#0744 "Rain Clouds"

This is looking westward from the back hill of Watershed Farm on the 12th Concession of King Township at the very crest of the Oak Ridges Moraine. Watershed Farm was technically in the northern suburbs of Hammertown. One day it will all be called Toronto. I loved those 25 acres which we turned into a natural paradise. We had honey bees to augment the creatures that called the Oak Ridges "Home". Opossums had also expanded their range and were residents as of 2005 or so. This opossum was about the same size as our cat.

When temperatures get colder than -8 Celsius, its hairless tail freezes as it had on this fellow visiting Watershed Farm. The tail typically becomes infected and the possum dies. The fact that possums have expanded their range to include Schomberg, should do much more than all of the well-established science and the reality of climate change. Some people may distrust all of the other facts and figures but understand that the Virginia opossum’s range is expanding north. They are very adaptable to various urban and agricultural landscapes are are spreading northward with the rise in global temperatures.

The cloud deck had become overcast and embedded convection was making dark areas in the extensive cloud base. The cumulus towers were leaning northward with a gusty southerly wind. The horizon was occasionally lost with rain showers and by the time I finished the sketch, I was getting a few large drops of convective rain. Technically this should be called "Shower Clouds" but it looked like the showers were going to get more or less continuous in nature in just a short while. Those who were going to get wet would just call it rain.

The sky was only briefly this dark but it was when I locked in the colours.

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#0743 "Cone Heads"

This is looking southward at the front garden of Watershed Farm on the 12th Concession of King Township at the very crest of the Oak Ridges Moraine. The mid morning sunlight felt wonderful on my back. We loved these particular flowers. They added some colour to the garden which I re-edged every year as part of my chores - not a job I looked forward to. The family Maine Coon cat kept me company and was also enjoying the garden. She continued to miss her life-long companion, the Chesapeake as we all did.

The title is meant to be a bit humourous after the weird aliens called coneheads but it is also close to the official name of the "Purple Coneflower" (Echinacea Angustifolia).

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#0750 "Afternoon Stratocumulus"

This is the sky looking eastward from the front yard of Watershed Farm in the late afternoon. I was planning on doing some inside work but there was a large scale power failure that was probably linked to the strong and gusty winds. Not being able to vacuum the house, I decided to paint. I enjoy cleaning the house but I enjoy painting more.

It was really windy so I was glad to put a small canvas on the easel so that it would not become a sail. I set up in the lee of the house so I would not be blown away. The September sky was fairly unstable and the momentum from the upper atmosphere was readily transferred to the ground.

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#0746 "Sunrise Strato CU"

This is looking westward from just north of the Watershed Farmhouse starting at 7:30 am on a late summer morning. The field of stratocumulus cloud was drifting slowly southeastward. Once again the geese entertained me by flying out of the wetland and directly overhead. The young geese were learning how to really fly. They were really excited about the morning and the coming migration. There was a "whole lot of honkin' goin' on"!

The cloud colours were what interested me as well as the nearly uniform elevation of the stratocumulus bases that result from the turbulent mixing of the surface moisture. The surface winds were virtually calm while the winds at the top of the boundary layer were certainly northwesterly. The winds backed to the southwester in the mid levels and higher and were quite strong gauging from the spacing of the gravity waves.

The approaching warm frontal surface produced elevated altocumulus castellanus. Light showers that weren't in the forecast occurred before noon in Hammertown. A thin veil of cirrostratus approaching from the southwest became thicker during the painting clinching the warm frontal diagnosis of the weather situation. The clues to the weather are always written in the sky if you know the vocabulary. This was the classic conveyor belt conceptual model.

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#0792 "Chantry Fun"

I had some time to paint after doing the chores at Watershed Farm. The horses and cows were fed and watered. The horses get some sweet grain horsey candy as well. The barn cats were happy in the spring sun under the front porch. The honey bees were starting to fly in the spring air. Life was very good.

I wanted some more practice for the upcoming "Artist-in-Residence" assignment at the Southampton School of Art on the shores of Lake Huron. Chantry Light was the obvious subject and this is what resulted. It was fun. I am looking forward to actually staying there and painting on location. I was ready.

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#0718 "Turbulent Stratocumulus"

Cold air was surging across the Oak Ridges Moraine in the wake of the morning cold front. The temperature had dropped to 2 Celsius from 10 Celsius in just a couple of hours. The cold air side of the front is always the baroclinic side. By 3 pm I had finished my chores so the family Chesapeake and I went out to the front yard of Watershed Farm to paint the clouds.

Streets of turbulent stratocumulus were aligned with the northwesterly winds. Embedded towering cumulus dropped showers of rain and even snow. Ice pellets (Type B) were associated with the stronger convection.  The family Chesapeake simply laid on the wet lawn and gnawed on her new tennis ball. The clouds were whipping along but I was able to capture a few of them. The colour of the clear sky above the stratocumulus rolls was pure cerulean blue with no contrails in sight. .

