#3039 "Hazel-eyed Daisy"

 

#3039 "Hazel-eyed Daisy" 
8 X 10 (inches) oil on canvas.
Started 10:00 am Sunday, August 16th, 2026

I thought I would spend another hour or so with the clump of brown-eyed susans featured in #3038 "Singleton August Bouquet". Every painting will be different, even if the subject is the same. 

A "hazel-eyed daisy" poetically describes the classic ox-eye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare). Technically, there is no such flower. 

I picked my own hazel-eyed daisy (her name was not Susan) on this date in 1975 - 51 years ago. It was the best decision I ever made ... although I was only half of that selection-making process. A life partner is the only choice that you have to get right the first time. All of your other decisions can be flawed, and you will still get by. Time really does fly when you are having fun. 

Wild and just a little bit crazy... 

An hour spent listening to nature is worthwhile
even if no one understands the art. 

Plein air work is best left alone after completing the brushwork in the field. The oils might be rough, and there will be complementary specks of burnt sienna-tinted canvas showing through, but those "imperfections" are more than just "OK". Any such "blemishes" make the art real. Actually, there are no mistakes in art, just happy accidents, and I own them all.

This is not AI-produced in any way! "Artificially" generated anything is, by definition, synthetic, fake, and just an imitation of what has already been done. AI really needs to be avoided, at least in my small world. The human touch, even with all of the inherent flaws are essential to make the art come alive. 

Step away from the easel and move on. Perhaps grab another canvas...

I have painted brown-eyed susans as well as daisies many times before... 

For this and much more art, click Fine Art America or go straight to Collections or the new Wet Paint Collection. If you enjoy this, you might like the Flower Collection...

Thank you so very much for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick  

#3038 "Singleton August Bouquet"

#3038 "Singleton August Bouquet"
10 X 8 (inches) oil on canvas.
Started 10:30 am Thursday, August 13th, 2026

We had been admiring this clump of brown-eyed susans on the marble ridge all summer. August was starting to cool off. I needed to loosen up en plein air. The sun still got hot, but there was no smoke in the air. Even so, I had to add some finishing highlights in the studio where I could apply those with a steady hand. 

Brown-eyed Susan flowers are native to North America. They are also called Black-eyed Susan, Brown Betty, Ox-eye daisy, poor-land daisy, poor-man's daisy, yellow daisy and goodness knows what else. I prefer the "brown-eyed" name after the 1967 song by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison. These flowers were painted as they appeared on Thursday, ‎August ‎13th, 2026 at 10:30 am. Linda had admired these flowers, so I decided to give them a try on a seasonal day before it got hot with the afternoon thunderstorms. Those storms blew down some trees and probably structures from Newboro to Smiths Falls and probably beyond. 

Painting, "outstanding in the field..."

The black-eyed Susan flower (Rudbeckia hirta) belongs to the sunflower family and is the state flower of Maryland. It's also a medicinal herb believed to treat colds, flu and even snakebites. Black-eyed Susans are indigenous to many sections of North America. They were introduced into Europe from North America soon after Columbus's visits and were named by Linnaeus in 1753. Linnaeus gave them the Latin name Rudbeckia Hirta after his mentor Olaf Rudbeck. "Hirta" means rough and hairy. 

I have painted them before... 

The above features "Susan" in the name. There might be others in my portfolio. 

For this and much more art, click Fine Art America or go straight to Collections or the new Wet Paint Collection. If you enjoy this, you might like the Flower Collection...

Thank you so very much for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick  

Phil Chadwick  

#3037 "Wildfire Skies at Singleton"

#3037 "Wildfire Skies at Singleton"
14 X 11 (inches) Oils on canvas.
Started at 10:30 am Monday, August 10th, 2026

My friend John Verburg took this image after an afternoon of swimming in the beautiful, deep waters of Red Horse Lake. This picture was taken just ten minutes after John composed the inspiration for #3034 "Fiddler's Elbow Wildfire Sunset" just downstream at the entrance to Long Reach. John Verburg's pontoon boat was very near N44.522211 W76.104719 when he paused to observe this next inspiration at the exit of Jim Day Rapids. John is always on the lookout for something that speaks to him. Typically, what inspires John to photograph also speaks to me, encouraging an interpretation in oils. 

