Well known painter, carver and guide Perry Munro describes Minipi as the ideal place for ‘journey people.’ Our web manager interviewed Munro after his stay at Anne Marie Lodge and learned about what entices him to paint the scenes of Minipi.
What first brought you to Minipi?
I had no idea what I was first getting into. It was back in the mid 80s, I came up as part of a learning experience on availability of product for a company. I came up and fell in love with the place, been here pretty well off and on ever since.
Do you have a favorite spot on the Minipi watershed?
Well of course there’s always Lover Boy. The fish are there, it’s a pretty spot. I love the depth of the terrain. I’ve painted it and I’ve done sketches of it. It goes back through the different mountains of charcoal all the way back, gives a nice look to it. Lover Boy has a nice feel to it, it shows the Big Land, the space, the openness.
Is there anything in particular you look for when painting Landscapes? What caught your eye at Minipi?
Depth. The space. The space that you exist in. I don’t very often do a tight sketch of Minipi, things are usually big and open. There are journey people and there are destination people: There are people that come here to the big country, to Labrador, to catch the big fish. That’s what they want to do, 8 pounders! And they’re there – but they don’t come easy and they don’t come to everybody. People who get the most out of a trip to Labrador and to Minipi Camps is the person who comes with their eyes wide open. The journey people. They see the flowers, the beaver house…the merganser going by with 17 little chicks.
Do you have a favorite memory from your time at our Lodges?
There’s so many events. One time I took off and went to Johnny Lake. I went in by myself, I had never been there before and I had a wonderful day in there. I remember that being kind of a special day. You always feel that sense of being one on your own in here. Jack, Lorraine and Rob have been very kind to me and have given me opportunities to feel that over the years. I can explore and I can paint and do sketches on my own without the guide, I can go and just enjoy the terrain. Sometimes it’s a slow process.
Minipi is largely about big brook trout, but do you have any words for fellow artists who might want to visit?
Sunsets. Sunsets and sunrises. Probably the most over-painted, over-photographed things in the world – but they are beautiful up there. If you’re fortunate enough you can get a chance to see the northern lights. Just sky. Sky and water. It’s just sometimes it feels like being on the prairies; it’s huge. Flying into (the lodge) you get a feeling about the last ice age when it scoured Labrador, all the lakes run the same direction. If you want to travel east to west on foot you’d be forever to get a mile. It’s a landscape that you don’t often see and it’s very wild. I’ve often said that we should thank the outfitters like Jack, Lorraine and Rob for providing this environment because without their foresight in having these places that we can go to we’d never see them. The Coopers’ take care of their guests and they do a good job – they’re working in a very harsh environment trying to logistically manage this whole event of your time you spend with them – the airport pickup, the behind the scenes, the toilet paper being loaded in the plane, there’s so much going on that you don’t see to make sure that your time there is wonderful. For you. Next week there’s somebody else, but for right now, it’s you.
This brookie is one Perry caught while visiting Anne Marie Lodge in mid-July. Perry said he did not weigh this trout, nor did he remove it from the water besides to take this photo. As you can see by comparing Perry’s hand to the trout, the trout is quite large! We’re left to ponder if this trout would break our records.
