Kincardine: I Can Always Find You Here Description:

One of my favourite places to visit is Kincardine, Ontario.  It is where my fondest childhood memories exist and where I was happiest with my family.  As a child, my family and I would rent a cottage there every summer and I have continued that tradition as an adult with three children of my own.

I chose the iconic Kincardine lighthouse and harbour by Station Beach as the setting for my painting because of my many visits to the beach there to watch sunsets or listen to the phantom piper play at the top of the lighthouse.

I included a portrait of myself as a young child looking through a pair of binoculars.  The original photo was taken on Godrich Lane as I looked out over Lake Huron from a cottage we had rented.  I superimposed myself standing on the waters of the harbour during sunset, my favourite time of day in Kincardine.  This adds a surreal presence of both my childhood self and my mother.

I painted a silhouette of my mom above, gently cupping the back of me and kissing my head.  She is larger than life and appears to be emerging from the sky.  This was purposely done since she passed away just before I started my first year of high school.  Thus, she is a heavenly presence in the composition.  The original photo this portrait was based on was of my mom holding me as an infant and kissing my head.  

The juxtaposition of my childhood self looking through binoculars and my mom floating above me as an invisible, ethereal presence is ironic.  While I was not searching for her as a child, I have been looking for her ever since she passed away.  This younger version of myself doesn’t know that my mother won’t be with us for very long.  

The presence of the Scottish piper I included in the foreground is important because the sounds of the bagpipes are inextricably linked to my memories of my mother.  Every Saturday during the summer months in Kincardine, there is a pipe band parade that travels down the main street in Kincardine.  My family and I would always march behind this pipe band during our stay in Kincardine and my mother loved the bagpipes.  I painted blue and red streams of colourful sound coming out of the bagpipes and encircling my mother and I because when I hear the pipes and go to this parade now, I always think of her.  The bagpipe’s dulcet tones stir up a strong emotional response in me and resonate deeply with my childhood memories of my mother.

Even though my mother has been gone for a long time, I know I can always find her in Kincardine.