Back-lit Cloud Transition in the 50 Years of Our Flag Painting

Clouds that are front lit have a brighter centre and darker edges (top image). Clouds that are back lit have a darker centre and brighter edges (second image). It may seem simple but many of us never take the time to enjoy this simple fact. The science of scattering requires that this is the case. Cloud illumination clearly reveals the location of the sun. You may not be able to see the sun, especially in a painting but there can be no doubt as to where it must be! These two images were taken seconds apart from the middle of Singleton Lake.

 I use this fact all the time in CSI - Creative Scene Investigation. I also used it in the 50 Years of Our Flag Painting. It is a useful device to transition from scene to scene. In fact I used back lit cloud in every transition except one. The sole exception is the deformation zone cloud approaching the white quartzite of Killarney from the southwest.

The example I will highlight is that of a very thick layer of back lit stratocumulus. These particular clouds were water droplet clouds with only the edges allowing any sunlight through at all. The same dark cloud mass is transformed into rocks and thus also provides the terra firma for the light house and associated buildings.

This is a bold transition. 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". In this case, I needed this option and I hope my Friend Lawrence would approve.

By the way that is Tom Thomson's dove gray canoe at the portage for Ragged Falls.

Mackenzie Mountain

These snow shadows representing the winter season in the top centre of the” Flag Painting” could be from virtually anywhere in Canada. But these particular shadows are specific to Mackenzie Mountain and an important part of Canadian history. It is appropriate that they be included in the 50 Years of Our Flag mosaic.

This area used to be part of our extended back yard where we hiked and I painted. A close friend environmentally farmed and managed the land. These snow shadows were on the slope of Mackenzie Mountain. The “mountains” on the 12^th Concession of King Township just north of Toronto are not really mountains at all. They are just higher than normal mounds of Schomberg clay. There is still evidence of the dug pit at the very top of Mackenzie Mountain where the rebel volunteers under William Lyon Mackenzie trained in preparation for the 1837 Rebellion.  Jesse Lloyd, James Bolton and others would have trained on those slopes while someone from the peak could watch for miles around should any British military or loyalists attempt to approach. The 400 rebels under Mackenzie that formed the “Toronto Rebellion” portion of the 1837 Rebellion were dispersed in less than 30 minutes on December 7^th at the “Battle of Montgomery’s Tavern. A few people died, a few were hung and more were exhiled. It was a troubled time. The confrontation was probably necessary and it certainly helped pave the way to Canada’s Confederation thirty years later.

The names of the key rebels are those of the hamlets in the area. The small towns are not yet suburbs of Toronto. The “mountain” was christened after Mackenzie but maybe only the locals know it by that name.  In any event this is an important part of Canadian history and deserves a subtle mention within the 50 Years of Our Flag Project.

The accompanying images are just a few of the many plein air sketches that I completed when I trekked the trails in the area. Casson and other members of the Group of Seven also painted in the area. All of Canada is inspirational.

Move the artist when you can’t move the canvas…

The easel my Dad made will take a very large canvas but not a 4x6 footer like that for the 50 Years of Our Flag Project. When one prepares a large canvas, you don’t necessarily think “now just how am I going to paint on that monster?” The solution was to hang the canvas on a large mobile display rack that I had built years ago. The painting is stationary and I move myself up and down to work on various portions of the 3456 square inches. I used different chairs for different elevations ... from a lowly milk stool to a high bar chair with a booster seat. It worked. The image shows the three different chairs plus the booster seat borrowed from the Grand Kids.

There are an additional 720 square inches around the edge of this gallery style stretched canvas. I painted those by using ladders or laying on my back – not glamorous but it worked.

An 8 foot mahl stick kept my hand steady when I was doing precision work. The mahl stick is actually left over moulding from home construction. When I was breaking up excess wood to burn in the wood stove I knew I would find a use for the long piece of wood ... just couldn't imagine what that use might be at the time.

I display the originals of my subject matter and used construction work lights to augment the natural light in my studio.

