MenzArt - Gil Menzies Artist

Keepers of the Land

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:51:04 +0000

One year, Gil Menzies received a Christmas card from one of the farmers on whose land he had hunted and had returned with a goose, plucked, cleaned and frozen. Later, the farmer’s wife invited guests for Thanksgiving dinner where roast goose was on the menu. In her card she reported that the goose was delicious, but she wasn’t sure if it was their good barley or Gil’s good recipe that made the difference. This interaction with keepers of the land is most enjoyable.

Outdoor experiences have always fascinated me

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:48:35 +0000

Outdoor experiences have always fascinated me. Being surrounded by awesome scenery and viewing wild game in their natural habitat is rewarding.

My friend, Gil Menzies, and I have shared these pleasures together. Gil has faithfully reproduced both wild game in their habitat and birds in flight in excellent detail for the enjoyment of all. He has agreed to draw bighorn sheep surveying the crags and basins of majestic ram habitat. My main interest has been riding and climbing through our high country, so I’m looking forward to seeing the result of Gil’s next challenge!

Keith Brown, Alberta

Grand Slam Club – Four North American Ram Species

GSC – OVIS (Super Slam – Twelve Species Worldwide)

Boone and Crocket record holder – Three species

My reaction to art is quite elementary

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:45:11 +0000

My reaction to art is quite elementary. When I react to a specific picture, it’s my individual experience that is the driver. “Bull Headed” does not just revive an experience, it completes an experience. The first time that I was in a ‘tug-of-war’ with a bull trout, it took a few excited seconds to realize that a big bully had latched on to a just-hooked small rainbow. It flashed through my mind that the bullie might bite right through the rainbow on to the hook and that I had a beggar’s chance to capture it. No such Luck! After ten tense minutes of running out and reeling in the line, I felt the big bozo finally let go. Gil’s dynamic drawing depicts what I did not see: the preliminary, under-water happening – the vicious, toothed-mouth bull trout converging on the hapless, hooked rainbow. This is not just art presenting reality; it is art extending reality.

Another of Gil’s drawings that relates to my experience is “Neighbors”. In twenty-eight summers at Mitchell Lake, I have been thrilled on three separate occasions to see woodland caribou. And in the last couple of summers, we have been delighted to see a family of river otters swimming across the front of our place. As different from the traveling caribou, these otters appear to be permanent residents. Their headquarters is probably located a short way up the corner creek. What Gil has so artfully done is to place the two groups at a creek in from the lakeshore. They probably eye each other warily at first, but then are quite inclined to share the water supply peacefully – and to be neighbors. The probability of actually coming on to such a scene is slight, but what a pleasant experience to imagine! Again, Gil succeeds in extending reality.

Bill Corbett, Alberta

Author of “Adventures at Mitchell Lake: Retreating and Recharging in Canada’s Wilderness”

Permission from Farmers

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:35:32 +0000

To hunt geese, Gil Menzies always asks farmers for permission to use their land. In

Water Wings

appreciation, he usually returns with a plucked, cleaned and frozen goose and an art card containing a note regarding the success of the hunt along with a roast goose recipe. Most often, when Gil returns in subsequent years, the cards have been framed and displayed in a prominent place. One rural lady, whom Gil had never met, had collected a few different cards over the years, and for Christmas that year she was having the cards framed in a collage as a gift to herself so she could enjoy them daily.