David McEown's watercolour paintings do more than just capture the essence of beautiful Antarctic and North Pole scenery.
Sometimes those landscapes actually become part of the paintings themselves.
"I let the environment do some of the actual mark making," the Vancouver-based artist said. "I sometimes let the paint freeze on the canvass and work with it, and if I do it right, it retains that frozen quality later. Sometimes a penguin has walked on the canvas or marked it."
Wait a second. Penguins?
McEown, it seems, likes getting up close to his subjects - real close - and prefers painting "on location" in some of the most remote environments in the world.
He'll be closer to home on Wednesday (Feb. 16) from 7 to 9 p.m., when he gives a multi-media presentation of his various journeys and artwork at Quest University.
"This is a 'best of' of the past 10 years of polar exploration," he said. "I'll be narrating a presentation of video, photography and images of my paintings. Basically it's a really big slide show."
More than that, the presentation represents a longtime fascination with the Antarctic and North Pole areas for McEown, and his efforts to document a disappearing landscape.
"I've been a professional landscape painter for the past 20 years, but for the past 10 years I've been drawn to polar regions," he said. "I had the desire to see these landscapes, but I had no idea how to get there, so I began applying for resident artist programs."
Through those programs, McEown has gone on a fantastic journey circumnavigating Arctic Ocean and Antarctica by ski, sailboat and icebreaker.
"I went with tour operators and science expeditions," he said. "I also sponsored some of my own expeditions."
McEown has sat with his canvas inches away from emperor penguins, had chance encounters with polar bears, and tried to connect with the landscapes he paints.
"Why should people go witness these places?" he asked. "No. 1, for the flat-out sheer beauty and wonder. Second, it is absolutely changing right in front of our faces. And third, from an artist's point of view, the sheer abstraction and form of the landscape is so inspiring. It teaches you to minimalize and really work with your paint."
During the Quest University presentation on Wednesday, McEown will discuss the process of painting on location versus painting in the studio from photographs, and also give a live painting demonstration.
"I'll talk about the process and the environment," he said. "I'll also talk about the difference when I take a photograph and work in a studio - how the painting develops. The presentation is about 50 minutes, then some Q and A, and then I'll spend another 40 minutes doing a live painting demonstration, so they can see an 'on location' painting. But, after the show, people will want to buy tickets to go see these places for themselves."
McEown plans to continue his own travels later this year with a trip to Greenland in the summer, and then finish a video and book on Antarctica and the North Pole.
VISUALS, the Squamish Valley Artists Society, has arranged and paid for McEown's visit. "We are very excited to present David McEown's adventure journeys and amazing talents as a watercolour artist," Toby Jaxon, VISUALS exhibition director, wrote in an email to The Chief.
Antarctica to the North Pole: a Presentation by David McEown takes place Feb. 16 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Quest University Media Room.
Admission is $5.
