Canadian Canoe Museum Photos

Recent trip with family to Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario, was wonderful. First photo is Max and Cate flanking museum founder and canoe luminary Kirk Wipper, who showed us through and was a wonderful host. Next photo is the "figurehead" of an extraordinarily decorated 50-foot-long dugout from Irian Jaya, Indonesia (in the storage area -- not on display to general public). Follow the link to my Picasa album at the bottom for many more canoe and kayak photos.

Canadian Canoe Museum Nov. 2009

Canadan Canoe Museum - Awe Inspiring

Visited the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough, Ontario, today, in company with wife, son, and the museum's founder, the renowned Kirk Wipper. While there, we were shown into the new, immense storage areas by general manager John Summers. About 500 canoes in storage! A real privilege and an awe-inspiring experience. I'll post in more detail later, but just wanted to post a photo or two and report my immense good fortune. Anyone who has the opportunity to see this special museum should do so -- Peterborough is about 1.5 hours outside of Toronto.

Some Marine Art I Like

Just wanted to highlight a few nice paintings I came across recently. No lessons or points to make -- just interesting or lovely images to look at.

First is this pretty, idealized Sinhalese outrigger, from Bjorn Landstrom's THE QUEST FOR INDIA. (I've cited Landstrom's wonderful boat paintings previously, here.) The artist's choice of a very low perspective does a nice job emphasizing the main hull's slenderness and rocker, and the shadows and reflections on the wet sand are so nicely rendered.

Next, from the same book, is a fleet of Chinese oceangoing ships like those on which Marco Polo took the first stage of his voyage home from China some time before the year 1295. The design of the tumblehome is fascinating.

Finally, Egyptian boats from an album of images by Victorian artist and traveler Edward Lear. The images in the album are available as prints from the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England. Thanks to Heather Hernandez of the Maritime Compass blog for pointing out this fine resource.