#2964 "Bullfrog on the Log By the Bay"

 

#2964 "Bullfrog on the Log By the Bay"  
16 x 24 by 3/4 depth stretched canvas (inches)
Started 9:00 am Sunday, July 20th, 2025 

This is another image taken by my friend, John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer. John provides a tremendous source of inspiration that encourages me to paint within the Singleton Studio when conditions outside are not conducive to plein air. I had just finished #2962 "Great Crested Flycatcher Friend", but both #2961 "Froggy Friend" and #2963 "Foggy Zen Sunrise at Peggy's Cove" were much too wet to work on without messing things up. There were Heat and Air Quality Advisories in effect outside. So I grabbed a fresh canvas and painted on. 

I was having such fun with bullfrogs that I selected another frog for a self-portrait. Like this bullfrog, I prefer to simply stay home and enjoy the peace and quiet with a near-zero carbon footprint. I look after nature and paint when have the opportunity and the energy. Every day is full of interesting things to see and do at Singleton. 

Art can be a wonderful way of life, making things. Make something, and then try to make a better one. The days, months and years pleasantly pass, trying to make better things until you die. That is a pretty good, creative life. 

Perhaps my self-portrait...keeping an eye on the world    

Little things catch my eye, and my goal is to give them a lasting voice in oils. Combining art and science into a search for truth yields a life full of curious creation and wonder. As an eternal student of nature, life is very good. This lifestyle is reminiscent of what it might have been on Walden's Pond in Concord, Massachusetts - only much nicer and in Canada. 

Henry David Thoreau, an American transcendentalist writer, published "Walden" or "Life in the Woods" in 1854. Thoreau built a rustic cabin near Walden Pond in a woods owned by his friend and mentor, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The book reflects his simple life over the following two years, two months, and two days. I don't know why "two" was important. Too much of a coincidence.

Thoreau made precise scientific observations of many plants and animals, the colour and clarity of different bodies of water, precise dates and descriptions of the freezing and thawing of the pond. He measured the depth and shape of the bottom of the supposedly "bottomless" Walden Pond. These are all things that we do at Singleton Lake. Being inaccessible from an economic profit perspective, our Carolinian forest had never been logged, so it is especially rich with nature and some huge, unique trees. 

There is nothing really special about humans. The best among us display empathy for everything and everyone. In just a couple of hundred years, the greedy actions of a corrupt few with an overabundance of wealth and power, displaying mindless, voracious consumption, have sent atmospheric carbon soaring to levels last measured more than 16 million years ago - beyond comprehension. Think about that...

By the 1970s, Big Oil knew! Politicians knew. They had all been well briefed on the carbon crisis because scientists knew. Even meteorologists like me knew. The science had been developing since the early 1800s, and the existentialist alarms had been sounding ever since. Big Oil and politicians selected to do nothing. 

By the 2020s, half a century of opportunity had passed with nothing but lip service, obfuscation, and denial of the scientific facts. The wealthy elite in power persisted in guzzling the Coal Kool-Aid, greedily consuming more and more that could never be enough. This complete lack of empathy is beyond any scale of measurement when their actions pose the end of life on Earth. 

Sadly, those levels of carbon will end the 11,700-year-old Holocene. I have been unable to change that trajectory, but I tried... Words are never enough, and even pictures, worth a thousand words, are insufficient. Simple greed.

Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide levels climb with no hint of abatement in the Keeling Curve left.

Now back to sanity and art... The title of this painting is loosely based on "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", a song co-written by soul singer Otis Redding and guitarist Steve Cropper. Redding recorded it twice in 1967, including just three days before he died in a plane crash on December 10, 1967. 

"Sittin' in the mornin' sun

I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come

Watching the ships roll in

And then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah…"

The pose of the bullfrog reminded me of  "boketto", the "act of gazing vacantly into the distance, lost in thought or in no thought at all". Those words, in turn, reminded me of the prose of the song lyrics. It is important to select distinctive titles, even though the chronological numbers are, by definition, unique to each painting. 

