Jock Macdonald - 1897 - 1960

As an art teacher JWG Macdonald or Jock, as he liked to be called, had few equals. He taught drawing and painting at the Ontario College of Art from 1947 until his untimely death in 1960. These were exciting years for the staid old school. The second world war was over, the young men and women who had served and survived were home, and under a programme of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs were now able to continue their interrupted studies. It was not surprising that many chose to study art in one form or another as a means to finally express themselves creatively. OCA enrolment swelled with young battle-weary vets and service women eager to forget the carnage left behind in Europe. While not a vet in the normal sense I never the less had served (1943 - '46) in the Canadian Merchant Service as an able seaman aboard several oil tankers, in part hauling essential high-octane aircraft fuel between Chicago and East Montreal long before the seaway was built, a risky enough business for a 16 year old. Afterwards, in the brief time I was able to study at OCA, a good part was under Jock's guidance. His inspirational spirit has remained with me ever since. Jock was not just a teacher, but a mentor who had the ability to make each pupil feel special while not favouring any. He did however manage to draw out that, which in his opinion, were a budding artists' strong points. He offered challenges drawn no doubt from his own experiences, rather than outright criticism and in so doing drew us in until his all-encompassing passion became ours.

We never knew what he was working on himself, as he did not use his own work as an illustration of how it should be done, which is the inclination of many instructors; it served no purpose to reveal his personal trials and tribulations in juggling a full-time teaching career with that of a dedicated painter, not to mention, husband. This burning of the candle at both ends probably led to his early death, although I somehow doubt that Jock would have given up any of his painting time for a heart murmur or two - he was far too absorbed in creating a language in paint with which to communicate his inner thoughts, his joys, and torments, to heed such warnings.

Jock began interpreting the spiritual aspect of nature after moving to British Columbia to work and teach; he spoke also of 'automatic' painting. The strong impressions left me by Jock have borne fruit in my own attempts to envision the inner workings of nature. Lithograph #140 is intended as homage long overdue Jock. It began automatically, that is, without any preconceived notion and then evolved from form to form, colour to colour, in accordance with the initial action and within the limitations of the medium. The whole involvement with creation and craft were as the turning on and off of a water spigot, one where spontaneity was manifest in creating the separate pieces of the whole, and then subdued to allow grease, water, acacia gum, and limestone to work their magic in the lithographic process. It is my hope that Jock would have approved the final result.