The sky was literally on fire! Smoke from the wildfires in the Boreal Forest and the Rocky Mountains of Canada and the United States wafted all over North America. 

I needed to chronicle those skies for posterity. I am not Edvard Munch (1863-1944), nor is this his most famous work, "The Scream" from 1893. Otherwise, the comparison of witnessing the threats to nature is identical. 

As an aside, I have seen at least one version of "The Scream" at the Norwegian National Gallery in Oslo. I was nose-to-nose with countless other incredible works of art, including some selfies by Vincent! The  National Gallery in Oslo was one of the finest galleries I have ever had the opportunity to visit. 

Now back to the story... The Norwegian name of Munch's painting is Skrik, which is 'Scream' in English. The German title under which it was first exhibited is Der Schrei der Natur,  'The Scream of Nature' in English. The agonized face in the painting has become one of the most iconic images in art.

In his diary entry headed "Nice 22 January 1892", Munch wrote:

"One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord – the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream."

Munch later described his inspiration for the painting:

"I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature."

Some scholars believe that Munch was describing a panic attack. They have located the spot along a fjord path overlooking Oslo. In 1893, that road on Ekeberg Hill was near Kristiania (present-day Oslo) and led to a house where the artist lived for a while.

There are various explanations for the unnaturally orange sky, ranging from the effects of a volcanic eruption to a psychological reaction by Munch to his sister's commitment at a nearby lunatic asylum.

Munch,1895, The Scream, Pastel

Munch created two versions in paint and two in pastels, as well as a lithograph stone from which several prints survive. Both painted versions have been stolen from public museums, but have since been recovered. Munch created several variations on this theme with different figures in the front right and versions of the two strolling gentlemen, sometimes looking over the edge.

 The 1895 pastel version (image to the right) sold at Sotheby's in New York in 2012 for $119,922,500. That set a new world record as the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction at that time. Leonardo da Vinci's Salvator Mundi currently holds the record for the most expensive artwork. It fetched $450.3 million at Christie's in New York in 2017. Neither artist saw a dime of that cash. 

The impacts of fossil fuel combustion were still a matter of conjecture in the 1890s, when 'The Scream of Nature' was becoming famous. Coal was big! The automobile and the discovery of vast reserves of "liquid gold" or "Texas Tea" were in the future with the Age of Oil. Francis Molina’s article Remarkable Weather of 1911: The Effect of the Combustion of Coal on the Climate — What Scientists Predict for the Future would not be published in New York’s Popular Mechanics until 1912.

Just a century later (not a few, as hoped for in Popular Mechanics), the Earth is in the verification stages of those dire forecasts. The corporate media has utterly failed to tell the story of what it means to release 14 million years of sequestered carbon back into the atmosphere in less than 200 years. Severe impacts are being observed daily. Informed citizens are challenging leaders to take drastic action. 

My goals are not so lofty. My painting will probably go unnoticed and is unlikely to have the impact of Munch's 'The Scream of Nature'.  I just wanted to put those smoky skies within the context of the Jim Day Swimming Hole. We frequent those classic red chairs when the atmosphere is not so full of smoke and those small yet hazardous particulates. The PM2.5 micron particles produced by combustion are 30 times smaller than a human hair! Those particles penetrate deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream, causing inflammation. Not good...

The story behind those smoky skies can also be found in #3032 "Killbear Lighthouse Smoky Sunrise" as well as several of my science blogs. The air quality in Toronto was the worst on the planet in July as a result of wildfires. Distant, catastrophic events can still have very local impacts. We are all in this together with nature. 

As a meteorologist, I have been appalled since very early in my career by the lack of political leadership. Politicians and corporate leaders have failed miserably to address the largest, existential issue that threatens all life on Earth. Even worse, political leaders have undermined research on climate change and the scientists involved in developing and disseminating those facts. Multiple "program reviews" and funding cuts to environmental services were the norm in Canada throughout my career. 

All of humanity should be screaming at the abuses of nature and the planet by the powerful, wealthy and well-connected few - simple, arrogant, ignorant greed at the expense of the "little blue planet". The following graphic summarizes the truth of this science...

