SU ROGERS - ARTWORK SITE
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia Canada
Visual Artist - NSCAD Graduate
Historia Atlantica - Paintings
At the Landwash
Medium: oil on canvas (diptych)
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 2016
Dimensions: 40” (h) x 96” (w) x 1.5” (d)
101.6 cm (h) x 243.84 cm (w) x 3.81 cm (d)
Item Description: fish sheds and an icehouse as seen from the ocean. This is where the land meets the sea (a Newfoundland term, but I like it).
The floating house suggests calamity and climate change. Image comes from a photograph of a house being hauled by a large boat after the 1929 Tsunami that struck the Burin Peninsula (the home of some of my maternal ancestors) in Newfoundland. The painting is a cautionary tale.
The fish sheds are iconic in nature. They are disappearing as fishing sheds are being transformed into small houses–a gentrification of the seaside–they have turned into desirable real estate as the province evolves from a primary resource of fishing and boat-building economy to tourism.
The flying ribbon is a motif from 18thc and 19thc paintings used as a decrative element that refers to the traditional times.
Diptych, two writing tablets hinged or strung together, used in the Roman Empire for letters and documents. The word is also used to describe paired paintings and engravings that are joined in a similar fashion.
PRICE: $9500
Yvonne and Sebastian Cabot
Yvonne and Sebastian Cabot
(from my Women - Packing Salt Fish Series)
Medium: oil on canvas (hinged diptych)
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 2013
Dimensions: 40” (h) x 80” (w) x 1.5” (d)
101.6 cm (h) x 203.2 cm (w) x 3.81 cm (d)
Item Description: the first painting in a series I titled “Packing Salt Fish,” in which I documented women fish packers in Fort Point/Gunning Cove, Shelburne Co.
The c. 1500 text along the border of this painting, is taken directly from the sea voyages of John and Sebastian Cabot of their findings in the so-called “New World.” It is a useful comparison to the state of the contemporary fishery.
The Cape Islander vessel, the church and the clapboard house are iconic and reminiscent of the place we call home; the light fixture is one used in the fish shed. It was dim and wet in the shed where the catch was packed in crates to be shipped away after being weighed on great scales. Yvonne is wearing her armlength yellow gloves to protect herself from guts, scales and water. She wears a netted hat.
For reference, I used photographs documenting women fish workers at the shed.
The inshore fishery is irretrievably over–a fleeting moment in time. The fish work carried on at the wharf and sheds has dried up. The boats now fish offshore, often at least a day’s steam away from home. The fish workers have lost their work there as well. You will see halos over the heads of the women as I suggest a biblical figure from medieval paintings and illuminated illustrations. The desertification of the oceans is biblical in nature, like the floods and the fires and climate change.
[Diptych, two writing tablets hinged or strung together, used in the Roman Empire for letters and documents. The word is also used to describe paired paintings and engravings that are joined in a similar fashion. Wiki]
PRICE: $9500
Sarah. Lobster fisher in District 33
(from my Women - Packing Salt Fish Series)
Medium: oil on canvas (hinged triptych)
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 2019
Dimensions: 36” (h) 72” (w) x 1.5” (d)
91.44 cm (h) x 182.88 cm (w) x 3.81 cm (d)
Item Description: the first panel references a 19thc photograph of a fisher woman in Lunenburg holding a fish basket. She is connected through time the other women in the panels. The middle panel is Sarah, a local lobster fisher fishing out of Second Peninsula, Lunenburg Co., mate onboard. When Sarah is not fishing, she owns a garage and manages the business. She is this generation’s example of women fishers joining more and more women along the coast in this livelihood. The third panel references a French painting of a fisher woman from the 19th Century in Picardy, France, with her child and a rolled-up sail. The magnolias bloom near the wharf Sara fishes from. The seahorses, crab and lobster refer to a design I saw on the fence of Province House in Halifax, NS.
The triptych format is about the rule of three or the power of three. It is a principle that suggests that things are more satisfying and effective than other numbers of things. Omni trium perfectum– everything that comes in threes is perfect. Each panel refers to the other. The constructed triptych refers to hinged altar pieces from the middle ages.