All creatures great and small have hopes and desires. This bullfrog watching the horizon from a log is really no different from me sitting in a red chair on the marble ridge overlooking Singleton Lake. Inspiration can be found around every corner if we just look with a curious mind and critical thought in a search for enlightenment, for truth. Sometimes a song is the product, but for me, it is typically a painting that may be more permanent. 

'It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.' – Henry David Thoreau 

Here is the pictorial story of just some of the steps taken in #2964 "Bullfrog on the Log By the Bay" that spanned a couple of weeks in July 2025 within the Singleton Studio.

I get a lot of time to think while I paint, as evidenced by the rather lengthy discourse above. Perhaps this is another self-portrait... warts and all. George Orwell's "1984" arrived in 2024. The forecast society was sadly accurate, although he missed the date by 40 years. Still a great prediction! 

For me, it is best to just stay home, surrounded by nature. But I must still continue the uphill struggle for an honest, democratic age of enlightenment in touch with nature and reality.

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 

#2963 "Foggy Zen Sunrise at Peggy's Cove"

 

#2963 "Foggy Zen Sunrise at Peggy's Cove" 
11 x 14 by 7/8 depth stretched canvas (inches)
Started 10:00 am Saturday, July 19th, 2025 

The advection fog was getting thinner at 8:00 am. The flood of July tourists had yet to burst onto the scene. The cool comfort of a rock-hard granite ledge with the soundtrack of crashing waves, facing a rising sun through a misty fog, is ideal for quiet reflection. The zenful scene was full of energy pouring into your senses and memories. The challenge was to capture that energy in the pigments and brushstrokes. The finished painting had to project that thoughtful meditation and inner peace with an abundance of vitality. Not easy but fun. I enjoy challenges. 

Peggy's Cove rocks in the painting can be viewed looking eastward from the tip of the white arrow.

My friend Jim recalls: 

"It was early...7:30am. It was serene, and the thinning fog was just right. That's why I like that picture so much: the fog hugging the top of the rocks and the sounds of the crashing waves - meditative. I sit on a ledge of the rocks and just be part of it. I knew the crowds were on their way, which is a different energy. When the buses arrive, I get a coffee and watch the tourists. I go there by myself a few times a summer for this. Comfortable introvert." 

Apparently, there is a Japanese name for this "act of gazing vacantly into the distance, lost in thought or in no thought at all". "Boketto" (boh-KEHT-toh) is a "noun describing a still, wordless space where the mind wanders like mist, unburdened by purpose".

Preliminary sketch of some
of my favourite rocks!

Jim knew this. One does not need to be fluent in Japanese or even English to practice "boketto". Just find a spot and soak in the peace and quiet. It was what my Father always wanted for his birthday, "peace and quiet". Funny, I appreciate the same gift. 

My background was in nuclear physics, but meteorology was one of those happy accidents when the future of fission and fusion looked unpromising. But first, I had to successfully graduate from the Atmospheric Environment Service Meteorological Orientation Course (MOC) #33. It was an excellent and extremely well-taught course that ran from September 1976 to June 1977 in Toronto. I met some terrific people who I still stay in touch with, including Dave Phillips, who many people will know.  

My first meteorological posting was to CFB Shearwater, CYAW. We had never been to the West Coast, so that was my preferred request. It was wonderful to get the exact opposite of my supplication! Another happy accident! Shearwater and the East Coast were and remain inspiring. The people, the land and the ocean infuse into your being within hours of arriving. We cherish those memories and return often. 

Visible Satellite Imager Wednesday morning, July 16th.

