Time to recognize our cultural past
Lynn Valley influenced the | paintings of FH. Varley

LYNN VALLEY in the 1920s. A thinnish-looking man
walks through the bracken and ftireweed to a ridge on the
western side of upper Lynn Creek.

When he reaches a small fire
ranger’s cabin, he climbs up the
nearby Iookoul tower and opens a
sketchbook. Looting cast to Lynn
Peak and Rice Lake he begins to
sketch. The man is Frederick
Horsman Varley.

Aud he is Lynn Valley's best
kept secret.

F.H. Varley, well known as one
of the famous Canadian Group of
Seven painters, lived in Lynn
Valley from 1927-1935, painting
and sketching the local landscape.
The house he lived in on Rice
Lake Road siill exists today, al-
though the cabin and tower are
long gone.

The influence that Lynn Valicy
had upon the famous artist is ap-
parent in his paintings from the
time which, says his grandson
Christopher Varley, became ‘“‘in-
timate, searching and organic."

A 1935 watercolor painting tit!-
ed The Trail to Rice Lake shows
Lynn Peak rising like a blue-pur-
ple leviathan out of the luxuriant
greenery and wildflowers near
Rice Lake. Other works depict
vaporous clouds cloaking the
valley or water cascading through
a narrow rock passage in Lynn
Canyon.

Of Lynn Valiey, writes
Christopher in his book on F.H.
Varley, ‘“Varley had found his
Eden.”

In 1989, when proposals were
made to put housing developments
in the Lynn Canyon area, Nosth
Vancouver commercial artist Kelly
Phillips remembered Varley had
painted the aréa and realized
“what an important contribution
to the history of Canadian paint-
ing hed been started in Lynn
Canyon.”’

She formed the Varley Com-
memorative Society, whose direc-
tors include local artists Unity
Bainbridge and Daniel Izzard. The
society has put forward several
proposals to the North Vancouver

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One of them, a commemorative
trail, is nearing realization, thanks
to a matching grant of $15,000
from the Centennial Committee
and $1,000 pledged from Cana-
dian Occidental Petroleum Lid.

The society still has to raise its
own $15,000 in goods, services or
cash.

The proposed trail would take
visitors on a circle route to points
where Varley painted, with ac-
companying plaques showing his
interpretations of the surroun-
dings.

Further plans include buiiding a
reproduction of the fire ranger’s
cabin and tower and to staff the
cabin with a resident artist in the
summer months; mounting an ex-
hibition of Varley's works in
North Vancouver; and naming
Lynn Peak ‘'Varley’s Mountain.’”*

The resident artist plan is
Phillips’ dream.

**1 think the person whe staffs
it (would be) someone who under-
stands landscape painting and is
willing to talk about the relation
between what you see and how
you iaterpret it. It’s another way
of bringing the public closer to the
act of creation.’’

She proposes that the artist use
the building as a private workshop
during the rest of the year and
that one piece out of the. produc-
tion of that year be donated to
North Vancouver District to form
part of a permanent collection.

The proposal to name Lynn
Peak after Varley was met with
some consternation. But Phillips
discovered from the Geological
Survey of Canada that in fact
four peaks are legally referred to
as Lynn Peaks and that the
southernmost, known as Lynn
Peak, is actually unnamed.

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As for the exhibition, it is fea-
sible, says Phillips, but will re-
quire much more time to plan and
finance than the other projects.

What it all adds up to, says
Phillips, is ‘‘another -dimension’’
of Lynn Valley hitherto unknown
and a chance to recognize a great
Canadian artist as part of the
North Shore’s cultural heritage.

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coordinator of the Varley Commemorative Society, poses with society directors
and !ocal artists Daniel Izzard and Unity Bainbridge in front of Rice Lake. Izzard displays a painting
done by F.H. Vasley of Rice Lake and Lynn Peak. The society hopes to devetsp a Varley trail in
upper Lynn Valley to commemorate Varley, who lived and painted in the area for eight years.

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Sunday, September 15, 1991 - North Shore News - 37

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