#2758 "Singleton Autumn Bluebird Sunrise"

#2758 "Jim Day Sunrise Steam Fog"
8x10 inches oils on canvas

It was a mixture of snow and light rain outside so I did not have any plein air options. As a result, I decided to paint in front of the wood stove, listening to tunes and pretending that I was outside on the bluebird of a day. 

I had recorded this vista before in #2711 "Jim Day Sunrise Steam Fog" but this view is more southerly and I decided to give it a looser, plein air treatment. . 

On that day, I knew that the wind would develop by mid-morning when the radiational inversion broke down, so I decided to head out for a paddle around Singleton Lake while the water was like glass. The air was cold enough to support steam fog. It had been a while since I painted steam devils so I thought that it would be good to try them again. The story can be found in the title. This is looking southeastward around 7 am in the morning. 

I did manage to paddle around Singleton before the southwesterly winds picked up. Life is very good. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2757 "Bohemian Triplets"

#2757 "Bohemian Triplets"
20x16 by 1.5 inches 
Canvas Jack gallery wrapped canvas

A flock of Bohemian Waxwings will often pass through the Singleton Sanctuary. The flock might include ten to twenty individuals that seem to really enjoy the small, purple cones on the red cedars. They are a pleasure to watch as the birds bounce, boisterously through the limbs of the forest. They do not stay still in one spot for very long. 

The Bohemian waxwing is a starling-sized passerine bird that breeds in the northern forests of the Palearctic and North America. It has mainly buff-grey plumage, black face markings and a pointed crest. We frequently see a flock of these cheerful and busy birds in the red cedars around our home. It is commonly described as a "passerine" denoting birds distinguished by feet that are adapted for perching, including all songbirds. 

The English name "waxwing" refers to the bright red tips of the secondary feathers on its wings, which look like drops of sealing wax. "Bohemian" alludes to the bird's vagabond-like wanderings, or perhaps to presumed origin from Bohemia. 

The adult Bohemian Waxwing has a grey belly, colourful wings, and cinnamon under tail coverts. In contrast, the adult Cedar waxwing has a yellow belly and white under tail coverts. In addition, when the Cedar Waxwing is perched and viewed from behind, the tertials appear as two vertical white lines going partway up the bird's back. 

I had three palettes on the go for this series of bird paintings. I reserved specific colours for each palette … one for each colour emphasis. It is essential to keep the oils clean. 

Sometimes it is best to relax and charge the batteries before charging the canvas. Art is indeed work and one needs to be well-rested to produce the best effort. The spark of creativity that goes into the brush strokes needs a fully charged battery. If you do not feel the motivation or energy, it is best just to go for a paddle. I had to be patient and wait for this canvas to happen. 

This particular work is based on a terrific photo taken by my friend and naturalist John Verburg. John has graciously encouraged me to work from any of his fine images that chronicle the precious natural environment of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere. John has a gift for capturing the essence as well as the beauty of nature. Achieving these images requires more than skill and knowledge of optics and modern camera technology but also considerable patience waiting for that special moment. Our desire is that upon viewing nature through his photographs and perhaps my art, more people will appreciate the vital importance of protecting the natural world. A healthy habitat takes thousands of years to develop but can be irretrievably destroyed in brief hours under the guise of development. 

So far I have two paintings of Bohemian Waxwings: #2737 "Bohemian Waxwings" and #2757 "Bohemian Triplets". 

I also painted #2738 "Cedar Waxwings" and #2766 "Rainy Day Waxwings". 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2756 "Singleton Sanctuary Autumn Glow"

#2756 "Singleton Sanctuary Autumn Glow"
9x12 inches oils on canvas

This was the Singleton Forest on the afternoon of Saturday, October 22nd, 2022, the same day I paddled in the morning to view the lily pads painted in #2735 "Lily Pads Pondering". The strong autumn winds had stripped the trees naked and left the dry and crisp leaves on the forest floor. It was a noisy walk and I did not see any of the typical creatures in the forest. 

The late afternoon sun threw long shadows down across the undulating terrain. The eastern bay of Singleton Lake was behind those trees. One of the ridges, the roots of the ancient mountain range, was on my left. The forest was healthy with a mix of Carolinian trees. The butternut trees were the exception and all of them were either dead or dying. Maybe a half-dozen butternuts  I planted in 2008 were thriving and not showing signs of the invasive canker disease yet. 

