Answers to questions about my mentor Jock Macdonald

"Evolving Form", the major retrospective of work by my late teacher and mentor Jock Macdonald, is now on view at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.  In addition to the website we put together in homage to Jock (please see post below), here are some answers to questions someone recently posed to me, which we thought we would share:

How did it come about that you studied privately with Jock? When and where was that?

Spring and summer of 1959, I painted on my own in Banff National Park.  Later I was guest artist at the Banff School of Fine Arts, where faculty referred me to Jock Macdonald. Jock was teaching at the Ontario College of Art (OCA) in Toronto.  So I returned to Toronto and enrolled at OCA, September 1959.  Although enriched by Jock’s Composition and Still Life classes, overall the system - with its focus on commercial art by the other faculty - did not jive with me. 

I aired my feelings to Jock.  He understood and suggested I leave the College, saying he’d come and visit me at my rooming house on Walmer Road.  So I left OCA in Feb 1960.

True to his word, Jock came to see me some Saturdays from May until November. His untimely and sudden passing in early December, 1960 was a great personal loss, and a loss to the art world.

What made Jock unique as a teacher?

He was a human being with an enormous amount of insight into the capacity of other human beings and with the ability to bring out in them things which many other teachers could not do.

He simplified and made you see things in a different light. He understood the need for freedom of expression. He protected you if you had trouble.

I have never experienced such encouragement and protection from any other artist or art teacher. He was a great teacher.

It was as if he carried a small vial of oil, then dripped a bit on the tiny flame burning within his students.  Jock stressed (once the foundation work was done) freedom of expression. 

He said if we worked with our head, heart and hands in tandem, the painting will show life and spirit.  Without the heart, it is only paint on canvas. 

Jock Macdonald had the unique ability to see things in us, our potential we did not even know was there, and bring it out.  Jock would never say what to paint or how to paint, but his words stimulated me.

What makes him unique as a painter?

"All Things Prevail", Jock Macdonald, Lucite on Canvas, 1960

Jock Macdonald evolved from “landscape to mindscape”, from the conventional and familiar to the realm of abstract, or not-so-familiar. He did it all – drawing, painting and in a multitude of media.  In all these he expressed his expertise and his ‘head, heart and hand’ approach. 

The retrospective shows how Jock evolved by constant experimenting, exploring and searching.  An artist, a human being, on a quest, lifting a little of the veil of the mystery that life and the universe presents us.

Do you think he is underrated in Canada by the general public? If so, why would that be?

Yes!  Maybe after the exhibition,  this will change this somewhat, I hope.  Jock was a kind and modest man, he was not part of the Establishment very much alive in Toronto in those days. He was also not a ‘pusher’’, amongst other things, that may have had something to do with it.

Do you think he fully came into his own as a painter in the last four years or so of his life?
Yes, definitely.  This is something I said a long time ago.  He believed that the process of an understanding of the totality of life, the meaning of all its forces, the unseen powers of nature - was gradual and very slow.

In the same manner, he viewed his life as a gradual development towards an understanding and expressing of these spiritual laws. He realized in the last four years that he was finally reaching the culmination of his life’s search.

His canvasses became softer and more spiritual in quality. Jock Macdonald was concerned with the idea about unseen forces behind all matter, and wanted his paintings to express this concept.
You only have to look at his later works – how confident, strong and mature they are.  He had found himself a ‘handwriting’, a style for all to see - - only to be taken away by “going over the horizon” at the height of his career.

Jock Macdonald suggested I paint while listening to music

In 1960 during one of his visits to my rented room on Walmer Road in Toronto, Jock suggested I paint while listening to music. Here is a painting I created while listening to the music of Felix Mendelsshon.

"Midsummer Night's Dream", oil on masonite, Henri van Bentum,1960, artist's collection

Here is another work painted while listening to the music of Claude Debussy.  This painting is in the permanent collection of The Robert McLaughlin Gallery.

 "Inner Reflections", Henri van Bentum, oil on canvas, Collection Robert McLaughlin Gallery (gift by Ann Southam)

Jock's death was sudden and unexpected.  He was only 63 years of age when he went over the horizon.  Here is a painting I did a week after he died that expressed my sorrow at the great loss of this exceptional painter and mentor.

"Drowned Sun's Glimmer", Henri van Bentum, homage to Jock Macdonald, December 1960

Private Collection

 

Honouring Jock Macdonald, artist, teacher and mentor

We've just published a new web site in honour of the late J.W.G. ("Jock") Macdonald, my teacher and mentor.  It's to mark the occasion of "Evolving Form", a major retrospective exhibition on Jock's work, currently at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa and, in June, at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. 

http://JockMacdonaldRemembered.ca

O  n the influence of Jock Macdonald
on the work of Henri van Bentum:

Jock Macdonald and Henri van Bentum both share a love for music, as well as an intense interest in the metamorphosis of organic forms, the hidden forces in nature, and the transitory elements of growth and decay in all natural forms and life itself.

— Harry Malcolmson, Toronto Telegram art critic, 1963

….in Banff Murray MacDonald sent van Bentum to the late Jock Macdonald in Toronto, who had tremendous influence on his development, and whose death was an irreplaceable loss to students as well as art lovers.

