Lake of the Woods Adventure

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Bill Mayberry stands across the inlet from the island he believes was in Walter J. Philips’ 1928 woodblock print, “Sunset, Lake of the Woods.” (courtesy Randolph Parker)

For years, Winnipeg gallerist Bill Mayberry searched for the real-life location of one of his favourite landscapes, a 1927 woodblock print, Sunset, Lake of the Woods, that shows a rocky islet crowned by a crooked pine against a flaming sky. 

Mayberry, who spends summers at his cottage on the vast lake, which straddles the borders between Manitoba, Ontario and Minnesota, knew the islet in Walter J. Phillips’ print must be tucked somewhere amongst the lake’s 14,500 islands.

What he didn’t know, though, was that Phillips had taken some artistic freedoms – the work features a south-setting sun, which further complicated Mayberry’s search. But eventually, in 2005, in what Mayberry calls “a goosebump moment” he found what he believes is the same island.

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Winnipeg gallerist Bill Mayberry (left) and Randolph Parker chart the day’s route on Lake of the Woods. (courtesy Randolph Parker)

A decade later, he invited a friend, Randolph Parker, a landscape painter based on Salt Spring Island off the B.C. coast, to boat to what he now calls Phillips’ island. The two, inspired by the encounter, decided to scout other locations.

Their outings sparked an ambitious five-year project comprising 220 paintings of islands scattered in the lake’s maze of narrow inlets and sprawling bays. And, of course, Parker painted Phillips’ island.

To stay on course during their adventures, the duo logged the GPS coordinates of the vistas they found. Parker, who added that information to the back of each painting, speculates it might represent “a first” in the art world. 

“When you turn over a painting and there’s zero information, except for, maybe, the size, you may never know for sure where it was,” says Parker. “Even with a living artist, like myself, getting a little older, sometimes … you really have to search those memory banks.”

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Information, including GPS coordinates, on the back of one of Randolph Parker’s paintings from his “Islands” series. (courtesy the artist)

Mayberry’s son Ryan compiled the coordinates into an interactive online map and there’s a 230-page book, Islands, that reproduces the paintings and provides a history of the lake, which, at more than 70 miles long and wide, is one of the largest in North America. The project was exhibited last year year at Mayberry’s gallery in Winnipeg. Parker is showing 40 of the paintings from March 31 to April 17 at Gallery 8 on Salt Spring Island. 

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Randolph Parker poses with his 2022 painting

“Chien D’Or,” part of his “Islands” series. (courtesy the artist)

Parker says he was drawn to Lake of the Woods by its picturesque scenery – sandy beaches, rocky shorelines and massive cliffs – as well as its history, which includes Algonquian petroglyphs that date back thousands of years.

It’s a resonant place for Parker, who grew up  in Huntsville, Ont., near Algonquin Park. “It goes way back to that relationship with the landscape that I’ve always had,” he says. “It’s rich for Canadian identity.” 

A century ago, Algonquin Park was a favourite spot for Canada’s best-known landscape artists – the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson. Group members also painted along the northern shore of Lake Superior. They didn’t venture much into the Lake of the Woods region, although Frank Johnston did paint Serenity, Lake of the Woods, in 1922.

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Randolph Parker poses on his pen and watercolour sketches for his “Islands” series. (courtesy the artist)

Over the years, people have wondered about the exact locations of many of the Group’s iconic paintings. Art historian Michael Burtch believes he has located sites in Algonquin Park where Thomson painted based on descriptions in the artist’s letters. In 2009, he teamed up with filmmakers Gary and Joanie McGuffin, and together they found several hundred likely locations for the Group of Seven, and made a 2015 documentary film.

Art sleuths of the future should have an easier time finding Parker’s locations on Lake of the Woods, even without the GPS coordinates. He stayed true to the actual landscape, unlike Group members, who, like Phillips, sometimes altered or simplified problematic aspects of the scenery to strengthen their compositions. As Parker says: “Nature gives you the damnedest things to deal with sometimes.” ■

Randolph Parker, Islands, at Gallery 8 on Salt Spring Island from March 31 to April 17, 2023. 

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