When it started to shower really hard I retreated to the art room where there was a fire on in the wood stove. I was pretty much done anyway and it was getting darker anyway.

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#0714 "Crepuscular Rays"

It was about an hour after a November sunrise and the non-parallel appearance of the parallel crepuscular rays from the sun were very striking from the Brockville waterfront. It is the same phenomena of steel rails that appear to converge as you look away along a train track. The steel rails are certainly the same distance apart but they don't seem that way when you are standing along the tracks and look along them. The Morrisburg water tower was evident on the American shore.

November is one of those months when people with Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) begin to feel depressed. SAD begins and ends at about the same time every year for people who are affected. If you're like most people with SAD, your symptoms start in the fall and continue into the winter months. SAD people have their energy sapped and they tend to be very moody. SAD that causes depression in the spring or early summer are less common. Treatment for SAD may include light therapy (phototherapy), medications and psychotherapy.Don't brush off that yearly feeling as simply a case of the "winter blues" or a seasonal funk that you have to tough out on your own. Take steps to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the year.

I love the weather. It not only pays the bills but it makes me happy. It is all how you look at things. The weather is always there for me when I am looking for a challenge to observe, to understand, to paint and to predict.

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#0702 "The Rock in the Bay"

I was staying at the Marcotte Cottage on Canonto Lake. I wanted to paint somewhere that I had not been before and these beautiful waterways were perfect. I painted non stop for a week.

I stood on a tiny granite rock island just to the north of the island pictured in number 0698 "Canonto Island". This scene is painted looking toward the south-south-west starting at 8:30 am. There was a cold northerly breeze blowing and it was only 11 Celsius - not typical holiday August weather. The sky was full of gray cumulus clouds. There were a few towering cumulus stirred in for good effect that dropped just enough rain to make it really cool. The water was warm but the air was not. Sometimes evapourative cooling is not your friend.

I pretty well finished the painting from my granite perch but bailed around noon to warm up at the Marcotte Cottage. The "rock" in the title could refer to either my perch or the rock island. There were some nice patches on moss on the larger granite rock.

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#0701 "Canonto Cold Advection Stratocumulus"

I was staying at the Marcotte Cottage on Canonto Lake. I wanted to paint somewhere that I had not been before and these beautiful waterways were perfect. I painted non stop for a week.

The cold front that crossed Canonto Lake overnight with thunderstorms was followed by much colder air and streets of stratocumulus rolls. I had a strong headwind to paddle to a small island in the northern basin of Canonto Lake. I parked on the south end of the small island and painted looking south-southeast at a bit of an angle to the northwesterly stratocumulus rolls. The wind was at my back and the sun was not quite high enough to be a problem.

I started painting before 9 am after I managed to set my easel up on a couple of rocks. I painted until almost noon. I found corroded wire rims from some long, lost glasses where I pulled Margaritaville, my green Kevlar Prospector canoe up on some rocks. I also found an old 7-Up bottle and a beer stubby. Art does pay!

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#0596 "Solitaire Creek"

My wife and I were walking the Limberlost Trail around Lake Solitaire in the autumn of 2002. This view is from the footbridge across a creek leading into the southeast corner of the lake. I have completed numerous works from the Limberlost area just to the west of Algonquin. The land and nature are well cared for and protected as I wish that all of Canada was. Congratulations to Limberlost!

The Limberlost Forest and Wildlife Reserve is a publicly accessible private year-round wilderness haven with twenty private lakes and more than 10,000 unspoiled acres of mixed forest near Huntsville, Ontario, Canada. The private forest reserve contains more than 70 km of hiking, biking, skiing and snowshoeing trails which are made available to the public at no charge.

Limberlost practices a form of land management referred to as Conscientious Forest Management which focuses on ensuring the sustainability of their management objectives and actions for generations to come. They encourage the use of the forest to visitors and eco-tourists and artists at no charge; support environmental research programs and institutes; and offer both modern and traditional forest land use options to the local community.

Limberlost’s primary objective is to offer continued free access to the 10,000 acre Muskoka property for the purpose of encouraging safe wilderness experiences.

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#0432 "The Privy Council Meeting Room"

This picture was taken on the same day that we decided to buy the farm on the 12th Concession of King Township in early January 1993. The 25 acre farm was owned by a friend from church. It had been deserted and vandalized. The house lacked what real-estate agents call "curb-appeal".

We had always wanted land ... and a barn ... and the kids wanted pets - a cat and a dog and maybe some barn cats as well. Three horses came with the deal for as long as they should live - which turned out to be a very ripe old age.

This particular outhouse had been in continuous use for about 90 years. It had only stopped seeing regular service in 1985 or so when the last of the Thompson Brothers moved away. George and Oliver Thompson lived on the farm and couldn't really get used to the modern indoor facilities which the owner had installed in the farm house in the mid sixties.

