#2328 "Granite Pines and an Autumn Storm"

In order to capture the essence of the Georgian Bay Archipelago I needed to paint more of the rocks hurled by the very ill tempered God Kitchikewana.This particular rocky island was the home of beautiful fox snakes and lots of poison ivy. I liked the way the water and the colours rippled in the shallows and the shadows.There is every colour of blue in my arsenal to be found in this scene of rocks and weather. The convoluted deformation zone and Langmuir streets of cirrus foretold of the approaching autumn storm that was going to continue to flag those weather pines. The landscape was in constant motion even though it was anchored to the bedrock.

These particular boulders have indeed been chiseled by the forces of nature. Notwithstanding the interesting myth of Kitchikewana, ice was responsible for the appearance of these rocks. The glaciers had left a lot of chatter marks before they melted away 11,000 years ago. The glaciers quarried the erratics from upstream possibly creating a "valley glacier" in doing so. As a glacier moves, friction causes the basal ice of the glacier to melt and infiltrate cracks in the bedrock. The freezing and thawing action of the ice causes further cracks in the bedrock. This produces large pieces of rock called joint blocks. Eventually these joint blocks come loose and become trapped in the glacier. When the glacier eventually melts, these transported boulders are left behind as erratics. One does not fight against the elements or nature.

For this and much more art, click on Pixels. Thank you.