#2479 "Singleton March Sunset on Fire"

The sunset colours were on fire. The reflections in the open water of Jim Day Rapids were also burning. The trumpeter swans had left temporarily. At some times during this winter, there had been twenty or more of the magnificent swans enjoying the quiet seclusion of Jim Day Rapids and the Singleton Sanctuary. The beavers and otters did not bother them much. The nature preserve was a hive of activity at all hours of the day. 

The overcast skies were just about to exit to the east. The direct beams from the setting sun were illuminating the back edge of this cloud and reaching the eyes of the sunset gazers like ourselves. The satellite imagery clearly told the tale. The northwesterly winds were also revealed in the gravity waves. Nature is inspiring whether it is beautiful or not. In this case, the sunset was simply remarkable. 

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

#2478 "Afternoon Light in the Singleton Wetland"

I had some time. The other projects that I was working on, were either drying and waiting for more gesso or very wet in oils, so I decided to paint outside. I trotted to the north of the Studio overlooking the provincially significant wetland. The sun was on my back and it felt great. 

The wind picked up and chilled my hands so I decided to work a bit faster. It was probably close to minus 7 but the windchill made it feel twice as cold. The forest was waking up and the sounds of spring were in the air. There were a couple of sounds that I could not readily identify. Spring was also in the long range forecast. 

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

#2476 "Singleton Morning Snowstorm"

The snow was falling heavily outside at Singleton Lake. Snow is not just white and the atmosphere with falling snow is not white either. The camera cannot see the colours which is why plein air is so very important. Conditions are getting ideal for painting outside surrounded by nature. 

The goal behind this exercise was to see the real colours of snow. 

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

#2475 "Mid February Morning at Jim Day Rapids"

The morning dawned at minus 18 Celsius but the sun was brilliant. I decided to trudge through the deep snow and look over the colours of Jim Day Rapids. A pair of black ducks were in the open water and I was concerned that I would scare them off. To my surprise, they kept dabbling in the current although they kept an eye or two on me. I heard the chatter of the belted kingfisher that had come back too early a couple of days before. Chickadees buzzed me since I was wearing the same wardrobe as the Bird Man Feeding Station. The nuthatches also chirped their electronic song. 

I started to paint at 10:45 am when the temperature had reached minus 10 Celsius. The sun made it feel much warmer. Some cumulus actually developed as I painted which surprised me greatly. The colour of the open water of Jim Day Rapids was really dark. There will be no swimming for a few months yet. The long title was picked so there would be no duplicate names in my portfolio. The word "mid" also applies to mid month and mid morning.  

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

#2474 "Singleton Sunset Deformation Zone"

This winter sunset sky was classic. The sharp knife edge of the deformation zone stretched across the horizon. The sun was setting beyond the southernmost tip of Singleton Lake - where Mister Singleton parked his boat after rowing over to our shore to milk his cows. The colours of the sky and the reflection across Singleton Lake were what caught my eye. The patch of altocumulus in the otherwise clear skies ahead of the warm conveyor belt and the deformation zone, was a big part of the weather story. I had to record this scene in oils. 

The cloud edge of the deformation zone was drifting slowly southward. This meant that the col in the deformation zone pattern was further to the north beyond my painting. The anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt was aimed at Singleton with the bulk of the weather directed to head further to the north. This meant that the patch of altocumulus was associated with the paired cyclonic vorticity centre across the deformation zone from the dominant anticyclonic vorticity minimum, "N". The lift provided by the cyclonic swirl also explained why the altocumulus was there in the first place. 

I used my right hand and pointed it upward to explain the orientation of the Langmuir streaks and the gravity waves in that patch of altocumulus. All of the cloud pieces of the meteorological puzzle fit nicely together. Also notice the southerly edges of the altocumulus swirls were sharper than the northern edge. This was consistent with the southern drift of the entire cloud pattern in the same way that the edges of contrails are typically sharper on one side than the other. Refer to The Art and Science of Phil the Forecaster. 

There was a second higher and more distant deformation zone also evident in the clouds. I took some artistic license with the orientation of this deformation zone to aid with the composition of the painting. 

