Montreal man travels world, painting the Olympic Games
SOCHI, Russia — Montrealer Marc Ahr had already sketched out the Olympic hockey rink in fine detail.
To complete the painting, the 51-year-old artist sentimentally had hoped that Russia and Canada would meet in Sunday’s goldmedal match, which closes the XXII Olympic Winter Games. But that possibility blew up Wednesday, when Russia was eliminated in a quarter-final match that left the people of Sochi in disbelief.
Canada advanced to a semifinal match against the United States on Friday after defeating Latvia 2-1 on Wednesday.
“When I was in Vancouver, I wanted Canada to win,” Ahr said during a visit to the shop in Sochi where his paintings are converted into prints and sold for as much as $420 each. “There was such real happiness in the streets there.”
Ahr had badly wanted Russia to do as well here, so Russians could feel the same joy Canadians did four years ago.
“Vladimir Putin has said that Russia is a country that does not believe in itself,” Ahr said. “They really need to win hockey to be cured of their past.”
But Ahr’s half-completed painting of the final match is salvageable. In the blank cut-outs that he had left for the players, he will daub in Swedish, American, Finnish or Canadian uniforms as required.
As at every one of the 13 Olympics where he has worked, Ahr is using a network of foreign suppliers in Russia. He purchases a ticket to one major event every day in Sochi. While observing the action, he does a sketch of the main geographic and architectural features of the venue, usually filling in the athletes and other fine details in vibrant watercolours later on in the Games or, sometimes, after he returns to his studio.
Ahr’s best seller is always the big panoramic tableau he creates for each Olympics. It depicts many sports, as well as signature scenes — such as the Olympic flame or the Olympic Park — and local features, such as mountains. Getting all the fine points right for his Sochi panorama took five days of painstaking work.
“Doing drawings at the Olympics is like a big race, running from one place to another,” Ahr said. “You have to believe in it. I take my energy from the streets.
“But my best memories of sport are, quite honestly, of playing hockey in Outremont Park with people I didn’t know. Skiing is nice, but with hockey you really get to meet people. I also like it when it is -20 C, so I am very jealous of how cold it has been in Canada this winter.”
Ahr has spent a lot of time in Sochi since the fall. He keeps an apartment in St. Petersburg, too, commuting there from Montreal.
“I did not expect these Games to be as great as they have been,” said Ahr, who speaks Russian as well as French and English. “When I was here in October there were no sidewalks or trees. This city was in total chaos with traffic, traffic, traffic. I don’t know how they did it, but they pulled it off.”
Of all the sports to draw and paint, Ahr’s favourite is short track speed skating.
“I probably like the 5,000-metre team sprint the most,” he said. “I love all the colours moving fast. It is the hardest to do but the best. Hockey is not as harmonious as the short track with all those flying colours. That is best for an artist.”
The most difficult Winter Olympic event to draw or paint might be curling, he said, before adding that “no sport is too hard to cover. I can find a way. Curling should be boring as a painting, but the public likes it because of the reds and blues. Its lines give it a certain perspective.”
Born on the French Riviera, Ahr married a Franco-Ontarian whom he met during the fall of the Berlin Wall and emigrated with her to Canada. They have since split up and have a son in Montreal.
Although he has sold prints of his work to many senior members of the International Olympic Committee as well as to members of various royal families, traipsing around the world following the Olympic Games is not a lucrative business. “My goal here is to not lose more than $3,000,” he said.
The worst Games for him was Beijing, as the Chinese, for reasons known only to themselves, had no interest in his work. Like everyone else who has not paid to be an official rights holder, he cannot use the word “Olympic” to promote his work.
As for the Russian Olympic market, Ahr does not yet know what it is like because he only started selling his prints on Wednesday.
“You never know what will happen. How many, for example, will Vladimir Putin take?” he asked.
“When the Olympics are over I am going to take 10 or 15 of the paintings and travel by train around Russia. This will be a great way to bring the Olympics to the people.”