Fire Drill On the Bluenose

Early Evening

Another local anachronism

Seen down town this afternoon

Lunenburg Academy

Is it or not? Ruth and I attend the annual fair in support of the Lunenburg Elementary School, which is housed in this Victorian "Academy", one of the few left in Nova Scotia. A great event with lots of support from local merchants. By contrast, the high school is modern, and frankly, a bit of a factory!

There were a large number of parents and children at this indoor/outdoor event which must have raised a substantial amount in support of this old school. By the way, the Lunenburg Academy has the local cemetery surrounding it on three sides!

Bluenose Sea Trials

Loading The Bluenose II

This was the scene at the Lunenburg Public Wharf last evening as crew members carried on lockers containg safety gear.

First Day of the 2007 Tourist Season

Lunenburg is not yet crowded with tourists but this is the first 70 degree F day and the visitors are on the scene in numbers for the first time. That is the fisheries Museum hidden away behind five buses.

The Driving Force

The Bluenose II would make quite a mess of the public wharf if it swept into its berth under sail. She is not totally reliant on wind power. Just in front of the main mast we have a boxed control panel (1) which the captain uses to bring this ship into and out of Lunenburg Harbour.

The Bluenose refit is now complete!

All of that gear seen scattered on the public wharf has gone aboard the Bluenose, and today the Main Top Gallant Mast (1) and the Fore Top Gallant (2), were fixed in place to complete the schooner. The foremast is nearest the bow of the ship. The top gallants are smaller in diameter and not as long as the two lower masts. and are bound to the latter lengthening the overall height of each. In a case of a schooner, the taller mast is that nearest the stern. The main mast is seen flying the Nova Scotian flag.

Commercial Shipping At Lunenburg

Lunenburg is probably remembered by most visitors as a tourist destination but it still has a considerable commercial business centred on scallop dargging and lobster trapping. These berths are just a few metres east of the Bluenose berth. They are normally gated during the tourist season but at this stage are often left with the gates unlocked and standing open.

Tour Boats At the Public Landing

The season has been cold, damp and blustery following a few very warm days several weeks back. This has stalled the whale watching, harbour cruise business. As you can see, the sailing ship Eastern Passage is still in her plastic winter wrap of plastic!

View of Lunenburg Harbour and the Bluenose

Bluenose Refit

There was still a good deal of rigging to be added at this point in time. She sails for the southern US this coming Thursday.

THe Highwire Act On The Bluenose

The Bluenose II Under Refit.

Another Sign of Spring

Storm At Blue Rocks

This painting completed this morning. The location is Blue Rocks, which lies a few miles south of Lunenburg further out on this Atlantic peninsula. For More about my paintings see http://rodneymackay.com

Hermaproditic Sailing Ship 8x10"

This afternoon's acrylic painting. Notice the square rigged mast and the schooner rigged mast; hence the above designation! This ship is seen berthing after a sailing expedition on a warm spring day.

Lobster boat in winter

Hard to believe that this was the situation here in Lunenburg about a month ago! This is based on a photo taken from the Bluenose berth at the public landing. That was an exceptionally cold day with a stiff wind blowing off the water. Paint on site just doesn't happen in the Canadian winter.

Today things are quite different with green grass everywhere, most of the trees in leaf and that back hill now in use as a golf course rather than a place to taboggan!

3 pm AST: Second Painting of the Day

Another 8x10 featuring a fishing boat equipped with a stay-sail. Sun had just broken through the cloud cover.

Bluenose II Progress Report

This is an official government holiday (Victoria Day: They don't observe this one in England!). In practice this means that the banks and government offices are closed (but not the liquor store),

As this is a tourist town, everything else is roaring and ready to go; excepting perhaps the schooner Bluenose II which is getting caulking and paint and new rigging prior to her first appearance of the year at Norfolk, Virginia, June 7 to 12.

If you google Bluenose II you are going to get the unofficial Bluenose Trust pages. They are no longer the official operators. Go instead to http://www.schoonerbluenose2.ca/

This will take you to the home of the official operator of this sailing ship (which is featured on our Canadian dime). Her sailing schedule for 2007 is at http://www.schoonerbluenose2.ca/sailing-schedule.html

Have a look, these are very pretty pagesw!

Another 8x10" Acrylic Painting

New Painting: Early Sails, Lunenburg

Wikipedia claims that there is "no general agreed upon definition of art." That was not always the case. I am old enought to have been among the last high schools students exposed to Latin as a non-elective subject. When I went on to university it was non-elective there as well. Remember telling my Latin teacher that I thought the subject was retrograde and unnecessary. As I studied biology, that turned out not to be the case!

Whatever; I rather like the idea that art was originally seen as subject to rules. We have broken away from that concept during the twentieth century and perhaps definition B, implying some craftiness in the pursuit thereof is apropos. I also checked out my Webster's International from the nineteenth century to see how the Victorians perceived this business: They defined it primarily as "skill or dexterity acquired by experience, study or observation..." Having a classical bent, their scholars remembered that it was a "business " and that it involved "cunning, dexterity, artifice and craft." "Syn. Aptitude, readiness, skill, dexterity, contrivance, profession, business, trade, calling, cunning, artifice, duplicity." I guess those added meanings opened a floodgate for craftiness in art and the redefinition of the crafts as art.

I had not realized that "artisans scorn the very word "craft"". Recently I purchased "The Business of Crafts" a book issued by The Crafts Center, a U&.S. non-profit organization which explicitly states that its aim is "to ensure that producers receive a fair share of profits..."
In 1987 the British Crafts Centre in London actually altered its name to Contemporary Applied Arts. North America's premier craft fair now calls itself the "Sculptural Objects Functional Art Exhibition". Further, the American Craft Council openly admits preference for "handmade in America" over the "craft" in describing what it offers for sale. This book, purchased at a yard sale, explains quite candidly that the Crafts Center "tends to recommend "high end" or "high nich" markets, which require only small quantities (of product) and pay higher prices." Even "decorative art" is said to be "scorned by modern artisans as denoting frivolous, unnecessary (and low profit) decoration on functional objects..."

Jane Alexander writes: "The aesthetic challenges and messages of (traditional) painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking are beyond many of us who want to surrounded by things of beauty..." Apparently, she makes reference in this statement to modernist movements such as abstraction, expressionism and the like, as there are certainly contemporary traditional artworks which can be described as beautiful.

This author admits that craftspeople have hitched onto the "art" bandwagon because that is where the wealthy buyers are found. She says: "Crafters are gaining recognition as designers and artists, and are crossing the boundaries that ghettoized crafts (i.e. kept profits low) in the past." She does go onto admit that "there still exists a curatorial bias against artworks made with craft materials and techniques..."

In my view, the craftspeople have been more very effective in representing themselves as artists anmd have proven themselves "cunning" at the very least. What say you?