Susie Morrell Studio

The Shack

5" x 7"

original oil on archival cotton panel

Private Collection

(No this is not The Shack from the book/movie named the same)

This is a place of love that lives on in my family's history. I wanted to memorialize this little cottage in a painting. Within it's boundaries and on it's lake, I have explored as if I were Pocahontas, dreamed of life's possibilities and made the most cherished memories with my family.

Read on if you would like to know how it came to be...

In 1948, our Great Aunt Laura was looking for a place 'up north' from the hot summers in Linwood. She purchased it from an advertisment promoting 'Anderson Resort'. The Shack was on a lane tucked in the woods of the west shore. This is how it looked in 1955:

front of The Shack

back of The Shack

which led to the ice cold well where we pumped our water and the path

to the woods, outhouse and fish cleaning station

My uncle purchased it from Aunt Laura in the spring of 1968.

My 3 brothers and I first saw the lake in 1969. We spent the whole summer at The Shack. It was magical. In the next few years our family grew with my sisters, born in 1971 and 1973. (My mom would joke that one was conceived in the 'green room' ) Our hearts were filled with that Hubbard Lake Spirit (a song our uncle taught us to sing around the campfire from his boys scout days) Every year the lake called us back. Now I call it home.

I first painted The Shack in 1994 as a birthday gift for my uncle using a photo from 1971 when

our little Chippewa Lane looked like this:

You can see our beloved Country Squire station wagon we referred to as "The Turnpike Car" parked in the grass. We were traveling from Pennsylvania and it took great patience to cross Ohio on the Turnpike. Across from Chippewa Lane was an open lot the few cottages on the lane owned collectively for swimming. We called it 'The Landing' and it looked like this:

That is my dad and brothers swimming in the 'pure Michigan' water of Hubbard Lake.

I don't know if you can make it out, but here is my painting (circled) from 1994 as it hung on the wall in The Shack until 2021.

One of my favorite spots to paint was on The Shack Porch:

Over the years the lane has changed to just one gravel road and more modern cottages have been built. It never took on the name of Anderson Resort as parcels were sold from the original acreage. It is still referred to as Chippewa Lane. In 1996 when my father retire, he needed a project according to my mom! So he took on the renovation of the The Shack. By adding a bunk room for extra sleeping and modernizing the indoor plumbing, gone were the days when we had to pump the water to bring in for cooking and thankfully no more trips down the path to the scary outhouse.

Now my first painting of The Shack hangs on the wall of my little rental cottage we fittingly

call 'The Acorn Cottage' as it sits on a property called Mighty Oaks

Here is The Shack post 1996 renovation. The integrity of the original structure was maintained with a bunk room added on the back. I planted the birch tree off the corner of the porch in memory of Uncle Rich. This was my uncle's favorite spot to sleep so he could hear the loons and watch the sunrise.

My parents are both gone now and The Shack has been passed on to our cousins who love it as much as we did. Such great years and memories of summers spent swimming, fishing playing endless games on the porch and sharing stories in the evening around the campfire.

My heart is full of thanks to visit and hear the echos of generations of laughter from the porch and songs from the campfire.

My inspiration to paint comes from the lake and it's surroundings. I also work by commission from your photos or photos I am able to take. If you would like to follow my blog to see what I am painting, please subscribe by entering your email address in the bar at the top right of my blog or by clicking HERE. I only post new work fresh off my easel for you to enjoy.

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