#2206 "Dark Cherry Sunset"

This sunset sky was only 15 minutes after #2203 "Langmuir Streak Sunset" on Thursday September 6th, 2018. The sky changes in seconds at sunset. The yellow sunset had changed to cherry red with more purple hues at higher angles. The tropical moisture from Hurricane Gordon was responsible for these spectacular scenes. I was not making those colours up.

The broad Langmuir streaks parallel to the jet stream were still evident. The gravity waves in the cirrus at the tropopause were also still obvious. The deformation zone banding perpendicular to the jet steam winds were missing. After all, it was getting dark. The warm conveyor belt flowing with the jet stream and the baroclinic zone cirrus foretold of the arrival of the tropical moisture and rain with the remains of Hurricane Gordon. Every line in the atmosphere has an interesting story to tell. I was living in my meteorological laboratory and hoping I was not a mad scientist. Art and sunsets always make me happy.

The porch light was still on at Dale's home on the western shore of Singleton. The bright speck on the shore of Singleton Lake was no accident. The west shore was in darkness while we get to sit and enjoy the colours of the setting sun. Life is all about location.

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#2205 "November 13 Sunset"

Who said the 13th was unlucky? I got two nice sunsets out of that day. The cold front went through as we sat and enjoyed the close of the day and the end of the warm sector. The southwesterly winds snapped around to the northwest with a gust of fresh Arctic air. Streets of pink turbulent stratoculumus soon followed.

Hang back shades of fibrous grey cloud persisted just as far as the mid level deformation zone associated with the departing low pressure area. It was going to clear and get much colder overnight. This was the second painting from 5:45 pm. I visited the same sunset #2213 "Pink Lines Sunset Singleton" at 5:40 pm on Sunday December 16th, 2018 and the sky looked very different from just five minutes earlier.

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#2204 "Orange Moment of Singleton Sunset"

It was 5:30 pm on Thursday November 8th, 2018 and the burst of orange lighting was only going to last a moment. The orange phase of the golden hour of sunset only lasts a few minutes at most. The trees were already casting a shadow on the forest wall along the marble ridge of Long Reach. There was a special energy in the sky and the forest that I tried to put into the oils. Everything had a rhythmic movement to it and I had to try to capture it.

This is the view from the porch overlooking the Laurentian forest to the east. An autumn rain storm and low pressure area had just shifted to the east of Singleton Lake after a day of rain. Using satellite meteorology terminology the fabled dry slot was upon us just in time for the sun to shine.

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#2203 "Langmuir Streak Sunset"

In the early days of my meteorological career I would have spotted this deck of cirrus and happily identified baroclinic zone cirrus (BZCI). Satellite imagery was just becoming available via hard copies on photographic paper - the fabled K560. Animation ws achieved by cartoon flipping the hard copies. VHS filming of the hard copies was the next step to make animations of the low resolution imargery. Computer handling of the data was still a dream in the 1980's. This new data in the late 1970's was enough to make me a convert to remote sensing though. Weather was three dimensional and did not arrive as the intersections of circles on Venn Diagrams.

Every line of cloud has a story to tell and I spent my career listening to what the skies had to say. Much of this research was published through COMET in Boulder, Colorado. Some other topics like langmuir streaks in the atmospheric fluid never made it to press even though I discussed the concepts many times. There is so much still to learn.

This sunset sky was from 6:50 pm Thursday September 6th, 2018. I had to paint it for both the colours but also the meteorology. I believe that the banding of the baroclinic zone cirrus results from the same process as Langmuir streaks in water. The tropropause provides the stable layer equivalent to the surface of the water. Distinct bands parallel to the strong winds in the fluid contained by the stable layer reveal the associated vertical motions therein.
I like to think of elongated helical tubes stretched out along the direction of the strong winds which comprise the jet stream. The three-dimensional circulation in these helical tubes interact and the bands of cloud result.

The deformation zone banding results from the other fluid process that I have built a meteorological career around. The warm conveyor belt flowing with the winds of the BZCI is revealed by the larger bands within the relative atmosphere perpedicular to the strong winds. Smaller wavelength bands are gavity waves within the stable layers of the atmosphere. Deformation zones tell a different story of heat and moisture and weather.