A strong case can be made that the Canadian political war on science (the search for understanding and the truth) started even before the early 1980s, back to the sixties and the Avro Arrow. Canadian science was leading the world in many fields in the early 1960s, including meteorology. 

Somehow, that knowledge conflicted with the political view of Canada as a global energy superpower. The brand of the political party was irrelevant, as they all lusted for power and wealth. Fossil fuels had to be subsidized and rebranded as "energy", thus disguising their existential links to carbon. That conception continues to this day with escalating political sanctioning (support) of oil, gas, fracking, pipelines ... a very long and misguided list of so-called "nation-building" projects that includes the high-speed rail project, Alto. Shame.

Instead, political leaders should be sanctioning (punishing) those who continue to destroy the environment for personal profit. That too is a very long list. Clear-cutting forests, including ancient, old-growth ecosystems, at a time when carbon needs to be resequestered is just wrong as well as incredibly stupid. 

Ignorance is not bliss... please be informed. 

The colours are real, but being beyond human experience, like "The Scream of Nature", some may find them challenging to believe. I wanted the heat to shimmer in both the sky and the reflective waters. The science is clear, while the politics are murky at best.

The other story behind this composition is that climate change has created two empty chairs at sunset in the natural Singleton paradise… due to heat and the PM2.5 particulates. There will be millions of permanently empty chairs in 50 years... billions by 2100. 

For this and much more art, click Fine Art America or go straight to Collections or the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you so very much for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick  

3036 "Eastern Towhee Thicket"

3036 "Eastern Towhee Thicket"
10 X 12 (inches) Oils on canvas.
Started at 10:30 am Friday, August 7th, 2026

My friend John Verburg provided an inspiring image of this Eastern Towhee. We enjoy quite a few of them at Singleton. 

Many details of the Eastern Towhee's natural history still remain poorly known. The towhee spends much of its time near or on the ground in dense habitats. Tough places for humans to watch them!

Socially, it is monogamous and territorial. The female builds the nest and incubates the eggs, but both parents provide care and mob any predators. Like most of its sparrow and bunting relatives, the Eastern Towhee uses a distinctive two-footed scratching, moon-walking dance to displace loose litter on the ground and uncover hidden prey. This behaviour is especially important in winter, when nearly all of its food comes from the ground. During the breeding season, it also hunts for insects and fruit in woody vegetation above ground. 

I find the eyes on the towhee to be a challenge. They are large and located ever so slightly differently from other birds. This is another attempt to get it right!

My parents and grandparents made sure that we had access to field guides. As a kid, I spent a lot of feral time wandering the forests and pastures with the Golden Field Guides. I carried a wooden rifle that my Dad carved out of a 2 by 4 with an eye-screw as a peep sight. He even painted it. There was no fear in the woods in those days or even now.  The Birds of North America was a favourite, and I still refer to it today. 

Here are a few of the steps in trying to breathe life into this Eastern Towhee... Every painting is an interesting challenge and an opportunity to learn. 

I have painted Eastern Towhees before... please see

• #2245 "Eastern Towhee"; 
• #2950 "Eastern Towhee Sing On"; and
• #2969 "Male Towhee Sing Long" 

For this and much more art, click Fine Art America or go straight to Collections or the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you so very much for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick  

#3035 "Indigo Blues"

 

#3035 "Indigo Blues" 
12 X 10 (inches) Oils on canvas.
Started at 9 am on Monday, August 3rd, 2026

Indigo buntings are a favourite songbird of the Singleton Sanctuary. The small, brilliant and very colourful bird prefers brushy areas along forest edges. We have lots of those at Singleton! 

This little male indigo was quietly enjoying the sunlight. Like most other "blue coloured" birds, including the "bluebird" of happiness, the feathers of indigo buntings are not actually blue. The plumage contains the dull brown-black pigment melanin. A frontlit feather will appear bright blue as light scatters from the melanin via Rayleigh scattering. A backlit feather with the light coming from behind the feather to your eye reveals the true dark colour of the plume. 

The colours of this indigo bunting are various hues of blues. Even though the sun is not included, that fact tells us that the sun was in front of the bunting. I branded this as "Creative Scene Investigation" when I applied it to the art of Tom Thomson. Basic science can reveal a lot of truths which would not be obvious otherwise. CSI applied to art was also fun and informative when applied to the forensic cold art cases.

