
Kettle Island
76cmx61cm acrylics on linen canvas 2010 Private collection
Kettle Island sits in the middle of the Ottawa River near where I spent my childhood in Canada. We loved walking along the river, and there was one maple in particular which was spectacularly red every fall.
You can see the Gatineau Hills in Quebec on the far side, and at that time they were heavily wooded.
One day my mother was walking her dog along the river and he became agitated. What she thought was a very big shaggy dog emerged from the river some way upstream. It was only later she realised it was probably a bear cub. Occasionally moose would swim across the river and would find themselves in somebody’s back yard.
We loved this place.