The "Weather of Ontario" is now in stores...

A friend told me that the "Weather of Ontario" is now in stores. They even bought a copy. I have yet to see a copy but am hopeful it is what I have envisioned.

Low Tide at Prospect

The bay was calm like glass and the tide was really out when I started. During the painting, a brisk onshore breeze set up and the tide came roaring back in. The gentle swell from the ocean met the equally gentle outflow from the harbour. The odd fishing boat came back into port and the black ducks and gulls kept me company. I will paint here again.
Water mixable oil is not a great medium for plein air painting. The paint changed from buttery to gluey as I worked. Whether this was the result of the sun and the wind or the humidity, it is difficult to tell without further exploration – something that I don’t care to do. The work was successful but I don’t enjoy painting with glue.
When I was virtually finished, the painting blew off the easel. Water splashed on the canvas and I got gravel from the wharf into the paint. I grinned and packed it up and left my supplies on Eleanor’s back porch. I started back to Shad Bay by following the 5 or 6 kilometre path along the ocean through the Barrens. It was a wonderful hike. The shoreline was littered with the remains of lobster pots, wood and ropes. 16x20

Lines – Sky and Shad Bay

A stable layer aloft and high altocumulus created gravity wave lines in the sky. The incoming tide and an island well to the left created elongated swirls and deformation zone “calm bands” in Shad Bay. The tides and storm cleaning the rocks on the far shore of Shad Bay created another set of line. The rust colour sea weed clinging to the rocks below this tide line created yet another line. The bands of spruce and deciduous trees on the far shore created a patchwork of lines. The home on the far shore with its paved, black top drive headed down to the ocean’s edge, created unnatural lines. I put them all in. 11x14 inches Water Mixable Oils

Olivia Beverley

Two week old Olivia seldom opened her eyes at the start of the week. This changed rapidly day by day as she became more in tune with her surroundings. By November 14th, Olivia spent much more time alert! I have a happy face in every sun … and “Olivia” subtlety included in the painting as well.!

August Turbulent Stratocumulus

A cold front passed by Watershed Farm near dawn. There were a few hours of showers and then the typical clearing with brisk northwesterly winds. The air was cooler and drier. The gusty winds lifted the moisture to condensation and streets of turbulent stratocumulus parallel to the mean wind direction in the planetary boundary layer results. As I was painting, the clouds became flatter topped and more blue sky appeared between the cloud streets. The air was almost cool and the geese and blue jays were talking like fall had already arrived. I think this is a powerful painting inspired by the moment.
I stood on the front hill of Watershed Farm looking northeastward almost perpendicular to the cloud streets. I had to stake down my easel with my tent cord and a spare brush.

Some More Summer Flowers

Outstanding in front of the barn again just after 8 am. The types and colours of the perennial flowers and weeds have changed since the last time I stood here. The title is intended to be a bit of a humourous alliteration. Linda mentioned that she wanted another painting of flowers and this is it. Oils on cobalt blue tinted acrylic foundation on commercial canvas - 16 X 20

Painting the Forest for the Trees

This is a decorative piece in which I wanted to have fun with positive and negative shapes without getting into the details of leaves and twigs and the tiny bugs on those twigs. The feeling of the forest can be captured without laying in all of the deadening details. At the same time, the character of the trees within the forest can be captured without including each tree. The saying goes that often, one cannot see the forest for the trees. I see the trees but wanted to paint the forest in a decorative way. My hope is that anyone seeing this will subconsciously appreciate the beauty in the individual trees that make up the forest. Moreover, I want them to come away appreciating the simplified overall beauty of the forest which is a complete and healthy ecosystem composed of trees that man should not mess with.
I still paint what I see but it is getting easier as I need glasses more often. I just wanted to have some fun!