PRICE: $8500
Angelus
(from my Women - Packing Salt Fish Series)
[after Carravagio’s Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), this is Behold the Woman]
Medium: oil on canvas (hinged diptych)
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 2014
Dimensions: 60” (h) x 80” (w) x 1.5” (d)
152.4 cm (h) x 203.2 cm (w) x 3.81 (d)
Item Description: Angelus was the manager of the fish shed. As I was taking photographs she said, here take a photo of me with a halibut. I did! The text refers to the ever-changing and diminishing fish supplies. The boat is biblical in nature too, as Jesus was a fisher of men. The angel is a direct reference to rare carved and painted wood sculptures in the National Gallery of Canada, by Henri Angers, a 19thc Quebec artist–“The Sacred Made Real.” They are part of the Rideau Chapel which was reconstructed inside the gallery in 1972 before the original building was destroyed.
I added the church she is holding, referencing medieval paintings in which high-status religious individuals are holding churches, abbeys and meaningful structures. The text on this church are passages from the book of Revelations in the Bible, suggesting the end of times, also connecting medieval paintings to the present crisis in the fishery. I use these elements to stretch a metaphor and the narrative, if you will.
The fishing sheds are now icons of NS tourism having largely outlived their usefulness but are of architectural importance in the province. They have golden roofs to suggest they have transported to another level of meaning, a new religion if you will. The sheds which are just line drawings suggest ghost sheds.
[Diptych, two writing tablets hinged or strung together, used in the Roman Empire for letters and documents. The word is also used to describe paired paintings and engravings that are joined in a similar fashion. Wiki]
PRICE: $11,000
Three Graces and Fish Work
Krystine, Yvonne and Monica (from my Women - Packing Salt Fish Series)
Medium: oil on canvas (hinged diptych)
Owner: The Art Bank of Nova Scotia
Type: painting
Date: 2014
Dimensions: 40” (h) x 72” (w) x 1.5” (d)
101.6 cm (h) x 182.88 cm (w) x 3.81 cm (d)
Item Description: three women around the sluice used for washing fish before they are packed. The text refers to the types of fish they slit, gut, wash and ice for packing. This work I refer to as “localism.” I am incorporating localism and everyday acts of heroism into the art historical context through the use of certain pictorial devices. A compass rose motif is depicted on the top corners of the border and refer to folk-art motifs. The two miniature paintings taped on the back wall behind the two women show two views of the bow of a Cape Islander boat. They reference large-format paintings by the artist. They refer to how the fish are caught and how the vessel is like a member of the family‒with a name most often related to a family member.
Three Graces refers to Aglaia, Thalia, Euphrosyne: brightness, good cheer, joyfulness as witnessed in the fish shed as the women went about their work.
[Diptych, two writing tablets hinged or strung together, used in the Roman Empire for letters and documents. The word is also used to describe paired paintings and engravings that are joined in a similar fashion Wiki.]
Slit, Gutted, Iced, Packed
(from my Women - Packing Salt Fish Series)
Medium: oil on canvas (hinged triptych)
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 2016
Dimensions: 36” (h) x 72” (w) x 1.5” (d)
91.44 cm (h) x 182.88 cm (w) x 3.81 cm (d)
Item Description: Three women fish packers. The first panel’s icons are small fishing sheds abandoned, an icehouse at Fort Point and the ascending Cape Island vessel is a metaphor for the decline and loss in the fishery. The Renaissance arches in the background of the middle panel show a deeper space; the presence is seen in the past. The ribbons are motifs from 18thc and 19thc paintings used as a decorative element that refers to the traditional times.
[The triptych format is about the rule of three or the power of three. It is a principle that suggests that things are more satisfying and effective than other numbers of things. Omni trium perfectum– everything that comes in threes is perfect. Each panel refers to the other. The constructed triptych refers to hinged altar pieces from the middle ages.]
PRICE: $8000
We have bitten the lips of the Divine
(from my Women - Packing Salt Fish Series)
Medium: oil on canvas (hinged triptych)
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 2015
Dimensions: 36” (h) x 60” (w) x 1.25” (d)
91.44 cm (l) x 152.4 cm (w) x 3.81 cm (d)
Item Description: (biblical title) A cautionary tale.
This triptych holds images of Christian symbolism referring to traditional and contemporary times in the small communities which are often faith-based. Burning boats are almost biblical in their sad reminder of what has taken place in recent history, with communities in Atlantic Canada burning their boat in sheer desperation. The boats were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars along with the fishing licenses, had become utterly worthless as the fish stocks fell. Finding an alternate way of living was not easy.
