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)