Watershed Cumulus

This is the view to the east from the front yard of Watershed Farm. It is mid afternoon and fair weather cumuli have developed in the northwesterly flow. These cells are slightly capped by a layer but some cumulus clouds like the main subject and the one in the right background, have erupted through this cap. The clouds are sheared toward the southeast indicating strong northwesterly winds above the cap. Nothing bad was going to happen with these particular cumuli. It was a fair weather day ahead of an upper ridge. My main goal was to have fun with the colours and to try to capture the cloud and its texture without making the hard cumulus appear like a boulder in the sky. Clouds can be like "ink blots" to fathom the inner workings of the mind. Everyone sees something different - sometimes very different! I was just painting what I saw...

Margaritaville Morning

This is the campsite on the south shore of the big island in McCrae Lake on one of the first voyages of my Kevlar canoe "Margaritaville". It is early on a cool August morning. There was some Arctic sea smoke wafting off the warm summer water of the lake. I had Margaritaville pulled up on a patch of weed in a natural crevice in the granite. One would not want to scratch the finish just like one wouldn't want to dent a new car. Those fears are long gone but the memories linger. I was loading up the canoe with our fishing equipment. The little yellow, plastic box held surface lures - my favourite. Oils on medium burnt sienna oil tinted foundation on commercial canvas - 16 X 20 (inches)

A New Day

I was standing on the front hill at 8 am looking toward the east. The deck of low stratocumulus was pushing in from the south while higher altocumulus was nearly stationary awaiting the sun to burn through it. It was a dark morning after the supercells of the previous day but it promised to be hot and muggy and much sunnier by noon. The energy was still around for more thunderstorms and there was still a lot of veering wind shear associated with the upper low to the northwest. I only had a couple of hours to paint this rather dark dawn to a new day which promised to be full of thunderstorms again. It was sunny by the time I finished.

This is an example of a channeled, classic jet stream and the associated cirrus cloud. The jet stream is on the northern or cold side of the cirrus cloud. The axis of maximum winds is pretty straight or "channeled" in these situation. The jet maximum core is probably just at the leading edge of the thickest cirrus associated with the jet stream. For me, this meant that the jet stream was directly overhead and just outside of the painting. The clouds can tell you a story if you know the vocabulary. It is Greek to most people these days but the rural population of early Canada understood.
There is a patch of altocumulus floccus in the right entrance of the upper jet and this is consistent with the earlier diagnosis. The floccus type cloud tells us that the warm air mass south of the jet stream is quite unstable but pretty dry as well. Nothing bad is going to happen at least for a while.

Dark Dawn

A warm conveyor belt associated with an approaching low pressure area was pushing northward across the Oak Ridges Moraine. Low level moisture moving with the flow was still dark while the sun illuminated the higher level sky. This low level cloud will dissipate quickly under the August sun but at dawn it looked really dark and dangerous. It wasn't but you really have to be a meteorologist or an experienced weather keener to figure it out. This sky meant that southern Ontario would get into the hot and humid weather again until the next cold front came along with thunderstorms. The cumulonimbus arrived just after I finished the painting the next day.

Note that the next day was Thursday August 20th and the tornadic supercell outbreak across Southern Ontario....

McCrae Memories

This is a mid afternoon view of the creek that leads into McCrae Lake. This view is looking southward with the onshore lake breeze shaping the cumulus clouds. There is only a breeze getting to the ground through the channel that leads to the west and McCrae Lake. This explains the ribbon of sky reflection in the otherwise mirror-like reflection of the scene in front of me. My goal was to have fun with the colours and the reflections.

My Flower Bed

By 8 am I was "outstanding" in front of the barn looking for something to paint. I like the way the tall flowers cast their shadows on the bright foundation of the barn. As well, the sun was on my back so it was a most pleasant place to paint. There are names for these perennial flowers but goodness knows what they are. By 8 am I was "outstanding" in front of the barn looking for something to paint. I like the way the tall flowers cast their shadows on the bright foundation of the barn. As well, the sun was on my back so it was a most pleasant place to paint. There are names for these perennial flowers but goodness knows what they are.

C.B. Rainbow

Around 4:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon. I watched this thunderstorm pass by to the northeast of Watershed Farm. There was enough wind shear to encourage supercells to develop although the stronger dynamics were over the Ottawa Valley. In fact a tornado did occur in Gatineau just across the Ontario Quebec border.
This particular cumulonimbus was still developing but there was evidence that there was already a separation of the up and down drafts. The forward flank downdraft and associated rain was producing a shallow arch single rainbow to the right. The shallow angle the rainbow made with the horizon revealed that sunset was still hours away - almost 4 hours in fact. There looked to be a bit of a shelf cloud toward the middle of the cloud base and I'm not sure if this was with the forward flank or rear flank downdraft. From the orientation of the shelf fingers, this shelf cloud is more likely to originate from the forward flank downdraft. The flanking line of the CB on the left edge of the painting is short and steep. This storm had a lot of development left to do.
This storm was destined to rumble along the Lake Ontario lake breeze. Apparently damage was reported near Peterborough and this could have been the cumulonimbus responsible.
Although there is no secondary rainbow in this view, the sky between the primary and secondary bows is noticeably darker than elsewhere. Alexander of Aphrodisias first described the effect in 200 AD and it now carries his name. Light rays undergoing a single reflection in raindrops form the primary rainbow or brighten the sky inside it. Rays reflected twice are deviated to form the secondary bow or brighten the sky outside. Raindrops along lines of sight between the two bows cannot send light to your eye and so the sky is darker there - a good explanation.
As I was painting this, I was thinking of Lawrence Nickle's reference to the Group of Seven's treatment of clouds as "boulders in the sky". This cumulonimbus was a boulder :>)

The Son of the Fence

This is the son (or daughter) of #0608 "February Fence". This painting is expected to be the brother (sister) to #1078 "The Son of a Wild Life". They are almost at the same location and the conditions were similar for both paintings which were both done in the late winter of 2003 - about 200 metres from the back of the barn.
Other paintings along this part of the fence line: #0608, #0618, #0629 #0879 #1078 and #1084.
Oils on light burnt sienna oil tinted foundation on commercial canvas - 36 X 48 (inches)

Weather of Ontario

This is the cover of the "Weather of Ontario". It has gone to the printers and is expected to be on shelves by mid November although you can already pre-order at a discount on-line.
There is some new up-to-date science in the book and I want to thank the contributions of my friend and meteorological researcher Dave Sills. The folks at Lone Pine were terrific to work with and I look forward to seeing the final product. I am told they used a lot of my art. Most of the cloud images were selected from my library of cloud watching that spans the last 35 years. Some good friends filled in the weather image holes that I didn't have. There is even an image of the June 28th, 2009 F2 tornado included in the book at the last minute.

Tom Thomson’s “Dawn at Round Lake"

Visit the Weather Doctor, my Friend Keith Heidorn to see CSI applied to Tom's painting.

http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/arts/tthomson-dawn.htm

Approaching Cold Front

A long north to south cold front was crossing Lake Huron during the early afternoon hours. Gusty southerly winds had already blown over #1082 "Range Light Mourning" which as a larger piece of canvas, behaved like a sail. Mid level instability was sufficient to produce rain showers that reached the ground as pale sheets as in the northern portion of this painting. The altocumulus castellanus to the left were less well developed and had not yet developed into full fledged towering cumulus clouds and showers. The upper levels of the atmosphere were still layered and mainly stable. The fishing boat (steel turtle) had just headed out and I sketched it as it went past.

Range Light Mourning

A long north to south cold front was crossing Lake Huron during the early afternoon hours. The cirrostratus had already cover the sky in a thin veil. Thicker. lower and more opague wisps of cirrus were now spreading westward in advance of the cold front. This was followed by even lower altocumulus clouds that had edges that were more oriented form the southwest to the northeast. This mid level moisture was thickening into altostratus on the western horizon. Rain was definitely on the way but we had plenty of time to finish this third demonstration piece for the "Wind, Waves and Weather" plein air course.

I left a fisherman in the painting but I let him catch a fish and that is the splash in the water to the left of the range light. The fishing wasn't really that good. The calm water arching up and to the left is the wake of a small motor boat that is out of the painting and on its way to Chantry Island.

Breaking Waves

This is looking northward from the rocky point near where we painted all morning.The wave action was still swell. The trees were still in shadow and actually interested me more that the waves. A few strips of cirrostratus were pushing across the sky to the north heralding the change in the weather scheduled for Wednesday. A warm southerly wind would dominate the weather ahead of the next approaching cold front.

Waving to Chantry

The goal behind this demonstration piece was to illustrate how to observe and paint the elements of something that is in constant motion. Waves and clouds are good examples of such moving targets. The swells were still rolling in from Lake Huron as a result of the northwesterly winds from Monday and overnight. The wave action was swell (so to speak). There were no clouds.
I also emphasized the observation of colours and how these colours change with lighting and wetness. Sand is a great example of this.
The composition of this piece is designed to guide the eye along the wet sand to the remains of Chantry’s “Short Dock” and on that subtle line to the even more subtle but colourful sailboat. The sailboat is headed past Chantry Light and the secondary but more obvious point of interest.

Saugeen Tug

This view is from 9 am looking south across the Saugeen at the assortment of turtle boats and a single tug. The far shore was all in shade except for a glancing slice of light across the roves and the northeast surfaces of the boats. A cold front had just passed through and a brisk northwest wind was pushing the waves upstream against the flow of the Saugeen. These same winds were blowing the tree boughs on the far shore to the east as well. The cold frontal stratocumulus cloud had cleared out leaving blue bird skies for the late morning and early afternoon. Some altocumulus gravity wave clouds crossed the scene later in the morning and I included these in the painting although there wasn’t much room available at the top. This layer of stable clouds was riding the elevated cold frontal surface. There was rust showing on the fleet and I wanted this neglect to show in a “pretty” way. The first day at the "Wind, Waves and Weather" Plein Air Course, Southampton.

Smoke Cedars

This is the view looking southerly across Smoke Lake through a stand of cedars. Through the title I am not suggesting that anyone actually smoke cedar bark - I just thought the title might be humourous. There was a complex tangle of roots from the tree cedars all trying to find the sparse soil on top of the rock. I enjoyed this unusal composition which is not my typical painting. Oils on medium burnt sienna oil tinted foundation on commercial canvas - 11 X 14

Dry Towers

At 5:30 pm I headed out to stand on the front hill. I had expected to find fair weather cumulus but there were several lines of embedded towering cumulus to the east. None of these towering cumulus produced more than a few drops so they were basically dry, cries. As I was painting the wind shifted from the southwest to the northeast. The cooler and drier wind from the northeast provided the necessary shear to tilt the clouds that were still in the southwesterly flow. The clearing with the northeasterly gusts provided my favourite shade of sky which I felt compelled to put on the canvas. These same winds also threatened to blow over the easel which I had to tie to the white spruce on the front hill. It was a fun evening with a bit larger canvas.
Oils on burnt sienna oil tinted foundation on commercial canvas - 14 X 18

Shower Curtains

I set up my easel on the beach of the Kearney Lodge, Lake of Two Rivers. A cold low centred near Earlton was causing spokes of showers to rotate across Algonquin Park. The cold low wheel had many spokes so that the dry periods between the showers became shorter especially during the afternoon when the limited daytime heating had made the air mass its most unstable. This particular band of showers emerged from the west and gradually pulled a curtain of rain across my view. I had to retreat to the car briefly to keep the canvas dry.
I displayed this painting as a backdrop for my evening "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman" presentation at the park. My friend Tony Bianco had praise for it. We had 96 people out to hear the presentation. It was well received.
The title is meant to be a humourous pun on the common bathroom item. Instead of keeping one dry, these atmospheric shower curtains made one rather damp.
Oils on medium burnt sienna oil tinted foundation on commercial canvas - 11 X 14

Morning Rain Clouds

The old cold low continued to spin its weather over Southern Ontario. Some morning embedded altocumulus castellanus was visible every now again during breaks to the east. More overcast towering cumulus were bringing showers in from the west. The roof of the balcony was the only thing that kept me and the canvas from getting soaked. The colours of the clouds were my main interest in painting this scene.

