#2508 "Singleton Monday Morning Rain Clouds"

The clouds revealed the underside of the warm frontal surface. The northeasterly breeze was chilly and very humid. The dampness of the inflow to the storm made it feel even chillier. That flow is named the "cold conveyor belt" for a very good reason.

I stood out on the ridge thinking about painting en plein air but then the rain started to fall harder and I thought better of that idea. More heavy rain was on the way. The brightness on the southwestern horizon was very real as that area was far enough away from the thicker frontal cloud and there was a break in the overcast. 

If you paint what you see, it must always have an element of truth engrained in it. The painting is also a story and the truth is more exciting and interesting than fiction - just sayin'.

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

#2507 "Rainy Days and Sundays"

My Dad tried to never work on a Sunday. There were of course demands and some exceptions but not many. He loved to read non fiction and Sunday was the day to quietly learn. Genetics are interesting and mysteriously they express themselves in the next generation and probably and hopefully even further. I also love Sundays. I try to keep them quiet and fun. I read nonfiction as well. 

I also love rainy days. Rain is important for the environment and the liquid washes the dust off everything including the solar panels. 

I was up early and the direct beam from the Sunday sun had found a path to illuminate the Singleton shores. The cloudy skies overhead were in advance of a weakening cold front that would transform into a warm front. Patches of rain coupled with short waves of atmospheric energy would follow the fronts for the next few days. But for a few minutes at sunrise on this Sunday in early May, the light was golden. The rain was on the western horizon. It was going to be a beautiful day.

I was reading Mark Carney's book on Value and Values. It was a challenging read with so many concepts packed into each sentence. Those ideas pave a path for a sustainable future - a path that the world was not yet following. 

You might recognize the title as being similar to a 1971 song by the Carpenters "Rainy Days and Mondays". Karen had a haunting voice on these rather sad lyrics. My thoughts were much happier and positive when I named the painting. 

• "Talkin' to myself and feelin' old
• Sometimes I'd like to quit
• Nothin' ever seems to fit
• Hangin' around
• Nothin' to do but frown
• Rainy days and Mondays always get me down"

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

#2506 "Late April Showers"

It had rained the last couple of days after a prolonged drought in April. The warm frontal system had brought 45 mm of much needed water. This boom or bust delivery of moisture is to be expected with climate change especially for eastern Ontario. The west coast of North America will bake under the heat of the persistent upper ridge. Eastern North America will be dominated by the downstream upper trough of low pressure. At least Singleton Lake will be cloudier with the weather systems that proper in the upper trough fueled by moisture flows from the Gulf of Mexico. We are blessed by the peculiarities of geography and meteorology at least until temperatures pass the tipping point.

I have presented this information since the mid 1980's when the then Director of the Atmospheric Environment Service told me that my climate change presentation using the early version of Power Point , scared him more than the one of severe convection. I gave countless presentations until I was told to stop. Oh my. Being retired, I continue to Blog on this science and any magazines that will publish it. 

The cold front had passed through Singleton a few hours before this view of the afternoon sky. The hangback cloud and convection wrapped around the upper low that was still to the southwest of Lake Ontario. The clearing was on the western horizon but the lines of heavy convection from the northwest were still intense along the edge of the hangback deformation zone. The hangback would produce a few centimetres of accumulating snow overnight. The snow was quick to melt the following morning under clear and sunny skies. 

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

#2505 "April Afternoon Convection"

The Earth Day afternoon sky presented terrific examples of cloud streets, gravity waves and terrain induced changes in low level instability. These are cloud streets that originated from Georgian Bay aided by the heating over the land trajectory and moisture supplied by the lakes. 

The Arctic air in the wake of the cold front was below freezing. In the morning, these cloud streets do not make it far inland from their Georgian Bay source. With daytime heating, the cloud streets progressed further inland as witnessed by the transition from gravity wave banding of the cloud tops in the morning to wind parallel streets in the afternoon. The increased instability in the boundary layer allow the clouds within each street to achieve greater heights and even produce precipitation. The separation between the interacting helical circulations in the cloud streets increases proportionally with the growth in the cloud heights. 