— Lotta Dempsey, Toronto Star, November 26, 1963

….that van Bentum’s watercolours should resemble Jock Macdonald’s oils is far from strange, for the soft, blurred edges and the textures of Macdonald’s oils always strongly suggest watercolour effects.

— Harry Malcolmson, Toronto Telegram, February 13, 1965

Completely introspective in his work, van Bentum is probably a born abstract painter. Jock Macdonald, with whom he studied, was one of the first to encourage van Bentum to develop his individuality, and it is certainly under Macdonald’s influence that he achieved his present independence.

— Marina Sturdza, Canadian Interiors, October 1966

Eight of my children's stories now available as eBook

"APOLOGUES: Stories for All Ages", by Henri van Bentum

Available at Pegasus Press and also on Amazon and iTunes

Feature story about Henri and the eBook in west coast newspaper, click here.

We're happy to announce the publication of my children's stories (or Fables) for the young and young at heart.  "Apologues: Stories for All Ages" is published by Pegasus Press.  It's simple to order, just set up an account on the Pegasus Press website. The book is only $3.99 and would be a perfect gift for a birthday or as a present for the coming Holiday Season.   Click here to order: Pegasus Press.  Also available at iTunes and Amazon

Special Chance to Win:  purchase "Apologues: Stories for All Ages" and have a chance to win a photo print of Henri van Bentum's delightful painting from 1960, "Midsummer Night's Dream".

 "Midsummer Night's Dream", oil on masonite, 1960

Henri van Bentum (private collection) 

Amazon

iTunes

Click here to go to the Pegasus Press site

Henri van Bentum

Greed and Me-ism - impact on Earth and wildlife

Anyone who is aware knows that it is we – the Human Family species of mammals – who have harmed or put to extinction many other species.  We are the ones who encroach upon their realms, making it more and more difficult for them to survive in their natural habitat.

For that matter, even some members of the Human Family are under threat. Aboriginals, First Nations, Inuit, the Bushmen or San people, the list goes on.

Indigenous cultures everywhere are often treated in the same manner worldwide.  Then there are those wars . . . 
But I am wandering away from the motivation for writing this blog post.  Here on Vancouver Island in the municipal area of Victoria, a woman who was walking to work early in the morning along the “Galloping Goose trail” spotted a cougar 10 metres away.  It was said that it charged at her. (But subsequent comments have suggested it was as startled as she was.) 

As she ran to a nearby house, the cougar stopped and stared as she pulled out her mobile phone to call for help. Actually there were two cougars. After the alarm went out to the ‘civilized’ world, one cougar was hunted down and killed while the other got away. Headlines everywhere, “Where Is the Other Cougar?” (So it can also be killed.) It won’t be long before our clever species, with our state-of-the-art killing machines, finds and exterminates it too, to the relief of those Homo sapiens who, fear-ridden, threaten the existence of these big cats.

Those cougars, those grizzlies, those polar bears, those rhinos, those sharks.  The list goes on. 

 

As for the two cougars here who “trespassed” on our territory – “How dare they!”  No one seems to focus on the cause of these encounters with wildlife - - - that their habitat has been ‘clear cut’ or destroyed for greedy profit-seeking, or by stupid behaviour such as cutting shark fins for soup or so-called medicinal purposes, or taking fragile bird nests for another ‘gourmet’ delicacy.  Or the horn of a rhino, for aphrodisiacs.  Aren’t we a super-lovable species?

How bright and wise are we?  Well, some leaders of nations muzzle now their scientists . . . those who warn about what’s going on out there, and what will be the consequences.  And yet, these so-called leaders have children and future grandchildren.  Are they not allowed to be born on a healthy planet, with clean air, water and a healthy habitat for all creatures? Makes you wonder - what their motivation is, to withhold scientific facts.

This reminds me of an event from the summer of 1959 in Banff National Park.  At that time there were “Indian Days”, where Chiefs of various nations (Blackfoot, Dakota, Sioux and others) set up teepees and allowed visitors to ask them questions.

Henri van Bentum, Banff 1982 - Indian Days Revisited at the Blackfoot Teepee

 The Chiefs were eloquent speakers. In comparison the “white man” would sit there with a mouth full of teeth and just stare at the Chiefs  - - - so dignified and dressed in full attire. 

 

One of the Chiefs said, “You know the White Man is a complicated, forked-tongue species, with no care or vision about our home, Mother Earth.  For example, if I say, “There are only a dozen ocelots left, they would say, ‘Let’s shoot them, before they’re all gone.’”   

I’ve never forgotten this statement of insight and wisdom. Of course that's not the only creature we'd shoot if there 'were only a few left'.  Extinction #6 is fast becoming a reality.  This time it will be caused by "Humans".

Human greed and me-ism leaves wildlife nowhere to live.  That’s the cause.  The effect:  extinction of wilderness and wildlife on a global scale.  Add to this global climate change and pollution - - what will be the effect on the Human Family?    Are we ignorant, indifferent, asleep, stupid or?   Definitely not wise.

This then will be my last blog post.  Six years ago we began (July 1, 2008), so that’s enough.  It was a pleasure visiting with you all out there, wherever you may be.  And thank you for having visited my blog.

Cheers, Ciao, Vaarwel, Adieu, Adios.

Henri van Bentum

Nairo Quintana wins Giro d'Italia 2014

Young Colombian cyclist Nairo Quintana wins the 2014 Giro d'Italia today