With the wood stove burning the studio was a terrific place to paint this very long winter. Don't get me wrong, I loved the snowy and wintry weather that we had but I hear that some people are getting tired of it... and with another freezing rain storm on the way for tonight. I expect the freeezing rain to reach Singleton by midnight. Brace your selfs !

Face the Demons Head On…

In the early Grades of Public School I stuttered terribly. My older Brother was my interpreter because no one else could understand a single word that I tried to say. My Grade One teacher thought that I was the proverbial “village idiot”. I do not need to go into the details but my family supported me and their efforts still inspire me. I won the Grade One Silver Dollar for academics. The learning trend continued. I even went to school with Jill Matheson in Grade Seven and had no idea that I would be working with her Dad on the 50 Years of Our Flag Project. My stuttering stayed with me through university but it mattered less and less overtime.

From early on I excelled at art and the subjects that I liked to draw the most aside from fire trucks, were the Canadian and British flags. This was pre-1965 and I had the flags memorized. I didn’t need the real flags to look at…  I knew them by heart. Who could have guessed that 50 some odd years later I would again be drawing the Canadian flag for this very special occasion in honour of John Ross Matheson. I certainly did not.

It would be nice to have some of those early drawings. They were certainly hung on the fridge for a while or sometimes included on the wall of honour in the classroom. It really is not that big of a step from coloured pencils and crayons to oil paint. The oil paint might be a lot more expensive but they are still just colours. I have some tubes of paint that cost more than $50 but you have to use the good stuff if you want it to last. It is only paint but you don’t want it all to be brown paint in 100 years. What would Great Great Great Uncle Austin Chadwick think if I “cheaped” out now? His 1860 poster featuring the Maple leaves still looks great.

Austin Chadwick, an Ontario Judge designed the Toronto Welcome Banner for the September 7^th and 8^th, 1860 visit of the Prince of Wales – Maple Leaves, Snow flakes and a Beaver branded with a large and very modern looking “Welcome”. What could be more Canadian? It is unknown how many of these exist but one is in Brockville!

This was the first royal visit to what was then the Province of the United Canadas. A United Canada and Confederation was just a dream that wouldn’t happen until 1867. Edward Albert, the son of Queen Victoria was the Prince of Wales and the future King Edward VII. He toured Canada West in 1860 and Brockville was one of his stops.

The Maple Leaf in the banner was adopted as the national emblem of the Province of the United Canadas. In 1896 Austin’s nephew Edward M. Chadwick concluded that "it would certainly seem that the Maple Leaf ... is pre-eminently the proper badge to appear on our flag."

Back to the Demons … My heart goes out to those who have ever stuttered. I have been there and I know what it is like. How do I survive the large group presentations that come along now? Maybe you face your demons and find they are not that scary after all. Our parents and John Ross Matheson faced a lot of demons including a world war or two and rose above them all. As MP for Leeds and Grenville John Ross Matheson quietly and humbly did a lot of good for Brockville and Canada. It would appear that a long line of Chadwicks helped to lay the foundation for John’s work. It is an honour to play a small part in honouring John. Of course the goal is to encourage others to face down the demons and make Canada even better…

Funset

I had some time after looking after all of my commitments and decided that I had better paint.

It was a rare day. Singleton Lake was like glass and very inviting. I had paddled for a while earlier in the afternoon. The sunset colours where changing by the minute and it was even tougher when the sun dazzled my eyes when I tired to match the brilliance on the canvas. Cirrus was appearing on the western horizon as a harbinger of the approaching cold front which would snap us out of this summer-time illusion.

Using Trees to Transition from Sky to Water

A challenge in the 50 Years of Our Flag painting has been to transition from scene to scene without seams. Such transitions can be creatively accomplished with even a little bit of humour – even if it is meteorological humour.

Making the connection between the summer copse and the early fall sail boat was more of an accident than a carefully contrived plan. I was painting along one afternoon and I noticed that the reflection of the sailboat was tinted green due to the colour of the water. The shape of the shadow was already bowed by the current in the water. It was a short step from the green shape of the shadow to the bough of a tree. The words describing each even sound the same.

The Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve

http://www.fabr.ca/ I encourage everyone to take a look at what the work and dedication of a few involved individuals can accomplish. Their efforts benefit us all and most importantly the environment.