Afternoon gusty winds and temperatures
climbing above freezing

This cloud transition can really only be viewed by examining a bird's eye view of the atmosphere. Satellite imagery was a vital tool for me as a meteorologist. That science continues to develop and reveal more of the mysteries of the environment that are essential in order to become better stewards of the globe.  

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

#2504 "April Snow Boughs"

Stan Rogers' song "45 Years from Now" applies both to true love and Earth Day. There is no time for shallow love and even less for hollow politics. There is much furor around the political achieving of "net zero" carbon by 2050. The heavy lifting of averting the impacts of climate change are left for the period well beyond the political horizon. The climate crisis is left to be fixed by some divine miracle, after the current four year political horizon. There is no Earth 2.0 and the planet may have already passed the precipitous tipping point.

It was almost impossible to measure the snow that fell. Most the the snow flakes melted on contact when the storm began. After a while and continued evapourative cooling, the flakes started to accumulate. The total accumulation was more than five centimetres but less than ten. I liked how the snow rested of the bows of the red cedars and spruce. It looked like winter. I had to paint what I saw. 

I wanted to respect Earth Day, April 22nd by recording the weather and the beauty of everyday nature. Earth Day needs to be everyday if we are to become better stewards of our Garden of Eden. 

The first Earth Day 1970 on April 22nd, 1970 marked the birth of the modern environmental movement. People were becoming aware of the damage being done to the environment. Polluted rivers were actually burning! Writers and scientists were sounding the alarm of the "tragedy of the commons". Rachel Carson's New York Times bestseller "Silent Spring" had been published in 1962 and there were many more books to come. People had to become informed and lead the way. Earth Day started in the United States with Senator Gaylord Nelson but is now Global. 

It is as important to be informed now as it was in 1970. Understand what "net zero" really means and that it is a scam to delay, deceive, and deny the climate crisis. Big business has successfully used the same tactics many times before. https://bulletin.cmos.ca/making-the-weather/

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

#2503 "April Snow Flurry Streets"

The northwesterly streets of turbulent stratocumulus were lined up and bringing some spring snow flurries. The cumulus shafts preceded the flurries as the cloud structure was tilted over with the strong winds. The lifted condensation level of the cloud base was obliterated by the flurries. I wanted to capture that process in the oils. The aligned 

The heaviest flurry producer was on the western horizon. If you looked closely, you could see a subtle difference in the colour of the sky beneath the overhead street of stratocumulus even though the cloud base was clearly defined. There was snow falling from that cloud as well but not nearly as much. Those overhead snow flakes sublimated away before reaching the ground. 

There was still some snow on the rocks of Jim Day Rapids. The roofs on the homes and cottages on the western shore of Singleton Lake were also white. The stabs of white structures picked up a bit of the morning light and really stood out strongly against the dark forest. 

My goal was to keep the energy alive and well in those clouds. I also wanted to respect Earth Day by recording the weather and the beauty of everyday nature. We need to be better stewards of paradise. 

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

 

#2502 "Paddling in the Wake of the Cold Front"

The cold front was very subtle. The northerly winds were light. I went for a kayak paddle to check on the loons and the mute swans. Everyone was fine. The mute swans were setting up housekeeping in the west basin. The nest was on a hammock of bulrushes in the large provincially significant wetland to the north of the Single Lake Campground. Meanwhile the loons were busy feeding and were not much interested in the SS Loon nesting platform which I had launched. I had already moved the nesting platform once trying to entice some interest. 

Eagle Nest in the top of a white pine, Singleton

The only bird interested in breeding was the bald eagle. An eagle was on the large nest in the Single Lake Campground. A wind storm had knocked off the top half of a large white pine. The one or two foot diameter trunk had karate chopped a trailer in half. Other trailers did not fare much better. The eagle's nest was unscathed. 

There was just a bit of green showing in the tips of the spring trees. 

An April snowstorm had me in the studio. There was more than 5 centimetres of fresh snow covering everything. The snow was still falling quite heavily ... I loved it although I suspect that many people were unhappy with the cloak of white. I was planning on painting that snow when it started to taper off. 

