Roy Bowers’ life changed
the day he painted a moose
for the “Moose In The City” campaign in Toronto

Above photo: Roy with some of his collection of moose items.

It was one huge moose that started it all. Anyone who drove through Toronto in the spring of 2000 could not help but notice moose statues – 326 of them – placed strategically around the city.

Five hundred artists, including Port Perry resident Roy Bowers, had transformed life-sized fibreglass moose statues into works of art, by invitation of the city.

What Roy did not know at the time, as he innocently painted scenes from his beloved Algonquin Park on the sides of his moose statue, was that friends, family, co-workers, even some of the artists who took his painting workshops, were about to unleash moose-mania in his own life.

His participation in Moose In The City forever removed the ‘What do we get for Roy?’ problem from everyone’s lives. Moose figurines popped up at birthdays, anniversaries, Christmas – or just because. Coat hangers decorated with plush moose heads; singing, sitting, standing moose statues; beautiful wooden moose sculptures, cute, cartoonish moose, even moose sunning themselves in lawn-chairs. If it’s moose-y at all, Roy’s probably received it.

Local artist, Roy Bowers, painted this life-size fibreglass moose for
Toronto’s “Moose In The City” promotion during 2000. Roy finally made
a connection with his unusual piece earlier this year and refurbished
it for the new owner.

“Everyone gives me them,” laughs Roy, who turns 80 on his next birthday. “Big and small. Here’s one from France,” he says, motioning to one particularly relaxed moose nursing a cocktail. “Some of them are silly, and some of them are really funny. It never seems to end.” Roy’s collection numbers 75 at last count. But it’s been a little while since they were counted.

Since moving from Scugog Island, where Roy and his wife Claire retired in 1997 from Toronto, into their cozy home on Water St. in 2007, many of the moose have been sequestered in cardboard boxes upstairs. They will be liberated in time to decorate for Christmas though, especially the one in the rocking chair that sings “Gramma got run over by a reindeer.”

Although he’s the Moose Man, Roy Bowers is also a serious and accomplished landscape artist. “I’m known for my birches,” he says, and it doesn’t take long to see why. Roy’s paintings celebrate rock, snow, wood, water, autumn leaves, and, of course, the birch trees that figure prominently in much of his work. Born and raised in Toronto, Roy has painted all his life, with Algonquin Park his most faithful muse. His professional life was rooted in the creative as well, in jobs that centered on advertising and creative design. Roy’s final professional gig was in the creative department of the Metro Toronto Zoo.

All through his career and beyond, Roy has taught painting in workshops and seminars. Passing on his knowledge of the light and depth, shape and substance of painting has been a constant joy.

He has taught frequently at Scarborough’s Cedar Ridge Creative Centre and closer to home at Saint John’s Anglican Church, Blackstock, where he donates his teaching time each year for a six-week painting course.

“I don’t like to call them students,” says Roy, speaking about the people who take his classes, “They are artists who want to learn how to do things.”

An artist who takes a Roy Bower class will learn more than just how light plays in the crevices of a rock, and how colour fades away into the background — they will learn about how deeply an artist can love painting. “My mind goes right into the painting,” says Roy. “I forget about everything else going on. I like to share it with people.”

Roy’s moose story came full circle recently, when he and Claire had the opportunity to put their generosity of spirit into practice again, in an unexpected rendezvous with that same, giant moose statue that kicked off Roy’s moose collection more than 10 years ago.

Wondering what ever had happened to his statue after it had been auctioned off for charity, Roy wrote about his collection, and his desire to track down his biggest moose ever, for More of our Canada magazine in the early spring of 2010. It wasn’t long before he received an email from Brian de Boer of Shanty Bay, a landscaper who had bought Roy’s moose from the original buyer.

The moose stood, faded almost white on one side, overlooking a fish pond on de Boer’s property. When Roy heard that his moose needed a makeover, he and Claire, picnic basket in hand, made six trips to Shanty Bay to repaint the statue.

“Roy lit up like a Christmas tree,” says de Boer, a landscaper and contractor. “He came up here, a 90 minute drive, and his wife would help him or sit and read a book. He wouldn’t take any money for it. He restored the entire thing. I was just blown away.”
Roy applied a coating to protect the moose from potential deterioration and made sure those Algonquin colours stay true for years to come.

Today, de Boer calls the restored moose his “most prized possession. It’s not something the average Joe has.” And spending hours refurbishing a giant moose sculpture for the love of art and neighbour is not something the average Joe would do.

By Karen Stiller
Focus on Scugog