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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1975-05-29, Page 21i Cros.sro.ci the weekly 1b04114$ 141YORIC Ustowel BaNa►er. Winghaus Advance, limes and Mount Forest' Coale- derate is rea4 b3► 33.204 people in the "heartland of Midwestern Ontario", (Rase d on 3,5 readers In each of 9400 homes.) r Published every we in The Listowel Banner, The Wingharn Advance -Tines and' The Mit Forest Confederate by Wenger Bras. Linnited0 o sroada - oy 211,.1975— T ONT.Crer w By Terry Thomson Artist in harmon SHOWS PAINTING—Dr. Anthony Kingscote shows the Chinese brush painting he com- pleted of a Western Canada landscape. He uses this picture quite often in teaching his students the'art of painting landscapes. In the corner of a one -roomed cabin sits a map of the 'world dotted with red and white pins which tell part of the story of the man who put them there. Artist, author, naturalist anti conservationist, Dr. Anthony Kingscote of Rockwood, Ontatio, has used • this map to mark all the places in the world he has. visited., He explains to people looking at it that the red pins indicate place. he visited while he worked for the United Nations as an expert in parasitology and the white pita: are places he went during the war. As the large number of pins suggest, Dr. Kingscote has travelled just about everywhere in the world. Now in his early 70's he is retired and lives at Rocky Roost, his small cabin nestled safely in Spirit Valley, a stnill valley away from the hustle and bustle of life today. With nature all around him, Dr. Kingscote now has time to pursue, a love and skill he has carried with him since childhood—the art of Chinese brush painting. This ancient form of art is based on the Chinese philosophy of Tao which is the basic Chinese belief in order and harmony with nature. It originated from the ob- servation of the rising and setting of the sun, moon and stars, the cycle of day and night and the ro- tation of the seasons. Living With Nature Anthony Kingscote is in a goad' position to study this art. The subjects of his paintings live all' around him. He humorously refers to the window above his bed as a colored television. He has attached artificial flowers' to the limbs of a tree outside the window and the squirrels, chip- munks and occasional raccoon provide live entertainment as they eat the food he has provided for them. A bird feeder is in full view of the front window and blue -jays and chickadees take advantage of the sunflower seeds on top of it. Ruffled grouse and wild ducks emerge from their camouflaged surroundings to pick up what other birds drop on the ground. The Eramosa River runs along- side Rocky Roost and during the fall months a, beaver started to build his dam quite close to the cabin. Anthony Kingscote watched his progress daily and was amazed that he would build SNOW WHITE STANDS GUARD—Anthony Kingscote sits in his natural garden of rocks, mosses and flowers. In the background Snow White watches over the garden. with natur in such close proximity to humans. The cabin is so close, yet seems so far away from modern civili- zation. Many a naturalist has been amazed at this quality of Kingscote's home and are equal- ly amazed at how a man in this day and age can live so peace- fully with nature when the construction of large apartment buildings and concrete lawns are not more than six miles away. The late Colonel McConkey of Elora, Ontario, author of the book entitled Conservation in Canada recalled a visit he had with the artist and he wrote ... "an early visit to King's cottage in Rock- wood wherethe birds all knew him as a personal friend. We walked along the river by way of a path where nature had been left undisturbed. 'Sit down, Mac,' said King. Presently he produced a bottle of beer,from a hole in the limestone at his feet. The woods were alive with birds and already a squirrel had perched on King's knee . . . Suddenly all nature seemed to be scrambling for crumbs thrown from King's pock- et—all that is, except the saucy squirrel. After a long, teasing wait, King produced nuts from another pocket which the red squirrel picked from his finger- tips, chirping for very joy. Sev- eral miles away, on Highway No. 7, bulldozers and transport trucks -..threatened Tony's valley manac- roily; but meanwhile, here, the two old veterans, a bottle of beer, a friendly squirrel without fear of man . . . It is a scene I shall cherish . for the rest of ' my life..." Anthony Kingscote tried to ex- press his feelings about his pres- ent home in a letter he wrote upon� his retirement from the Ontario Veterinary College in December 1962. " ... This wilderness has been given us : by an ancient glacial spillway to which the cartograph- er has given the name 'Eramo- sa'. It is a river whose terminal and lateral moraines protect us from all those whose spirits are not kin to this place, each. s are inch of which is 'God's little acre' and none of it our own. "The title deeds, to be sure, are somewhere in the cottage but these have value only in terms of a swamp bounded by cliffs and clouds and by evergreen and de- ciduous woods now haunted by the spirits of Indian landlords whose arrowheads and teepee marks make us daily more ap- prehensive about our squatter's