We have squandered our legacy. We have looked into the face of the Divine and continued industrial-fishing practices that have left the oceans like deserts. The bees are in peril. The adoration of the lamb and the fish, as they look in their dying moments in the slew, are typical Christian symbols. The iconic fishing sheds are disappearing or turned into real estate. There is a gentrification of the seaside. They are desirable as real estate as the province changes from a primary resource economy to one of tourism and resort features.
[The triptych format is about the rule of three or the power of three. It is a principle that suggests that things are more satisfying and effective than other numbers of things. Omni trium perfectum– everything that comes in threes is perfect. Each panel refers to the other. The constructed triptych refers to hinged altar pieces from the middle ages.]
PRICE: $8000
Rock Knocker
(baiting table) (from a painting exhibition at Karsh Mason Gallery, Ottawa, ON
titled What Chance Allows)
Medium: oil on canvas
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 2014
Dimensions: 36” (h) x 36” (w) x 2” (d)
91.44 cm (h) x 91.44 cm (w) x 5.08 cm (d)
Item Description: I documented and then painted wooden baiting tables found onboard Cape Islander vessels. They were all handmade by the fishermen. Today they have been replaced with metal tables. Rock Knocker is the name of a Cape Islander vessel out of Gunning Cove, NS.
PRICE: $5000
No Future
Future (baiting table) (from a painting exhibition at Karsh Mason Gallery, Ottawa, ON
titled What Chance Allows)
Medium: oil on canvas
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 2014
Dimensions: 36” (h) x 36” (w) x 2” (d)
91.44 cm (h) x 91.44 cm (w) x 5.08 cm (d)
Item Description: This painting, No Future, is the name of a Cape Islander vessel out of Gunning Cove. The baiting table is attached to the side of the gunnel. No Future (in fishing) was seen in the early 2000s when visiting Gunning Cove. It was a poignant moment for me when I realized that the names of some Cape Islander vessels were related to pride and hope and dreams and despair of fishermen.
I documented and then painted wooden baiting tables found onboard Cape Islander vessels. They were all handmade by the fishermen. Today they have been replaced with metal tables.
PRICE: $5000
Following Hope on Forty Roses
(baiting table left on the wharf) (from a painting exhibition at Karsh Mason Gallery, Ottawa, ON titled What Chance Allows)
Medium: oil on canvas
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 2013
Dimensions: 37” (h) x 60” (w) x 2” (d)
93.98 cm (h) x 152.4 cm (w) x 5.08 cm (d)
Item Description: This painting, Forty Roses, is the name of a Cape Islander vessel out of Gunning Cove. I see the name of the vessel as the hope which resides in the heart of fishermen.
Michelle Sail Loft on Second Peninsula sewed this original diptych together to form one painting before I decided to put it on supports for ease of exhibiting.
I documented and then painted wooden baiting tables found onboard Cape Island vessels. They were all handmade by the fishermen. Today they have been replaced with metal tables.
PRICE: $9000
Stem Post of a Cape Islander Boat
(from a painting exhibition at Karsh Mason Gallery, Ottawa, ON
titled What Chance Allows)
Medium: oil on canvas
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 2004
Dimensions: 52” (h) x 60” (w) x 1.5” (d)
137.16 cm (h) x 152.40 cm (w) x 3.81 cm
Item Description: Looking out of the wheelhouse (called a cuddy) is the stem post on the front of a Cape Islander vessel. It is used to navigate–a quick way to point the vessel in the direction on the horizon, the other shore or taking aim at a landmark to steer straight and true. The stem is the foremost timber member forming the bow of a vessel joined at the bottom to the keel. In a wooden vessel like the Cape Islander all the timber strakes are rabbeted to the stem.
[A Cape Islander, a style of fishing boat mostly used for lobster fishing, is an inshore motor fishing boat found across Atlantic Canada having a single keeled flat bottom at the stern and more rounded towards the bow. The Cape Island style boat is famous for its large step up to the bow. They are known for being good "sea" boats and riding the swells well.
It originated on Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia (known locally as Cape Island to distinguish it from the similarly named Sable Island. (Wiki)]
PRICE: $8000
The Hatch on a Cape Islander Boat
(from a painting exhibition at Karsh Mason Gallery, Ottawa, ON - titled What Chance Allows)
Medium: oil on canvas
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 2014
Dimensions: 60” (h) x 41” (w) x 2” (d)
152.4 cm (h) x 104.14 cm (w) x 5.08 cm (d)
Item Description: The Hatch is an opening in the Cape Islander vessel’s deck for ingress and egress of the catch. The hatch is a covered space under the deck where the catch is kept on ice.