I painted the same sunset as it appeared a few minutes earlier in #2187 "Another Sunset Revolution". Sunset skies can change dramatically by the minute. I would paint this same sky again in #2206 "Dark Cherry Sunset" as it appeared about 15 minutes later. The tropical moisture from Hurricane Gordon was the star of these sunsets.

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#2202 "Singleton November Sunset Altocumulus"

The thin layer of altocumulus were packed a bit like dumplings in the gently rising current of the next warm conveyor belt. The deformation zone was a bit disorganized but I believe that the col of the pattern had moved northeast of Singleton. It was the colours of the sunlight and how they played across the waters that caught my eye. I was too tired from chain sawing to get my easel out but I knew what I was going to do the next day.

The rain actually changed quickly to snow as the evapourative cooling dropped the temperatures in the lowest level of the air mass to the wet bulb temperature which was below freezing. It was a good choice to paint in the studio with the wood stove.

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#2201 "Robinson Lake Misty Dumoine Sunrise"

I was down on the shore of Robinson Lake working on #2171 "Robinson Lake Thunderstorm Sunrise". The CPAWS DRAW camp had disbanded the previous afternoon. I had spent all of the time since their departure simply painting up a storm. The lake was quiet although people had arrived in the cottage on Robinson Lake the previous (Monday) evening. They were not up yet when I started to paint. I wonder whether they were up when I went for my swim and shower the evening before?

The overnight severe thunderstorms were still visible on the eastern horizon. The torrential rain shook my little tent. I do not remember much in the way of wind but apparently there were tornado warnings issued for the area. The wind near a tornado is nothing compared to the wind within a tornado. I had a great sleep and was up and ready to paint with the sun. Large fish frequently rushed the shallows chasing down minnows for their breakfast. The splash of water at my feed startle me everytime like the clown in a Jack-in-the-box. Funny!

I based this painting on a photograph I took while looking for the subject matter of number 2171 "Robinson Lake Thunderstorm Sunrise". I liked the way the southeastern shore looked at 6:15 am on Tuesday August 7th 2018. The western slopes of those hills were all in shadow. The mist reduced the visibility and fog and stratus hung over the tops of the hills. I had this unusual elongated canvas and thought this would be a good subject matter to try it out on.

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#2200 "Wet Day in November"

It was pouring rain outside. The windows were streaked with rain. I wondered what I could do looking out the studio window across the field to the Laurentian forest on the Long Reach. There was only one way to see.

This is the view toward the southeast and the adjacent marble ridge. Marble ridges of rock are dominant in the Singleton Lake portion of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere. The ridges all run from southwest to the northeast where they submerge and transform the landscape into farmable soils. This granite and gneiss and schist bedrock dates to nearly a billion years ago when shifting plates of the earth's crust collided and pushed an enormous range of mountains into existence. These mountains ran southwest to northeast. Over hundreds of millions of years, the softer rock of the mountain peaks weathered away, leaving only the "roots" of the mountains; the durable rock that cradles Singleton Lake today. The northeast-southwest trend of the ridges and valleys belies the orientation of the long-eroded mountains. The shape of the lake is molded by the pattern of the slopes and valleys of the old mountain roots. While glaciers gouged and rounded and deepened and broadened the old valleys over millennia, the topography today is not unlike that of hundreds of millions of years ago.

The hardwoods have cloaked the slope. I liked the way the deciduous tree trunks mixed with the afternoon shadows. I had to be careful not to overwork this little canvas. I liked how the paint was going on the canvas. I typically try to make my art “perfect” but the perfection really lies in the imperfections and the bold strokes. Let them be. Perfection is something I strive for but never attain so I use that word with a huge grain of salt and a smirk.

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#2199 "Daylight Savings Sunday Sunset"

Another autumn storm was on the way. The weather had been wet but we needed the rain to bring the lake levels up and to get the trees ready for freeze-up and winter. Singelton was to the southeast of the approaching col in the deformation zone. This means that the heaviest rain would pass well to the northwest. The convective showers and thunderstorms would likely pass well to the south. Those dark lines were contrails of jet on their way to Europe arriving with the sun the next morning. It was still too wet to paint en plein air though. I picked a small panel and had some fun with lots of paint.