The golden afternoon light and the rich colours of the forest need to be remembered in oils. I saved this thought for a wintry day in March 2023. It is unhealthy to paint starting into that kind of sunlight anyway. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2755 "Singleton Sanctuary October Johnny on the Spot"

 

#2755 
"Singleton Sanctuary October Johnny on the Spot"
12x9 inches oils on canvas

I had painted the Singleton Sanctuary Outhouse a few times. So far, the privy can be seen in #2473 "Singleton Pioneer Privy", #2485 "Singleton Private Place" and this one as well. It was a beautiful autumn day with leaves blanketing the forest floor and no biting bugs. Nature can restore one's soul.

The pioneers arrived in the 1800s and actually had a very sensible way to deal with waste. This is essentially an early type of simple composting toilet. The downside 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. 

Crapper invented the toilet flapper valve, which made toilets
quieter and more efficient. He almost had a monopoly
on toilets in the 1800s, and he embossed his company
name – T. Crapper & Co. on all his toilets.
They were stylish and high quality,
so many people loved them.

Everything went down the toilet with Thomas Crapper, the English businessman and plumber who held nine plumbing patents. Using water to distribute human waste created a solution when there was really no problem in the first place. 

Clean, fresh water is a vital and special quantity and Crapper's inventions have resulted in many abuses to the environment. Untreated sewage is routinely flushed into rivers even in so-called advanced nations - especially Canada. 

Sometimes the old ways were indeed the best. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2754 "Singleton Point Paradise After the Autumn Colours"

#2754 "Singleton Point Paradise After the Autumn Colours"
12x9 inches oils on canvas

The is a point of marble rock pointing into the 50-foot depths of Singleton Lake. I call that peninsula Point Paradise because of its natural beauty and solitude. It has been referred to by other names over the ages but times change.

The strong autumn winds had stripped most of the colourful leaves from the deciduous trees. Point Paradise is very exposed to the west wind so it is the first to show the colours of winter. A couple of trees were toppled over by those gales but I did not include those in the scene. They would provide valuable firewood in the coming winters. 

I wanted to paint something loose and hopefully strong. The rugged shoreline in front of the wood stove and listening to tunes was the answer during a winter storm. It was still very much winter outside so I enjoyed my time within Singleton Sanctuary Studio in front of the Pacific Energy wood stove. 

Winter outside the Singleton Sanctuary Studio window

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2753 "Singleton Autumn Reflections Lily Pads"

#2753 "Singleton Autumn Reflections Lily Pads"
8x10 inches oils on canvas

Mario and Lily, wonderful people and memories

I was thinking of Lily Airomi, Mario's wife when I painted this series of water lilies. Mario gave me the gift of a classical art instruction as a young teenager. I was shy, certainly awkward and stuttered. My Dad had met Mario when he was working on their home east of Brockville and almost to Maitland. The site of the November 1838 "Battle of the Windmill" was just to the east of the Airomi Studio.  It is an historic area!

I would ride my bike the 6 kilometres to their cottage studio on the north side of  The Kings Highway at every opportunity. Later, my Brother would take me in the family car when he got his license. 

On a memory tour with my daughter, 1982

Saturday mornings were spent with others about my age and Mario would circulate through the group of four or five students freely sharing his experience and wisdom. I also attended adult classes which were typically five or six adult ladies. I was the teenager mascot and everyone from my limited vantage seemed much older.

I learned how to paint like Mario but of course, no one can be Mario... he was a gifted artist. I was meticulous, often spending the entire lesson on a square inch of canvas. I counted the folds in the accordion and every detail of shape and colour. Mario would chuckle and encourage me to loosen up. I would not really learn that lesson until I took my art outside on May 13th, 1999 and embraced plein air. Art is a journey and I was blessed to know Mario and Lily.  

I often pause while I am out paddling just to float along and study the lily pads. They are rich in colour and form. I wanted to catch the bright autumn colours from the trees on the shore reflecting in the ripples. The lily pads were in various stages of being submerged and that changed the colours and shapes into something much more abstract even though the image was based on nature. I painted this as well so that #2752 "October Singleton Lily Pads" would have a friend. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2752 "October Singleton Lily Pads"

#2752 "October Singleton Lily Pads"
10x8 inches oils on canvas

The shadow across the lily pad in the lower front right of the painting was from my canoe paddle. I intentionally included that unexplained line as subtle evidence that I was there. I used this subject matter to loosen up with the oils. 

