#0446 "A Swift Sunrise"

A couple were out for an early morning paddle on Oxtongue Lake. The sun can be blinding during the early morning hours. The "steam" fog rising off the water is typical of late September and October when the water is still very warm but the increasingly long fall nights cause cool drainage winds to flow down off the highlands following the river valleys to the lake. The resulting mist is actually comprised of warm tongues of vapour rising off the water. The wafts of warm vapours are very pleasant on a cool morning. They are almost idyllic to paddle through. Certainly this was a rare moment that most people don't ghetto enjoy. Such an experience is well worth the paddle. I have done this many times.

I wanted to include the Swift name is the title. It has been my experience that the light of dawn and lay on the eastern horizon long before the sun makes a quick ascent above the landscape.

Based on an excellent photo by Henry Georgi that was used in the Swift Canoe and Kayak Catalogue from the mid 1990's and used as a reference with permission. I may have my share of Swift canoes and kayaks but there is perhaps one more that I need. (https://www.swiftcanoe.com/home)

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#0445 "A Mattawa Morning"

A very well heeled Mattawa during the early morning hours makes for a very interesting painting subject. The canoeist was positioned on the kneeling thwart and had the canoe cranked over just right for easy handling. There is no keel on these canoes and they can spin on a dime.

The painting is based on an stunning photo by Henry Georgi (with permission) that was used in the Swift Canoe and Kayak Catalogue (https://www.swiftcanoe.com/home) from the mid 1990's. The sun was very bright and it looked like an idyllic morning on the water - very inspiring.

I have my share of Swift canoes and kayaks. I have been told that I have enough but we all know that the canoeist who dies with the most canoes, wins. You don't actually win anything of course. About a decade later I would purchase a Mattawa canoe constructed by Swift very much like the one in this painting.

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#0444 "Swift Campsite - Two Night"

This scene was used in a Swift Canoe Catalog and referred to as painting reference with permission. Canoe campsites can be the most romantic and tranquil available. There are no screens or Why-Fi. I like them better than the Holiday Inn - plus the food is better. The blazing fire on Precambrian granite sets a mood that is hard to match under a ceiling of stars.

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#0443 "Naja and Friend"

This scene was used in a Swift Canoe Catalogue to promote the Mattawa canoe. I really liked the image and especially the idea of the faithful dog accompanying his master. The love and loyalty of a dog is unmatched. Naja, the graying companion is focused keenly on the observer and is the key to the painting. I was working from a very small image with permission and I worked very hard to make the man look like Bill Swift who was paddling the canoe.

Portraits, especially miniatures, are very difficult and with a slight change in colour or shape or even tone, I changed the image from Elvis to Joe Pesci with a single stroke. I got it close to Bill and decided to quit while it was still a head ... at least until I had a bigger image to work from or even if Bill would sit still long enough for me to capture the likeness.

About a decade after this painting, I purchased a Mattawa. Margaritaville looks exactly like the canoe in the painting. I have my share of Swift canoes and kayaks. I have been told that I have enough but we all know that the canoeist who dies with the most canoes, wins. You don't actually win anything of course.

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#0442 "Swift falls the Night"

A familiar campsite scene ... a group of canoeists enjoying some stories around a campsite miles from everything including Why-Fi. No doubt that some of the stories are actually true. I always liked to tell the Tom Thomson stories or get into climate change or the interesting nature around us. I was not making that stuff up and tired hard to get my facts accurate. The climate change stories were the scariest. These scenes are what really quality memories are made of. They burn into your brain and are always there to fall back on when needed. I do not enjoy getting needles or going to the dentist so instead I go to my happy place in my mind.

The scene was used in a Swift Canoe Catalogue and I was inspired by it with their permission (Bill Swift). I wanted to incorporate the Swift name somewhere in the title and we all know how quickly it gets dark in the woods.

I have my share of Swift canoes and kayaks. I have been told that I have enough but we all know that the canoeist who dies with the most canoes, wins. You don't actually win anything of course.

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#0808 "Valdy Sunset"

I just finished spending an evening with Valdy and Kathleen at their shared cottage in Southampton. I had dropped off a couple of jars of Chadwick Honey. We watched the sun go down together. Valdy autographed a new CD for Linda and I - I didn't ask but was very appreciative. They wanted me to stay for a late supper but I didn't want to impose. As I was driving away, I couldn't resist the sunset.

Some very nice people helped me to locate the right cottage. It was harder than it should have been to find the old cottage near the tennis club. I had met Valdy earlier in the Library and he had invited me over when I told him the honey story. All of these people are very, very nice! I was spending some time in Southampton as the first artist in residence for the Art School. I had some classes to teach as well as a few presentations. It was quite the experience.

The Southampton sunsets across Lake Huron are fabled and deservedly so. The bands of cirrostratus stretching with the deformation zone were back lit by orange light. All of the shorter wavelengths from the direct beam from the sun had been Rayleigh scattered out of light. The long path of that light through the atmosphere of the Great Lakes creates something very special. The same light reflected off the gentle swells of the inland sea. In this case I just had to paint it.