The large eye of the indigo bunting is striking and always a challenge to get just right. The tiniest details have to be perfect to allow the bird to really see. 

Here are a few of the steps in putting this indigo bunting together... 

Different lighting over the course of a week can really influence the hues of the painting photos.

I have painted Indigo Buntings before... #1188 "Indigo", #2922 "Blue Bunting of Happiness"; #2947 "Indigo Bunting Singing A Love Song"; and this one, #3035 "Indigo Blues" 

For this and much more art, click Fine Art America or go straight to Collections or the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you so very much for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick  

#3033 "Loon Run Way"

#3033 "Loon Run Way"
18 X 24 (inches) oils on canvas.
Started 9 am Wednesday, July 29th, 2026. 

#3033 "Loon Run Way" 18 X 24 (inches) oils on canvas. Started 9 am Wednesday, July 29th, 2026. 

This image was taken by my friend, John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer. John has a very long lens and captures images of nature that are truly inspirational. John's photographs entice me to paint within the Singleton Studio when conditions outside are not conducive to plein air. It was torrential rain outside when I started this painting ...

John captured a familiar yet unfamiliar sight of a loon slapping its feet and racing across the water, flapping its wings to gain enough airspeed for lift-off. The details of movement and the spray of water are something we only witness as a blur. John's camera reveals details that can typically only be imagined. His image would allow the interpretation into oils. 

At the Studio Easel my Dad built.

A loon needs a water runway of 90 to 1,300 feet (up to 0.4 km) to get airborne. Loons have heavy, solid bones and legs placed far back on their bodies. Loons were built for the water, and getting into the air takes a lot of effort. A strong headwind will shorten the required distance. In contrast, a tailwind stretches the runway to the quarter-mile maximum. Imagine running a quarter mile across a water surface and not achieving the air speed required for lift-off. Any loon who has done that would be exhausted and probably wait for a headwind. 

Thankfully, loons are not crazy in spite of that common misconception and the song by John Prine. Loons must understand atmospheric conditions. As a result, most takeoffs require a sprint of about 200 to 600 feet across open water.

The bottom line is that loons need an air speed of roughly 25 miles per hour (40 km/h) for lift-off. That might be achieved by just strolling across the water with a near-vertical takeoff into a 25 mph headwind. A running speed of 25 mph is pretty fast! Those loony legs were really flailing! 

Consider that a typical untrained adult jogs at about 6 mph (10 km/h), while a fit recreational runner sustains 8 mph (13 km/h). Runners can do short sprints reaching 20 mph (32 km/h). If the loon facts are accurate, then this is another reason to be very impressed by these birds. 

Of course, lift-off is not just achieved by running! The wings provide some lift at lower air speeds, raising the loons above the water's resistance. The propulsion provided by the wildly spinning legs then just required to incrementally add to forward motion. The splashes from the webbed feet on the water's surface grow further apart. Wings take over the effort of getting airborne, and the loon flies! I can imagine a smile on the loon's beak every time it transitions from a graceful, synchronized swimmer to a speedy flier, having overcome the gravity of the situation. 

Interesting Facts:

• The loon swallows most of its prey underwater. The loon has sharp, rearward-pointing projections on the roof of its mouth and tongue that keep a firm hold on fish.
• Loons' legs are placed far back on their bodies, allowing efficient swimming but only awkward movement on land. Loons only go ashore to mate and incubate eggs. 
• Loons are agile swimmers, but they move pretty fast in the air, too. Migrating loons can fly at more than 70 mph.
• A loon family eat a lot of fish. Biologists estimate that loon parents and their 2 chicks can eat about a half-ton of fish over 15 weeks - the typical duration of their time together.
• Loons can quickly blow air out of their lungs and flatten their feathers to expel air within their plumage, so they can dive quickly and swim fast underwater. Once below the surface, the loon’s heart slows down to conserve oxygen.
• Migrating loons occasionally land on wet highways or parking lots, mistaking them for rivers and lakes. They become stranded without a considerable amount of open water for a long takeoff. A loon may also get stranded on a pond that is too small.
• The loon is flightless for a few weeks after moulting all of its wing feathers at the same time in midwinter.
• Juvenile loons are on their own when their parents leave after 3 months of nurturing. The juveniles gather into flocks on northern lakes and make their own journey south a few weeks later. Once the juveniles reach coastal waters on the ocean, they stay there for the next two years. In the third year, young loons return north. On average, loons are six years old when they start breeding.
• The oldest recorded loon was a female, and at least 29 years and 10 months old when she was spotted in Michigan in 2016 and identified by her band. 