I often pause while I am out paddling just to float along and study the lily pads. They are rich in colour and form. I thought that I could string out a series of these pads from the eastern bay of Singleton Lake. 

It was still very much winter outside so I enjoyed my time in the Singleton Sanctuary Studio in front of the Pacific Energy wood stove listening to the tunes. A winter storm was on the way. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2751 "Lyndhurst Creek Autumn October Colours"

I went for a paddle to Lyndhurst on Sunday, October 23rd, 2022. The waterways get very quiet after Labour Day and I was all by myself. The water was like glass and I was intrigued by the backlit, autumn colours on the east bank of Lyndhurst Creek. This view was just north of Covey Bridge and just south of where the original Latimer Rapids Bridge used to go straight across Lyndhurst Creek. I much prefer the slow-lane approach to life. A paddle or a walk through the forest reveals more of nature and the beauty of the area and is silent as well. 

1905 Image- Ernest and Oscar Harvey from Lyndhurst,
in their motorboat "Keoka", pass downstream under the
old wooden bridge above Latimer's Rapids.
It was replaced with a steel bridge in 1913. After a century,
that steel bridge rusted away and was replaced in 2015. 

The original Latimer Bridge was built sometime in the mid-1800s spanning the Gananoque River between Lyndhurst Lake and Singleton Lake It was typical of the wooden bridges constructed across the river and other streams from as early as 1798. Despite the substantial frame construction of hewn timbers held together with pegged tenon joints, these structures often were no match for the spring freshets on the river, especially with the accumulating logs being driven down the river pushing against the posts. The straight crossing was replaced by four sharp right-angled turns passing through the front yard of the Covey Farm. 

The new replacement Latimer Bridge was renamed Covey Bridge in the summer of 2015 in recognition of the Covey's and Rapid View Farm which has been in operation since 1900. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2750 "Singleton Story of Swell Wind Waves"

#2750 "Singleton Story of Swell Wind Waves"
11x14 oils on canvas

I decided to document the story revealed in the February sunrise sky. The leading edge of the warm conveyor belt had already passed to the east of Singleton. 

The broad bands of cloud were actually swells within the atmospheric ocean. The wave crests of those swells had reached the lifted condensation level for the air mass creating those broad bands. The troughs in those same swells were barely under the lifted condensation level and the width of the stripes of clear sky were limited. With increased moisture and lift along the warm conveyor belt further to the west, these narrow bands of blue sky were getting squeezed out entirely. 

Wave clouds were embedded on top of the swells. These smaller gravity waves were perpendicular to the swells and drifting toward the southeast. The clues in the sunrise sky told that the anticyclonic companion of the warm conveyor belt was approaching Singleton. The weather would be more intense further to the north. 

The cold conveyor belt was chilly with a steady 10-knot wind out of the east. It was quite chilly when I went out repeatedly to document the changes in the cloud patterns. 

Different meteorological views of the approaching winter storm.
In order from the top left: Surface Map, Visible, Infra-red, 
Mid-Level Water Vapour, Low-level Water Vapour, Nighttime Microphysics RGB, Surface Observations Map.
Each source of data gives us another window from which to better
understand and predict the approaching weather conditions. There
are an increasing number of data platforms including conventional, doppler
and dual-polarization radar which I did not include. 

The combination of the warm conveyor belt and the strong cold conveyor belt revealed that this was going to be a significant winter storm. The easterly wind in the earth frame of reference where we live signifies a stronger or slower than average approaching weather system. Snowfall, freezing rain and winter storm warnings were all hoisted and verified fairly well. We had arranged to be able to stay at home and that was precisely what we did in front of the wood stove while the weather raged outside. 

The following morning, the strong winds and blowing snow were persisting so I decided to head inside to the Singleton Sanctuary Studio and the wood stove. The winter storm gradually tapered off Thursday afternoon. 

