#2652 "Singleton Spring on the Door Step"

#2652 "Singleton Spring on the Door Step"
14x18 inches canvas oils

A spring storm was on the way. The cirrostratus Langmuir streaks of the warm conveyor belt were headed northeastward over Singleton Lake. Gravity waves within those Langmuir streaks revealed the southerly component of the winds within the pointing fingers of the warm conveyor belt. Every sky has a story to tell. 

There was still ice filling the western basin of Singleton Lake in mid March. The reflection in the open waters of the eastern basin repeated the tale told from above. 

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#2651 "Singleton April Sunset Cumulus Fractus"

#2651 "Singleton April Sunset Cumulus Fractus"
18x22 inches oils

This sunset was from 7:50 pm on Thursday April 21 - a couple of days after #2649 "Singleton Cold April Showers" and the cold front accompanying that painting. Cold northerly winds were still on the agenda with the high pressure over north-western Ontario. The spring sun was getting stronger though and igniting some daytime cumulus in the unstable boundary layer of the cold air mass. 

I liked the colours in the fragments of the dissipating cumulus and the light as it peaked through the still barren trees. Those facts plus the Langmuir streaks in the ice free waters of Singleton Lake were enough reasons for me to commit the sunset and the many fluids therein to oils. The colours and the shapes were real. I might enhance nature a bit but I never make anything up. 

"Beyond the Sunset" by Hank Williams was still playing in my mind as I painted. The lyrics of the song struck a cord with me. 

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#2650 "Singleton Contrail Cirrus Sunset"

#2650 "Singleton Contrail Cirrus Sunset"
18x22 inches oil

The western horizon clearly told the tale of the approaching winter storm. As I was painting, I realized that the pattern in the painting was looking directly into the col of the deformation zone. I had started with the intention of focussing on the colours but the science could not be denied. 

The signatures in the sky can be subtle. The faint Langmuir streaks of thicker cirrostratus indicate the wind direction of the guiding flow and the warm conveyor belt. Lateral, gravity wave banding within the cirrostratus confirm that diagnosis. Swells of moisture stretching along the deformation zone added to the diagnosis. 

The jets headed to Europe add condensation nuclei and moisture into the warm conveyor belt flow. The resultant contrails persist much longer on the warm and moist side of the deformation zone but dissipate on the dry side of the air mass divider. 

Looking along the central axis of the warm conveyor belt
toward Singleton.. as I painted looking toward the 
approaching storm

The more pieces of the atmospheric puzzle that you can assemble into a consistent picture, the more confident you can be of your understanding of the situation and your prediction. Red sky at night is not a sailor's delight if that colour is the result of clouds. 

The calm water in the eastern bay of Singleton reflected the bright sunset. The meltwater on the ice seemed to be much more efficient at reflecting the bright hues from beyond the sunset. 

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#2649 "Singleton Cold April Showers"

#2649 "Singleton Cold April Showers"
18x22 oils

Turbulent stratocumulus filled the late afternoon sky. 

The snow had ended and largely melted. Cold rain showers were everywhere within the hang back of the low pressure area. The temperature was dropping as the westerly winds picked up speed and gradually veered to the northwest. Shafts of melting snow flurries and virga lined the streets of blustery clouds. The back edge of the system and the cyclonic asymptote of the deformation zone was still hours away. The sky was full of energy and that was my goal to preserve the forces of nature in oils. 

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#2648 "Singleton Pileated Plate"

#2648 "Singleton Pileated Plate"
14x11 inches oil

The twin stems of these ash trees can be found on the north side of the Singleton Ridge. The pileated woodpeckers had turned the one stem into a pile of chips. I suspect that the larvae of the invasive emerald ash borer were on the menu. These trees were well beyond saving but at least they provided a hearty meal for the pileated woodpeckers. I also saw the patterns within the scene and I thought I could turn this unusual subject matter into something quite interesting. Everything in this scene is a triangle of sorts. 

The emerald ash borer was native to north-eastern Asia but has spread across North America. The emerald ash borer feeds on ash species. Females lay eggs in bark crevices on ash trees, and larvae feed underneath the bark of ash trees to emerge as adults in one to two years. The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) was first discovered in Michigan in 2002. 

Emerald Ash Borer larvae feed in tunnels just below an ash tree's bark. These tunnels disrupt water and nutrient transport, causing branches, and eventually the entire tree, to die. Adult beetles leave distinctive D-shaped exit holes in the outer bark of the branches and the trunk. Other signs of infestation include tree canopy dieback, yellowing and extensive sprouting from the roots and trunk. 