Canada Day TCUs

A towering cumulus (TCU) was laying down an isolated shower on the American shore. Not a drop fell during Canada Day Celebrations on the north shore of the St Lawrence River. The weather and clouds were shaped by southwesterly winds down the St Lawrence under a cool and unstable upper cold low situation. I didn’t have any cerulean blue so I made do. Some sailboats cruised by so I put them in the painting.Oils on medium rose acrylic tinted foundation on commercial canvas - 11 X 14

Algonquin Park CSI

My good Friend and fellow artist Keith C. Heidorn, PhD is the Weather Doctor. Keith has compiled a piece on his website about my work with the art and weather of Tom Thomson. The timing is perfect as I present "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman" at the Amplitheatre at Kilometre 34.6 of Alongquin Park at 8 pm on Monday July 6th - hope to see you there!

"What inspired Tom Thomson, one of Canada’s greatest artists? Join Phil “The Forecaster” Chadwick as he tries to convince you that the weather was Thomson’s inspiration and that the proof is in the painting."

Here is Keith's widely used website
http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/doctor.htm

Ragged Falls

This is the view from partway up Ragged Falls looking upward toward the source of the torrent. I climbed up from the bottom of the falls looking for subject matter. There was so much of it. I didn't realize until I tried to climb out that Algonquin Park had erected great fences to keep people from going where I had climbed. Coming from the absolute bottom, I never encountered a fence until I tried to climb out. The falls are indeed ragged with many twists and turns among the torrent of water. The painting is not quite done... but you get the idea.

"Smoke Lake Cumulus"

I still had hours until I had to be at the Algonquin Arts Centre Opening so I decided to check out the Smoke Lake boat ramp - it was a great decision. There were no bugs on the docks and I was able to paint in peace with a broad vista to the south. The cumulus clouds were well developed and were my main subjects. Jet stream cirrus and cirrostratus were streaming in from the west and heralding the approaching low pressure area and rain. This rain would come to pass as the deformation zone had pushed well to the north of Algonquin Park.
I started out painting on the floating dock but had to move to the shore due to the boat traffic in and out of the boat ramp. The dock bounced up and down and it was difficult to keep the brush on the canvas. Two young couples came by, admired my work and called me Tom Thomson - it was nice:>)

"Oxtongue Rapids"

I left the pleasant company of Lawrence Nickle early at 7 am in the morning. He understood that I had another day to paint and that I had to have an early start.
I ended up perched on a rock just of the shore of the Oxtongue River - "outstanding on a rock" you might say. The GPS shows me on the west bank but I was clearly on a rock surrounded by water. The biting bugs of all descriptions were absolutley ferocious! I had to retreat after an hour of laying in shapes and colours. I would continue to flinch and scratch for bugs for days even though there were no longer any biting bugs around.
This is the view toward the north and upstream alog the Oxtongue River.
Oils on medium dark burnt sienna oil tinted foundation on commercial canvas - 11 X 14

Blue Sky Lake

Daytime heating had taken over as the dominant force lifting the surface air parcels to saturation. The cumulus clouds were now more vertical and had flatter, more uniform bases. Lawrence aptly called this lifted condensation level the floor of the clouds. He also called the Group of Seven's treatment of clouds as painting boulders in the sky. There is much truth in his observation!
The title is after the name of the lake and also largely the condition of the sky. By noon, the bugs were not nearly so ferocious as they were first thing in the morning.
Oils on medium dark burnt sienna oil tinted foundation on commercial canvas - 11 X 14 (inches)

Bluesky Lake - just west of Algonquin

"Blue Sky Greens"
Lawrence Nickle guided me to yet another one of his favourite painting places along what he called the "10th Mill Road" of Jolly Township. The rainy weather never materialized. In the wake of the storm we had turbulent stratocumulus whipped up by a brisk easterly breeze that also tended to keep the small black flies at bay The larger deer flies could manage the wind though. The bases of the stratocumulus are indistinct which is consistent with the turbulent way of lifting the moisture to condensation.