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

#2501 "Killbear during Camelot"

I always resisted labels - being typed as a particular type of artist. Whatever caught my eye was fair game for the canvas. Being just an artist was more important than painting the societal, flavour of the month. Whatever was in vogue. I resisted the label even if it increased the probability of a sale. 

Sketching it in... 

All of nature is inspiring so why not interpret as much of its beauty as possible? I also admire the creativity and artistry of Paul Simon. His song "One Trick Pony" is a favourite and summarizes my thoughts. The lyrics of "Rhymin' Simon" are true and honest like those of Marko Burrows. 

• "He's a one-trick pony
• One trick is all that horse can do
• He does, one trick only
• It's the principal source of his revenue
• But when he steps into the spotlight
• You can feel the heat of his heart
• Come rising through" 

This landscape is a view from Killbear looking south toward the navigational light which I painted in #2310 "Killbear Light". This image was taken by the father of my friend Cameron Lindsey in the autumn of 1963. The timing was just before JFK was assassinated. The senior Lindseys were enjoying a beautiful autumn day in Killbear and the kids were somewhere else - including Cam. The timing and the windy turbulence of the environment reminded me of the Kennedy "Camelot" and that association explains the otherwise cryptic reference in the title. 

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (1929–1994) used " Camelot" to refer to her period in the White House as the First Lady of the United States. The first Camelot was experienced during the time of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The word has come to be associated with a place or time of idyllic happiness. Killbear on a sunny autumn day was also such a place. The turbulence of the Killbear winds foreshadowed the turmoil that was coming to Camelot with the assassination of JFK on November 22, 1963. The Kennedys brought youth and glamour to the White House but that died in 63. 

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

#2500 "Cold Frontal Deformation Zone Sunset"

The cold front had passed through Singleton. The rain storm recorded in #2499 "March Lamb Showers" was history. 

The winds had veered to the northwest and the heavy rain showers had ended. The knife edge of the hang-back altostratus deformation zone was still on the northwestern horizon. The definite banding in the undersides of that cloud deck where the result of gravity, shock waves caused by the strong westerly winds aloft that were evicting the storm out of eastern Ontario. 

SCUD cloud was being whipped up by the brisk northwesterlies. These shreds of stratus rolling with the tumbling vortices of moisture, were what really caught my eye. Even in what might appear as a turbulent chaos, there is order. Note the wavelength regularity of the stratus if you link similar cloud elements together. 

I try to enjoy every sunset. There is a new one every day. They are all free if we only spend the time.  

I use a second palette to keep my oils bright and clean when I work with colours like yellow. 

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

#2483 "Cirriously Summer"

Painting is a solitary, thoughtful process. I like to sit and ponder the existing and future strokes everyday whether I have a brush and palette in my hand or not. Sometimes the strokes just feel right as they are going on the canvas. Hopefully one feels the wrong strokes before they get even applied. The poem by Marko Burrows describes the process of painting and life very well. Here are just a few of those words. 

• The paint on my brush keeps on flowing
• In small dabs and long strokes it feels right 
• Blending, colour and texture, that’s going
• To reflect, almost dance, in the light
• But up close, you can’t see any structure
• It’s a jumble of chaos and strife
• But step back and look at its wholeness
• A painting is a lot like life

A couple of Boston really enjoyed #2065 "Summer Cirrus" which is 22 X 26 (inches) and based on a photo taken from my kayak at 8:45 pm on Friday July 28th, 2017 Singleton Lake. The gravity waves and lines of cirrus are what attracted me to this painting. I rarely do commissions but I felt this could be a fun adventure using one of my favourite paintings as a launching board. They wanted a canvas almost 4x6 feet in size. That large size adds an entirely different dimension to the project but life should be an adventure and a challenge as well as being fun. 

I did some fun investigative sketches to find out where this commission might go. One of those evolved into #2477 "Three Amigo Canoes at Sunset". 

I realized from the feedback and ongoing conversation, that if I wanted to thrill my Boston clients, I was going to have to be really bold. They appreciate the fauve style and I really enjoy painting that way as well. They loved the darker blues of #2065 "Summer Cirrus" and wanted something in the foreground. Based on Michael's suggestion, I selected the foreground modified from #2505 "April Afternoon Convection". The paint got really thick on the canvas with lots of interesting texture.