The East Coast weather and climate were also terrific meteorological instructors. One learns quickly about the various types of fog. Even the finest meteorologists are frequently humbled by the silent comings and goings of fog. The morning of July 16th was a classic example of "advection fog" where warm and moist air moves over the upwelling, colder, coastal waters of Nova Scotia. The air mass is cooled to saturation from below. Fog forms when the dew point exceeds the sea surface temperature (SST) by 3 degrees Celsius. Advection fog can be as thick as pea soup. One of the first lessons to master. 

I was keen on the emerging remote sensing tools of the seventies - satellite, conventional radar and Doppler.  Even visible satellite imagery was new, and there was information to be discovered in the sunrise and sunset horizons if one enhanced the "Look-Up-Tables". "Enhanced Visible Imagery", which did just that, was one of my first projects. It never caught on. 

I rarely do commissions. There can only be one person behind the brush. However, Jim gave me free latitude to paint like Tom Thomson. Still, there is the desire to please and to "hit one out of the park" for a good friend. Painting is so much easier if it is just for me. But the subject matter of fog, rocks and Peggy's Cove spoke loud and clear... I had to do this. It brought back some wonderful memories of the Merrytimes that could fill a book. 

I typically just paint in the morning. Art is work after all, just like one of my T-shirts proclaims. Sometimes I am tired after just a couple of hours at the easel, at which time it is best to stop. The energy has to come through on the canvas. When I get tired, the lack of vigour means that nothing gets into the oils, and the brush strokes become mechanical and meaningless. There are typically other chores to do around home anyway. I always have some canvases to stretch and gesso, which can be a pretty mindless task. I do not have an art assistant, so everything is up to me. 

The sunrise on Wednesday, July 16th, 2025, at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, was at 5:42 am with a bearing of 58 degrees to the northeast. By 8:00 am, the sun had risen above Jim's viewing angle and was almost due east. The sun was included on the top of the stretcher bar of the painting. I often paint the sides of the painting so that frames are really quite unnecessary. The brushstrokes can speak for themselves without the "window casing" of any frame. Technically, those oils on the side can also come in handy should I need a bit of a certain colour elsewhere. It is easier and more reliable than mixing a colour from scratch. 

Artistic licence permits me to enhance some of the colours... 
This step was about halfway through the painting experience. 

The painting masking tape "Bar-Codes" that were on the studio easel reveals that I was still working on #2961 "Froggy Friend",  and that another canvas, #2964 "Bullfrog on the Log By the Bay" had also been sketched. I like to start and finish a painting before starting something new, but sometimes one must wait for the oils to "tack up". 

Here is the pictorial story of #2963 "Foggy Zen Sunrise at Peggy's Cove"... a seven-day journey.

If you look closely, every Peggy's Cove rock is included on this canvas. Thank you, Jim... it was fun! 

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 

#2962 "Great Crested Flycatcher Friend"

#2962 "Great Crested Flycatcher Friend" 
16 x 20 by 3/4 depth stretched canvas (inches)
Started 10:00 am Tuesday, July 15th, 2025

This is another image taken by my friend, John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer. John provides a tremendous source of inspiration that encourages me to paint within the Singleton Studio when conditions outside are not conducive to plein air. A Heat Advisory was in effect, and the smoke from the Boreal forest fires was arriving to make the air quality bad. The biting bugs were also hungry. Hmmm, it was a good time to be in the Studio. 

The beak and eye placement of Great Crested Flycatchers gives them a perpetually cheerful outlook on life. Maybe they are just naturally happy!  There are several pairs at Singleton, and I always smile to see them. One pair prefers a wood duck box overlooking Little Mud Lake for its summer home. 

Great Crested Flycatchers nest in cavities. They favour natural cavities in dead trees, but will use large, abandoned woodpecker holes, nesting boxes, hollow posts, and even buckets, pipes, cans, and boxes of appropriate size. Both sexes inspect potential nesting cavities anywhere from two to seventy feet from the ground. 

