The Bend in the Road

This is another Canadian scene up in New Brunswick, down South Shore Rd, which is the road our summer place is on. The small red building you can just spy on the top of the far bluff is our beach house, not much more than a shack really, but a good place to store rafts and things, andto be able to change into bathing suits if desired. I only got in for a swim once this summer though, since most of the days I was there it was chilly, gray and rainy. But I love it up there no matter what the weather!

The Artist and her Dog

My sister Amy had brought her oil paints up to Canada with her and was determined to do some painting there. She had a wonderful plein air setup she was eager to try. We had a lot of rainy weather though, although we both did get down to the beach one day and did our own interpretations of the fallen pine tree at our beach.

She was trying to get up the energy to do another plein air the next day, and finally managed to do so when she realized that she didn't have to traipse miles to do it, and could just set up right out in the farm yard.

So that was what she did. I loved her entire setup and was compelled to snap a bunch of photos of her at her work, with her little dog, Mary, at her feet. After three years of Life Drawing classes I felt I never wanted to paint a person again, LOL. But I loved this image of my sister so much that I had to give it a try tonight.

Dorchester - Bay of Fundy

My next-to-last day at the farm I finally got to go to the Bell Inn for lunch. It's located in Dorchester, NB and is one of my favorite places to visit, and it's been three years since I have had a chance to eat there! It was just as much fun as I remembered, and the food just as good.

On the way home I took the scenic route, Route 935, which is a dirt and gravel road that parallels the Bay of Fundy. It's a constant series of beautiful views, and I kept having to stop the car so my sister and I could take pictures. This painting, from last night's art class, was done from one of the photos I took.

I really liked this photo, and this picture almost demands more than the small 9x12 Art Spectrum I did it on. I may just have to think about doing this on a full sheet of Art Spectrum and see how that works out.

Fallen Pine

On Wednesday of my second week in Canada the weather actually turned sunny and got warmer. My sister and I decided to take our painting supplies down to the beach and do an actual plein air! I also wore my bathing suit and went for a marvelous swim. It was so refreshing.

The beach was lovely, and the light breeze kept all the bugs at bay, YAY! We have quite a steep cliff down to our beach, and every year it seems some of the land from above erodes and the cliff gets eaten away. The poor adventurous trees that grow close to the edge eventually end up keeling over and sliding down the cliff.

This tree was a casualty of this most recent year's storms and it seemed like a natural thing to focus on for my plein air. I guess my sister agreed as we didn't consult one another, but her painting was of the tree also. :-)

South Shore

My sister Amy and I kept thinking maybe we could try some plein air painting here in New Brunswick, but the weather is so variable. So far it has rained every single day, though no yet today - though there are plenty of threatening clouds. It's quite chilly too, for July. Last night I needed a second blanket on my bed, and today I'm wearing a thick flannel shirt.

None of those would be a real show-stopper though. I'd rather be in the cool than the heat. But the *real* show-stopper is **MOSQUITOES**. I cannot be outside more than 5 minutes without being bitten at least a dozen times. The mosquitoes are everywhere and regard me as a huge buffet feast.

So much for the theory proposed by several authors and bloggers that I follow who claim that if you don't eat sugar you are left alone by the mosquitoes. I've been sugar-free for 6 months now and they love me more than ever, whereas my sugar-eating sister is barely touched by them.

Anyway, yesterday the sun came out for about 10-20 minutes and I ran around taking a few photos, just for a chance to get some with some blue sky. It may be my only chance, LOL. So instead of plein air I did this painting in the bug-free farm shed using one of the photos I took yesterday as a reference.

Probably not quite an hour on this one, done on my usual 9x12 Art Spectrum.

A Hall Still Life

I'm still looking for painting subjects up here in the gray and rainy north. But this afternoon the we had a hint of sun through the haze and I took some of the fruits and veggies we had bought and set up a little still life in the front hallway where the sunlight was trying to come through.

This is a typical 9x12 Art Spectrum, and as with yesterday's picture I guess I spent about 45 minutes on this one.

Wildflowers in the Shed

Here I am up in Canada for two weeks. I had visions of doing some fun plein air painting up here, but it's been rainy and overcast and cloudy every day so far. I could even cope with that, but the mosquitoes are *fierce*. You can barely step out the door without being badly bitten. Being outdoors is just no fun, so I've been uninspired about art work.

But yesteday I ran outside for a few minutes, long enough to pick a few boring wildflowers (but closest to house for minimum bug exposure) and set up a very impromptu still life on top of the microwave in the back shed. So this is from yesterday, about 45 minutes of work on a 9x12 sheet of Art Spectrum Colourfix.

At least my laptop is working! I took it apart this morning to get at the fan and heat sink, and cleaned out all the hair that was blocking the fan and apparently causing the laptop to badly overheat. Before the laptop would be heating up to 50 degrees C before it had been on for 30 minutes. Now I've had it on for over two hours and I'm still sittting at a nice comfy 37 degrees C. It's actually cool enough that I could sit in on my lap, rather than having it burn my lap.

With all my animal critters at home I guess I am Death on Fans. This is my third PC in a row to suffer fan problems. But at least I'm working now and can actually upload stuff, though over 26.4K dialup (how 20th century) it's taking me a while.