I was reminded by the efforts of Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier (1815-1891), a wealthy and meticulous French academic painter who was famous for detailed paintings of Napoleon and military sieges. Meissonier was also obsessed with capturing the exact mechanics of equine movement. Meissonier built a private trolley track on his estate. He placed a cart or rolling sofa on the rails and had servants pull him at the same speed as a horse galloping parallel to him. This allowed Meissonier to sketch the legs in motion from a steady perspective. He never got it right. 

Eadweard Muybridge developed high-speed stop-action photography in 1877 with a fast shutter to capture a single horse in motion. In 1881, Muybridge visited Paris and projected his famous high-speed sequential photos of a galloping horse (Sallie Gardner at a Gallop) inside Meissonier's home. 

Upon seeing the photographic proof that a horse actually bunches its hooves under its belly when all four feet leave the ground, Meissonier apparently wept with a mix of astonishment and disappointment. His lifelong, highly engineered observations had missed the truth. He immediately began adjusting his subsequent masterworks to match reality. A genius learns from science and turns it into art. But I digress...

Here are just a few of the steps in achieving loon lift-off... 

I have painted loons before. 

• See #1368 "Loon Lunch",
• , #1369 "Singleton Loon", 
• #2739 "Loons Next Generation", 
• #2862 "Pensive Loon"  and 
• #2863 "Post-preening Loon".  

Others without loon in the title might still be in the portfolio. For example, #0158 "Bass Lake, Restoule" features a pair of loons from a canoe trip. 

They are a favourite bird, and we have maintained a loon nesting platform at Singleton since 2006 - continuing the remarkable efforts of my friend Jimmy J. I hope there is someone to follow in our conservation footsteps when we can no longer continue. We are all part of nature and need to assist one another. 

For this and much more art, click on Fine Art America or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you so very much for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick  

#3032 "Killbear Lighthouse Smoky Sunrise"

#3032 "Killbear Lighthouse Smoky Sunrise"
11 X 14 (inches) oils on canvas.
Started at 10:30 am Saturday, July 25th, 2026 

My friend Cam was cruising at sunrise on Friday, July 24th, 2026. Cam knows what I enjoy interpreting in oils and is always on the lookout for me. I use his suggestions for Studio paintings when conditions encourage me to stay inside. It would be impossible to paint those scenes on location as well. The water would be much too deep for my field easel. 

This inspiration is from 6:27 am in front of Lighthouse Point, Killbear. The sunrise occurred about a half hour before at 5:55 am EDT and at an angle of 60° toward the northeast. I would have loved to be there in person with nothing between my eyes and the sunrise light. It is easier to just stay home. 

The city of Parry Sound was just 10 kilometres to the east as the bird flies or the canoe paddles. By road, the distance to the city was 40 kilometres away via ON-559 E and Highway 400. I prefer the paddle approach to the "Big Smoke".

Smoke from wildfires in the Rockies and the Boreal forest was casting an unrealistic and ominous hue on the sunrise light. Wildfires were burning all across North America and, in fact, the world. That should come as no surprise. Meteorologists and climatologists have been sounding that alarm for decades. The following summarizes the situation while I painted at the Studio easel that my Dad made. 

Canada, and especially the higher latitudes, are warming than the global average. The polar regions are heating up at 4 times the global rate for solid, scientific reasons.  

As a direct result, Canada's forests are drying out rapidly. The rising temperature has a direct impact on this dehydration. A one-degree Celsius increase in air temperature increases the atmospheric water-holding capacity by about 7%.  Deep organic soil layers are added to the dried surface litter to become flammable fuel, easily ignited by frequent lightning strikes. The amount of fuel for wildfires escalates with the heat. 

Climate warming has also reduced the winter snowpacks and led to hotter summers, encouraging insect infestations. The resulting severe environmental stress weakens trees, triggers widespread diebacks, and fuels massive, fast-spreading wildfires across the boreal landscape. Pyrogenetic tornadoes, sometimes referred to as “fire whirls”, “fire devils”, or “firenadoes”, are now common. 

