A few days ago, my dad mentioned that he’d like me to paint a Canadian submarine for him “someday”… He’s a former Royal Canadian Navy sailor, and had been following the progressive refit (1) and relaunch (2) of the HMCS Corner Brook in the news since 2011. At that point the submarine began what was meant to be “a 2-year maintenance refit”(3). After a series of mishaps, she wasn’t back in the water until June of this year. (2) A full decade later than planned!
When my dad asked me to paint her for him “someday”, I realized that if the past two years have taught me anything it’s that we shouldn’t wait for “someday” to do things for those we love. So I decided to surprise him with a watercolour painting of the HMCS Corner Brook as a Christmas gift, off the coast of Newfoundland. Why there?
First off, my dad adores Newfoundland. We visited there on a family vacation when my sister and I were still in high school, and he still talks about that trip. We even stayed for a day or two in the town of Corner Brook – the namesake of this submarine. And many parts of “the rock”, as the Island is known to locals, have beautiful reddish rock cliffs on the shore, that I thought would be a nice complement to the dark shape of the submarine.
Luckily I quickly stumbled upon the perfect photo on a Navy website, and was then thrilled to discover that photographer Rick Anthony had granted “the right to use this work for any purpose…” (4) It’s entitled “HMCS Corner Brook passing Fort Amherst and St. John’s WWII coastal defenses into the harbor” (4).
I started painting less than a year ago, as a form of art/movement therapy for my right hand and arm which are particularly affected by a rare disease known as Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. CRPS used be known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), and many people still use that name for it. Either way, it’s a nasty disease that causes multiple types of pain in the affected areas – often all at the same time – as well as more systemic symptoms like cognitive issues and full-body fatigue.
All that to say that I’m still a beginner with painting, with watercolours, and even with drawing. So this scene was quite a challenge for me, with all the little details like the lighthouse, the reddish cliffs, and the ruins of the World War II U-boat defenses at Fort Amherst. I was also rushing, to try to get this painting finished by yesterday, to have time to let it dry completely before putting it into a frame and wrapping it before dinner tonight!
My dad was coming over for Christmas dinner, after a Christmas Eve meal with my sister and her family; to keep our gatherings smaller and safer this year, we split our holiday dinners. It’s never a good idea, by the way, to try to “rush” a painting! There’s a higher risk of making a last-minute mistake that could ruin a painting, or simply not finishing it on time.
It was a great feeling to decide that this one was “finished”. I know that this watercolour lacks some depth, and I could have added more shadows and painted a bit of texture onto the sea water. But I decided to be happy that I managed to render a believable lighthouse, cliffs, and submarine – as a Christmas surprise for my dad. I hoped he would like it, and that he’d guess that the cliffs were meant to show Newfoundland, because the submarine was named for a town there.
As soon as we’d finished dinner, we brought out his gifts. I handed him the wrapped painting, telling him to be careful because there was glass inside. And… I think he loved it. My dad’s not the most demonstrative or talkative guy; I mentioned that he’d been in the Navy, right? ‘-) The very first thing he noticed was that there were not only one, but two, Canadian flags. Then he spotted the lighthouse itself, beside the second flag, and next the vague figures in their Dress Whites on the conning tower.
He told us that the two “standing up” would be the Captain and First Officers, as the submarine was coming in to port. The other few sailors visible, also in their Dress Whites, would have been leaning over the conning tower as spotters for the docking. Then he paused… And I told him that in the photo there were people standing on the hull of the HCMS Corner Brook, but that I hadn’t included them in the painting so that I could instead show the clean line of the submarine’s hull. He nodded: “Yeah, good idea. That would have blocked off the cliffs, too. But I wondered why there was no one on the hull, with the mooring lines – the ropes.”
Oh, and as soon as he unwrapped the painting – and flipped it the right way up! – he said almost to himself: “That’s Newfoundland. Coming into port at St. John’s”. My dad looked over at me: “And that’s Fort Amherst, right? We visited there, remember?”
He knew exactly where this was meant to be, because he recognized the lighthouse and the ruins of those WWII coastal defenses. Those reddish – almost orange – rocks, too. My painting may lack the depth and detail of a professional artist’s work, but my dad didn’t care. He recognized a specific place, and a moment he would have loved to witness for himself. So to me, and to him, this watercolour was a success.
And, best of all, I was able to give him a good surprise at Christmas… instead of waiting until “someday” to paint this for him ‘-)
Happy Holidays! As always, thanks so much for stopping by. Please feel free to reach out over on Instagram or Twitter; I love hearing from you, but have had to disable the Comments feature here on the blog because it’s too much for me to manage with my CRPS-related mild cognitive impairment. I wish you only happy surprises this holiday season, whatever you do – or don’t – celebrate. Best wishes for a New Year that’s as good as it can be, for you, for your loved ones, and for everyone. Stay safe, keep well, and look after yourself!
References:
(1) Murray Brewster. Canada’s submarine fleet spent ‘zero days’ at sea last year: government documents. CBC News (website). CBC/Radio-Canada. 11 Feb 2020. Canada’s submarine fleet spent ‘zero days’ at sea last year: government documents. Online. Accessed 24 Dec 2021:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/submarines-canada-fleet-repairs-canadian-navy-1.5458632
(2) Navy News (no attributed author). Canada’s most modern submarine returns to the water. Royal Canadian Navy (RCN); Government of Canada. 16 Jun 2021; updated 08 Jul 2021. Online. Accessed 24 Dec 2021:
http://www.navy-marine.forces.gc.ca/en/news-operations/news-view.page?doc=canada-s-most-modern-submarine-returns-to-the-water/koeiznbe
(3) Royal Canadian Navy (no attributed author): Ships’ histories. HMCS Corner Brook. Royal Canadian Navy (RCN); Government of Canada. 2009; updated 11 Nov 2021. Online. Accessed 24 Dec 2021:
https://www.canada.ca/en/navy/services/history/ships-histories/corner-brook.html
(4) Rick Anthony. HMCS Corner Brook (HMCS Corner Brook passing Fort Amherst and St. John’s WWII coastal defenses into the harbor). Wikimedia Commons. 11 Oct 2020. Online. Accessed 24 Dec 2021:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HMCS_Corner_Brook.jpg