Gros Morne (At Portland Creek), 1960
Christopher Pratt, Gros Morne (At Portland Creek), 1960, oil on plywood, 23 x 45 cm, The Rooms, St. John’s.
At first glance, Gros Morne (At Portland Creek) may seem like a modest landscape—a muted rendering of trees, land, and sky in oil. But for Christopher Pratt, it was much more than a study of nature. The location—Portland Creek, with the rising silhouette of Gros Morne in the distance—held personal significance.
Christopher Pratt at the location where he painted Gros Morne (At Portland Creek), 2016, photograph by Mireille Eagan.
Wood from the tree at Portland Creek, and drawing of the object, 1961, photograph by Ned Pratt.
The work is an early example of Pratt finding his artistic footing, created as his career was beginning to gain attention. It is also important for its rarity. Painted in 1960 during a fishing trip with his father and brother, it marks one of Pratt’s earliest explorations of landscape in oil and holds the distinction of what he described as his first plein air painting.
Unlike the carefully constructed interiors and stillness he would later become known for, Gros Morne (At Portland Creek) was created directly on site, painted from life in the rugged landscape of Newfoundland’s west coast. Pratt’s approach to painting had been strongly influenced by the American artist Adolf Dehn’s book Water Color Painting. Dehn advised his readers to never paint
outdoors. In this case, Pratt chose to make an exception—and realized his mistake the moment sand blew onto the canvas.
Pratt preferred to construct his scenes in the studio, designing every element for compositional balance and symbolic resonance. Yet even here, engaging directly with the land, there is a sense of control and clarity. The overall result is raw and atmospheric, the brushwork looser than his later style, yet already grounded in his desire for balance.
The trees depicted here are not merely decorative. They hold a presence that Pratt admired, suggesting resilience and time, growth and decay. Pratt would return to the motif of trees throughout his career, finding in them both formal elegance and symbolic weight. In this early work, they are framed against the open sky and painted with a restrained palette that gives the piece a stillness even in the open air (particularly in a province known for its winds)—a quality that would become a hallmark of his later work. The natural world is observed carefully and rendered in a way that reveals not just where he was, but also who he was becoming. It is a glimpse of the artist finding his voice by paying close attention to the world around him.
The importance of Gros Morne (At Portland Creek) is reinforced by its lifelong presence in Pratt’s own home. He displayed the painting in his home long after his student days had passed—a visual anchor to a place and time that helped shape his vision. He also kept a piece of wood from one of the trees shown in this painting in his studio for years, a quiet memento from a formative moment.
Gallery
Christopher Pratt, Gros Morne (At Portland Creek), 1960
Christopher Pratt, Boat in Sand, 1961
Christopher Pratt, Woman at a Dresser, 1964
Christopher Pratt, House in August, 1969
Christopher Pratt, Institution, 1973
Christopher Pratt, Spring at My Place, 1985
Christopher Pratt, Deer Lake: Junction Brook Memorial, 1999
Christopher Pratt, Season Series, 2009