Naramata’s Little Tunnel, with a light touch, en plein air

In 1962, two important Canadian artists were painting together in Naramata, BC, by the shore of Okanagan Lake.

The sloping hills above Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley, on the east side, featured a railroad that was actively hauling people and goods to larger centres in the north and eventually to the rest of the country.

Canadian Pacific Railway abandoned the route in the 1980s, and those tracks gone, but the bed is now a well-used recreational destination, the Kettle Valley Rail Trail. One of the tunnels that was blasted out of the rock is visible from the village, the Little Tunnel, a site of one of the most spectacular views down the lake and across Penticton and from the other side the view to the north up to Peachland is just as stunning.

But when Percy Ritchie and G. Campbell Tinning were painting en plein air in 1962, they were looking at sagebrush, pine trees, tamarack and plentiful grasses bursting from the clay and rocks. The squeal of metal wheels on the rails and the toot of the CPR whistle may or may not have infiltrated their conversations.

One conversation they must have had during this day, however, was: when is enough detail, enough?

The difference in style between these two artists was notable. Percy Ritchie was known for her very light touch, both in use of colour and embellishment. She was a delicate, spare, and considered artist.

Percy M. Ritchie, Orchard, watercolour 1971.

G. Campbell Tinning at this time was filling — totally filling the page — his watercolour paintings with dramatic bursts of colour found in the hills, the purples and greens, yellows and blues that explode in the springtime in the Valley.

1963 George Campbell Tinning, watercolour, the hills above Naramata and Little Tunnel.

Their day of painting together in 1962 was of the view that was familiar to them both. Percy Ritchie, and her husband Fred, raised their five children in Naramata and she looked at these hills every day. Tinning, however, was visiting his mother and other family in Naramata during either vacations from his job as an illustrator for the Ford Motor Company’s magazine, Lincoln-Mercury Times, or as part of a regular travel commission that allowed him to visit destinations around the world. He saw these hills annually and probably always in the spring or summer.

While painting this view of the hills above Naramata to the Little Tunnel en plein air in 1962, Percy Ritchie asked G. Campbell Tinning to stop, to not add anymore detail. If he stopped she would buy it from him. 

Tinning’s hand is significantly lighter in this 1962 perspective up to the Little Tunnel, and his touch is almost calligraphic in the rendering of sage stems and tree branches, gentle strokes for grasses and shading of the skies.

And before he could go further with this sketch: Stop there!

Percy said that if he put down his brushes at this point she would buy this painting from him. It was perfect.

She added this painting to her personal collection and it was passed to her family after her death in in 2004.

It is available in the original frame she put on it but with archival matte (24” x 30”; image size 14.5” x 21”) for $1900.00.

Percival M. Ritchie (nee MacKenzie) was born on July 9, 1917 at Pointe-au-Pic in Quebec’s Charlevoix region. During her formative teen years she studied at an all girls private school called “The Study” under Ethel Seath, who was also part of the Beaver Hall Group of painters. 

At nineteen, (now the mid 1930’s), Ritchie set out to study art in Paris, where she studied academic drawing at Atelier Miguet. Two years later, she was back in Montreal studying at the Art Association of Montreal. There, she studied under several influential instructors, the most notable being Goodrich Roberts and Edwin Holgate. She would later go on to study with Arthur Lismer of the Group of Seven.

By 1942, Ritchie was already a respected artist when she married Fred Ritchie. Her and her husband shared a dream of living a rural life away from the city and in 1956, together with their 4 children, the family moved to Naramata, BC and realized their dream when they bought a mixed fruit orchard. 

While raising children, taking care of the home and orchard, Ritchie continued to produce watercolour studies and large oil paintings, plus sketches and drawings. In between those projects, she would make small prints on large pieces of paper using the technique of stone lithography.

The soapstone was brought to her by a family friend, Dr Gibson. who in turn got it from a friend in the Penticton Indian Band. Ritchie would carve into the stone surface, small, simple, yet moving images, mostly family and community friends. After completing the prints she would carefully sand that image off and create a new flat surface in which to carve another image. 

Percy and Fred flourished in Naramata, and each left their enduring mark on the village; Percy Ritchie’s murals are still in the local community church and at the Naramata Centre. 

Percy Ritchie passed away in Penticton in 2004. 

George Campbell Tinning was born in 1910 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Regina, Saskatchewan. He took art classes in Regina until 1938, when he went to study painting at Eliot O’Hara’s Watercolour School in Goose Rocks, Maine, and at the Art Students’ League in New York under Arnold Blanche and William Palmer.

Tinning’s first exhibition took place in 1938 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. The next year, he moved to Montreal, where he worked as a graphic artist for Robert Simpson Ltd.

In 1942, Tinning began military service with the Black Watch Royal Highlanders of Canada and served as an official Canadian war artist in Halifax, Sussex, Italy, Belgium, and Holland. He returned to Montreal after the war and continues to paint watercolour and oil landscapes while teaching watercolour painting in the evenings. 

From 1950 to 1969, Tinning worked as an illustrator for Ford Motor Company’s magazine Lincoln-Mercury Times, a job that allowed him to travel around the world, making sketches of travel destinations. He was the recipient of many commissions, including from the Manor Hotel (Base Comeau, Quebec) and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Tinning’s subject matter was a diverse as one might expect, given his life and travels. He painted scenes from his rural prairie upbringing, east coast fishing villages, Montreal’s downtown and London streets, as well as floral still lives and figurative works. 

Tinning spent several holidays in Naramata and the Okanagan as some family members resided (and still reside) in the region. His watercolours of the Naramata hills and beaches, and Okanagan Lake and orchards hold special significance for locals and visitors alike. 

Tinning has won numerous awards for his work, including the Art Association of Montreal’s Jessie Dow Prize (1942, 1948). In 1953, Tinning became and associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, and became a full member in 1970. 

Tinning’s paintings are part of the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the National War Museum, the National Archives of Canada, and several other public and private collections. 

George Campbell Tinning died in Montreal in 1996.