Here is the ad that will be coming out in the 2013 brochure.. you will find it on page 40. I think that they did a terrific job. Now I need to go for a paddle on this beautiful spring day.
 

Killarney, The Group of Seven and the 50 Years of Our Flag

The quartzite ridges of Killarney in fall are the inspiration for the upper left portion of the 50 Years of Our Flag Painting. This is the fall portion of the seasons portrayed in the project but more importantly this area owes its very existence to the conservation efforts of artists.  In 1931 A. Y. Jackson discovered that the area around Trout Lake was on the verge of being clear-cut. He and fellow artists successfully petitioned the Provincial government to rethink their short horizon plans. Trout Lake is now O.S.A. Lake named after the Ontario Society of Artists. A nearby lake was named after A.Y. and I have painted there a couple of times. Other members of the Group of Seven worked in Killarney including Franklin Carmichael, Arthur Lismer and A. J. Casson. The Group never returned to Algonquin after Tom Thomson died...  I devote an entire chapter to Killarney in my book “The Passion of Phil the Forecaster”.

The weather in this painting is another meteorological lesson. The short answer is that after a beautiful autumn day of painting, a strong rain storm was approaching from the southwest. The long answer follows if you dare.

Light southerly winds were about to intensify and veer to the southwest overnight as the deep low pressure area passed to the north of Killarney. The band of cloud in the upper left is a deformation zone heralding the low. Deformation zones (the double headed green lines) are my favourite prediction tool. The shape and orientation of this line of clouds tell a meteorologist everything needed to better understand the track of the low and the state of the atmosphere.  The warm front would pass north of Killarney on the following day bringing rain and overcast skies. A cold front with strong northwest winds and possibly even flurries would follow a day or so after. The sky is like a book but you need to learn the vocabulary. I will leave that for another day.

A.Y. Jackson and A.J. Casson from the Group of Seven both submitted designs for the Canadian flag… more on this later.

A.Y. Jackson's Lake





Deformation Zone Conceptual Model

Wrapping the Flag in Canadian Humour

An earlier post told a portion of the story of the design of the painting for the “50 Years of Our Flag Project”. The project wraps the Canadian Flag in history, art and science. Using artistic licence I have also tried to wrap the flag in a little bit of humour.

As a society we move too fast. We may be really connected around the Globe but remain disconnected from what is in front of us. The little pleasures that surround us every day and every where are typically missed. These little pleasures include taking the time to look up at the sky and the clouds. Who sees the back lit bunny? For most people, read no further, just take time to enjoy the clouds. For those who want a bit of meteorology feel free to forge ahead.

The lifted condensation level (LCL) of the fall air mass was quite high – probably 2 to 3 thousand feet above ground level. The parcels of air lifted from the drying surfaces and autumn crops all condense at the same level above the ground – the LCL. That is why these cloud bases are level since heating of the ground is the main reason providing convective lift. The southerly winds increase with height and slope the towers of cumulus cloud toward the north as they grow. The “Bunny Cloud” has gotten tall enough to start the precipitation processes. The bunny is thus called a “towering cumulus”. This also tells us that the temperatures within the higher portions of the cloud are near minus 15 Celsius. Ice crystals grow very well at these colder temperatures due to the high saturation vapour pressure over ice. The ice crystals grow, get heavier and begin to fall. Some crystals collide and aggregate together. By the time the snow flakes are fully developed they are falling at 1 metre per second and exit the bottom of the bunny. In this case the air temperatures closer to the ground are well above freezing. The air is also drier. The snow flakes melt into rain drops which fall much faster closer to 10 metres per second. This increased fall rate decreases the density of the hydrometeor per a given volume and this partially explains why the snow flakes disappear after they have fallen a certain distance from the base of the cloud. The rain drops could also be evapourating into oblivion and thus never reach the ground. Meteorologists call this type of precipitation that doesn’t quite make it to earth “virga”. I suspect this was all virga as I don’t remember getting any moisture on my canvas.

There is humour and even science around us all. We just need to slow down to enjoy it.