If you paint what you see, the science of nature is included at no extra cost. Every cloud and pattern in the atmospheric sea has an interesting story to tell. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2749 "February Cold Front at Jim Day Rapids"

#2749 "February Cold Front at Jim Day Rapids"
8x10 oils on canvas

I watched the prefrontal band of rain move east of Singleton. It was a classic split cold front with the weather ahead of the surface feature. I decided I had better head outside to paint before the surface cold front arrived. The rest of the week was full of winter weather so I had better not miss this opportunity. 

I stood in the same place where I had spent Valentine's Day, #2745 "Valentines Day at Jim Day Rapids" and quickly got to work. I did not have the time to clean my messy palette so instead, I put on a cotton glove in order to keep my left hand clean. I always hold the palette in my left hand leaving my right hand to do the brushwork. I used my 11x14 board as a support so I would keep all of the paint off my hands while the paint dried. 

As I painted, I thought of a friend who I never met but wish I had. Tom Thomson would have loved the Thoreau-type existence which we had created at Singleton Lake. I was surrounded by nature. A pair of geese rounded the corner and immediately started honking at me. They like to sit on the same point from which I was painting. A beaver slapped its tail at me. I heard a lot of sounds that I had probably been missing for some time. Hearing aids can be a good thing. The sounds of spring were certainly in the air although it was barely mid-February. Everything including the maple syrup was two to three weeks premature. I keep records of the comings and goings of nature. 

I felt the surface cold front arrive around 11 am. The gusty wind shift threatened to blow over my field easel but I was there to catch it. 

I spend a lot of time at the edge of Jim Day Rapids all year long. From our local historian: "We don't know who Jim Day was or how his name got attached to the rapids. There was a James Day and Caleb Day enumerated in the 1810 census of Rear of Leeds & Lansdowne, but I don't know where they were located, or if that is the Jim Day that the rapids is named after. In many cases there were squatters and tenants who lived on other people's property, so they never appear in the land records. So a Jim Day may have lived there, but there is no record." 

A 1795 survey crew camped at Singleton Lake and produced a very accurate map Number 4 for the Gananoque Canal Plan referring to the waterway as "Jem Dey's Rapids". That alternative to the Rideau Canal never got built. A channel was blasted through the rock in 1910 for small motorboats to navigate the rapids. It must have been quite the series of explosions as rock was scattered everywhere. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick

#2748 "Singleton Sanctuary in Winter"

#2748 "Singleton Sanctuary in Winter"
12x36 by 1.5 inches Gallery Wrapped oils on canvas

I took this panoramic view of the waterfront from the end of the marble ridge on the rocky path that leads to my swimming hole. I walked through the fairly deep snow from the edge of our property so as not to disturb the scene. I wanted to convey the sweeping expanse of a natural paradise. We minimize our impacts and nature continues to enjoy free reign. There is nothing quite like allowing yourself to be surrounded by nature. Thoreau understood. 

Painting in front of the Pacific Energy wood stove on those
winter days when the wind chill would freeze my hands.

The temperatures were around minus 32 Celsius which was a good thing. That chilly temperature was colder than minus 29 Celsius which is what it takes to kill the eggs of the Gypsy moth. The previous year 2021) had seen an infestation of caterpillars and moths and the forests were suffering. Egg masses were everywhere. There was no outbreak at least at Singleton in the summer of 2022. 

The gypsy moth was introduced to the United States in 1869 and has become one of the most serious defoliators of hardwoods in North America. The gypsy moth was first detected in Canada in 1912 in British Columbia, where egg masses had been accidentally introduced on young cedars from Japan. However, the first infestation in Canada occurred in 1924 in southwestern Quebec, near the U.S. border, followed by a second infestation in 1936 in New Brunswick. In both cases, the insect was eradicated through intensive egg mass removal campaigns. 

Gypsy moth damage is caused exclusively by the caterpillars, which feed on developing leaves in May. Newly hatched larvae are hairy and black and feed by chewing small holes in the surface of the leaves. Older larvae devour the entire leaf. 

The common name of this particular insect goes back to at least 1908 and possibly refers to the way the moth's larvae are blown on the wind or the way its caterpillars migrate each day from a tree's leaves to shady spots on its trunk. The name "gypsy moth" must have offended someone so in March 2022, the Entomological Societies of Canada and America adopted the name "spongy moth" as the new common name for the moth species Lymantria dispar. Oh my... revising history has become very popular.

For this and much more art, click on Pixels.

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick