At 94, Joe Plaskett decided against flying from his home in England to attend his latest exhibition at Winchester Galleries' two locations. So I decided to visit him vicariously, by talking with friends who had seen him at home over the years.
Plaskett is a native of New Westminster, son of an Anglican clergyman. A local collector (who wishes to remain anonymous) met him there, through her children's piano teacher, when the artist was back from France for a visit in the early 1960s. At that time, he was in the midst of a series of pastels of the old houses of New Westminster. She saw him at his easel on the bank of the Fraser River, creating a picture of the river and log booms. She and her husband had the foresight to buy it from him.
A friendship began, and some years later, the collector agreed to house-sit at Plaskett's legendary home on Rue Pecquay in the Marais district in Paris. This was in an ancient building, up a narrow, winding staircase on the third floor, a place that was a destination for generations of Canadian artists discovering the City of Light.
She told me a story about answering a call at the door by lowering the key in a basket, only to discover that the caller was André Ouellette, postmaster general of Canada. He was delivering to Plaskett a framed sheet of 50 postage stamps bearing one of Plaskett's paintings.
Another of Plaskett's many friends, Patricia Lortie, learned of the artist in the 1970s when she was living in Ottawa. When her husband, Marc Lortie, became ambassador to France in the early 1990s, the Lorties had a chance to visit the cluttered and cozy apartment on Rue Pecquay, to find artist Takao Tanabe cooking lunch while Plaskett entertained. They treasure a set of six sketches of the bridges of Paris.
Lortie said that in her opinion, Plaskett's work is all about a sense of light.
Everything he does is created in the presence of the subject, and she spoke of his "immediacy, vitality, spontaneity, vibrance."
Surrounding himself with flowers and antique statuary, flea-market finds, delicious food and charming friends, "he seeks beauty in so much," she said. "There is an elegance to him as a person. He is so wonderful and warm."
After a disastrous fire, Plaskett sold the apartment in Paris, using the proceeds to establish the Joe Plaskett Foundation. "I would like young Canadian artists to enjoy the privileges I experienced more than half a century ago," he said. "Europe, and above all Paris, have left me richer in knowledge and experience."
He was able to make this investment because an associate of his father's, a childless clergyman, had left Plaskett his home, The Cedars, in Bromswell, Suffolk.
Another of his friends told me of visiting the artist there. "It's near Woodbridge," she advised me. "You get off the train at Melton and Joe picks you up at the station. I stayed overnight on that little Winnipeg couch thing." She wouldn't have missed it for the world.
With delight, she recalled his 80th birthday, for which a special tea house was built in the garden. There was a huge cake with his name spelled out in strawberries.
Visitors to the current show will be familiar with The Cedars. The tea house, the garden in snow and generous French doors letting in the sunshine are a constant backdrop for his paintings and pastels. In his studio, canvases are stacked against the walls, and every horizontal surface is crowded with pottery, bric-a-brac and flowers.
Despite his age, Plaskett is not only tremendously prolific but continually forging ahead. Since the new millennium, he seems to be working mostly in oil paint, drawing the still-life objects he loves with the tip of his brush. These are isolated against fields of colour and dramatic compositional devices.
"I like to think I am not repeating myself," Plaskett has written in the catalogue that accompanies the current show. "The changes have become more drastic. In this body of work, there is a complexity and a daring to experiment with both colour and composition."
"He hasn't sat on his laurels," Lortie remarked. "He is compelled to paint. We should honour his tremendous vitality and ambition."
What better way to honour it than by attending this show?
Winchester Galleries has two locations: 2260 Oak Bay Ave., 250-595-2777, and 796 Humboldt St., 250-382-7750. winchestergalleriesltd.com. Plaskett's exhibition runs until Sept. 29.