There was a large patch of open water at the head of Jim Day Rapids. This glassy surface amplified the intensity of the light from the setting sun and even reflected the top edge of the deformation zone cloud. The snow and ice were not nearly as good at reflecting the sunset sky. How lucky can a simple meteorologist get? 

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

#2473 "Singleton Pioneer Privy"

It was a cold and sunny day in late January and I was walking the Singleton Sanctuary trails to see what else might be enjoying the winter day and leave their tracks as proof. The late afternoon sun was starting the illuminate the forest with the special light of the golden hour. The sparkle of light on the trees and in the ice and snow were what encouraged me to record this special moment. 

The pioneers arrived in the 1800's and actually had a very sensible way to deal with waste. This is essentially an early type of simple composting toilet. The down side was that it was a hike from the cabin and there was no running water except in Jim Day Rapids. It was built on the shoulder of the ridge so it was not as prone to flooding - never a good thing if you have business to get done. 

Privy - noun 1. a toilet located in a small shed outside a house or other building; an outhouse. 

Privy is a very old word for a bathroom that dates from 1225 and the Old French word privé which means an "intimate friendly; a private place." The privacy was much better in the outhouse than inside on a chamber pot so that would make the privy much more attractive except during inclement weather. This Singleton privy was also referred to as an "earth closet" starting in 1863 since soil was used as a covering. This name is in contrast to the term water closet which was used for washrooms starting in 1763. 

Thomas Crapper was an English businessman and plumber. Crapper held nine patents related to plumbing. Three of those patents were for improvements to the water closet such as the floating ballcock. He invented the U-bend plumbing trap in 1880 and improved on the previous S-bend . Manhole covers with Crapper's company's name on them can be found in Westminster Abbey. The company name also appeared on the pipes and traps of the water closet. Now you know where the word "crapper" comes from. 

The seats of the Singleton Privy would be called a "thunderbox" if there was no roof covering . One can only guess why the word "thunder" might apply but I doubt if it was because of a sudden cumulonimbus cloud. 

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

#2472 "Singleton Pioneer Shed"

A winter storm was on the way in mid February. The forecast was for 25 to 35 centimetres of fresh snow. That would be enough to use the snowblower on the tractor for the first time of the winter season. 

The sky was overcast altostratus and it was only a matter of time before the snow started to fall. There were many colours in the snow even under the cloudy and dull skies. 

The Singleton pioneers were smart. They built their structures on the high and dry ridges and used the drainage valleys were there was still some soil, for crops. This is a smaller shed located beside the one stall, milking barn. The roof was still intact on this shed. It was also a newer structure than the barn with concrete footings and wide pine boards for siding. The roof on the main barn had sadly caved in a few years before.

There was a large crevice in the marble ridge and the rabbits were using it for a warren. There were rabbit tracks and marbles everywhere. I put a couple of those bunny trails into the painting. 

The northeasterly breeze of the cold conveyor belt picked up at about the same time that the snow started to fall. It was a good time to call the painting "done". The snow started to fall as I headed back to the Singleton Studio. I was using the portable Kubota Studio again. 

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

#2471 "Pioneer Sugar Maple"

I revisited the huge sugar maple that I painted in #2454 "Singleton Sugar Maple". It was a cold and sunny day in late January and I was walking the Singleton Sanctuary trails to see what else might be enjoying the winter day. The huge maple was here long before the pioneers arrived in the 1800's. This time I placed the tree in the foreground and let the marble ridge lead away with the afternoon shadows of the maple in tow. On the west side of the trunk of the tree there are a series of swirls and lines that are very much like vorticity centres and deformation zones. Similar forces apparently are also found in living tissue which experiences the strain of nature. 

This maple has a circumference of 135 inches (11.25 feet) at 36 inches above the ground. Simple math gives the diameter of this tree of about 43 inches. The Comfort Sugar Maple tree has a 20 foot circumference at the base which is larger than the 11.25 feet circumference of the Singleton Maple which I measured a bit higher. The Comfort Sugar Maple near North Pelham, Niagara Region, was a sprout when Columbus navigated to the New World in 1492. The Singleton Sugar Maple was likely at least a good sized tree for the War of 1812. Size is not always related to age though. There are cedars on the Niagara Escarpment that are 2000 year old (1890 in 2014) and they have circumferences measure in just a few inches. Life like art, is not a competition and I am just happy that both old trees are still alive. 