Art can also be a vehicle to continue to learn.

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#2647 "Singleton Roots on the Rock"

#2467 "Singleton Roots on the Rock"
11x14 inches canvas oil

There is not much soil on top of the marble ridge beside our home within the Singleton Sanctuary. The tree roots tend to crawl over the rocks looking for deep crevices where moisture, soil and snakes might be found. There are many hibernacula in the clefts of those rock and I encourage the snakes along with all of the other creatures that find those caves useful. 

Some roots follow the rock to the deep soils that border the ridge. These trees do not want to get too tall as the roots are not up to excessive wind force or strain. The moss was abundant on the north face of the rock and it was in no risk of being blown off the marble. The mix of colours and shapes are what attracted me to this painting. 

RGB Satellite Image Showing the clearing over Singleton
ahead of the cold front. 

Most of the trees on the horizon of the painting are on the south-eastern face of the marble ridge. Beauty abounds in nature if we only take the time to look and really see. 

I knew that the cold frontal rain was on the western horizon so I packed this image away for the next opportunity when time and weather made a Studio session more practical. 

I like to pick titles that can be somewhat humourous or endowed with multiple interpretations. This is a good example of that. I also try unsuccessfully to use titles that are unique and that I have not employed before. 

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#2646 "Singleton Sugar Maple Matriarch"

#2646 "Singleton Sugar Maple Matriarch"
11x14 inches oils

I have painted this mighty sugar maple before in #2454 "Singleton Sugar Maple" and #2471 "Pioneer Sugar Maple". This is the first time that I painted the southern side. This maple was on its last decade or so. The wood peckers were opening up some holes in search of the bugs that were certainly invading the tree. The chunks of wood were littered around the base. The one very large tree limb lays on the ground where it fell possibly as a result of the 1998 Ice Storm and as I painted previously. This Singleton Sugar Maple was likely at least a good sized tree for the War of 1812. Size is not always related to age though. 

The ground all around this great tree is covered with tiny maple seedlings. This fact explains the title as it is surely the parent for most of these other trees that have are having a hard time growing due to the dense foliage of the forest canopy. The word "matriarch" actually comes from the Greek patria for "family." Patriarch has come to mean the male head of a family or clan, while matriarch is used if the head of a family or clan is female. 

The grain of this monarch maple turns cyclonically upward - at least if the thumb of your Coriolis hand is pointing in the direction of growth and the sky. The woodpeckers which I assume to be pileated, follow this seam in the skin of the tree. The knurls and twists in the bark add to the character of this tree. If only it could tell its story. I am making all of this up. 

The sounds of spring were in the forest. All of the characters were about and busy. At least a pair of barred owls were having an intense conversation. The one owl voice was definitely smaller in tone and volume. I also heard some snorting and turned to see the tails of white tailed deer. The group of three did not go far before they turned to watch me paint. The nature of the Singleton Forest, knows me well. 

A look at the weather forecast and map would have suggested that I just head straight into the Studio but the radar revealed otherwise. I had a two hour window to be out in the forest surrounded by my friends and that is where I went. 

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#2645 "Singleton April Forest Sunset"

#2645 "Singleton April Forest Sunset"
11x14 inches oil

The cold front had passed through and the ridge of high pressure was building in. The air mass was unstable though and spokes of instability were spinning around the retreating low. The convection was not too extensive and the setting sun could periodically reach Singleton between the heaps of cumulus defining each spoke of the wheel. There were occasional rain and snow showers. 

The sun angles picked up the virga falling from the bottom of the clouds for just a few moments. The rosy glow added to the composition but still could not compete with the brilliance of the sunlight that set the forest on fire for those few moments. When the sun did manage to reach the Singleton Forest, the sky and trees lit up like they were ablaze with light. The colours were fleeting but I resolved to do my best to capture this memory in oils. 

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#2644 "Promise of April Rain"

#2644 "Promise of April Rain"
11x14 by 3/4 inches, oil

The sunset sky was classic warm frontal. 

There were multiple layers of cloud within the warm conveyor belt and it was difficult to discern just were each started from my humble, earth-bound perspective. There was a high layer of cirrocumulus and perhaps an intermediate layer of altocumulus. The layer of lower altostratus appeared to gradually thicken toward the west. The spring sun cast a bright light through the leading edges of the thinner cloud layers and illuminated a shining path toward my eyes on the eastern shore of Singleton. There was only grey cloud on the western horizon. The nimbostratus and rain would arrive after midnight. 