The female does most, if not all, of the nest-building, while the male keeps her company. If the cavity is much deeper than 12 inches, she first backfills it with debris before building her nest in the back of the remaining space. She uses a wide variety of materials, from grasses, leaves, twigs, and stems, to hair and fur, snail and seashells, feathers, bark, moss, cellophane, onion skin, paper, cloth, eggshells, and, quite commonly, shed snakeskin. The inner cup is usually 3 to 3.5 inches across and 1.5 to 2 inches deep. The female may continue to add fine materials, like feathers, to the nest during egg-laying, incubation, and brooding. 

The Great Crested Flycatchers are long-distance migrants. It is possible that individuals in southern Florida do not migrate. All breeding populations north of central Florida winter in the tropics. They typically leave their northern breeding grounds in September and begin to return to the southern United States in mid-March. They tend to migrate alone. 

This painting started with just blocking in the shapes. The all-important eye and beak waited until the second day of painting. Thankfully, it was a good day, and the oils flowed. 

It was a satisfying experience attempting to breathe life into the oil painting of something alive. The above chronicles just a few of the steps. The photographic inspiration from John Verburg is included in step 6. The finished portrait had to capture the happy nature and the smile on the beak of this beautiful bird. 

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 

#2961 "Froggy Friend"

#2961 "Froggy Friend" 
16 x 20 by 3/4 depth stretched canvas (inches)
Started 10:00 am Monday, July 14th, 2025

This is another image taken by my friend, John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer. John provides a tremendous source of inspiration that encourages me to paint within the Singleton Studio when conditions outside are not conducive to plein air. A Heat Advisory was in effect, and the smoke from the Boreal forest fires was arriving to make the air quality unacceptable. The biting bugs were also hungry. It was a good time to be in the Studio. 

Listening to the frogs is a favourite "life in the slow lane" activity at Singleton. Many thousands of spring peepers in the adjacent Provincially Significant Wetland (PSW) announce the coming of spring with their loud, high-pitched cheeps. We eagerly await that sound, which typically arrives during the first week of April. 

The timing of frog calls varies by species, but generally starts in late March in southern Ontario and continues into the summer. Spring peepers, wood frogs, and chorus frogs are among the earliest springtime singers. Larger frogs like bullfrogs and mink frogs call later in June and July. 

Male frogs croak to get the attention of a female frog, even if they don't see or hear one. We would relax on the red chairs overlooking the lake and eavesdrop on the froggy conversations. The "Jug-O-Rum" croaks of specific bullfrogs were distinctive from their various shoreline territories. The melodies carried across the open waters to their competitors, who would invariably answer back. The conversations between some frogs would escalate into shouting matches across the lake. Their voices would carry far and wide, especially during quiet evenings. 

Around 2012 (I forget the exact year), the Singleton bullfrogs were silenced in a single summer. Apparently, someone had developed an insatiable taste for frog legs. We silently and sadly witnessed the extinction occur. At dusk, a boat with spotlights and a couple of occupants would poke slowly along the shoreline. The evening serenaders were targeted one by one. This tragedy occurred most evenings that summer until the frog songs were extinguished. The extermination of the Singleton bullfrogs was legal, but does that make it right?

"Bullfrogs may be taken for personal consumption under the authority of a valid sport or conservation fishing licence. No commercial harvest of bullfrogs is permitted. The only firearms permitted for harvesting bullfrogs are bows (for example, compound, recurve, long or crossbow). A person may take bullfrogs at night without a firearm and may shine a light for that purpose." https://www.ontario.ca/document/ontario-hunting-regulations-summary/small-game-and-furbearing-mammals

Apparently, bullfrog hunting as described in the above government publication is even permissible within a Provincially Significant Wetland. We have several such wetlands on our property, separated by hardwood forests. 

I can't imagine anyone requiring those calories so desperately! Globally, the harvesting of large frogs for food has led to serious declines in several species, including the American bullfrog. Frog legs were popular menu items in the 1980s and early 1990s. Harvesting for both food and educational purposes (i.e., dissection) has simply and tragically decimated native bullfrog populations in many wetlands. 