I had to take the outhouse down in 1994. It was in the way of construction and the Health Department was not keen on seeing it used. I tried to move it intact but the boards were so rotten, it virtually fell apart in my hands. I didn't want to burn it but there really wasn't much I could do. We already had our hands full saving the farmhouse and barn and building the garage and the addition to the farm house. Not to mention the new lane way and the planting of trees and restoring the land for nature. I saved the single hole seat and refurbished it enough so that it is now framing a picture of the current farm. I didn't clean the seat much and it is still stained by water and age. What stories it could tell after almost 90 years of service.

The place was very, very rough with a stream running across the mud floor basement with dead mice and frogs and toads as well. I watched a garter snake crawl through the foundation. Hmm. That needed some work. The cellar had apparently been nice enough during Prohibition to take a date, even though the clearance was barely six feet above the mud floor. The furnace ran almost all of the time except when if conked out and needed to be primed to be restarted at which time it belched black, sooty smoke. The water pump was in the basement and was rather noisy after the lone toilet was flushed. There was no insulation in the walls and many things did not work - if they ever did.

We loved the place including the outhouse and by the middle of March, it was home and renamed Watershed Farm. It was on the very crest of the Oak Ridges Moraine with the front yard draining to Lake Simcoe and the back hills sending their water down the Humber to Lake Ontario. Living there was also a watershed moment in our lives.

The title is a bit of a pun. Our elected officials (both now and probably in the past and likely in the future as well) are entitled asses responsive to the multinational corporations. Power corrupts. This meeting room would be more in keeping with the quality of the decisions being made. In this way, one could construe this painting as a political statement ... not like me at all. I try to find the best in people even if you need to dig a lot.

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#0399 "The Lakers"

A Lake Trout on another slab of black walnut. I like this picture. I carefully gessoed and sealed the area that would be painted after I completed the sketch. This would allow the colours to pop on the grain of the thick slab of wood. Good memories. Apparently some people believe that the Lakers is an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles but I much prefer the fish.

The large black walnut tree was on the front yard of my friend Jack Brydon on Church Street in Schomberg. Jack and I were great friends and did a lot of wood working together. I carved several paddles in his shop while listening to Jack tell stories. Anyway Jack cut the black walnut stem into slabs. We sanded those slabs which I then sealed.

Lake trout inhabit cold, oxygen-rich waters. The lake trout is a slow-growing fish that is also very late to mature. Populations are extremely susceptible to overfishing. Many native lake trout populations have been severely damaged through the combined effects of hatchery stocking and over harvest. Lake trout are the largest of the chars; the record weighed almost 102 pounds (46 kg) (netted) with a length of 50 inches (130 cm), and 15–40-pound (6.8–18.1-kilogram) fish are not uncommon. The average length is 24–36 inches (61–91 centimetres). The largest caught on a rod and reel according to the IGFA was 72 pounds (33 kg), caught in Great Bear Lake in 1995 with a length of 59 inches (150 cm).

Apparently some people believe that the Lakers is an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles but I much prefer the fish.

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#0621 "April Ice Pellets"

This is the next in the unplanned series of April precipitation. Freezing rain began Wednesday night (my 50th birthday) and by midday on Thursday, there was a full centimeter of ice on the northeast-windward side of everything. Thursday night, the ice pellets started. Friday morning, the ice pellets changed back to freezing rain.

The result was a 6 centimeter base of ball-bearing like ice pellets bonded together on the bottom and top by freezing rain. The family Chesapeake and I went walking on it and it was like pavement everywhere. Wild-life was still moving and we saw six deer and a large flock of wild turkeys.

This landscape was painted looking out the family room windows to the northeast. It was really too nasty with the northeast wind and freezing drizzle to set up outside. The glazing on the trees was on the far side from the direction I was looking but it still imparted a different colour to the trees. Once again the horse and wild life trails really stand out through the grasses.

I wanted there to be considerable movement in the front field while staying true to the colours.

The panel had been primed with a medium-light coat of raw sienna.

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#0734 "Snow Puzzle"

It was late in the afternoon. I headed out behind the barn of Watershed Farm on the 12th Concession of King Township. I wanted to catch the last heavy snowfall before it melted away. I simply stood just a bit to the east of the huge Manitoba maple and painted looking toward the bird bath. The strong shadow of the Manitoba maple shifted like a sundial as I painted. The different shapes and sizes of light between the shadows of the branches reminded me of a puzzle. Thus the title. It was a beautiful afternoon spent outside in nature.

There are countless different shades of white and blue. I used them all in this little painting. I also use the snow as a handy place to store the brushes that I am working with. 

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#0383 "Foley Mountain Sumacs"

Looking east at 300 Grady Road on Foley Mountain just north of Westport, Ontario in the fall of 1994 after an early season snow storm. The sumac were bare of all of their leaves leaving only the berries behind.

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