Morning on Nootka Sound, B.C., 1936

Dr. and Mrs. George Moir Weir, Vancouver By descent to the present Private Collection, British Columbia

“Recent Nootka Sketches”, The Art Emporium, Vancouver, January-February 1936 as “Nootka Sound (Morning)”

‘Recent Nootka Sketches at Art Emporium’, “Vancouver Daily Province”, 1 February 1936 Joyce Zemans, “Jock Macdonald The Inner Landscape A Retrospective Exhibition”, Toronto, 1981, page 59 Michelle Jacques, Linda Jansma and Ian Thom, “Jock Macdonald Evolving Form”, London, 2015, page 20, listed page 161 as “Nootka Sound (Morning)”

In the summer of 1935 Jock Macdonald and his family, along with friend Harry Tauber and his friend/lover, Les Planta, set sail on the S.S. Maquinna for the remote community of Nootka Island. Macdonald was in search of a newfound spiritual expression to fuse his interests in philosophy, nature and science, and set out to establish an artist colony, hoping to leave the economic reality of life during the Depression in Vancouver behind. Adjacent to Vancouver Island and separated by Nookta Sound, Macdonald and his family found an abandoned cabin three miles from the First Nations village of Friendly Cove on Nootka Island and spent two years living there. As Ian M. Thom states, “it was a period of enormously hard work, punctuated by injury and poverty, and – remarkably – it was a time when his work grew deeper and richer.” Life in this isolated environment allowed Macdonald the opportunity to paint freely and connect with nature in his pursuit of a spiritual experience. He became absorbed in his artistic experiments while in Nootka, exploring new forms. As Joyce Zemans suggests, Nootka afforded “an opportunity to renew contact with nature and to seek the stimulation for revitalized artistic activity”. The works produced in this period were transitional in nature, as Macdonald began to explore the universal language of art in the elements of modality. Macdonald kept a diary during his sojourn in Nootka, recording that he would row to and from the lighthouse and across the lagoon near the cabins, finding inspiration in his surroundings. Life was tough, but he gathered a great deal of material for his work, inspired by the environment. “Morning on Nootka Sound, B.C.” of 1936 is a prime example. The rays of light break through the clouds, highlighting the monumental mountains towering over the sea, embodying a sense of the ethereal. Macdonald executed several oils, drawings and watercolours while in Nootka, recording that nine oil sketches were sent to Harry Hood at The Art Emporium in Vancouver to be exhibited in January of 1936, including “Morning on Nookta Sound”. “I painted and sketched as much as I could during this time, in the hope that I might sell a sketch and have some funds again”, Macdonald wrote. The “Vancouver Daily Province” reviewed the exhibition, reporting that “During the past few months J.W.G. Macdonald, one of Vancouver’s well-known artists, has discovered the lure of new fields and the country about Nootka has been the inspiration for his brush.” “Morning on Nootka Sound” was purchased from this exhibition in 1936 and has remained in the possession of one family until now, a rare work from this seminal period in Macdonald’s career.