#2432 "Red Horse October Cumulus"

The cumulus clouds were boiling over Red Horse Lake. I was out for a multi-lake paddle in my kayak enjoying the beautiful autumn weather. The fall colours were appearing on the very steep western shore of the west basin of Red Horse Lake. 

The shadows from the cumulus were written on the forest of white pines, oak, hickory and maple. Unfortunately the butternut trees had all been wiped out by the blight. Butternut canker has been found throughout the range of butternut trees. The fungus creates a wound that appears as patches of small, long and sunken black blemishes on a tree. Other invasive species had already penetrated the Gananoque River system and had made it to Red Horse Lake. Some of the local land owners are doing their very best to preserve this endangered ecosystem. 

The very few cottages on the west shore of Red Horse Lake had already been closed up for the season. I did not see anyone else out on the water. The loons had already left for the season. 

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#2435 "Overcast Sunflowers"

I stood in the garden and looked up into the giant "Linda and the Sunflower" plant. Jack and His Beanstalk would have been impressed. The view was overcast in cloud and in sunflower blooms and elephant-ear leaves. The terminology of weather forecasting can also be applied to flowers - at least in this example.

The surface was smooth and slippery so I went into the composition with the right colour in the right place. I slapped those oils into place and then left it alone. I love sunflowers probably as much as Vincent did. I decided that this little, rough gem needed a larger format so I picked out the finest canvas that I had on hand and painted #2437 "Linda's Sunflowers". 

I decided to post this painting on COVID Christmas Eve 2020. This post is about four paintings early and out of the artistic journey sequence. For many this has been a very challenging and very sad year. Aleta, a dear artist friend wrote "Sunflowers are a great thing to paint in the dark of the year - and in dark times too." I have been blessed and able to spend the COVID isolation as a Hermit Artist. Such a life spent surrounded by nature and close family is peaceful, satisfying, creative and very sustainable. I wish the same for everyone. The days are getting longer and brighter things are on the horizon. Take cheer and hope.. 

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#2431 "Singleton October Marble Face"

It was a beautiful October afternoon. The calm waters of Singleton Lake beckoned me so I paddled a circuit of the lake. I was alone except for the ducks, geese and the pair of mute swans. The south shore of Singleton is very rugged and steep to the water. 

The changing water levels are etched in the marble faces of the high cliffs. The lone dam at Marble Rock is well to the south along the Gananoque River waterway and it is dam that controls the lake level and the flow of water. I fear the focus is more on generating electricity than for nature and habitat. 

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#2430 "Behind the November Cold Front"

The surface cold front was just crossing Singleton Lake. The afternoon tmeperatures that had reached 16 Celsius were just about to drop with the northwesterly winds. There was some virga in the sky but nothing made it to the ground. The cloud aloft was still in the warm air mass. The gravity wave banding was the result of the strong southwesterly winds and the stable layer of the warm air sitting on the wedge of the cold air that had just cross the lake. 

The colours of the sky and the water were characteristic of November. I employed every shade of blue in my arsenal to get those shades just right and appropriately chilly. The water of Singleton Lake were really cold. I had stopped wimming on October 1st. 

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#2429 "Sunrise on May Memories"

The sunrise was illuminating the underside of a warm frontal surface. This is a classic pattern. The gravity waves reveal the stability that results when the warm air of the approaching system rides over the cold air hugging the surface. It would have been a frontlit sky much like this one that occurred 35 years previous on May 31st, 1985. A frontal system with a low level jet, moisture and daytime heating can always generate significant weather. The outbreak of severe convection in 1985 had everything going for it including the dynamics of an upper jet. Watching the sky is an important thing to do and the pioneers learned the science through experience. I had to use text books. 

The sunrise light cast an orange hue on the emergent vegetation. This lighting only lasts a few minutes in the scene but a lifetime in my memory. In less than ten more minutes the rising sun would climb above the deck of altocumulus clouds and these shores would be cast into shadow for maybe the rest of the day. The Singleton Sanctuary is special and thankfully we have been able to preserve a big chunk of it. Nature that took eons to create cannot be replaced by any amount of dollars - their is no sense in paving over paradise. 

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#2428 "June Evening Convection"

I remembered this evening of convection from early June. Summer convection typically rides the eastward extension of the Lake Ontario lake breeze and passes just north of Singleton Lake. We get treated to a beautiful sunset display of backlit clouds but it seldom rains on our parade. The rain water is always appreciated but this liquid will still fall into the greater basin of the lake system. It takes about six days for the water to crest at Singleton after a heavy rain event. 

The lake breeze convergence lines pictured result from one in which the average winds are almost calm over the Great Lakes. The onshore lake breezes described in the graphics dominate the pattern and the "shadow of the cool waters of the lake" are almost equidistant inland. Typically the general flow pattern with a strong convective outbreak is associated with southerly or southwesterly winds that deliver the added heat and moisture energy into the convective equation. These average winds add vectorially to the lake breeze dominated cloud patterns. The net result for Singleton is that the Lake Ontario lake breeze generally lies just to the north pointing through Delta. 