Woefully, our froggy friends were "harvested" into local extinction. Clearly, such activities are not sustainable.  In my opinion, the distinctive "harumpf" of the bullfrog voice is as vital as the haunting call of the loon to the Canadian environment. 

Steve Irwin, known as "the Crocodile Hunter", 2005

"We don’t own the planet Earth, we belong to it. And we must share it with our wildlife.” – Steve Irwin, renowned Australian wildlife expert and conservationist.

The following map tracks the comings and goings of bullfrogs relative to 1998. The red squares indicate where bullfrogs were present before 1998 but not after that date. The yellow squares are where bullrogs have expanded their range after 1998 into areas where they had not been previously detected. Bullfrogs were found in the blue squares both before and after 1998. It is unknown whether their overall numbers are increasing. The red squares outnumber the yellow squares. 

Singleton is located on the above map near two red squares (yellow arrow)  surrounded by blue
squares. The actions of just a few frog hunters can have serious impacts.

Making something legal does not make it ethical. Tragic examples abound in our current capitalistic economy and cataclysmic governments. Democracy relies on the integrity and honesty of elected representatives to behave according to their party platform and policies within the laws of the land. Tragically, that is not always the case. There are numerous glaring examples of individuals with the worst qualities holding public office. Laws are changed to suddenly make their misdeeds legal. Greed and power are the motivations. Shame. 

A few empathic and passionate champions are vital to keep the country on track to a sustainable future for all, not just for the wealth and power of the elite few. 

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" was written by Lord Acton (John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton), in an 1887 letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton. The words still ring true more than a century later. 

Now for some biological facts. 

• The American bullfrog, the largest frog in Canada, is native to southern Ontario. 
• They are typically found along shorelines of lakes, bays, and slow-moving rivers, preferring areas with deep, permanent water. 
• Bullfrogs are known for their deep, bass call, which sounds like "Jug-O-Rum". 
• The bullfrog varies in colour from pale green to dark greenish brown above, is creamy white below and has variable dark mottling on the back or underside. 
• Adult males have pale to bright yellow chins during the breeding season. 
• Bullfrogs are distinguished by their very large tympani (eardrums), which are always larger than the eyes, especially in males. 
• Bullfrogs have lateral folds, but, unlike in other frog species, these folds wrap downward around the tympani rather than trailing down the back. 
• Adult bullfrogs may grow up to 16 centimetres long. 
• Bullfrogs breed later than most other frogs, usually from mid-June to late July on warm, humid or rainy nights. 
• The egg masses may contain up to 20,000 eggs and, when first laid, spread out over the surface of the water. 
• Bullfrog tadpoles, which grow for up to three years before changing into frogs, eat suspended matter, organic debris, algae, plant tissue and small aquatic invertebrates. 
• Bullfrogs reach maturity two to four years after transforming, and in the wild, bullfrogs are known to live up to 10 years. However, mortality is high during the first few years of life. In captivity, they can sometimes live longer, with records of some living up to 16 years.
• They are known for their voracious, indiscriminate appetite. Bullfrogs will eat virtually any animal they can swallow, including insects, birds, mammals, reptiles and even other bullfrogs. This trait makes them easy to catch. 

It was a wonderful experience attempting to breathe life into the oil painting of a bullfrog. The following chronicles just a few of the steps. There were many more steps over a week of effort.

For me, art is a personal challenge. Each subject is unique and demands focus and concentration to succeed. I am the one who must be satisfied and am careful not to empower anyone else. I own either the success or the failure of the creative venture. Art, like life, is not a competition. 

A portrait can be found in the eyes. Those googly peepers of the bullfrog had to be alive and following your every movement from the canvas. They had to be just right, and it took several days and some intense concentration. 

The following image displays the studio arrangement on day six with two oil palettes and a slew of brushes that required some attention. An LED lamp was used to light my palette as the colours were getting tricky. I had to use some of my Stevenson's Quinacridone Crimson - not much left. My palettes were also getting somewhat messy. Time to regroup.

