#2815 "Afternoon Heavy Rain at Lac Pinceau"

#2815 "Afternoon Heavy Rain at Lac Pinceau"
Oils on 5 (height) X 7 (width) canvas panel

I thought that I had better retreat from standing on the edge of the Dumoine Road. The holiday traffic was increasing and splashing through the deepening ruts of the muddy road. The people inside their trucks waved at the crazy person painting in the rain. Some stopped to ask if I needed help. I even met Kenny and his wife but that is another story. 

I decided to try the boat launch for Lac du Pinceau where I had first painted several days earlier. Kenny's camp was featured in  #2796 "Lac du Pinceau South Basin". The rain was torrential but I could paint under the hatch of the Subaru Forester. 

I was engrossed in the oils and did not hear Bob McDonald drive up beside the Subaru. Perhaps it was the torrential rain or maybe my hearing was not as good as it once was. I was just brushing in a hint of Kenny's camp when I caught the sight of Bob out of the corner of my eye. 

Bob and the other residents of Pinceau Lake had been monitoring my paintings from a distance for several days. They had established that I was really quite harmless and barely left footprints in my wake. But now Bob decided to see if I was actually crazy. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent touring  Lac du Pinceau and visiting Bob and Kim in their camp that I had painted in #2797 "Mack's Shack at Lake Pinceau". Bob's father was the original "Mack" having obtained the camp from Dr. D.G. Owens, Mayor of Lake Placid N.Y. and the original owner of the boat ramp from which I was painting - as well as the camp. It was time well spent and I made new friends. Bob even showed many other vantages where I could paint around  Lac du Pinceau. 

After a plate of delicious, homemade blueberry cheesecake, Bob dropped me back to the  Lac du Pinceau Boat ramp to complete my painting. 

The rain was even heavier but I like the effects of the water beading up on the oils as I painted. 

It was still raining hard when I returned to the DRAW (Dumoine River Art for Wilderness) camp at Kilometer 4. A few people had already decided to bail because of the rain. My tent was dry enough. Sadly, the evening's entertainment had been cancelled. The heavy rain sounded nice on the roof of my tent like one of those relaxation CDs of nature but those sounds were authentic. 

Done like blueberry cheesecake... 

This is number twenty-three of twenty-eight paintings I completed en plein air at CPAWS DRAW 2023. It was a wonderful experience with a terrific group of people. https://cpaws-ov-vo.org/draw-retreat-artists/ A portion of sales from this endeavour will go to support CPWAS and keep the wild in the wilderness. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels. To go to the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Collection on Fine Art America, click here. 

Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick