Home is certainly where the heart is for Nathan Pinsent.
The 73-year-old Corner Brook artist spent 56 years chasing his dreams before returning to the city last May.
Unlike many who are visiting for Come Home Year, and who will return to the homes they’ve made away from here, Pinsent doesn’t intend to leave again.
“I’m home to stay,” he said.
Pinsent’s father died when he was two. With no father figure in his life he found himself drawn to the movies of Roy Rogers and dreamed of the cowboy life and going west.
“I used to sit up behind Mount Batten Road, up on the Burnt Hills, I used to sit up there and look across the bay at Summerside (and wonder) what’s on the other side of that hill or I’d hear the train down in Curling at night and I’d just think where’s it going, where did it come from.”
Pinsent was 17 when he gave into wanderlust and left the city.
He headed to Ontario and after life there didn’t suit him any longer, moved further west to British Columbia in 1971.
“A travelling fool,” is how he describes himself. He worked in the security and movie and music industries and has been all over California, Montana, Wyoming and Utah.
“Just being a gypsy," he said.
He also worked on ranches, living the cowboy life.
Early on that life didn’t give him much opportunity to come home, and 25 years passed before he was able to visit.
“Which was hard,” he mused.
After that, his visits came every seven to 10 years.
While working in B.C, Pinsent met his wife, Linda, a horse trainer. The couple separated before he moved home and Linda died in December, 2018.
When not working their ranch, Pinsent devoted his time to his art. A professional artist, his pen and pencil works featuring images of ranch life – cowboys, horses and cattle – have been sold around the world.
Branching out
He’s now branched out into painting, something his wife encouraged him to do.
His scenes of Newfoundland, mostly from the Bay of Islands, and painted on wood are available at local galleries and shops. He’s painted on old pallets and headboards, and often adds a little bit extra in the form of a figurine, or rocks or driftwood.
“I wanted to try to leave my mark,” he said of how he's driven to create art.
“I always thought before I’d go I’d like to leave my mark as a Newfoundland artist, to leave something behind.”
After all the years away, he doesn't regret the decision to come home..
“It was time to come home to my family. I left for 56 years, but my heart was always here.
“I’m home now and I’m never leaving this Rock.”
He's now living with his sister, Marie Hoyles, in the home they grew up in on Mount Batten Road. He has a small studio set up in the basement.
He’s enjoying re-connecting with his sister, getting to know her all over again, as she had left the family home and was married before he went away.
Pinsent is also connecting with his extended family and with the people around him. He considers Newfoundlanders his people and said everyone is so nice and he finds comfort with them.
“I’m definitely in my element,” he said.
Pinsent considers himself lucky in that he’s lived all his dreams.
“And I’m still living them.”
