Bill Mason and Ken Buck: "Waterwalker"

I have been reading Ken Buck's, 'Bill Mason Wilderness Artist, From Heart to Hand.' The book tells of Bill's journey in life from his youth in Winnipeg and on through his career as one of Canada's most celebrated cinemetographers.

I chanced upon a section of the book dedicated to 'Waterwalker,' which was of Bill's films. With that in mind, I did a bit of online searching on You Tube, where I found an edited version.

Interestingly, the highlights reveal that Ken was the cinematographer and the music was written and prepared by the singer Bruce Cockburn and Hugh Marsh. Bill Mason was the the editor and producer.

Waterwalker followed Bill's internationally acclaimed, 'Paddle to the Sea', and 'Cry of the Wild'.

Paddle to the Sea was nominated for a 1968 Oscar and lost out to Chris Chapman's 'A Place to Stand'. But, following that, it went on to take the nature and environment award at the Valence International Film Festival, in 1989, in France.

"Bill is on a wilderness painting trip in Waterwalker. There is one scene which always elicits a collecttive gasp of dismay from the audience. Bill is paintng the falls with his palette knife to apply oil on paper in an unpredictable technique and that he would often give up to start a new painting, he sits back to look at it for a minute, evaluating it. He then picks it up, crumples it and puts it in the fire, obviously unsatisfied with the results. Most people in the audience would happily have hung it on their walls, just as it was."

pg. 192

The above video is an abbreviated form of the original film. If you check this link, it will take you to the NFB site where you will see the 84 minute film without cuts.

The NFB, also provides a separate web page devoted to this film. It lists the credits and a description of the film. Click here to be taken to the webpage

Bill Mason, Cinematographer and Artist

"The forest that God created inspires me to create a painting that I hope reveals how I feel about it. That's what creativity is to me."
Bill Mason,1929-1988



Bill Mason,1929-1988.

Bill Mason's painting technique

He lined up various colours of oil paint he might want on his glass palette for that day. Taking his small palette knife he mixed about five shades of colours. Then he took each mixed colour and piled them carefully one on top of the other. Lifting the large blob of layered paint from the glass he then scraped it across the surface of his smooth paper once. For the next palette knife stroke he'd start his mixing process all over again preparing for the next application to the paper.

Becky his daughter remembers being amazed how haphazardly the paint appeared to be applied and yet could still create a detailed painting. Bill felt he had a bit of a dilemma in his painting style. He couldn't seem to paint larger than six inches and maintain the loose, free style he liked. Some of his best paintings range in size from one inch square to six inches square.

Extracted from Red Canoes.ca. Please click here.

Rock Lake Cliffs by Bill Mason

The late Bill Mason was best known as a cinematographer. But those who knew Bill personally also knew of his love of painting. Bill preferred to paint small pictures because it best suited his loose style.

The above painting captures a sense of the rugged, uncontrollable side of nature. Bill liked this scene for it the rock cliff had native pictoglyphs painted on it.

These words can be found on the Bill Mason commemorative website: "Rock Lake Cliffs - Algonquin Park:

"We are not sure when Bill visited Rock Lake. It may have been on one of his canoe trips through Algonquin Park or perhaps just a day trip as he drove through the area. But it's clear that what attracted him to this spot was not only the beautiful cliffs that he painted but also quite likely the native pictographs on the west side of the lake. This is one of very few pictograph sites in Algonquin Park and I'm sure that Bill would have felt it worthy of at least one visit."

The site also reports that a rare sale of Bill's paintings, in Almonte, Ontario, sold out in 45 minutes.

To read more please check out the red canoe webiste by clicking here.