The title came to me as I pondered the art one day. I enjoy puns and weather terminology. This painting was all about summer memories and the energy in the sky and weather. Both of these fun concepts go seriously well together during a summer holiday adventure. The title and the painting is intended to evoke those happy times, enjoying the lake and the summer sky - make you smile. 

The end result was the above and to quote Michael and Alison "Wow this is absolutely stunning!!!!! We love it!!!!" So that's a wrap. Step away from the easel... 

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

#2499 "March Lamb Showers"

March was going out like a lamb but a snowy lion was waiting in the wings. It was a very mild plus 10 Celsius when I headed out to paint but the cold front was just on the western horizon. 

The one band of rain was just about to stop so I headed out to the front ridge. There was likely to be another convective rain band with the passage of the cold front. There was no time to waste and several more hours of heavy rain were on the western horizon. 

I know that my hearing is not as good as it once was but I can still hear nature if I immerse myself within it. The cardinal was whistling its territory and there were lots of other birds getting busy as well with the approach of spring. The southwesterly winds were gusting and making lots of noise as well in the tops of the trees. 

I just wanted to have some fun with the oils. The scud clouds were whistling along in those southwesterly winds and I decided to chase those with my brush. Scattered cumulus under deck (SCUD) are type of fractus cloud which are low above the ground and associated with convection - typically thunderstorms. SCUD are typically ragged and wispy and continually being shaped and reshaped by the turbulent winds. 

I had to be careful holding my large palette as the wind threatened to blow it into my chest. That would be messy. I know this from previous experiences. I did get wet but not soaked. 

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

#2498 "Windy March Storm Approaching"

I was still out standing in the March marsh. A spring storm was developing. It would not arrive at Singleton until Thursday night - more than two days into the future. The lines in the sky already revealed its approach. These deformation zones are characteristic of the leading flank of the warm conveyor belt. They are shaped by linked pairs of anticyclonic circulations in the ridge of high pressure that we had been enjoying for many days. 

The wind picked up while I painted the skyscape. The fetch in the open water beyond the spring ice was not very long but it was enough to produce white caps and to make the lake quite rough. The wind buffeted my large palette and almost pushed it into my chest more than once. That would have been rather messy. Palette mashing into my shirt has happened before. I know from experience although may not always learn from the valuable lesson. 

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

#2497 "Singleton Spring Ice in the Wetland"

Spring had arrived. The sounds of the very territorial Canada geese and the red winged black birds filled the air. The ring necked ducks arrived back that morning as well. I wish there were more of them. I suspect that a lack of habitat and over-hunting in their southern range is the problem. Otherwise, the morning was beautiful. 

I wanted to record the different colours which are unique to spring. The shadows from the trees behind me changed colours as they crossed the different surfaces that stretched in front of me. There was a slight hint of rose in the colours of the trees as the buds started to swell with spring. The white walls of the Wick Pick Cottages shone like beacons in the morning light. You would not want to cross that ice unless you had on your bathing suit. 

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

#2496 "Singleton Roots Run Deep"

The Provincially Significant Wetland was at the bottom of this ridge. These trees on the north face of the ridge did not see the sun until mid afternoon. There was not much soil for these tree roots to spread into. The roots often ran along the surface of the marble ridge until they could find enough soil or a crack to grow into. 

The thick and luxurious moss was on the northern faces of these tree trunks that were also on the northern face of the ridge. The moss turned a brilliant green when it was caught by a shaft of sunlight. 

There were some exploratory woodpecker holes in these tree trunks as well. The tree on the right had been scarred decades previously and the bark would probably never seal the wound up. These are mast trees that provide food and shelter to a host of creatures during their entire life and long afterward as well, as they rot and return to the soil. 

The blue bird of happiness was still singing. 

A lone honey bee came to visit and landed on my painting hand. It was great to see her. I wonder how far she had travelled and from where? I saw a honey bee later in the afternoon while on the dock in Jim Day Rapids. It looked like the same bee... They are my friends. Maybe I should start keeping bees again... 

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