Large bull frog tadpoles kept surfacing like those toy soda-powered submarines we played with as kids. There were also a lot of minnows in the shallows. Turtles nests had already been dug up along the sand and gravel lane. The skunks and raccoons were kept very busy trying to keep up with the turtles. Hopefully, lots of the eggs still survived.

Arts Society King Presentation July 9th, Schomberg

This is 7 pm in the air conditioned auditorium of the Schomberg Arena. It should be fun.

Tim River, Algonquin

I spent the week painting with a great friend and artist Lawrence Nickle. I started this particular effort around 11 am while the trees were still in shadow and the wind in the valley was fitfully calm. The water surface was smooth and black during a lull in the breeze but was slightly rippled and reflected the sky whenever a fit of wind worked its way through the valley. The calm and flat surface relfected the dark trees of the far shore of the lake.
Oils on medium dark burnt sienna oil tinted foundation on commercial canvas - 11 X 14 (inches) Started 11 am Wednesday June 17th, 2009. Painting Place N45.73998 W79.06006.

Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman - in Algonquin Park

8 pm Monday July 6th at the Amplitheatre at 35.4 Kilometre in Algonquin Park

Here is the advertising going to the Algonquin campers and supporters...

"What inspired Tom Thomson, one of Canada’s greatest artists? Join Phil “The Forecaster” Chadwick as he tries to convince you that the weather was Thomson’s inspiration and that the proof is in the painting. "


Phil the Forecaster is a nuclear physicist turned meteorologist but has always been an artist. Phil Chadwick paints mostly "en plein air" in oils on canvas outside, surrounded by inspiration. Canoeing, birding, camping and bee keeping rounds out the passion that Phil has for life and the environment.


Phil has been building on this presentation from the early 1990's. Based on the work of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, it could last days - but this one won't :>)

Thousand Islands Life - June Issue

I have another article published about summer severe weather...

http://www.thousandislandslife.com/

http://www.thousandislandslife.com/BackIssues/Archive/tabid/393/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/253/Thousand-Islands-Weather.aspx

wind, waves & weather in Southampton

Monday, July 13 to Wednesday, July 15
Apparently we have a full class.

Paint What You Know About...

My good friends at the Alognquin Art Centre are busy preparing for another season in Algonquin Park - at Kilometre 20 from the west gate. Plein Air art is featured this year and I am trying to be helpful. The following link leads to an article I wrote.

http://www.algonquinartcentre.com/_en/?q=node/25

"Sun of the Copse" and Environment Week

The first week in June is Environment Week and the Oak Ridges Moraine Artists are participating at the national headquarters of the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) at 4905 Dufferin Street. The "Sun of the Copse" is now dry enough to leave the Chadwick Art House. It was on my easel much of the winter. It is a 3x4 foot blow-up of the 11x14 plein air sketch, "The Copse" which appears in the Oak Ridges Moraein Art book. I hope that people enjoy it.

Windy St Lawrence

This is the view northeastward from the balcony of the condo at 11 am. I fished walleye with Big Brother Jim in the early morning but still had time to continue to experiment with my water mixable oil paints again. The sky is always an “OK” subject.

The bank of altocumulus cloud was ahead of a cold front but hemmed in by a prefrontal deformation zone. A high band of thin jet stream cirrus was along a more west to east orientation and was associated with the more southern frontal system. I think that the lower cloud along the northeastern horizon was warm sector stratocumulus associated with the brisk southwesterly winds.
The winds were the real story on the northwest side of the ridge of high pressure. The winds and waves made fishing tough and the day was just going to getting windier. That is why I was back early enough to spend some time painting. The white caps of the waves speckled the St Lawrence as I was putting the finishing touches on the painting.
Medium burnt sienna, oil tinted canvas board 10x12.

Morning Pancakes

This is the view eastward from the balcony of the condo at 10 am – before the cumulus had a chance to get too vigourous. These flat cumuli always remind me of pancakes and they are most likely in the early morning which explains the cryptic title. The northeasterly winds were funneling up the St Lawrence as a cold high pressure centre passed to the north. The cumulus clouds were not going to develop much if any under the capping subsidence inversion with the ridge of the high pressure. The chilly winds were actually increasing with height as evidenced by the cloud curls on the top edges. I liked both the colours of the clouds and the sky. The lifted condensation level for the air mass is fairly high indicating that the flow is dry. There was widespread frost the night before across most of eastern Ontario.