Damaged and burned forests shift from absorbing carbon to releasing massive amounts into the atmosphere. One of many tipping points that need immediate attention for the health of the planet.

If you wish to learn more and even be entertained at the same time, I highly recommend John Vaillant's book "Fire Weather". It is a textbook on the science and sociological aspects of climate change disguised as an action tale about the Fort McMurray wildfire in the middle of the Alberta oilsands.

Wildfires are not just a North American concern but are happening around the Globe. Europe is on fire as well! Visit https://firemap.live/ for more details, including the dire news in the southern hemisphere. Australia typically suffers greatly increased bushfires during El Niño years. This does not bode well given the current "Super" El Niño, which will impact the Earth for the next year or two. 2027 will be the warmest year on record when all of the observations have been tallied.

The planet has leaped across the "OnePointFive-Celsius" climate line in the sand. To refresh our memory, a global temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the 1850s pre-industrial levels was set by the Paris Agreement of November 2016 as a critical defence limit required to prevent the worst effects of global climate change. Warming in excess of 1.5 degrees Celsius would trigger severe heatwaves, major sea-level rises, widespread ecosystem losses and more. Sounds like the world news from today... and tomorrow. 

That critical 1.5 degrees Celsius limit was jumped like a wildfire, ignoring the nonflammable material gap, meant as a firebreak intended to stop the progress of the flames. Humans have propelled the Earth full steam ahead in the Petrocene. 

If you only have time to read 25 pages, try Chapter 20 of John Vaillant's book "Fire Weather". These few pages summarize the science, corporate greed and pitiful, pandering politicians seeking ever more profit and power.'

The colours in the Killbear sunrise are intended to be a bit shocking. Humans should be shocked, if not incensed, at what we are doing to the only planet we will ever know. Star Trek is fiction, and this little blue planet is our reality. The colours are real and the direct result of humans, greedily wanting more. There is nothing natural about the climate crisis. 

For this and much more art, click on Fine Art America or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you so very much for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick  

#3031 "Great Blue Rookery"

#3031 "Great Blue Rookery"
36 X 24 inches, oils on canvas.
Started at 10:00 am Monday, July 20th, 2026

Great Blue Herons and their antics are the stars of the Singleton Sanctuary. A "Big Daddy" Great Blue Heron was on the rocky point when we first visited the location of our future home in the autumn of 2006. Big Daddy lingered while I strolled down to Jim Day Rapids. That memory has been indelibly placed in our brains. 

A blue heron rookery is a communal breeding colony where great blue herons gather to build nests, court, and raise their chicks. These active, sometimes noisy sites are typically located in the tops of tall trees near wetlands to protect the gangly young from predators like raccoons. Apparently, what I called a rookery in the title is more properly called a "heronry".

Key Characteristics of a Rookery

• Colony Size: Rookeries can host anywhere from 50 to over 500 nesting pairs.
• Nesting: Females weave platforms made of sticks that males deliver. 
• Over time, these nests can grow to massive sizes spanning up to 4 feet across.
• Breeding Season: Mating begins in late winter to early spring.
• Females lay 2 to 6 pale blue eggs, and it takes about a month for them to hatch. The chicks fledge and leave the nest after about two months.
• Protection: Because herons rely on these same nesting grounds year after year, human disturbance is the leading cause of nest failure. Wildlife experts recommend staying at least 1,000 feet away from an active rookery to avoid causing the birds to abandon their nests.

Great Blue Herons live in both freshwater and saltwater habitats. They also forage in grasslands and agricultural fields, where they stalk frogs and mammals. Most breeding colonies are located within a few miles of feeding areas, often in isolated swamps or on islands, and near lakes and ponds bordered by forests. 

Great Blue Herons eat nearly anything within striking distance, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, insects, and other birds. They grab smaller prey in their strong mandibles or use their dagger-like bills to impale larger fish, often shaking them to break or relax the sharp spines before gulping them down. I have seen them dine on chipmunks... 

Nearly 70% of great blue herons die before they reach one year of age. Starvation, severe weather, and predators like raccoons, crows, and hawks threaten the young chicks and eggs. Birds that survive the first year reach breeding age at about two years old. 

