The cow was still quite wet.
Like the other half dozen or so oil paintings hung on the wall beside it on July 31, the one depicting the large brown animal grazing the countryside along Bates Road in Buffalo Creek was very fresh.
Local artist Tom Godin completed the paintings in July and they’re on display at Showcase Gallery, located on the main floor of the South Cariboo Business Centre at 475 Birch Ave., in 100 Mile House until Sept. 8.
Godin started painting in earnest when he moved to the Cariboo in the 1970s.
In the summertime, he housesits for friends in Buffalo Creek, an area from which he derives inspiration for these paintings, depicting livestock and green and bright outdoor scenes.
He calls the work impressionist. The subject matter is clear and visible, but so is the paint and the brush strokes. He doesn’t want to “spoon feed” onlookers, he says. Instead, he looks for that “little twist on so-called reality,” and let’s viewers sort it out for themselves.
“I like that edge,” says Godin.
“To me, that’s the magic. When you stop seeing paint and you start to see it being something. I want to stop around that zone.”
Godin is vice-president of the Cariboo Artists’ Guild (CAG), a local group that promotes arts and culture in the Cariboo. CAG includes dozens of members and is currently hosting its 34th Annual Show and Sale at Parkside Art Gallery at 401 Cedar Ave. in 100 Mile House.
When a painting is good, it’s done quickly, Godin says.
The cow took about 45 minutes.
“Bad ones, you can work a lifetime on.”
At the same time, he mentions he doesn’t want art to sound like a task.
“Art is accessible and you don’t have to put your life aside to do it.”
In the late ’70s and early ’80s, Godin drew editorial cartoons for the Williams Lake Tribune. He had talent for that too, but gave it up after a few years.
The only thing he boasts about, he jokes, is a Canadian Newspaper Association award he won for best editorial cartoon in a weekly newspaper.
“That’s a national award. I thought, how could I beat that? So, I don’t try anymore.”
The Cariboo is where Godin’s love of art blossomed. His sketchbooks are filled with small drawings and notes. It seems he’s always recording and thinking what the next painting will look like.