As is typical with a system approaching eastern Ontario, the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt would arrive first. Gravity waves within that altostratus where sheared toward the southeast. The rain would arrive first and be heavier further to the north. 

Eastern North America is fortunate to enjoy the rain while the west coast endures a prolonged drought. 

I was interested in capturing the cellular nature of the altocumulus where weak ascent is balanced by clear rings of descent within the cloud layer. 

I deployed my rain gauge before this storm and so far by the time I finished this painting, we had received 24 mm of rain. 

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#2643 "Singleton April Afternoon Stratocumulus"

#2643 "Singleton April Afternoon Stratocumulus"
11x14 oils on canvas 

My chores were done for the day so I headed to the lakeshore to paint. The vigourous cumulus clouds had caught my eye at lunch but by the time I could grab my easel, the clouds had transformed into much flatter turbulent stratocumulus. It was a cloudy day but the weather was more than just interesting. There was another spring storm on the way. 

Outstanding on the lake shore

Water Vapour Imagery Showing Swells
over Eastern Ontario

The story of the atmospheric swells piling up within the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt was very interesting. I needed the water vapour imagery in order to read that story. These tales would put people to sleep in the weather centre but I found them intriguing. 

The ocean of air above our head has many similarities to the seas that cover three-quarters of the globe. The depth of the warm conveyor belt gets ever more shallow as you approach the forward edge and the leading deformation zone. The large gravity waves generated by the strong spring jet core propagate from the source like ocean swells and pile up on that atmospheric beach. I attributed the multiple bands of thicker moisture on the warm side of the anticyclonic confluent asymptote of the deformation zone to be atmospheric swells. (Also see "Keep an Open Mind" for more explanations)

 I added the atmospheric swells to the accompanying graphic and coloured in the swell crests with "purple water vapour moisture". The swell troughs must be drier. The entire column of the warm conveyor belt is more likely to be moist on the cyclonic companion side of the flow and both the crests and troughs of the swells might be full of moisture and less apparent in satellite imagery. This is the kind of stuff that the atmosphere taught me, especially on night shifts. 

I thought this might need another graphic for
a better explanation... 

I listened to the sounds of the trumpeter swans, geese and ducks as I painted. The ducks would scatter when the bald eagle would do an occasional fly over. I heard the loon as well. We were still waiting along with Mister loon for the Missus to arrive. 

The breeze got chilly on my hands but at least there were no biting bugs. 

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#2642 "March Hang Bag"

#2642 "March Hang Bag"
10x12 smooth panel oils

The trailing edge of the cyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt that comprises a storm is always the clear signal that the weather is about to pass. 

My View ( red arrow) looking westerly from under the last
remains of the cloud deck associated with the Cyclonic
Companion of the Warm Conveyor Belt 

Colloquially this is called the "hang back" portion of the storm as it appears well behind the central portion of the storm. A meteorologist I once worked with always confused this term with “hang bag” as in shopping for weather. She passed shortly after retiring and I use her version out of remembrance. 

The gravity waves embedded in this sheet of altostratus revealed that the winds in the free atmosphere were northwesterly and this is entirely consistent with the deformation zone. This portion of the deformation zone is typically as sharp as a knife for the same reasons that contrails are best defined on the edge from which the winds are blowing and are causing it to drift. The entire pattern including the clearing was moving toward the southeast. 

There were still some streets of turbulent stratocumulus in the north-northwesterly boundary layer winds. They would dissipate with the sun. 

If you look closely, you can also see some Langmuir streaks in the open water of Singleton Lake. The western basin of the lake was still ice covered although you would want to be wearing your bathing suit if you planned to walk on that surface. The male loon would judge that the ice was dissipated enough  for him to return on April 1st, the day following this sunset .. and that is no joke.

The sun was below the western horizon but the last rays were still illuminating the underside of altostratus gravity waves which were in turn lighting up the wave crests of the lake. The sodden ice was not very reflective. If you paint what you see, the optics have to be scientifically correct. The weather is always interesting and we just need to take the time to appreciate what the clouds have to say.

I was using a lot of oils on a very smooth surface so the approach was to lay the correct colours in place and then leave them alone. 

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