Phil the Forecaster Retires

"Singleton Phil" did not see his shadow during the blizzard on February 2nd. As a result there are now only 10 more days left as an official Envirnoment Canada meteorologist. He will always be "Phil the Forecaster" but now the plein air paint is really going to fly! Notice that Singleton Phil and Phil the Forecaster go to the same barber and enjoy the same hair colour.

Tom Thomson at the Museum

I will present "Tom Thomson Was A Weatherman" at the Museum in Kitchener at 1:30 pm on Sunday March 27th. For full details ... It will be fun!

Dragonflies in Love

Dragonflies are one of my favourite insects. I serve and stop to avoid them while driving. They have a friend at Singleton Lake. This pair of mating dragonflies were left undisturbed in their loving embrace. The male is to the left with the female to the right scooping sperm into her ovary. At least that is kind of how it happens.

Singleton Spotted Sandpiper

This is based on an excellent photograph taken by Simon Lunn, Naturalist & Photographer of Smiths Falls, Ontario. Simon walked the property on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 as part of the "BioBlitz" I had done during the summer of 2010. I wanted to know just what species inhabited the Singleton Lake property and what I could do to help them along. There is much more to do on this painting but it is a good start.

Three Is Company at Singleton

My first sketch of three fledgling Eastern Kingbirds perched close together on a limb at Singleton Lake, June 2010. This is based on an excellent photograph taken by Simon Lunn, Naturalist & Photographer of Smiths Falls, Ontario. Simon walked the property on Tuesday, June 29th, 2010 as part of the "BioBlitz" I had done during the summer of 2010. I wanted to know just what species inhabited the Singleton Lake property and what I could do to help them along.

Fair Weather Fun

It is a challenge to paint convective cloud. No sooner have you blocked in the cloud structure and colour, but the cloud changes both in shape and colour. Typically the convection is taller and the bases are darker. The taller clouds places some neighbouring clouds in shadow and these take on a grey colour with a tint of burnt sienna. I have a few of these in this painting.

A knowledge of the meteorology of the situation does indeed help but it is not the solution. The fix is to practice what I preach and that is to leave things "unfinished". Get the first attempt right and leave it alone. That is what I did with this bit of summer-time fun. The cumulus continued to develop and by the time I was finished, the scene was overcast cumulus. The little ridge was passing through Brockville so more weather was on the way!

The sailboats came by just at the right time. I wanted to practice what I preach and this time, there was no delicate touch-ups! It is becoming easier to ignore the finagley details as my older eyes don't see it as clearer as they used to.

Winter Sunrise

A brilliant sunrise over Ogdensburg, New York -  There was a lot of science in this scene. I hope there was a lot of art as well.

The reflection of the sunrise is most brilliant where the water is smooth and more mirror-like. For sun glint, a rippled surface at a given distance, is less bright as the amount of surface area oriented to reflect the direct sunlight to the eye is certainly less than that of a mirror at the same distance. The amount of sun glint decreases as one looks more directly down on the ripples as the surfaces of the small waves are less likely to be oriented to produce direct reflection of the sunlight to the eye. The best and brightest sun glint reflections occur when the viewing angle is less than 15 degrees to the surface of the water.

The amount of reflected light also decreases as the viewing angle increases so that one is looking more directly into the water. At these angles, refraction of the light into the water dominates reflection. Thus the small amount of reflected light at these angles is light from the sky thus making the ripples more blue. Most light gets refracted into the water and thus the overall appearance of the water is darker.

"July CU and CI"

Fair weather cumulus (CU) developed early Sunday afternoon. There was more cumulus over the American shore with a minimum over the St Lawrence River. It was apparently holy cumulus - appropriate for a Sunday. A few of the cumulus towered rapidly upward with the crazy wind shear and then was quickly torn apart. The towering cumulus tops sheared up river with the outflow from a high pressure area to the north.

There was a backdrop of cirrostratus (CS) far to the south. In addition there were a few tentacles of fair weather cirrus (CI) in the upper right of the image. The low pressure area far to the south was never a threat for rain along the St Lawrence River.

Tom Thomson - Artist and Weatherman

Thoreau MacDonald (J.E.H. MacDonald's son) wrote a perfect foreword to Ottelyn Addison's book... ``Tom Thomson : The Algonquin Years``

“Thomson’s work would be a fine study for some competent critic, but anyone attempting it should be familiar, not only with every phase of his work, but with the country too. He must know the trees, rocks, lakes, rivers, weather; to have them in his bones ..."

I do not profess to be an art critic or curator but I am fully qualified to discuss the meteorology in Tom`s art. I do hope that you enjoy the discussions in this new web page and that it encourages reflection and positive debate.  In some cases, there are multiple plausible solutions and I attempt to give each a fair presentation. I always try to conclude with the most likely interpretation. Of course, I am making this all up but it is based on some pretty sound science. I wasn't there painting with Tom at the moment of the sketch creation but Tom was a truthful and gifted observer of the natural world. Through CSI (Creative Scene Investigation), I can return to the scene of the time... 
I have been doing presentations based on this material since the early 1990's. I feel it is important as well as interesting to put Tom 's art into context. There are not many of his works that I have yet to apply CSI to.

http://tomthomson.homestead.com/