The time had fallen backward from Daylight Savings to Eastern Standard the previous night. The sun had set on daylight savings so to speak. This meant that sunset was going to happen sooner than later. This changing of the clock causes a lot of nashing of teeth. It does not affect me much if at all.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) was designed to save energy and make better use of daylight. It was first used in 1908 in Thunder Bay, Ontario. About 40% of countries worldwide use daylight savings to make better use of daylight and to conserve energy. Although modern DST has only been used for about 100 years, ancient civilizations are known to have engaged in comparable practices thousands of years ago. For example, the Roman water clocks used different scales for different months of the year to adjust the daily schedules to the solar time. For me as a believer in solar energy, the principle is really simple. I get up with the sun and go to bed when it sets. Simple.

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#2198 "August Showers"

Wednesday August 8th, 2018 was a very similar day to Friday November 2nd, 2018 when I actually painted this skyscape. It had been raining for a couple of days and I needed to paint. It was far too wet outside so I worked in the studio in front of a merry fire in the wood stove.. Life is very good.

A series of thunderstorms were poised to cross Singleton Lake on Wednesday August 8th, 2018. I had just returned from the Dumoine River CPAWS DRAW and this late afternoon sky caught my eye. I was far too tired to paint en plein air but I stashed the image away for a rainy day. Such a day came on November 2nd, 2018.

The bubbling cumulus towers climbed to great heights. Showers swept across Singleton Lake in waves. I wanted to capture the same energy on this little panel. Art is all about energy and making memories and of course, having fun.

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#2197 "Chippewa Falls Batchawana Bay"

The tropical water from the remains of Hurricane Alberto was still pouring off the highlands of Algoma. All of the rivers and creeks were swollen. The warm and moist tropical air had also been converted into thick advection fog over the cold waters of Lake Superior.

I was hunting for painting material but the rain was much too heavy to paint en plein air. My efforts in painting #2119 "Chippewa Falls Cascade" were cut short by a heavy shower. I got that painting done but I was too wet to start another. This view is just downstream from that painting where the Chippewa River reaches the level of Lake Superior in a torrent of white water. The goal was to paint the energy in the water, the weather and the trees and to accomplish that with rhythm.

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#2196 "Michipicoten Point"

I was scouting around Michipicoten looking for the location where my artist friend Lawrence Nickle painted "Michipicoten Harbour". I did not find his vista but this point on the north side of the Michipicoten River caught my eye.

I had taken Government Dock Road hoping to find some great subject matter to paint later. It was raining much too hard to paint en plein air. I liked the view looking southward from the beach to the point on the north side of the Michipicoten River. There was informative and interesting signage throughout the village. I read most of them. Michipicoten is a word in the Ojibwe language that means "big bluffs". I was very careful not to intrude on private property. A guide would have been helpful.

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#2195 "Silver Falls Wawa"

I was scouting around Michipicoten looking for the location where Lawrence Nickle painted my treasure of his that he named "Michipcoten Harbour". I did not know where I was going and had no specific directions from Lawrence. Customers and tourists have a propendency to turn right if given a choice. Maybe it is the Coriolis force at work. I took the High Falls Road exit from the Trans Canada Highway. Turned right on to Queen Street and then followed Michipicoten Harbour Road because of the name. On the way I found beautiful Silver Falls and took some pictures in the light rain. This view was looking northward to the falls. The landscape was inspiring. All of the road names sounded like there would be a terrific painting subject along them somewhere. Looking back I think that Lawrence Nickle would have set up his easel south of where the Michipictoen River flows into Lake Superior.

Michipicoten is a word in the Ojibwe language that means "big bluffs". The Michipicoten River is a river in the Algoma District which flows from Dog Lake and joins with the Magpie River to then empty into Michipicoten Bay on Lake Superior south of the town of Wawa. In the days of the fur trade, this river provided access to James Bay by way of the Missinaibi and Moose rivers.

Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers are believed to be the first non-natives to travel this route. A French fur trading post was built at the river's mouth in the early 18th century. The Hudson's Bay Company started building trading posts along the route in the 1770s. The HBC post at Michipicoten River was operated until abandoned in 1904. A lot of journeys to anywhere in the world can begin at Silver Falls.

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#2194 "Agawa Beach Sunset"

It has been another busy day of painting at Superior East and the Agawa Region. I ambled down to the lake shore to enjoy the sunset. I decided to take some pictures as I was much too tired to even try to get energy into the oils on a canvas. This view was looking southward toward the point shielding Batchawana Bay. Montreal River Harbour and the Lake Superior Provincial Park Addition are along that shore. Highway 17 extends along the shoreline further to the south.

