This Land | Marina Raike

I love my Ontario home and that’s the inspiration for my current paintings.

My dad's parents came here from Great Britain. Nana, from Wales at age fourteen worked as an au pair. Grampa came from Salisbury Plain, just a stone’s throw from Stonehenge. Together, they raised six kids in the sooty bustle of inner-city Hamilton. We were close and frequently visited them throughout my childhood.

Home | 30” x 30” | Acrylic on birch panel | Marina May Raike

It was different with my mother's family. We almost never saw them, but I remember everything she told me about her roots.

 Her ancestors arrived in the 1600s from France and were among the first Acadiens. They made their homes and intermingled with First Nations Peoples since before Le Grand Dérangement.

Mon grand-père was a courier du bois, a trapper and a scout. Ma grand-mère et lui built a tiny shack in the woods of Nipissing district and raised seven children sans electricity or running water. Mum used to pick wildflowers and sell them by the roadside. She knew all the plants: which ones were edible and which were not. She and her siblings rode the neighbour's horses bareback (without permission!). Life was rough, but they lived in one of the most beautiful places I know.

Aylen Lake Campfire | Marina May Raike

I've lived in suburbia, small towns, and big cities, but the wild places are where my heart sings. That's why my current body of work delves deep into the spirit of woodland Ontario. Nature's wonderful gifts: the rocks, trees, and water. Over the ages, they mingle and merge. The water dissolves rocks which are consumed by vegetation under an ever-changing sky. The animals are free. Evidence of human presence is minimal. This is where I belong.