The Hatch is an opening in the Cape Islander vessel’s deck for ingress and egress of the catch
[NOTE: the series of paintings The Hatch was included in a series titled Splitting the Tiffany Charity, is a section of the Cape Islander vessel. Tiffany Charity was fishing out of Gunning Cove, NS and was named as tradition often dictates, after the women in the family for good luck. Splitting refers to the lobster boats that were split and enlarged. The length and extended to take on more traps giving space for more traps. I adapted the terms to refer to different parts of the vessel.]
[A Cape Islander, a style of fishing boat mostly used for lobster fishing, is an inshore motor fishing boat found across Atlantic Canada having a single keeled flat bottom at the stern and more rounded towards the bow. The Cape Island style boat is famous for its large step up to the bow. They are known for being good "sea" boats, and riding the swells well. The Cape Islander originated on Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia (known locally as Cape Island to distinguish it from the similarly named Sable Island. (Wiki)]
PRICE: $9500
Talk is cheap but, fish is scarce
Medium: oil on canvas (diptych)
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 1996
Dimensions: 36’ (h) x 108” (w) x 1.5” (d)
91.440 cm (h) x 274.32 cm (w) x 3.51cm (d)
Item Description: Wooden fishing buoys shown in full colour in the first panel. The second panel are buoys ghosted, to represent the decline in the fishing industry. Wood buoys were replaced with glass buoys and plastic foam. Traditional wooden lobster buoys were made by individual fisherman from trees they usually felled themselves. They then cut and shaped them into a buoy and painted them. The result was that they were not only different shapes and sizes, but also a combination of distinctive colours and patterns demarking lobster-trap locations for each boat.
The title is an old phrase from South Shore Nova Scotia.
PRICE: $7000
Gunboat Diplomacy/Shots across the Bow
Painted Floor cloth
Medium: acrylic on canvas with gloss
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 1996
Dimensions: 84” (l) x 84” (w)
213.36 cm (l) x 213.36 cm (w)
Item Description: Gunboat Diplomacy was inspired by the fishing wars between Canada and Spain (which Brian Tobin got involved with), concerning fishing rights and fishing grounds called the Turbot Wars. Tobin was acting to curb turbot fishing in waters outside the 200-mile territorial limit in the early 90’s. Big guns were fired with shots across the bows of the Spainish bows.
I chose the floorcloth as a medium which were traditionally used in the outports in Newfoundland and other coastal communities in Nova Scotia to ward off drafts from the wood floors. It seemed fitting to use canvas. I sometimes call these pieces painted floorcloths.
PRICE: $10,000
The Cod are Gone
Medium: acrylic on canvas with gloss
Owner: the artist
Type: painting
Date: 1996
Dimensions: 29” (h) x 55” (w)
73.66 cm (h) x 139.7 cm (w)
Item Description: the cod fishing moratorium was put in place on 2 July 1992. I recall getting a pain in the gut when I heard that this was imminent–loss of a primary resources, loss of community as people either moved away and gave up on the fishery, sold their boats and left their children, feeling robbed of their livelihood, leaving home to find other work.
The federal government banned cod fishing along Canada’s east coast‒even jigging for dinner. This moratorium ended nearly five centuries of cod fishing in Newfoundland and Labrador. Cod had played a central role in the province’s economy and culture. The aim of the policy was to help restore cod stocks that had been depleted due to overfishing. This was a total collapse.
The Canadian government has ended the Newfoundland and Labrador cod moratorium, which gutted the Atlantic coast province’s economy and transformed its small communities more than 30 years ago. The Fisheries Department recently announced it would re-establish a commercial cod fishery in the province, with a total allowable catch of 18,000 tons for the 2024 season.
The total catch of 18,000 tons for the 2024 season is just a fraction of what it was — 120,000 tons, according to a government website—in February 1992, just months before the moratorium.
[NOTE: I chose the floorcloth as a medium which were traditionally used in the outports in Newfoundland and other coastal communities in Nova Scotia to ward off drafts from the wood floors. It seemed fitting to use canvas. I sometimes call these pieces painted floorcloths.]
PRICE: $8000