I used some orange pigments that I purchased from my mentor and friend Mario Airomi dating back to 1967. The paint was still perfect and I use the rich pigment sparingly.

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#2239 "Jim Day Spring Reflections of Winter"

I was out for a March paddle in my canoe. The strong current in Jim Day Rapids swept me along into Long Reach. I did not need to dip my paddle and just enjoyed the ride. There was still lots of snow in the forest and this reflected nicely in the current of Jim Day. The highest water of the spring flood was still to arrive after the melt of the snow pack.

This painting was focused on shapes and colour and of course lots of movement and fun. The otters bristled their whiskers at me and the beavers slapped their tails as I passed. They were not yet used to see boats on the water after the long winter of ice and snow.

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#2238 "Warm Sector Winds"

Strong southerly winds were ushering the stratocumulus across the lake. Turbulent mixing of the moist air mass resulted in uneven and ragged cloud bases and tops. There were several streets of stratocumulus within my view across the lake. I loved them all.

The cold front was on the western horizon but I could only tell that by looking at the radar. The horizon was quite bright but at the time I did not think to classify that as a change of air mass with the cold frontal surface. In any event I love remote sensing. One can see and understand the weather without getting exposed to the very real dangers that the elements can present. For example many people want to see a tornado before they die... but not just before they die. Remote sensing safely allows that.

The cold front went through shortly afterward. The rain became mixed with with snow and the howling winds lulled me to sleep. Life is good.

The light of clouds is elusive but worth the chase. One never knows how a canvas will evolve. I would have loved to do this en plein air but the rain showers and wind were enough to discourage me plus I was already tired from the days efforts of trail building.

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#2237 "Singleton Spring Bedtime Cloud Story"

The bedtime clouds told the story of another spring storm. The lower altostratus deformation zone was already evident on the western horizon.

The higher level cirrostratus deformation zone had already passed us by well to the east of Singleton. The atmosphere relative winds in the warm conveyor belt had created a couple of gravity wave trains in the cloud patterns as well. The patch work pattern in the sky made me think of the cover on the bed.

This is how the sky looked at 8:15 pm and although it was early I intended to rest my weary bones after cutting and clearing trails for the wildlife all day. We built shelters from wood palettes and branches for the smaller critters. These safe havens were spaced every hundred feet or so along the trails. The small creatures are the important base of the food chain but I do not tell them that. I was tired. The rain would mean no outside work or plein air painting for the next day. It would be a studio day.

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#2236 "Singleton Sunset Altocumulus"

I try to never miss a sunset. It was the clear yellow sky on the western horizon that caught my eye. A large patch of altocumulus was overhead Singleton as a system passed by to the north. We missed most of that weather. It had rained Sunday night but the amounts were not high. Another rain storm was on the way beyond that sunny horizon.

This is spring under the upper trough of a weakening jet stream. I love the weather... so much to paint. The satellite imagery revealed that weather story.

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#2235 "Orange Sunrise"

The morning light at 6:30 am does not last very long.

Another spring rain storm was on the way. The rising sun was penetrating under the overcast deck of altocumulus that was gently invading from the west with the warm conveyor belt of the next storm. A few small patches of blue sky poked through the thin overcast. The brilliant lighting would only last for a few more minutes. I used some orange pigments that I purchased from my mentor and friend Mario Airomi dating back to 1967. The paint was still perfect and I use the very rich pigment sparingly.

It was still sprinkling rain from the spring storm a day after the brilliant sunrise. I decided to take a break from chores and stroke this memory down before the orange inspiration faded into the grey matter.

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#2234 "Singleton Sunset Curls"

The sunset light can turn any cloud into a dazzling show of swirls of colour. The northwesterly winds behind the cold front were increasing with height which is characteristic of cold air advection. The cloud curls on the back edge of the cloud were turned upward by the stronger winds aloft which punched into the rear flank of the convective cloud. These curls were aided as well by the friction layer adjacent to the earth. The net effect was to create a cloud curl kind of like a pencil rolling on the surface of a table. The gusty wind had also stirred up waves in the eastern basin of Singleton Lake. The west basin was still thick with ice. There was a subtle bright line on the far shore which I included.

This kind of fluid flow occurs everywhere. This graphic is from a study of blood flow in an artery.
The arrows on the left side of the graphic are close to a blood flow relative representation while the arrows on the right is the blood flow relative to the inertial body.

The sun had already set below the horizon but was still enough to turn the clouds into glowing but dying embers of the day.

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#2233 "April Fools Stratocumulus"

The late afternoon sky of stratocumulus was very interesting on April Fools Day. The sea of stratocumulus were embedded in a northwesterly flow behind the lion of the March storm and ahead of the next system. The crepuscular rays crafted blocks of light and dark in the sides of those clouds. I found the patterns interesting. Some patches of blue sky poked through the holes in the deck of clouds. The ice still filled the western basin of Singleton Lake. There were some Langmuir Streaks in the open water of the east basin.

