#2956 "Spring Shadows Singleton"

#2956 "Spring Shadows Singleton" 
18 x 14 by 7/8 depth cradled smooth panel (inches)
Started 11:30 am Monday, June 23rd, 2025

The paddle around Singleton Lake is about 6.0 kilometres. There is something interesting to be found around every corner. That path is paddled several times a year, and it never gets old. Nature changes with the seasons and the weather. The paddle takes more than two hours if I take my time and investigate everything that catches my eye. I have a very low threshold for interesting stuff. I also use the opportunity to check the wood duck boxes and bird houses that line our shoreline. 

The spring shadows cast by the tall trees that towered behind me climbed the opposite ridge at location 2956 in the above graphic. Patches of bald marble rock peeked out from holes in the toupee of fresh moss. Last season's leaves carpeted the valley floor. The soil was rich. The northwest shore in the distance reflected in the calm waters of the north basin of Singleton. 

I prefer to really "see" the natural world and not just quickly in passing. Many regard the land as a simple commodity for profit in an intrinsically flawed GDP (Gross Domestic Product) Economy. Gross indeed! The GDP does not value either nature or the environment. Enough is never enough, especially if you feel the need to keep up with the Joneses. Simple greed.  

In sharp contrast, we see the land as home, a place to live and learn while caring for essential habitats as stewards of the Earth for future generations. 

A wise meteorologist friend of mine wrote: 

"Some people spend their life seeing the world, others spend their life studying the forest and others spend their life studying one tree. The world needs them all. The canoe slows you down to see it all. It lets you get into all the corners where you can use all your senses one at a time.

I became a Scout leader to help boys with learning disabilities and found how smart and skillful some of the dumb people are. I learned more from them than they did from me. They told me what they wanted to learn and do so I had to find ways to get around shift work as classes were impossible to attend. When I got to my meteoroloigcal posting (a city in central Ontario) most wanted to ski and canoe. After going over 6000 miles in a canoe I started to see what they taught me."

Point Paradise hold many more treasures that I have yet to record in oils. Something worthwhile takes time... There are many more paintings required to capture that special piece of the Singleton Sanctuary. 

I have always believed that life, like art, is not a competition. We just need to strive to be better than we were yesterday. The world is quite irrelevant. Success with this simple mindset is not about wealth, power, trips around the world, expensive clothing or fine wine and food. Definitely not about the "gold-plated toilet seat" that has been in the news. Mindless and conspicuous consumption is not the signature of success, which also comes with a high and unsustainable carbon footprint to boot.

Success in life and art can be much simpler. Happiness, being useful and having empathy for all of nature and the environment is a simple and admirable quest. This is just my opinion, of course, but I think it is pretty close to that of Henry David Thoreau.

‘An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day.’  (Henry actually meant "paddle")

‘Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.’ 

‘You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.’  

‘This world is but a canvas to our imagination.’ 

‘If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.’

‘Be not simply good – be good for something.’  

‘Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.’ 

‘Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.’  

Henry David Thoreau.

Thoreau would have been an interesting neighbour. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick