08/22/2026
Photographer Heidi Csernak and local artist Kat Roy created something truly magical that day. More about the artist, the journey of creating the mural and the meaningful story behind it. Thank you again, Heidi, for capturing this beautiful modern shot. 📸✨
Somehow, the morning slipped by me, what with getting breakfast and shopping at the Thrift Shop. So, it was well after one when I stepped back out into the sunshine - what was breaking through the clouds, anyway.
I was headed to the Best Western Swan Castle Inn, not only to stay (hosted) for two nights, but to reshoot the Gord Downie Suite (my room for the night) as it had been repainted with a lighter wall colour.
However, first up was meeting local artist Kathrine Roy, who would be painting a mural inside the suite, inspired by The Tragically Hip and the artwork in Gord Downie’s book (and album), The Secret Path.
I asked Kathrine to bring everything, since neither of us would know ahead of time which props we'd use.
I met Kathrine downstairs.
She arrived with all the items I’d asked for: brushes, paints, paint palettes, her smock, a drop sheet, a ladder, a sketchbook, as well as the opaque projector and a colour printout of the intended design. We loaded everything onto the Bellman’s cart (that wheeled luggage carrier) and brought it up to the third floor.
I had already moved most of the furniture out of the way, so all that was left was "setting the stage".
We turned over recycling and waste buckets, placing them against the wall and covering them with the drop sheet. On top went the jars and cans with paintbrushes, and bottles of paint.
Without being able to mark the walls (the mural painting wasn’t scheduled to start yet), taking photos of Kathrine in front of that big, white wall, even with props, felt empty. (It’s much the same as how we artists feel when we look at a blank canvas for the first time, and we just want to get some paint on it.)
The idea of props, once fully realized, felt awkward.
And incredibly staged.
So, we went with option two: using the opaque projector to overlay the design onto the wall in full colour, with Kathrine pretending to lay down the lines, exactly as she would when making the painting.
There was one last thing to do before taking photos.
I “borrowed” a framed picture of a Treble Clef from another wall and hung it over the Fire Alarm notice on the back of the room’s door to lessen the distraction (and because I don’t use Photoshop much in my pictures).
With Gord Downie’s colourful jacket, I need to move Kathrine around a bit, so we found a spot that lit her face without large blotches of blue/purple covering it.
I plaster myself against the wall to prevent my form from casting a shadow on the wall.
Shift this way, turn your face to the right a bit more, look up a little, move your hand down… we were making minute adjustments to get the most natural-feeling pose while keeping Kathrine’s face visible and her posture relaxed.
Kathrine was leaning in too far, so we moved all the props out of the way (they weren’t adding anything to the photos but were a distraction) and started over with Kathrine sitting closer to the wall.
Perfect.
We did a second series of shots with Kathrine holding Gord Downie’s book, The Secret Path, which was a little harder to get right, but we worked it out.
By the end, I was hot and sweaty (even having already stripped off as much as I could) and feeling good about the photos.
We sat down. I showed Kathrine the results, and she was happy.
We talked for a bit longer (we’d felt an instant connection when we met) before I helped Kathrine load all her gear back onto the Bellman’s cart, rode the elevator with her, and saw her to her truck.
I waved as Kathrine drove off, then I went to do what I do after a great shoot: I eat.
SIDE NOTE: The mural is complete, and you can check out photos of the finished wall on Tourism Cochrane's FB page.
📍 Town of Cochrane, Ontario
🌲 Traditional Lands of the Abitibiwinni Aki, and, Cree.
Working with Tourism Cochrane.
Northeastern Ontario Tourism Destination Northern Ontario Northern Ontario Travel Gord Downie Downie Wenjack Fund
