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| #2963 "Foggy Zen Sunrise at Peggy's Cove" 11 x 14 by 7/8 depth stretched canvas (inches) Started 10:00 am Saturday, July 19th, 2025 |
The advection fog was getting thinner at 8:00 am. The flood of July tourists had yet to burst onto the scene. The cool comfort of a rock-hard granite ledge with the soundtrack of crashing waves, facing a rising sun through a misty fog, is ideal for quiet reflection. The zenful scene was full of energy pouring into your senses and memories. The challenge was to capture that energy in the pigments and brushstrokes. The finished painting had to project that thoughtful meditation and inner peace with an abundance of vitality. Not easy but fun. I enjoy challenges.
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| Peggy's Cove rocks in the painting can be viewed looking eastward from the tip of the white arrow. |
My friend Jim recalls:
"It was early...7:30am. It was serene, and the thinning fog was just right. That's why I like that picture so much: the fog hugging the top of the rocks and the sounds of the crashing waves - meditative. I sit on a ledge of the rocks and just be part of it. I knew the crowds were on their way, which is a different energy. When the buses arrive, I get a coffee and watch the tourists. I go there by myself a few times a summer for this. Comfortable introvert."
Apparently, there is a Japanese name for this "act of gazing vacantly into the distance, lost in thought or in no thought at all". "Boketto" (boh-KEHT-toh) is a "noun describing a still, wordless space where the mind wanders like mist, unburdened by purpose".
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| Preliminary sketch of some of my favourite rocks! |
My background was in nuclear physics, but meteorology was one of those happy accidents when the future of fission and fusion looked unpromising. But first, I had to successfully graduate from the Atmospheric Environment Service Meteorological Orientation Course (MOC) #33. It was an excellent and extremely well-taught course that ran from September 1976 to June 1977 in Toronto. I met some terrific people who I still stay in touch with, including Dave Phillips, who many people will know.
My first meteorological posting was to CFB Shearwater, CYAW. We had never been to the West Coast, so that was my preferred request. It was wonderful to get the exact opposite of my supplication! Another happy accident! Shearwater and the East Coast were and remain inspiring. The people, the land and the ocean infuse into your being within hours of arriving. We cherish those memories and return often.
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| Visible Satellite Imager Wednesday morning, July 16th. |
The East Coast weather and climate were also terrific meteorological instructors. One learns quickly about the various types of fog. Even the finest meteorologists are frequently humbled by the silent comings and goings of fog. The morning of July 16th was a classic example of "advection fog" where warm and moist air moves over the upwelling, colder, coastal waters of Nova Scotia. The air mass is cooled to saturation from below. Fog forms when the dew point exceeds the sea surface temperature (SST) by 3 degrees Celsius. Advection fog can be as thick as pea soup. One of the first lessons to master.
I was keen on the emerging remote sensing tools of the seventies - satellite, conventional radar and Doppler. Even visible satellite imagery was new, and there was information to be discovered in the sunrise and sunset horizons if one enhanced the "Look-Up-Tables". "Enhanced Visible Imagery", which did just that, was one of my first projects. It never caught on.
I rarely do commissions. There can only be one person behind the brush. However, Jim gave me free latitude to paint like Tom Thomson. Still, there is the desire to please and to "hit one out of the park" for a good friend. Painting is so much easier if it is just for me. But the subject matter of fog, rocks and Peggy's Cove spoke loud and clear... I had to do this. It brought back some wonderful memories of the Merrytimes that could fill a book.
I typically just paint in the morning. Art is work after all, just like one of my T-shirts proclaims. Sometimes I am tired after just a couple of hours at the easel, at which time it is best to stop. The energy has to come through on the canvas. When I get tired, the lack of vigour means that nothing gets into the oils, and the brush strokes become mechanical and meaningless. There are typically other chores to do around home anyway. I always have some canvases to stretch and gesso, which can be a pretty mindless task. I do not have an art assistant, so everything is up to me.
The sunrise on Wednesday, July 16th, 2025, at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, was at 5:42 am with a bearing of 58 degrees to the northeast. By 8:00 am, the sun had risen above Jim's viewing angle and was almost due east. The sun was included on the top of the stretcher bar of the painting. I often paint the sides of the painting so that frames are really quite unnecessary. The brushstrokes can speak for themselves without the "window casing" of any frame. Technically, those oils on the side can also come in handy should I need a bit of a certain colour elsewhere. It is easier and more reliable than mixing a colour from scratch.
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| Artistic licence permits me to enhance some of the colours... This step was about halfway through the painting experience. |
The painting masking tape "Bar-Codes" that were on the studio easel reveals that I was still working on #2961 "Froggy Friend", and that another canvas, #2964 "Bullfrog on the Log By the Bay" had also been sketched. I like to start and finish a painting before starting something new, but sometimes one must wait for the oils to "tack up".
Here is the pictorial story of #2963 "Foggy Zen Sunrise at Peggy's Cove"... a seven-day journey.
If you look closely, every Peggy's Cove rock is included on this canvas. Thank you, Jim... it was fun!
For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint 2024 Collection.
Warmest regards and keep your paddle in the water,
Phil Chadwick
