Our short foray into the Newfoundlanders of Fort Mac led us to a gentleman named Wayne King. While shopping with our chef for the ingredients of our Jiggs dinner we saw an advertisement for artwork - someone in this remote northern Alberta community was drawing boats. Not river boats as seen on the Athabasca River or lake boats - fishing boats like you would expect to see on the shores of the Atlantic.

And this is what Wayne told us when we sought him out!

Wayne King: Why I paint boats in Fort McMurray, well Newfoundland is part of my soul – my spirit. I like the old part of Newfoundland. I like the culture that’s fading. I like the old buildings, the old houses. When I go back there and walk on the land you can actually feel the old presence of the people that lived there.
When they had the John Cabot anniversary in Bonavista I did some drawings of the Ryan premises, different buildings in Trinity like the Orange Hall and the old Courthouse and that sort of thing. There was a lady in Trinity, by the name of Dixie Rich – I don’t think she’s there anymore, she actually bought the whole shot. Actually that’s where I got the money to come to Alberta. (laughs)

I was looking for a name for my little company that I just started – that had some meaning – and that Newfoundlanders could relate to it. You know, tides and tidelines timelines…throughout all of Newfoundland’s history people lived by the water. The tides dictated a lot of the way they lived and that sort of thing. I just thought it was a good name that way because you see the marks of time and tides on these people that have lived in the fishery for years and years.
I’m hoping to move back there someday.

You get up on a foggy morning where you can’t even see – you walk out on your step and you can’t see your fence. And those people have the skill to actually go down and get in a boat and just by looking at the wake behind the boat – go for like 45 minutes and put themselves right on a cod trap, without a compass or without anything. It’s amazing.

I actually attempted to build a couple of boats – just small ones, like little 12 foot flat bottom dinghies. Went around my garden, picked up a few boards and sticks – my father said ‘What are you doing?’ I’m gonna build a boat.

It’s a life I always admired and always loved but never was a part of.

There’s a good Newfie culture in Fort McMurray. And sometimes in the summertime you get out on the deck there, and get the barbeque going, the firepit and a few beer, guitars and whatever and we have a grand old time.
And – I don’t know – maybe I shouldn’t say Newfie because (chuckle) maybe that will offend some people but I would say Newfoundland culture. But you can call me a Newfie because I am.

Wayne's boats (in their Newfoundland homes!) can be seen at www.tidelinesart.ca

Warning - You may get homesick!