John Verburg's photographic inspiration is displayed on the old TV screen,
and I pretend I am outside painting. I can be very gullible. 

The Singleton bullfrogs disappeared for many years. It has taken more than a decade, but the song of the bullfrog has partially returned to Singleton. We have started to hear some bullfrogs again in 2025... Let us hope that people will leave them alone to complete their interesting biology, as summarized above. That should be enough motivation to let them naturally thrive. 

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 

#2960 "Brooding Wood Ducks"

#2960 "Brooding Wood Ducks" 
16 x 24 by 3/4 depth stretched canvas (inches)
Started 10:30 am Saturday, July 12th, 2025

This is another image taken by my friend, John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer. John provides a tremendous source of inspiration that encourages me to paint within the Singleton Studio when conditions outside are not conducive to plein air. It was very hot and humid outside, so I was in the cooler environment of the Singleton Studio. Environment Canada had issued the appropriate advisories. 

The first strokes of the sketch define how the painting might proceed. The image carried a wonderful story. The first marks of the brush on the virgin canvas just felt "right". It was going to be a good day. 

The first strokes on #2960 "Brooding Wood Ducks" ... went very well indeed.

Wood Duck broods like this are frequently seen during the summer. The ducklings crowd together so close to the mother hen that they look like a single, very long-bodied duck crossing the lake.

 Sometimes they parade across our lawn of red and white clover. Wood Ducks, like every other creature, are welcome at Singleton. This hen had nine ducklings behind her. The one at the end of the line was easily distracted. I know that feeling. 

Wood Ducks cannot make their own cavities. There are about twenty Wood Duck boxes within the Singleton Sanctuary. They are very well used. The following map and images tell that story. The Wood Duck nesting boxes are numbered and monitored every year. Sometimes, hooded merganser eggs are also found in the boxes. 

Ducks Unlimited Project at Singleton circa 2010

Breeding pairs search for those special nesting cavities during the early morning. The male waits outside as the female enters and examines the site. They (meaning "she") typically choose a large tree, often 2 feet in diameter, with a cavity located anywhere from 2 to 60 feet above ground level. The Wood Ducks prefer the higher cavities, which are typically places where a branch has broken off and the tree's heartwood has subsequently rotted. Woodpecker cavities are used less frequently. The nest tree is normally situated near or over water. Wood Ducks will use cavities up to a mile from water if nothing else is available. 

Incubation Period: 28-37 days Nestling Period: 56-70 days 

Egg-dumping, or "intraspecific brood parasitism," is common in Wood Ducks. The hen will visit other Wood Duck cavities, lay eggs in them, and leave them to be raised by the other female. This may have been made more common by the abundance and conspicuousness of artificial nest boxes, like those at Singleton. In some areas, it happens in more than half of all nests. Individual females typically lay 6 to 16 eggs per clutch, but some very full nests have been found containing 30 eggs, the result of egg-dumping. Wood Ducks will sometimes have a second brood. 

After hatching, Wood Duck ducklings make a dramatic leap of faith from the nest to the ground, often falling from heights of over 50 feet to the ground below. The wood duck boxes at Singleton are about 12 feet off the ground with a predator guard to protect each nest. 

While many migrate south for the winter, including the Singleton wood ducks, some Wood Ducks remain in southern Ontario during the colder months. 

#2960 "Brooding Wood Ducks" 
Nearing completion in the Singleton Studio

Wood Ducks feed by dabbling or short, shallow dives. They are strong fliers and can reach speeds of 30 mph. Wood Ducks are not territorial, with the exception that a male may fight off other males that approach his mate too closely. Courting males swim before a female with wings and tail elevated, sometimes tilting the head backwards for a few seconds. Males may also perform ritualized drinking, preening, and shaking movements. Both members of a pair may preen each other. 