The shape of the shoreline also dramatically influences the pattern of convection. Large bays on the lake produce divergent onshore lake breezes. Points or peninsulas create very focussed, convergent lines of convection. Prince Edward County and the Niagara Peninsula are good examples of convergent lake breezes. I made my operational career out of forecasting lake and land breezes. The forecast was almost as simple as vector addition to discover the convergent and divergent lines in the atmospheric boundary layer. It made the science not only fun but productive for not just summer but also winter severe convection. 

Long before the creation of Canada in 1867 and the "Atmospheric Environment Service", the lake breezes were important to the weather. It was in May 1871 that the new Canadian Parliament provided $5,000 to launch the federal weather service. They would employ me a bit more than a century later. May is the prime time for Ontario supercells and that may not be just a coincidence. The publication of historical climatological data in Canada also started in 1871. A century earlier a tornado surfing the Niagara Peninsula convergence line between lakes Erie and Ontario made the news. 

"The year 1792 was marked by another calamity, which, however, proved to be a blessing in the end. A violent hurricane passed over the southwestern portion of the township, levelling all the houses in its path, but at the same time uprooting the trees, thus effectually clearing the woods. A road was afterwards built through this storm-swept region from Fonthill to Port Robinson, and was appropriately named 'Hurricane Road.' " The pioneers did not differentiate between tropical cyclones and supercellular thunderstorms and that is perfectly okay. You have to respect the resilience of our pioneers. They knew that the weather and the environment were important. 

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#2427 "Setting Blue Moon"

It is important as an artist to scrape your palette clean every now and again. That exercise allows you to get a fresh start. I always squeeze out a different colour to play with as well. One never knows where a bit of adventure might lead. This time I employed a squirt of Dioxazine Purple on my palette. If you look, there is a lot of purple to be found in nature. 

October 2020 enjoyed two full moons during the month which is just a quirk of the 2020 calendar as if 2020 needed any more peculiarities. This full moon was from Saturday October 31st. It is called a blue moon not because of the colour but because of its rarity. Moons can actually be coloured blue through the scattering of light by smoke or dust particles in the atmosphere. People witnessed blue moons for several years after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. I got up and walked outside to admire the full moon at 4:40 am on Sunday morning. Gravity waves and deformation zones follow me around almost all of the time. I included the beautiful corona as well. Dale had the porch light on. 

Corona diffraction - Diffraction Pattern from a single drop

The light spectacle around the blue moon was the result of diffraction of the moonlight by individual small water droplets and ice crystals in the cloud. The angular diameter of a corona depends on the sizes of the water droplets involved. Smaller droplets produce larger coronae. The corona is the most pronounced when the size of the droplets is most uniform. This particularly spectacular corona suggested that the cloud droplets were both small and uniform in size. In contrast from coronae, atmospheric halos are formed by refraction of light through comparatively large ice crystals. There is no truth to the linkage of the atmospheric phenomena with the Mexican beer although the effects can be very similar in nature. 

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#2426 "November Thirteenth"

The sunset skies might have two years apart but they were remarkably very similar. This sunset was actually from November the thirteenth in 2018. I saw a very similar sunset on the same day in 2020 (see #2425 "Sunset on Friday the 13th" ) Déjà vu! 

November is generally a cloudy month with an abundance of autumn storms as the air masses adjust for winter. The saying goes that there is "no sun" in November. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) people generally start to get affected in November. SAD is a recognized mood disorder in which people who have normal mental health throughout most of the year exhibit depressive symptoms at the same time each year. This happens most frequently in winter. I do not suffer from SAD but know many who do. I love the change in seasons. Treatment for SAD may include light therapy (phototherapy), medications and even psychotherapy. Nature is my tonic and the changing seasons offer exciting painting opportunities. 

November the 13th was also a Friday so it was especially important. Friday the 13th is considered an unlucky day in Western superstition. It occurs when the 13th day of the month in the Gregorian calendar falls on a Friday. This quirk of dates happens at least once every year but can occur up to three times in the same year. The French rounded up thousands of Knights Templars and tortured them as heretics on Friday, October 13, 1307 and that might have been the start of the superstition. I prefer the Stevie Wonder outlook on superstition. Linda and I saw Stevie at Queens University in the fall of 1972. Stevie sang it best: "When you believe in things That you don't understand Then you suffer Superstition. Ain't the way". 

I started thinking about this skyscape on November 13th but did not get to it unto Sunday November 15th, 2020 in the Singleton Studio. The weather was nasty outside but I had a cheery wood fire in the Pacific Energy Wood Stove beside me. 

