Robert Bateman's "Gyrfalcon"
George River, 2006   36"x 24" acrylic
Northern Lights over camp on the George River,
Nunavik, August 31, 2005.  Photo by Gary McGuffin
In a society increasingly insulated from nature, art can provide a vicarious
connection with the natural world and a window into our perceptions of it.
Ironically, however, since nature artists have many of the same pressures to deal
with as everyone else, the insulating effects of modern life can dull the very
inspiration that drives that art.

WREAF combats that dulling effect in dramatic fashion. WREAF crews live their
art on extended and self-supported expeditions in some of the most rugged and
remote regions of North America. The arduous rigors and sublime joys of
wilderness travel provide an intense and intimate immersion in the mother lode of
inspiration and a reconnection with wildness ... the indifference to humans of our
ancient Earth.

The resulting artwork, however varied, is connected by a thread of shared
adventure and experience. By exhibiting our individual visions together within a
natural history context, we work to raise awareness of the region in which these
rivers run; the North American Wilderness.  Our principal focus is the Boreal
Forest. The Boreal is the largest terrestrial ecosystem on Earth, the greatest
wilderness in the world, critical for global climate, fresh water, indigenous cultures,
wildlife, birds, minerals, pulp, timber, energy and within a day's drive of billions of
people, yet virtually unknown to the general public.
"Sharing the River", River Otter, northern Ontario;
by John Pitcher
acrylic original from the 2001 expedition.
This story is from a canoe trip that I took over 20 years ago with my
father while I was a NYC freelance advertising artist.  I didn't paint
on the journey, but it was my first real wilderness trip and as such was
an important part of the foundations of WREAF as it deeply impressed
me with the magic of canoeing a wild and remote river

Bull Moose; Up close and pretty personal
By Rob Mullen

There had been no room for the tent in the dense spruce crowding the river for miles, yet even with the long summer twilight
this far north it was time to stop for the night. Seeing a few blades of grass on top of a short steep cut-bank, I spun our canoe
into shore; it would have to be here. Either that or sleep in the boat.

The clearing was easily big enough for a gear bag or two, but the tent required some imaginative engineering. So it was that  
as the glow from the sunset finally gave up and Dad started snoring, I tended a small twig fire stretched out from the tent in
the comfort of my sleeping bag only a foot or so from the straight drop to the river several feet below.

I was meditatively staring into the tiny flames as I absently tried drying my socks, not a care in the world and just letting the
night noises flow around me when right in front …………

BGFLUREOOOOOOOOOWHSHSHSHSH!!!!!!

It sounded like a fire-hose! Shocked out of my reverie I covered the flames with my hand so that my eyes could adjust. There,
glinting in the small light was an enormous hairy back. I was looking at the top of something huge only a few feet away with
most of its massive bulk out of sight below the edge of the riverbank. With a rushing cascade of water the head rose up,
gallons pouring from the velvet of his wide antlers. The bull gave me glaring look from his beady eye reflecting in the firelight
and moved on with his feeding.

There is simply no way he didn’t see the fire; he obviously just didn’t care - he was after all the biggest beast in the forest - so I
could only interpret his peeing in the river just in front of me as some sort of a statement.
Slate Islands Expedition
Completed September 8, 2008
Page coming soon

Full funding support from Ontario Tourism
Lake Kamestastin, Labrador Expedition
Completed October 18, 2008
George River, photo by Gary McGuffin
WILDERNESS RIVER EXPEDITION
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