The time was 6:30 pm local and there was still a bit of time before sunset even though the sun was not going to be seen. Overcast layers of cloud dominated the sky. A break in the layers did allow some brightness to peak through.

This painting is intended to be a partner for #2193 "Agawa Headland".

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#2193 "Agawa Headland"

Another very busy day of painting was over at Superior East and the Agawa Region. I ambled down to the lake shore to enjoy the sunset even though I had to use my imagination for the sun itself. I decided to take some pictures as I was much too tired to even try to get the required energy into the oils and brush work on a canvas. This view was looking northwestward toward the Agawa Cliffs and the Agawa Pictographs. The time was 6:15 pm local and there was still a bit of time before sunset even though the sun was not going to be seen. Overcast layers of cloud dominated the sky. A break in the layers did allow some brightness to peak through.

This painting is intended to be a partner for #2194 "Agawa Beach Sunset".

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#2192 "Legion of Sunflowers"

The Lyndhurst Rejuvenation Committee (https://www.lyndhurstvillage.ca/) decided to scale up their efforts in support of Culture Days. More artists of all stripes were involved. Maps were produced. The events and activities were well advertised.

After all was said and done, Lyndhurst was a Runner-up in its category. Well-done! Terri Dawson of the Green Geko is the Chair of this important group.

It would seem that the Lyndhurst Rejuvenation Committee is on the right track. At one time Lyndhurst was the busiest place around with industry and a bright future.

It is quite impossible to say just how busy any of these cultural events might be in advance. Attendance depends on a multitude of factors. The weather is likely the biggest factor. Other competing events are a challenge as well. I went to my assigned location at the Canadian Legion prepared to keep myself busy painting. I did not know that there were also going to be musicians performing. They played terrific guitar music for the afternoon so I was pleasantly occupied all day long. Wow.

I headed outside the Lyndhurst Royal Canadian Legion looking for something to paint. I did not wish to wander far as someone painting outside on a cold and windy day might be a draw to the artistic event. A group of sunflowers caught my eye. A few people came by to watch me paint including my cousins, Patrick Johnson the musician as well as Mark Jamison who was running for Council in 2018 (successfully). I had fun and I hope Vincent would be pleased with my sunflowers. I enjoy painting flowers. I have being trying to lay one stroke down and then leaving it alone until the canvas is all covered. The approach is simple but does it work?

Historically a legion was a unit of 3000 to 6000 men in the ancient Roman army. Technically a legion is now just a large number. The synonyms of legion are interesting and include horde, throng, multitude, host, crowd, mass, mob, gang, swarm, flock, herd, score, army, pack and so on. I used the word Legion out of respect for the Royal Canadian Legion which is a non-profit Canadian veterans' organization founded in 1925 after the First World War. Society owes everything to the veterans. I have the gift of being able to paint in peace. There were only a half dozen sunflowers in my composition so perhaps I was exaggerating a bit. 

#2191 "Algoma Central"

Frater was indeed beautiful even in the fog and heavy drizzle. Some professional observers would call it rain. There were a pair of bull moose in this image but they dissolved into the fog like ghosts. This view was looking northwest along the tracks of the Algoma Central Railway.

Several members of Canada's Group of Seven painted in the Algoma region between 1918 and 1923, including Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, J.E.H. MacDonald and Arthur Lismer. Back in 1918 Algoma was certainly remote. Villages along the shore of Lake Superior were only accessible by boat. Interior regions of Algoma had the Algoma Central Railway. The group rented a boxcar from the Algoma Central Railway and converted it into a paint mobile. What fun!

A hundred years later I had my own paint mobile. The 2004 Subaru Forester was filled to the roof with paint, canvas and summer weight camping supplies. It might have been June but the weather was more like January. It was a wonderful experience. I was traveling on Highway 17 or Kings Highway 17. The official opening for through traffic on the 4860 mile long Trans-Canada Highway took place on September 3rd, 1962. The Subaru was my access to Algoma and the painting haunts of the Group of Seven.

This painting was looking northwest along the paired ACR lines. A ditch was still filled with the water from the remains of Hurricane Alberto. A dirt lane paralleled this ditch for a ways. All of the paths led into the thick fog and the notch cut through the tree line.

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