Wood Duck populations have increased since 1966, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population at 4.6 million and rates them 7 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score, indicating a species of low conservation concern. This is good news, considering their dramatic declines from hunting in the late 19th century. Even so, Wood Ducks are second only to Mallards in the number of ducks shot by hunters every year. 

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 

#2959 "July 7th Singleton Sunrise"

#2959 "July 7th Singleton Sunrise"  
14 x 18 by 7/8 depth cradled smooth panel (inches)
Started 11:00 am Monday, July 7th, 2025

The sunrise was at 5:27 am on Monday, July 7th, 2025. My friend John Verburg photographed this brilliant sunrise over the Singleton Sanctuary from a dock of the Singleton Lake Family Campground. Sunrises looking eastward only appear over the forest canopy for us. Some interesting meteorology was revealed by those clouds. That story deserved to be recorded in oils as well.

A warm front extended eastward across the Ottawa Valley from a low over Lake Simcoe. Water vapour imagery revealed the warm conveyor belt pattern over eastern Ontario. A series of upper vortices were rippling along with the jet stream flow. Southerly surface winds were directing abundant low-level moisture northward. The warm sector even enjoyed some strong July sunshine. The winds veered with height, especially in conjunction with the upper vortices. 

The warm airmass was loaded with moisture, heat and wind shear, which are all conducive to strong convection. The trigger in the form of the cold front could set everything into motion as it crossed eastern Ontario in the mid-afternoon. It was a dynamic weather situation with the added complication of lake breezes and local topography. 

Any convection that developed along the subtle intersections of these low-level convergence lines would encourage the development of a mesocyclone and possibly a tornado. The weather situation was worthy of special scrutiny. But I had a painting of a sunrise to work on in the Singleton Studio,  relatively immune from the heat and humidity outside. I would leave the forecast to my friends in the Ontario Storm Prediction Centre.

The "toothless" cradled panel worked well with the fleeting nature of the sunrise cloud shapes and colours. Sometimes you just need to charge the subject with bold and brash strokes. 

I alerted some family and friends after lunch, anticipating the weather developing in the early afternoon hours. The rogue cells that explode ahead of the cold front always warrant close scrutiny! I no longer "carry the can" for Environment Canada, but I still keep an eye on the weather. I was also still playing with the morning sunrise, so I could not devote much attention to either the satellite or radar imagery. 

Environment Canada went to "Tornado Warning" at 2025-07-07 19:18 UTC (3:18 pm), replacing Severe Thunderstorm Warning for: Merrickville-Wolford - Kemptville, Ont. (043610). Current details: At 3:18 p.m. EDT, Environment Canada meteorologists are tracking a severe thunderstorm that is possibly producing a tornado. Damaging winds, large hail and locally intense rainfall are also possible. 

There were some pictures of the Franktown mesocyclone and tree damage posted on Facebook. 

The hotspot of Canadian tornadoes has shifted from the Prairies to the eastern part of the continent. Severe convection must follow the moisture of the upper atmospheric trough. The science of my friend Dave Sills and The Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) is making great progress at detecting more of the tornadoes and creating a more comprehensive climatology of severe weather events.  A research paper I did in the 1990s suggested that the Environment Canada observation network only detected 15 to 20 percent of the severe events that actually occurred. It is impossible to create a meaningful climatology with such a meagre detection rate. Weather IS important. 

The Northern Tornadoes Project may study this event in more detail. As for me, I am more than busy painting and looking after the forest. Several large trees were knocked down by the June derecho, and that will occupy my spare time into the autumn. 

I used two studio palettes to keep my colours clean. My brushes are always in a state of some neglect. Oh my...

