Hamilton couple finds over 800 real Group of Seven landscapes

If a picture's worth a thou‐ sand words, to Jim and Sue Waddington, a painting's worth a thousand miles.

For nearly five decades, Jim and Sue Waddington have hiked, portaged and paddled rapids around Cana‐ da, all to track down and photograph over 800 land‐ scapes that inspired the Group of Seven's works.

They've given more than 300 talks on their travels, published a best-selling book, and are now the sub‐ ject of a short documentary narrated by their grand‐ daughter Emma.

Now, in their eighties, the two are still at it.

"It keeps us busy," Sue told CBC Radio's The Current this week.

The Group of Seven were Canadian landscape painters who formed from 1920 to 1933, often depicting the country's raw, natural beauty in their works. They included A.Y. Jackson, Lawren Harris, Franklin Carmichael, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald and Freder‐ ick Varley.

A passion formed from a love of the outdoors, not painting

Neither Sue nor Jim come from an art background. But like the famous painters, they love to canoe and camp, and in 1977, they set out with a specific goal in mind.

Sue says the first location they found was the subject of A.Y. Jackson's 1933 painting, "Hills Killarney, (Nellie Park)". She'd discovered the painting during a course at Mohawk College, and wondered if the place really existed.

"And we looked at the map of Killarney Park where we had been canoeing a cou‐ ple of years and saw Nellie Lake and decided maybe we better go and see if it was there," she said.

After a week of portaging, they found it.

"We were quite surprised that we could actually find it and that it actually looked al‐ most identical," Sue said.

That began a lifelong ob‐ session.

"After we found that first place, we thought, well, there must be a lot more that we could find," said Jim.

The couple consulted art galleries, topographic maps and artist notes to narrow down where they might find the artists' original vantage points. They carried the artists' sketches on their trips, which were more realis‐ tic than the paintings the artists later produced in studio, Jim says. He says the puzzle of it has kept them going.

"The artists often gave us enough clues to show where the painting might be," Jim said.

A country-wide hobby The pair have since trav‐ elled all around the country in search of these places, even returning to Nellie Lake for their new documentary, Hidden Secrets of the Can‐ vas: One Couple's Lifetime Quest to Uncover a Century, available on YouTube.

After decades of trips, Jim says they've been lucky to have experienced so much rare beauty they wouldn't have without their unusual hobby.

"Canadians have grown up with these paintings and it's their idea of what Canada is," Jim said. "The Canada that most of us are familiar with is not like that at all; it's cities and towns."

Of all the places they've been, Jim says one trip to Al‐ goma in northern Ontario stands out. At 75, he says a friend convinced them to take their first whitewater canoe trip in order to find a landscape painted by J.E.H. MacDonald.

"It was really exciting for us," Jim said. "He could take us exactly to the places that they sat. We could see ex‐ actly the same rocks in the river."

Still going strong

Artist and art historian Michael Burtch says the Waddingtons will likely be able to continue their hobby for as long as they're physi‐ cally able.

"It could take several life‐ times," he said in an inter‐ view. "They were extraordi‐ narily prolific."

Burtch was part of a simi‐ lar documentary to the

Waddingtons', Painted Land: In Search of the Group of Seven, that also followed pil‐ grimages to the spots the Group of Seven painted.

Not only are there thou‐ sands of sketches and paint‐ ings, he notes they depict landscapes from coast to coast to coast and every‐ where in between.

"Parts of the country where footprints can't be found," he said.

But the Waddingtons are still trying to find them. They take off for another canoe trip in Ontario's Killarney Provincial Park on Thursday.

Asked how the couple manages the trips now that they're in their eighties, Sue said, "Jim carries the light‐ weight canoe and I carry the wine."