The average lifespan of a great blue heron is about 15 years in the wild, with a maximum recorded age of roughly 25 years. Big Daddy, whom we saw in 2006, might still be with us!

This backlit image was taken by my friend, John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer. John has a very long lens and is very empathetic to nature. I am certain that he did not cause these herons any distress. A couple of the young herons were looking at John, and I painted them that way. 

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 a very hot and smoky week in mid-July. Conditions outside were quite bad for your health. 

Breathing wildfire smoke is frequently compared to smoking cigarettes because both contain hazardous fine particulate matter 2.5 micrometres or less in diameter that penetrates the lungs and bloodstream. Health experts use the PM 2.5 concentration to convert air quality into cigarette equivalents:

• Moderate to Unhealthy Air (AQI 100-150): Breathing this air outdoors for a full day is equal to smoking about 7 to 9 cigarettes.
• Severe Spikes (AQI 150-200): During intense wildfire plumes, this equivalence can quickly rise to smoking 10 to 12 cigarettes or more.

One can imagine what "Very Unhealthy" and "Hazardous" Air Quality might mean for your health! Toronto had the worst air quality on the planet during this event. Not something to be proud of. 

Smoke like the weather does not care about international borders. Wildfires throughout the Boreal forest and the Rocky Mountains disperse their smoke with the wind that happens to be blowing. While the chemical profiles differ, experts note that wildfire smoke can arguably be more dangerous than a cigarette because it lacks a filter and affects everyone indiscriminately. I highly recommend John Vaillant's "Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast" (2023) if you would like to learn more. I have never smoked a cigarette and was not about to start now.

On a positive note, the smoke encouraged me to tackle this very fun subject. Painting nature while at the easel my Dad made always brings back some wonderful memories. The atmospheric background was actually suggested in the photo, but I witnessed the same sky on the evening of Thursday, July 23rd. That thin cirrostratus sunset sky was brightly backlit. 

For this and much more art, click on Fine Art America or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you so very much for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick  

#3030 "Clouds Framing Harold’s Point"

#3030 "Clouds Framing Harold’s Point"  
20 X 24 inches, oils on canvas.
Started at 11:00 am Thursday, July 16th, 2026

These photos were taken by my good friend Cam, whom I have known since 1985 when we moved to Schomberg, Ontario - right after the May 31st Barrie Tornado. One of the tornadoes along the cold front passed a couple of kilometres north of the home we had just purchased on Western Avenue. It was a stressful time, but everything worked out well with good neighbours. 

Cam knows exactly what I like to paint! Windswept trees bend over rugged, pink-hued rocks along a shoreline, reflected in the water below. Bold strokes and vibrant colours can inspire a dynamic and lively scene. 

I have walked and painted those rocks many times, and unlike me, they never get old. The following are most of Harold's Rock paintings:

#2002 "Killbear Flagged Pines at Sunset", #2528 "Harold's Point at Killbear", #2534 "Sunrise on the Killbear Jumping Rocks", #2535 "Sunrise on Killbear Light", #2536 "Killbear Cirrus Sunrise", #2914 "Harold's Flag over Killbear" and #3026 "Island Queen at Harold's Rock". There might be others... 

"A Boy and His Dream"

The weather is prominent in this painting with the low horizon. I once met James Lumbers in the Wild Wings Gallery in Schomberg in the 1990s. Lumbers' paintings are distinctly Canadian and quite memorable (see "A Boy and His Dream" right). I had some skyscapes in the gallery at the time. James realized that I was a meteorologist and quickly determined that I should concentrate on the weather. My portfolio is full of a very wide range of subject matter that defies classification. “Write what you know” is usually attributed to Mark Twain, but the phrase can be easily morphed into painting. Appropriately, James resides on Georgian Bay, and I still interpret a lot of skyscapes, but many things catch my attention and my brush. 

The following collage summarizes a few of the steps required to capture this skyscape, complete with altocumulus gravity waves with smaller embedded waves at right angles. This pattern reveals wind shear in the environment consistent with veering winds with height and warm air advection. There is no quiz on this material. I just wanted to paint the clouds... 

For this and much more art, click on Fine Art America or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you so very much for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick