Bark Lake, Near Barry’s Bay, Ontario, In the Ottawa Valley

Private Collection, British Columbia

Loan Exhibition, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, circa 1995

Charles C. Hill, “Canadian Painting in the Thirties”, Ottawa, 1975, page 11

The rural community of Madawaska is situated south-east of Algonquin Park along the Madawaska River. An ideal area for camping, canoeing and hiking, Madawaska afforded A.Y. Jackson both the rugged barren Canadian landscape and small villages the artist sought to explore in his artistic practice. Fellow Group member A.J. Casson also regularly painted in this picturesque region. Barry’s Bay is a small community on the Madawaska River. The Algonquin people named the area Kuaenash Ne-ishing, meaning “beautiful bay”. A.Y. Jackson depicts the scenic nature of Bark Lake during a season of transition: a shoreline landscape in the Ottawa Valley on a late fall day. Trees with changing and falling leaves line the foreground, creating a multicoloured screen of yellow, orange, pink and green. The same pigments are used in the current of the lake and foliage of the mountain in the background. Jackson creates a scene that evokes the feeling of crisp air and warm sun typical of autumn in Canada. Charles C. Hill remarks on Jackson’s preference to portray these time periods in the Canadian landscape: “It was the changing seasons that attracted A.Y., not the bright greens of summer, nor the blank whiteness of winter, but the flow of winter to spring or the blaring up of summer into autumn.”