Manitoba artist Don McMaster has created a series of nine large paintings celebrating the work of David Thompson in the prairie region. Inspired by Thompson’s own journals, the series sets Thompson in various specific locations:
- meeting the Mandans
- walking overland from Fort Assiniboine into a blizzard
- running the Dalles
- encountering toll-takers on Lake of the Woods
- marrying Charlotte Small at Isle a la Crosse
McMaster, a landscape artist, travelled to each site in order to depict each scene accurately, and thoroughly researched such historical aspects of the time as clothing and footwear, dogs and horses, guns and canoes.
The collection, Diaries of a Mapmaker, is now in need of a permanent home. It can be viewed online at donmcmaster.com, or by appointment at Mayberry Fine Art Gallery in Winnipeg. Please direct inquiries to Don McMaster, admcmast@mts.net, or telephone Mayberry Gallery at 204-255-5690.
Posted: 30 November 2008
