Dunrobin animator joins Red Trillium tour

DUNROBIN SHORES – David Merritt has been an animator for more than 40 years and a West Carleton resident for more than 10 years, but this will be his first year as a studio stop on this weekend’s Red Trillium Studio Tour (RTST).

The RTST is a self-guided studio tour based in West Carleton where visitors can visit artists where they work. The twice-yearly event (spring and fall) will enjoy its 48th tour in its 26th year this Saturday (June 1) and Sunday (June 2) at locations throughout West Carleton (and we’ve been covering it throughout our existence).

This year’s event includes 32 artists spread over 13 locations, and you can find a printable map here. As is always the case, there is a healthy mix of returning and new to the tour artists.

Last Wednesday (May 22), West Carleton Online visited multi-medium artist Merritt at his Dunrobin Shores studio where he works as an animator, plein air painter (landscapes with acrylic and oil), dry pastels and printmaking. Currently, he is also working on his first children’s book.

Merritt’s paintings can also be found at the Ottawa Art Gallery, but we found Merritt at his Julia Court studio. He’s been busy getting his studio visitor-ready, preparing for his first time as part of the RTST.

“We would always see the signs go up,” Merritt told West Carleton Online. “The RTST signs would go out and my partner Carole said I should sign up. So, I did. It’s my first year trying it.”

Merritt, 62, has worked in the Ottawa animation industry for more than 40 years, getting his first big start working on a show familiar to many.

“I started in Ottawa on a show called Teddy Ruxpin and have been at it ever since,” he said.

Merritt and his partner built the Dunrobin Shores home roughly 12 years ago, and when COVID hit in 2020, “I needed a studio.”

“I built this, and I never went back,” he said. “Animation has been excellent to me. I’m lucky to have gotten 40 years out of it.”

Merritt says his Dunrobin location is the perfect spot for his enjoyment of plein air, or outdoor painting.

“Carole and I like to hike and I bring my paints with me,” Merritt said. “Most of my art is of the area.”

The pair are originally from New Brunswick, but have settled in to their Dunrobin location, which has several gardens, a creek running through the property and a place for Carole to practice and teach yoga outdoors. The plan is to have a class the Saturday (June 1) of the tour from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and then some coffee and cold drinks to follow.

Merritt says he has enjoyed the process of coming in to the RTST fold.

“The organizers held a potluck for the artists,” Merritt said. “We all brought one piece of art and we discussed what we would do. I was really shocked at all the talent out here.”

One of Merritt’s current projects is combining his love of landscapes, dry pastels, print-making and animation, developing a children’s book Pink and Blue, about two young elephants who get lost in the jungle and team up to find their way home.

Merritt tries to fit it in between all his other responsibilities in life.

“This idea came to me, I’m embarrassed to say how many years ago,” Merrit said.

Currently he’s working on the art, using dry pastels to draw the pictures on four feet wide (1.5 metres) storyboards, giving the pictures a landscape feel. He then scans them in to a computer and touches the drawings up using Photoshop.

While he could draw the entire panels on computer, Merritt prefers to do the work by hand.

“There’s something about the happy accidents that happen when you do it manually,” he said.

Merrit is just one of 13 stops on this year’s RTST, and one of 32 artists working with mediums from pottery to painting, woodworking, metal art, jewelry, glass art, garden art, and more. For more information on this year’s edition of the RTST, visit their website here.