rights. Beneath this 'split -rail fence—that elm's a tombstone— lies a white pioneer' buried with his oxen; a pioneer spirit each spring walks the furrows of our tilled pasture lands. In this galley and the adjoining Crown Game Preserve, a spirit of peace be- tween man and animals is allowed to prevail. It offers that kind of perfect balance, or sym- biotic state of nature, about which one seems to have read in a thousand textbooks.of biology as though it were some unattainable nirvana. Every animal and every man who has entered this valley has left behind a spiritual pres- ence . . . and above all, as one looks ,into the dome of the heavens with its white clouds passing by, or as one listens to an orchestra of frogs and crickets whose cacophony is punctuated by the bark of foxes under a full moon (a moon which has sud- denly become the North-West passage for another Elizabethan Age) one thinks of the opening book of Genesis and about the spirit of God which is said to have moved on the face of the waters or of the vision of our friend Harold, time and time again standing bare -headed in shirt sleeves and overalls beside a river pool, over and over again repeating the words of the psalm- ist ... 'He leadeth me beside the still waters , .. ' after which he turned happily to lend a hand with cutting firewood or cabin building ... Our cabin dwelling there, 'Rocky Roost', is a one -roomed chalet designed in the Swiss -Afghanistan style to harmonize- with nature's sur- rounding garden of mossy stones, wild flowers, ferns and vines which demand no care from man. Inside it are to be found no such modern inconveniences as tele- phones, plumbing and electrical appliances. In the morning we have porridge, bread, sometimes orange juice—but , always pray- ers ... When we came to name this place we were offered little latitude, its name being somehow quite inevitably decided before our arrival. Our tactile senses soon discovered this name to be Spirit Valley." Early Affection For Nature Anthony Kingscote's deep af- fection for nature and the ability to express this affection with a paint brush started very early in his life. When' Anthony was four years old, his familyemigrated from Great Britain and Made their home in the forests some 40 miles from Victoria, B.C. He and his brother Nigel were brought up by the seashore and the family lived off the land like their neighbors, the Indians. The two boys learned very quickly tc appreciate nature's treasures as they watched and learned about the screatures of the sea, lakes and rivers, the great eagles and hawks that soared the skies and the denizens of the forests. - ' Besides learning about the out- doors, the boys learned to appre- ciate different races and cultures of people as well. The Canadian Indians were not the only neigh- bors they had. Emigrants from India and China were also common and all races found themselves working side by side to clear the forests and build their homes. It was at this early age that Anthony learned to appreciate the Chinese culture and art. Quite often the Chinese would invite him and his brother to their quarters and the boys learned to appreciate the oriental food as well as mastering the art of eat- ing rice from a bowl with chop- sticks. Anthony Kingscote's first in- volvement with oriental customs left a long, lasting impression on - him. It was the type of impres- sion that would remain with him for Iife and in later years that same impression led him to be a great believer in Chinese philoso- phy and art. Anthony recalls that one day a month the Chinese took a day off to shop in Victoria. China was still ' an Empire then and he re- calls the men wearing long black braids which hung down their backs and which were sometimes so long that the men put the ends in their pockets. These were re- ferred to as queues. Most of the women were dressed in black jackets and trousers. Some had their feet crippled to make them walk daintily. All these discover- ies and many others were made in Victoria's China Town where the two boys were taken as guests. The shops in China Town were filled with imported groceries, baskets of leechee nuts and colored paper lanterns. Chinese brush painting exhibits were numerous and it was while young Anthony studied these paintings that he began to appreciate the intrinsic beauty and painstaking work of the Chinese artists and craftsmen. Although he was still of pre -teen age, he found himself being inspired with nature and artart and developing a dream that some day he would be a master of that art. • As time went on, Anthony and his brother studied the mysteries of the forests, learning the habits of many birds and animals. In time, the land and sea had as few mysteries for them as they did for the Indians. Anthony soon found himself sketching and water painting the nature he studied. In later years he began to use oils for his paint- ings. For the next few years he found happiness in expanding his (Continued on page 2) FEEDS WILDLIFE—Dr: Anthony Kingscote feeds the wild ducks which come up to the front door of his cabin. MEMORIES'OF THE PAST—Dr. Kingscote shows a totem pole which reminds him of the West Coast Indians he knew as a child. The totem pole which is attached to a tree behind his cabin, is one he carved and painted himself.