Paul Morstad’s magical realism gives B.C. wine a fantastical new look
The Okanagan’s hatch winery features the Vancouver painter’s otherworldly works on its labels
An Honest Man is Hard to Find (Diogenes) by Paul Morstad
LOOK CLOSELY AT the beguiling sepia-toned label on the hatch winery’s Ross O. wine: it’s a portrait of sorts, but in the place of a head atop a man’s torso in frontier-style clothing—a hunting jacket, vest, and white shirt with oversize collar—is a scraggly bird’s nest. The figure has a strap across his chest, and his eyes are barely discernable peeking out through so many twigs; floating above is a large speckled egg.
This tiny painting is of John James Audubon depicted in watercolour and ink. His head has been replaced by the nest and egg of the Esquimaux curlew, now extinct, one of thousands of birds the famed naturalist documented during his lifetime.
It’s an example of the magical realism of Vancouver-based artist Paul Morstad. The Emily Carr University of Art and Design graduate has exhibited his paintings and drawings across Canada and the United States and in Paris, and his work has become the signature style for the hatch, a young Okanagan winery with its own fiercely artistic bent.
Gew by Paul Morstad
JJ Audubon by Paul Morstad
Based in West Kelowna, the winery recently “hatched” Black Swift Vineyards and, this fall, will open Crown & Thieves Winery. Also in progress is the Hatching Post, a brewery and eatery, expected to open next year.
Almost all of the bottle labels bear Morstad’s exquisitely detailed images, which combine the real with the unreal, the prosaic with the supernatural.
There are colourfully clad swimmers diving off the back of a sperm whale and frolicking underwater alongside it, the creature illustrated with the kind of precision that Mr. Audubon would praise. There’s an oryx casually gazing out to sea from the deck of a submarine that grows trees. There’s a group of five men resembling Sigmund Freud with white beards carrying a narwhal, the unicorn of the ocean, on their shoulders.
Morstad’s work is inspired as much by the natural sciences as it is by science fiction, folklore, and what he listens to and reads.
“Since I was kid, I've been fascinated with animals,” Morstad says. “I was obsessed with King Kong and Godzilla, but as I got older my love for real-life animals grew. Birdwatching has been a pursuit of mine since I was in my early 20s. To this day it still fills me with joy. I spent time this summer in the Okanagan and had a tremendous time birding: Ospreys, catbirds, flycatchers, mergansers, loons, waxwings, ravens…
“The zoological and botanical illustrators of the 16th to 19th centuries are a big draw for me, artists like JJ Audubon, Genevieve Jones, Katsushika Hokusai, Albrecht Durer, and Pieter Bruegel,” he says. “From later periods, artists like Egon Schiele, Louise Bourgeois, Henry Darger, Leon Golub, Kiki Smith, Otto Dix... I could go on. But for me, just as important as visual influence are the influences of music and literature.”
Viennese Pyschoanalysts by Paul Morstad
Born in Edmonton, Morstad lived in Coaldale, Alberta till age five, Saskatoon until he was 13, and Kelowna until he turned 18. His parents both come from farming backgrounds, his mother the daughter of Russian immigrant farmers and his father from Saskatchewan/Norwegian/Danish wheat farming stock. Neither were trained as artists but both are creative: Ellie is a weaver and Wayne a woodworker.
That creativity runs in the family. Morstad’s siblings are both talented artists. His sister, Julie, has made a career of drawing, painting, illustration, and design, while his brother, John, is known for his photojournalism and is also an intuitive drawer.
Before moving to Vancouver, Morstad attended Edmonton’s MacEwen University, describing its fine arts program as exceptional. He graduated from ECUAD in 1997 then made his way to Montreal.
The Submarine Incident by Paul Morstad
There, he continued to paint and draw but turned his attention to making short animated films while working at the National Film Board for the next decade. In 2007, he started exhibiting paintings again.
“I am slightly obsessed with musical instruments, so this was extremely inspiring for me, to hang my paintings among gorgeous—and expensive!—cellos, violas and violins. It was a very Montreal kind of thing.”
Virungu Mountain Breakdown by Paul Morstad
“I started off showing at a wonderful little gallery in Montreal called Wilder and Davis, which is also home to home to one of the most prominent luthier studios in Canada,” Morstad says. “I then moved back to Vancouver in 2009 and started showing with Jacana Gallery on South Granville,” he says. “Eventually I ended up with Gallery Jones and have been showing, both solo and group shows, with them to this day. I also show in Montreal at Galerie Youn in the same capacity, as well as Slate Gallery in Regina.”
The collaboration with the hatch came about serendipitously. At the beginning, the winery was interested in using some of his existing artwork and would present it on bottles without adding much in the way of text or logos.
Pigs Redux by Paul Morstad
“They really let the artwork breathe and speak for the contents of the bottle,” Morstad says.
The hatch’s winemaker, Jason Parkes, says he was immediately drawn to Morstad’s work. “It provokes a different way of thinking,” Parkes says. “When I look at Paul’s art, it encourages and reassures me that it’s okay to not think the same.”
The winemaking at the hatch is “fun and somewhat reckless at times”, Parkes says. “We re not scared to take risks and try different things or even make mistakes,” he says. “The basics are to keep it basic... not too much wine geek stuff. Keep things simple and clean. There are a few personalities in the cellar. It’s a very skilled and great team, so these different characters are reflected in the wines.”
The hatch team is excited about the imminent launch of Crown & Thieves Winery and of the 2021 launch of the Hatching Post, its brewery and western-themed beer and barbecue joint. (Think saloon-style environment, complete with gunfights—squirt guns filled with beer, that is.) The only bottles that currently don’t bear Morstad’s paintings are those done by Parkes’s nine-year-old daughter.
Azores Aquatic Club by Paul Morstad
While his work with the hatch is ongoing, Morstad, who lives in East Vancouver with his wife and 10-year-old daughter, has other projects in the works: a show with Slate Gallery at the Toronto Art Fair this October and a solo show next spring at Montreal’s Galerie Youn.
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