Chasing the art of Windsor artist Charles Meanwell
By Paul Breschuk
Lance Writer
August 6, 2008
 Midsummer midday Windsor: typically and excruciatingly hot and humid. What better time to conduct art review fieldwork? Besides, an afternoon of such masochism is fitting in a city where smog is credited for spawning beautiful sunsets. We like the things that hurt us (as much as I hate factories, I love them). Thus, armed with maps, printouts, an eager assistant, and a digital camera, I began my search for the locations that have inspired Windsor-born artist Charles Meanwell.
Meanwell’s exhibition, appearing at the Art Gallery of Windsor until Aug. 24, stands as a collection of modern impressionistic landscapes (with a few portraits in the mix). Like a cross-section of Windsor’s scenery, this collection features the renderings of actual locations throughout the city. Reading like a set of directions, the titles for each work describe their origins: Ouellette at Wyandotte, University at Cameron, Blossoms Gilles Dufferin, etc. In a semi-scientific manner, using these clues to plot areas of interest, I set out to find the exact locations so as to reproduce his paintings in photographic form.
My goal was to recreate the paintings’ scenery from the same perspectives as the originals. A comparison of the two should answer the question: which objects did he ignore and which objects did he add? Not wanting to completely spoil their mystery, I chose a select amount of locations while avoiding the ones that seemed more secretive and personal.
 Although this experiment felt, at times, like grave digging, it was a sincere attempt to gain insights regarding Meanwell’s creative processes. After all, I admire his work and share a similar connection to the urban landscape of Windsor.
Arriving at intersections in a state of excitement and disorientation, I would begin with a search for any recognizable landmarks: stop signs, notable awnings or telephone poles. After some rough triangulation, the image that I sought after would suddenly come alive in the camera’s viewfinder.
A thrilling wave of conquest washes over.
This wave is followed by a more reserved sense of awe as I snap a photograph of something I first saw through another person’s artistic vision.
Wanting to stand over the exact ground that once held the artist as he worked, I felt as if I was searching for a ghost. Indeed, driving and craning my neck around town, it was foolish to think I could ever gain any ground on the elusive Meanwell.
Time had marched on since his paintings. Seasons have changed. Trees that were once hibernating skeletons became giant green obstructions. The construction at Walker road, either progressing or regressing, distorted the landscape at a daily rate.
As if he sensed that some lowlife would try to deconstruct his art in this way, Meanwell also left behind various traps and trickeries. Certain angles and perspectives wouldn’t match. My camera met with impossibilities.
One of his paintings had such an ambiguous perspective that it forced my venturing out in the middle of a busy road. Standing in the line of traffic with a camera pressed against my face, without wits or peripheral vision, I felt the first hints of directed contempt.
By such incongruities, Meanwell’s line of sight seemed to exist outside the realm of physics. Perhaps he painted while having an out-of-body experience. Nevertheless, I came away from this experiment with only a bigger list of questions. It seemed that by moving closer to the site of creation I was put further away from its secrets. However, getting lost can often be a most enjoyable and revealing experience.
In his collection, Meanwell’s love for the city is palpable. One can easily tell that he’s drawn upon childhood memories, walking routes, and favourite haunts to tell the story of Windsor’s forgotten nooks and crannies. His work is a dedicated study that is refreshingly absent of politics and cynicism (a difficult task in light of the city’s current social and economic plight). Instead, he succeeds at depicting Windsor for what it is: a beautiful, ugly city.
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