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#2425 "Sunset on Friday the 13th"

Sunset on Friday the 13th made me think of superstitions. Stevie Wonder maybe said it best. "When you believe in things That you don't understand Then you suffer Superstition ain't the way." I am not superstitious - touch wood. That particular superstition has its roots in ancient pagan cultures who worshipped and mythologised trees. They believed trees were oracles and were home to spirits and gods. I plant trees. They are my friends. I have some very old friends at the Singleton Sanctuary. 

• Very superstitious, writings on the wall, 
• Very superstitious, ladders bout' to fall, 
• Thirteen month old baby, broke the lookin' glass 
• Seven years of bad luck, the good things in your past 
• When you believe in things that you don't understand, Then you suffer, Superstition ain't the way. 

I am with Stevie on this... We saw him play that song and others at Queens University in the fall of 1972. Stevie and his band were remarkable and very professional. We had "Talking Book" along with other albums, in our collection. 

Now back to painting... 

I just loved the colours in the sunset sky. The Langmuir streaks were also evident in the surface of Singleton Lake. My friend Dale had the porch light on across the lake. There is never a dull moment in the natural or supernatural world. 

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#2424 "Remembrance Day Singleton Sunset"

Remembrance Day is a special day for me. I think back and try to imagine what it must have been like to see young people head off heroically to a foreign land to try to do what was right. This was the sunset on November 11th, 2020 and it might have been the red of Remembrance Day poppies for a reason. The distinctive Langmuir streaks were calm and reflected the bright yellow of the lower horizon. Otherwise the rippled surface of Singleton picked up the higher, poppy red clouds in their reflection. These colours did not last long. Singleton was under the anticyclonic companion of the approaching warm conveyor belt. 

The soldiers and veterans that I was remembering have been called the greatest generation and from where I stand and remember, I think they were. Our parents were shaped by the Great Depression and fought the Second World War and survived to built a distinct society. 

My Baby Boomer generation cannot even deal with the science of climate change, protecting endangered species or ensuring that clean water is available to everyone. Conservation authorities are our scientific defense for nature of which humans are just a part. The politicians are gutting these conservation efforts in support of developers. The new climate will bring severe precipitation events separated by extended droughts and we need to act much faster and not step backward as I see in the news. Society has become entitled, greedy and maybe more corrupt as everyone seems to want more, more and then some more. Politicians as leaders seem to be a thing of the past. Conservatives apparently need to disavow climate science to be selected to run as a candidate. The Liberals seem to specialize in back-room deals and corruption and there are way too many examples of this behaviour. Pipelines crossing fragile environments are supported while green technologies languish. You might imagine who I vote for but my pick has not been elected yet. The major political parties do not seem to represent what our soldiers and veterans fought for. 

I had better get back to painting... positive thoughts can be regained by surrounding oneself by nature, art and science. 

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#2423 "Remembrance of a Orange Sunset"

Remembrance Day means so very much to me. Water rises to my eyes when I think of what my Dad and so many other young men and women did to preserve a way of life and protect us from tyranny and corruption. I am able to paint in peace because of what happened so many years ago. 

Our Father never spoke much about the war. He and two Brothers left the Chadwick Farm near Morven and went overseas to do their duty. My Dad said he never turned over bodies except once. Instinct or a premonition caused him to investigate one fallen Canadian soldier. It was his cousin. Dad came home and made a life - a fine life. They were indeed the greatest generation and so many of them did not live to contribute to the future. 

The Greatest Generation is the demographic group that followed the Lost Generation and preceded the Silent Generation. The Greatest Generation is generally defined as people born from 1901 to 1927. They were shaped by the Great Depression and were the primary participants in World War II. My group is that of the Baby Boomers and we followed the Silent Generation of babies born between 1927 and 1946 during which children were expected to be seen and not heard. There is much that can be learned by studying the characterisitics of the world and society during the time that shaped our personalities. Those studies fill many books and are well worth the read. 

This sunset sky from a few days before was burning in my memory and I wanted to do something that might be appropriate for the special occasion of remembrance. 

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#2422 "Holiday July Cirrus Sunset"

This low level water view from the kayak was looking northwest across what I call Point Paradise. The western shore of Singleton Lake is on the far horizon. One trailer on the south side of the campground always keeps a bright light on. I included that bright, eye-stabbling light along that darkened shoreline. Our shore of Singleton is typically dark at night so that we can enjoy the stars. The intrusions of humans on nature comes in all forms. The stroke of my paddle in the lake did not leave a mark behind to show that I was ever there. This oil memory is the only trace of that evening paddle with the reflections of the sunset and the waves. . 

This is a memory from 8:45 pm Friday July 28th, 2017 paddling at sunset and enjoying the fair weather cirrus in the sky. This sunset was before the virus and the pandemic of 2020. I was having fun with the oils and loosening up after working on several architectural scenes in the studio. COVID isolation has given me some time to paint. There is a red or silver lining to every cloud. 

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