Cap Trinité

Cyanotype impression on platinotype printed on archival rag
32 x 24.5 in.
Edition of 5 
Custom framed
2021

"Cap Trinité" was inspired by the National Gallery of Canada's first acquisition – the painting by Lucius O’Brien, “Sunrise on the Saguenay, Cap Trinity”, 1880.

"I had a card with a photo of the painting on my desk for years. In 2017, on Canada’s 150th anniversary, I was a visual artist travelling on the CanadaC3 ice breaker on the St. Lawrence River and brought the card with me for inspiration. I wanted to re-interpret the location of O’Brien’s painting and took several photographs from the ship. The vertical rock wall with its abstract geological layers of hidden histories and memories captivated me and transported me back in time. The majestic rock wall was breathtaking and humbling.

"In 2021, I finally printed one of the photographs using photographic printing methods from O’Brien’s time. I used the Cyanotype method for the deep blue pigment and the Platinotype technique for creating the base layer of tones of grey and black. I hand-brushed my light sensitive emulsion on rag paper, making multiple impressions using UV light and separate film transparency negatives for the image’s shadows and highlights.

"My final unique hand-printed piece is a modern interpretation of Cap Trinité using techniques from O’Brien’s era. While O’Brien’s piece uses light to suggest a "promising new dawn and future," my piece is cloaked in twilight – the ‘last light’ before darkness - as an elegy for our present moment, caught between the deep time of life on earth and an ominous future. If you look at my piece from a few steps back, you can see a face  – it’s almost as if O’Brien is looking back at you, or maybe you are looking at a reflection of yourself."

- C. Fitzgerald