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

#2470 "February Singleton Stratocumulus Sunset"

I thought that I would pick up my palette again a couple of hours later than #2469 "February Afternoon Stratocumulus". There was some clearing to the west that lined up with the setting sun. The break in the back lit clouds allowed the light to shine through to brighten up the sunset. I wanted to capture the colours of the back lit sunset clouds as well as the Singleton ice. The clear blue sky above was evident in breaks between the streets of stratocumulus. The skies would clear and it was going to be a chilly, winter night. 

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

#2469 "February Afternoon Stratocumulus"

I was out painting with the birds on a Tuesday afternoon in early February. There were about eight trumpeter swans out on the ice. The smaller birds were busy with the feeding stations and the seed that I scattered under the red cedar. The Bird Men and I wear the same wardrobe so the birds landed on me while I painted. I think it is fun but some think that I have a very low fun threshold. Ice and snow are not just white as they take up the reflected colours of the environment. The challenge of the artist is to see those shades of light and dark. 

My easel was set up on the ridge beside the red cedar. I was painting the afternoon clouds. It does not take much to amuse me so we are doing just fine during another lockdown of the COVID pandemic. Each Bird Man rotates with the wind so that the birds can easily land on the outstretched, carved wooden hands with their flaps up. 

I would visit this sky a couple of hours later in #2470 "February Singleton Stratocumulus Sunset". 

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

#2468 "COVID Contrail Singleton Sunset"

These lines in the sunset sky were actually pulses of moisture from the Nor'Easter over Nova Scotia. There were lots of colours in this sunset sky. I try never to miss a sunset. This one had be be recorded in oils for many very good reasons. 

The Langmuir streaks revealed the warm conveyor belt and the approach of the winter storm. The Nor'Easter was really going to hammer the Eastern Seaboard as foretold in my Ground Hog Day Forecast. Singleton was going to be on the north-western periphery of the storm. However, it was the lone contrail on its way to Europe that caught my eye. The February sunset was setting a bit further to the north each day as the path of the sun continued its northward migration toward the summer solstice. 

It is best to always keep an open mind. In studying the natural world, it is essential to accumulate as many facts as possible. The best solution will allow most of the pieces of evidence to fit together in the most complete puzzle. This particular sunset was extremely interesting and it gave me the opportunity to illustrate something that first caught my eye in the Maritimes when I worked as a meteorologist at CFB Shearwater. From the gravity waves in the contrail, I could tell that the warm conveyor belt and the leading deformation zone were still pushing further to the north. Singleton was going to get deeper into the winter storm. We actually recorded 14 centimeters of fresh snow overnight which was only one centimeter below the warning criteria. 

The clue was the sharp northern edge of the COVID contrail. This motion was confirmed by the subtle, secondary gravity waves associated within the contrail. The contrail and the warm conveyor belt were pushing further to the north. Here is how I knew that written in my Art and Science Blog.

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

#2467 "Jim Day Snow Reflections"

I wanted this painting to burst with energy and fun. The surface of the panel was very smooth and slippery with no tooth. Bold and rich strokes with a big brush moving lots of oil was the name of this fun game. I had lots of oil on the palette and tried to use it all. 

This is the view is looking across Jim Day Rapids in late winter. The water is deep and dark and very cold. There is not much soil on these granite ridges. The up to two mile high Laurentide Ice Sheet scraped away the soil between 95,000 and 20,000 years ago. The multiple ice flows during this period created much of the surface geology of southern Canada. The geology makes for some very interesting reading. 

This area is also rich in history. In February 1795 Lewis Grant received a letter from Alexander Aitken, the deputy surveyor of the Midland District, directing him "to lay out a Township on the West side of the River and Lake Gananoque." On May 27th Grant's crew  moved their temporary camp to "where the 9th Cons, line first intersects the Gananoque" (Singleton Lake). They probably camped on the point of land at Jim Day's or Jem Dey's Rapids. 

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