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 

#2958 "Summer at Point Paradise"

#2958 "Summer at Point Paradise"  
14 x 18 by 7/8 depth cradled smooth panel (inches)
Started 11:00 am Sunday, June 29th, 2025

I decided to revisit the western tip of our Singleton property and the weathered remains of the "Grenville Mountains". Those rocky ridges were nearly 30,000 feet tall about 1000 Ma ago and rivalled the current Himalayas.  This view, looking almost straight north, captured the late summer colours of the Carolinian forest on Point Paradise. Some trees were starting to show their autumn colours. The shoreline trees display autumn colours earlier than most, a result of the limited soil on the ancient marble.

This image of Point Paradise with the fishing boat was taken by my good friend John Verburg. It was still hot and humid outside, so the Studio called to me.  I also employed similar photos that I had taken from my canoe for reference. 

I charge right into most paintings with the brush. 

The "toothless" feel of the gessoed, cradled panels was necessary for the loosening-up process in preparation for some fun plein air weather paintings. Just a few brushstrokes are employed to lay the paint on thick, wet on very wet. Art needs to be fun - painting with pools and swirls of oil and pure colour is the answer. My Dad built the stretcher bars, and I aspire to use every one of them before I am done.

I have painted this characteristic point before. 

The lengthening nights and drying crops provided both the cooler temperatures and moisture conducive to radiational fog. The air cooled over the land drains to lower elevations by dawn and chills the moist air over the lake. Mist is the result. A thick layer of stratus overhead had formed under the associated radiational inversion. The weather makes late summer a special time of year, as the lakes are as warm as they will ever get, making swimming quite wonderful. 

A fishing boat was out in the shallow bay. That is a favourite spot for fishermen pursuing both bass and pike. 

I used two studio palettes to keep my colours clean. My brushes are always in a state of some neglect. Oh my...

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 

#2957 "Singleton Rocky Point and Sheltered Bay"

#2957 "Singleton Rocky Point and Sheltered Bay" 
18 x 14 by 7/8 depth cradled smooth panel (inches)
Started 4:30 pm Monday, June 23rd, 2025

The canoe is the most functional and beautiful craft imaginable. Bill Mason once said: 

"I have always believed that the Canadian Wooden canoe is one of the greatest achievements of mankind." Bill continued: "When a man is part of his canoe, he is part of all that canoes have ever known." Bill was quite right. 

My canoe has cherry trim, but the hull is carbon. The carbon layup by Swift Canoes only weighs about 35 pounds, which has become quite important to me. I am not forty years old anymore and never will be again. Being a meteorologist, I convinced my wife that this was my way to permanently sequester carbon out of the atmosphere. I need to purchase a lot more carbon canoes if I really want to combat global warming. 

There are a few other canoe sayings that resonate with me, and I wish to share them here with another canoe painting. 

• "Love many, trust few, but always paddle your own canoe." -American proverb
• "Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll go canoeing." -Henry David Thoreau
• "Wherever there is a channel for water, there is a road for the canoe." – Henry David Thoreau
• "There is magic in the feel of a paddle and the movement of a canoe, a magic compounded of distance, adventure, solitude and peace." -Sigurd F. Olson

And finally, my favourite... 

• “A day without canoeing probably wouldn’t kill me, but why risk it?” – Author unknown

Bill Mason also correctly claimed: "Anyone who says they like portaging is either a liar or crazy." I have done some long portages, and they were never very much fun, as I recall. 

This rocky knob on the northwest corner of Point Paradise is a favourite of mine. It was recorded en plein air along with its twin as #2481 Singleton Shagbark Hickory Point; #2482 Hickory Point in March . The Kubota tractor carried me and my gear to the painting location through deep snow on Tuesday, March 9th, 2021. It was at the height of COVID and a most enjoyable experience. There were no biting bugs and certainly no people. Just nature which nurtures us all. 

My canoe took me to the same location in April 2025. 

Inspiration can be found around every corner if we just look with a curious mind. 

‘It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.’ – Henry David Thoreau

So I stay home, paint and look after the forests while surrounded by nature. Happiness, being useful and having empathy for all of nature and the environment is my simple quest.  Life remains good and quite productive. 

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