The angle of the American shore slopes downward from right to left as it should with the flow of the St Lawrence. The distant trees were still dark and mainly in shadow.

This was my first experiment with water mixable oils. I like them very much. They are buttery and the pigments mix well like my regular oils. My Friend Doug Purdon introduced me to them and I will certainly continue to use them.

Medium burnt sienna, oil tinted canvas board 10x12.

1058 Windy Island

This island is just north of LiLac Island. The wind was stirring the waves around and I was getting reflection and refraction of waves off the granite shore. The water was choppy. The wind blown, flagged trees clearly revealed the strong and prevailing wind direction from the southwest. There was no easy way to beach the canoe on this piece of rock. A rock with a tree is an island according to the accepted definition in the St Lawrence. This piece of granite more than qualified although one would not have enough room to construct any kind of building.

The different colours of granite result because the higher rocks above the ice and water line are covered with lichen. The lowers rocks are scrubbed clean by the ice and waves. I always find the colours of granite interesting.

The pesky and hungry black flies are out and prevented me from painting in the woods.

1057 Windy Cumulus

It was really windy! Whitecaps covered the waters of the St Lawrence. Waves got up to three feet in height and although I have paddled in higher waves, I was glad that I had left the canoe in the boat house. Early May is not the time to go for a swim.

Cumulus clouds developed in the unstable air mass and some even produced virga. I liked the way the lifted condensation levels of the cumulus faded in the distance. There were also interesting colour effects on the American shore to the northeast.

It was really chilly in the wind off the water. I even put a glove on my palette hand to stay warm. It might have been 11 Celsius but it felt colder. I could have used a coat instead of my blaze orange sweatshirt – I certainly wasn’t sweating!

1059 Smuggler’s Highway

This rocky cliff forms the north side of a narrow channel to the west of Ivy Lea on the St Lawrence River. It is sheltered from the wind and prying eyes. Nevertheless, the cliff probably saw lots of contraband from the United States as it made its way into ready markets in Canada. This little patch of water probably had a lot of traffic during prohibition making it as busy as the current scenic “Thousand Islands Parkway” which it parallels and which lies just a few hundred yards to the north.

The different colours of granite and back lit trees of spring, continue to catch my eye. The pesky and hungry black flies are out and prevented me from painting in the woods.

11x14 Oil on tinted canvasboard

April Snow

"April Snow"
This is based on the wet snow that fell across Algonquin Park on Friday and early Saturday April 3rd and 4th, 2009. The heavy snowfall was associated with a large low pressure area with strong winds. The wind was unable to penetrate into the forest so the snow stayed where it landed. This is the best place to measure snowfall with a "snow board" and not the type that you go downhill on.
In the case of the spruce trees, the heavy and wet snow dragged the branches down as though the trees were shrugging their shoulders. The lowest branches had been pinned all season to the snow and ice on the ground. The lowest branches were almost permanently trained to reach for the ground by the winter's snowfall. This natural teepee is a great place for creatures to find some shelter. This particular spruce tree is in the Limberlost Nature Preserve.
Oils on dark burnt sienna oil tinted foundation on commercial canvas - 24 X 18 (inches) Started noon Tuesday, April 7, 2009. Painting Place - the Watershed Farm Studio.

Bail Out Money

Just to be perfectly clear, Phil the Forecaster, Phil Chadwick and The Chadwick Art House DID NOT ask for or receive a trillion dollars in bail-out money from either the Canadian or US Governments - The Chadwick Art House remains proudly independent.

"The Bane of Bains Road"
Bane means “a source of persistent annoyance or exasperation”. The owners of this once fine building would likely see these ruins as the “bane” of their existence. The stone building might have been built by the same craftsmen, who worked on the Rideau Canal. Although the stonework endures, anything made of wood was suffering.