April Fools' Day probably dates back to 1582 when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar of Pope Gregory XIII as decided by the Council of Trent in 1563. Aloysus Lilius was the Italian scientist who invented the calendar but the Pope takes all of the credit and gives the invention his name. Lilius' ingenious method for syncing the calendar with the seasons is still off by 26 seconds even using Leap years that add a February 29th for years divisible by 4 or 100. By the year 4909 the Gregorian calendar will be a full day ahead of the solar year. Wait for that!

The Julian calendar was implemented by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. However the Roman emperor's system that was surely not invented by Julius himself miscalculated the length of the solar year by 11 minutes. Over time the calendar must become unsynchronized with the seasons if only by 11 minutes with each passing year. This troubled Pope Gregory since it meant that Easter which was traditionally observed on March 21 fell further and further away from the spring equinox with each passing year.

Back in the late 1500's people were slow to get news of the switch to the Gregorian calendar. Many Europeans continued to celebrate the start of the new year like the Romans during the last week of March through to April 1. These out of date, uninformed and unfortunate souls became the target of pranks. The hoaxes included having paper fish stuck to their backs and were referred to as "poisson d'avril" or April fish. The April foolish paper fish symbolized a gullible person who was easy to catch like a fish.

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#2232 "March Lion Snow Singleton"

The first documented version of this weather phrase appeared in Thomas Fuller's 1732 compendium, Gnomologia: Adagies and Proverbs: Wise Sentences and Witty Sayings, Ancient and Modern, Foreign and British. The authors give the wording as "Comes in like a Lion, goes out like a Lamb." March begins in winter so the weather is with all probability to be more like a winter storm. Thirty-one days later is a long time when the spring sun is on the rise. The weather at the end of the month is more likely to be like a spring lamb by comparison. This saying has no other basis in science though and is likely to be wrong.

In 2019 March was certainly going out like a lion and not a lamb. The spring storm that started Friday night and lasted into late Sunday morning was well handled at all time frames by the forecast office. I deployed my rain gauge and measured 41 mm of rain from early Saturday morning through to 8 am Sunday morning. The rain changed to snow and about 5 centimetres accumulated on the ground. The Singleton Lake levels would crest at spring flood levels in another five or six days as the liquid made its way through the watershed.

Heavy bands of snow were crossing Singleton Lake into Sunday evening. A secondary vorticity centre apparent in the water vapour imagery was the cause of this heightened activity that caught my eye and appears in this painting. This weather was not well predicted although the remote sensing and the science of patterns would have given it away. The spring sun was just a faint hint in the oils. There was a lot of energy in those clouds. Ice still dominated the west basin of Singleton. I would not trust that ice to walk on it unless I was wearing my bathing suit. The water in the east basin was moody and filled with spring run-off...

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#2231 "Deer Browse"

The spring migration was starting even though it still looked very much like winter. Flocks of Canada geese flew overhead and were honking with excitement. The wood peckers were drumming out their territories and perhaps soliciting mates. The turkeys came over to see what I was doing too. But there were no biting insects.

These two red cedars were heavily browsed by the white tailed deer. There are enough nutrients in the red cedar tips to keep them alive through a long winter. They do not taste very good. I have tried them. The deer can only comfortably reach so high and above that line the cedars are doing quite well indeed. The deer prefer white cedar over red. We offer both varieties of cedars at Singleton. The dry winter grasses surrounded the cedar trunks. Snow was caught by the thick cedar boughs before it could reach the ground. The grasses provided something different for the deer menu.

The tracks of deer and turkey in the old and sodden snow were no longer distinguishable. The tracks were just indentations in the saturated snow that was more than ready to melt.

The winter had been a classic polar vortex dominated event with a split upper flow and lots of freezing rain and ice pellets. The lane had been a frozen sheet of ice since early January. A thaw was on the way with this approaching storm which would place Singleton Lake in the warm sector with rain for a couple of days. It looked like I would be able to take the cleats off my boots. The classic altostratus sky allowed me to view the dim sun as I painted. The rain was still a couple of hours away which was plenty of time to finish the painting.

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#2230 "Winter on Long Reach Lane"

I wanted to paint and there was not much time. I headed outside to the front yard at 1:30 pm between the snow to the east and the ice pellets and rain approaching from the west.

The turkeys came over to see what I was doing. There were ten birds in this flock at the start of the winter. One turkey must have entered the food chain or joined another group.

The sky to the northeast was the colour of snow and there were some hints of vertical swaths of falling precipitation. Some ice pellets mixed with freezing rain arrived at Singleton just as I was finishing up. The southerly wind picked up as well and the wind chill started to get significant. I have frozen my hands a few times and they do not do well with wind chill anymore. The combination of wind and increasing humidity with the impending rain put a chill right through me. I think that maybe the strength of plein air might be that it is less likely that you will overwork the subject matter. The elements force you to forge ahead. Charge!

The winter had been a classic polar vortex dominated event with a split upper flow and lots of freezing rain and ice pellets. The snow and ice was really accumulating. The lane had been a frozen sheet of thick ice since early January. A significant thaw was on the way with this approaching storm which would place Singleton Lake in the warm sector with rain for a couple of days. It looked like I would be able to take the cleats off my boots.

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