of grand and truly historic architecture. He would have watched much of this history being destroyed by the Nazi regime, that occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945. He chose nature on most occasions, over what was man-made, and fascinated himself with nature's four seasons. He documented these transitions, from one season to another, and you can detect in these reflective panels, the joyous arrival of spring, the lush environs of summer, the nostalgia and melancholy of autumn, and the beautiful solitude of winter.
Those who own a Karon original, at least the ones I have corresponded with, are delighted he stuck to his plan, to profile the beautiful township where he lived and worked. If you were to have seen five to ten of his art panels, depicting this part of Muskoka, you would be able to identify many of the places the artist sketched, during his years living near Baysville. My wife Suzanne, on a typical drive from Bracebridge to Dorset, will often point out little alcoves of forest, and lowland, and say, in passing, "That looks like a Richard Karon painting." Each time, I must concur.
He took intriguing places like bogs and swamps, dead trees and an overgrown shoreline, and he made it a remarkable study of Muskoka. To him, these places held something special, and each subject landscape, seemed an opportunity to challenge his patrons, to also find beauty, where one might just say….it was an interesting scene. It was as if, he was reaching for our hands, to take us to these curious portals he found unique, to then explain, in detail, why we should know these places in nature; validating in his own way, that all of nature should be viewed as precious and inspirational. To be appreciated and celebrated. His plan attained an unspecified personal if not economic success. He never changed his opinion, and his eagerness to visit remote and overgrown places, never wained until his retirement from active painting in the mid 1980's. And yet earned a comfortable living, painting places others artists thought ordinary and unremarkable. Possibly not marketable. While I'm sure his customers would have liked to see a painting of Bigwin Inn, or Robinson's Store in Dorset, and may have purchased them, they would have only been companion pieces, to what made him a respected artist in our region…….these same vibrant landscapes of hidden places, and quiet bays; bogs and swamps, and fallen pines……., venerable old birches, leaning precariously over reflective waterscapes. His customers liked his choices, and very much validated his idea, that "nature is the purest art form," and he was its willing servant. He found beauty in misshapen trees, bald rock faces, scraggly cedars, fallen branches and decaying logs. He saw enchantments in dark and mysterious alcoves, of thick evergreens, and he found an allure with the tall grasses of old farm pastures, and old sheds that had outlived the homesteads. He knew solitude and grew strong in its embrace. An approaching storm didn't chase him away. It seemed to invite him, to be its interpreter, as it brought dramatic change to the light and shadow of the day; changed the silver and green hues of the water, to a deep, black, snaking ribbon through the dull white, of old birch bark, and the velvet brown of bulbous cat-tails, dancing alone in the marsh.
This was the art of Richard Karon. It's true. His patrons did wish to have "a part of Muskoka," hanging on their walls. Home and cottage.
No comments:
Post a Comment