Misty Marsh Morning

Well, I guess this is the last painting I'll be doing here at the farm this summer, but I have plenty of reference photos to keep my busy also. The scenes of Atlantic Canada seem to be my favorite subject matter. Sadly the mosquitoes have gotten amazingly FIERCE and plentiful the last couple weeks, making plein air a less attractive option, but I did get to do some plein air earlier when there was not such a problem, and I still have lots of reference photos. I did this painting this morning in my "studio" (the farm kitchen). It's from a photo I took a few weeks ago when I was taking the back roads through Point de Bute on my way to Sackville. Done on 9x12 Art Spectrum.

Canadian Life Drawing Four

Well tonight was my life drawing session again, the 4th and last one for me, as this Thursday I'll be heading back down to Florida. We had one little glitch though, the model never showed up! No clue what happened to her, but we waited a bit and she never showed and never called. So Bob, our artist facilitator, bravely took off his shirt and posed for us. As usual we did mostly quick things - 30-second gesture drawings, and 4 and 10 minute poses, so those were all just quick pencil sketches.

But he did do this 20-minute pose and I broke out the pastels for that. Again it's very rough as 20 minutes is hardly long enough to do a painting justice! But it was still fun, and this is what I accomplished in that short time on a sheet of 9x12 Art Spectrum.  I hope they are still around and running classes again next summer!

Down to the Bay

It was another wet and rainy day at that farm. I'd had plans to go to an organic farmer's market, and a summer festival at a local winery today. But was feeling a tad on the "blah" side, and the weather just wasn't conducive to going out and about. So I had a nice long Skype with my little grandson and his mommy and daddy, and then mostly just relaxed and read. I love reading, and reading on a gray and wet and rainy day is a special pleasure. But in the afternoon I decided to paint a picture as well. Obviously not a plein air day again, but I did this one from a reference photo I took the other day when I was on my way to Tidnish, NS for my pottery class.The bay in question is Baie Verte, the little arm of the Northumberland Strait that my summer home is on. Done on my usual 9x12 Art Spectrum.

Baie Verte Clouds

It's a chilly, raw and rainy day here in New Brunswick. I'm not complaining of course. I love chilly, windy, rainy days. And we certainly need the rain here as it's been a very dry summer. But of course it's not a day to attempt any plein air painting. But it's a perfect day to be indoors and doing something fun, so I painted this picture in my "indoor studio" (the farm kitchen) this morning, using a photo I took the other day as a reference. Ah modern technology. I just pulled up the photo on my laptop and then turned my laptop to face where I was sitting at the easel. :-) Done on my usual 9x12 Art Spectrum.

Canadian Life Drawing Three

Tonight I had my third Life Drawing  session at the great art gallery in Tidnish, NS, and we had the same model we had two weeks ago when I went for the first time. It was fun, and great to get out and be doing something, though I also picked blueberries this morning and made blueberry jam in the afternoon! LOL.

As usual it was mostly quick poses, but we had three 20-minute poses so I decided to break out the pastels for a couple of those. Of course 20 minutes is hardly enough to get a lot of detail. It's really barely time for a sketch, so these are hardly "finished" works.  But at least I got to use my colors!

I just used pencil for the second 20-minute pose, but I had enjoyed my colors for the first one, so for the third pose I decided to use the pastels again also.

Also hardly a finished picture! Heck, I could easily spend *thirty minutes* just on the hands alone if I had all the time I needed. But 20 minutes total was all I got.So another down and dirty quick sketch in color. Both done on 9x12 Art Spectrum.

Waiting for the bore - Maccan

Considering I have been coming to this part of Canada every summer for nearly 40 years it's a surprise that I have never before done what I did today. I went to see the Bay of Fundy tidal bore.  Fundy is famous for the world's highest tides, and at many locations the rush of the incoming tide is so strong that it pushes a wall of water upriver against the river's normal flow. As the Wikipedia article says:

Most rivers draining into the upper Bay of Fundy between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have tidal bores...The bore is fastest and highest on some of the smaller rivers that connect to the bay including the River Hebert and Maccan River on the Cumberland Basin, the St. Croix, Herbert and Kennetcook Rivers in the Minas Basin, and the Salmon River in Truro.

The other day at the Tidnish Art Gallery I picked up a few tourist brochures, and one of them listed the the times of the tidal bores at the Maccan Tidal Wetland Park. I knew that park, having been there to go birding one time a couple years ago, and knew it wasn't too far a ride to get to. Today was supposed to be a "high" bore day at roughly 12:21 PM, though the brochure warned the bore can actually arrive some 20 minutes before or after the posted time.  I had some shopping to do in Amherst, so it seemed a good day to combine both.

After my shopping I headed towards Maccan, not sure how long it would take me to get there, and I actually arrived at 11:15 AM! Hmm, so at best I had at least 45 minutes to wait, and at worst I had a good hour and 20 minutes or so. The day was fine at least, but how to pass my time until the bore arrived?

I then remembered I had my plein air supplies still in the car from my trip to Tidnish a few days ago! It was warm out but there were roofed picnic benches there supplying some shade, which was quite comfortable when combined with the light breeze. Doing a painting would certainly pass the time, and my timing was just about right to complete one! So the above was the painting I did while waiting for the tidal bore to come upriver. As usual on 9x12 Art Spectrum.

As it got closer to the time a couple young heavily tattooed girls from Ottawa showed up with their German shepherd, and a 40ish couple from elsewhere in Ontario with kayaks on their car, and lastly a lovely gentleman of about 80 who lived nearby and said that he came to see the bore every single day, and showed us pictures he had taken of the bore at different times and seasons. He said that he was the one who prepared the Maccan tidal bore chart that we had all seen and which had brought us all there. And they were all interested is watching me paint my picture!

And sure enough, I had just managed to more or less complete the painting when the bore finally came in at about 12:30 PM.  It was certainly an interesting sight to see the steady onward rush of the water as it came upriver, surging past us. And here is a photo of the bore as it came around the bend and past our very excellent viewing location,  and as it came past a bald eagle soared overhead! All in all a very fine day.

Tidnish Dock plein air 2

I had such fun going painting the other day with the group from the Tidnish Art Gallery that when I finished my first painting I decided I would start a second! However I had barely gotten working on it when the other three people all decided to pack up their supplies and call it a day. And suddenly I was left there all alone.

I don't mind working alone in my studio, but I find I don't enjoy doing plein air alone. Once the other three left the joy sort of went out of the day and it wasn't as much fun to paint anymore. But since I had started I decided to slog along and try to finish it. But my heart wasn't really in it very much. Maybe that's why I'm not crazy about this one, but this is my second attempt for the day - usual 9x12 Art Spectrum.