#0624 "April Melt"

0624 "April Melt"
16 x 20 inches
Started Friday, April 11th, 2003, Collection of a Toronto patron

The family pets and I headed out again to paint. We didn't go very far. The Maine Coon cat was less adventurous than her friend, the Chesapeake. 

I liked the colours in the last of the melting snow and ice pellets. Shafts of light poked through the tangle of branches in the forest, laying down an interesting interplay between the shadows and the light snaking across the tumbled snow surface. 

The honey bees were flying once again with the temperatures peaking around 15 degrees Celsius. The temperature was the reason for the strong and dramatic melt as well as the title. 

Jo, the cat, hung out around the easel while Jazz the Chesapeake chased mice and squirrels in the forest. Chauncy the horse and her companions just nosed around in the mix of straw, hay and manure behind the barn. 

Sometimes, plein air painting can be a family affair accompanied by a large cast of characters. The story completes the brushwork and vice versa. I loved these creatures, although in truth, I was never overly fond of the horses. They were entitled with sweet grain and very hard on the fencing. 

Wonderful memories of the family at Watershed Farm. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2997 "Singleton Pioneer Cedar Rail Coral"

#2997 "Singleton Pioneer Cedar Rail Coral" 
12 X 16 (inches).
Started 10:00 am Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026

I needed to loosen up my brushes after completing some very intricate work where accuracy really mattered. A short stroll along memory lane (aka Long Reach Lane) provided just what I needed. 

History places the current time and experiences within context. Both are very important. The Singleton Sanctuary is mostly unchanged since the 1800s, except for the two acres of our home. Solar PV and hot water panels are relatively new inventions. The forest was never commercially logged, as it was pretty much inaccessible compared to other forests. The environment might even be better now for nature, considering all of the bird houses and shelters installed since 2006. 

In 1783, Captain Justus Sherwood was sent by Frederick Haldimand, the governor of Quebec, to scout out potential locations for settling Loyalist refugees fleeing the 1776 American Revolution. Sherwood dismissed the forty-mile stretch of terrain north of the Thousand Islands between Elizabethtown (Brockville) and Kingston as "exceedingly bad, being a constant succession of stoney ledges and sunken swamps, altogether unfit for cultivation....". Sherwood was describing the UNESCO Frontenac Arch Biosphere (FAB) and our home. Designated in 2002, it is one of Canada’s 19 Biosphere Regions and is recognized for its significant biodiversity, acting as a natural bridge connecting the Algonquin Arch to the Adirondack Mountains. It is one of four such reserves located in Ontario. 

Sherwood's fellow officer, Lieutenant Gershom French, led by Native guides, travelled up the Ottawa River that same summer, explored the Rideau River to its headwaters, and then portaged to scout the possibilities for settlement along the Gananoque River. Lieutenant French paddled in front of our home through Jim Day Rapids. His conclusion was equally bleak: "From our entrance in the River Gananoncoui to its fall into the St. Lawrence, I did not discover as much good land conveniently situated as would serve one Farmer." 

Such were the 1783 descriptions of where we call home. A 1795 survey crew was attempting to locate a path for a canal designed to avoid the threat of an American invasion across the relatively narrow St Lawrence River. From their journal descriptions, the crew possibly camped under our shagbark hickory tree on the eastern shore of Singleton Lake. They produced map Number 4 for the Gananoque Canal Plan, referring to the waterway as "Jem Dey's Rapids". That Gananoque River alternative to the Rideau Canal never got built. Somehow, the name of the fast current morphed into "Jim Day Rapids". No one seems to know how or why. The shoreline still looks the very same more than 200 years later, except for where a boating channel was blasted in 1923, as noted in white on the following map.  

These log structures and cedar rail fences probably date from the early 1800s. No one knows for certain. Lyndhurst, initially named Furnace Falls, was the site of the first iron smelter in Canada west of Quebec. The iron works were built in remote wilderness conditions in 1801 by Wallis Sunderlin, a loyalist ironmaster from Vermont. By 1803, there were two mills, and a hotel - complete with a 10-gallon liquor still. Furnace Falls fell apart in 1811 when the ironworks were destroyed by fire, Sunderlin died, and his family returned to the United States smeared with rumours that the ironworks had been used to make armaments for Yankee sympathizers - an unpopular action for the Loyalists. 

The village was reborn in 1828 when Charles and Jonas Jones built new mills at the waterfall. The farm on the eastern shore of Singleton was only 5 kilometres downstream. 

Life was certainly a struggle during the pioneering days. The agricultural and waterway potential for the area was panned by the military surveyors as being "exceedingly bad". The beauty of the natural environment was thus spared, just waiting to be rediscovered in 2006 for what it really was... We are so very lucky to be able to call it home. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#0618 "One More Drift"

#0618 "One More Drift" 
Masonite Panel 11 x 14 inches.
Started Tuesday, March 25th, 2003.

This was one of the last times of the winter season of 2003 that I headed south to the neighbour's fence line to catch the last pockets of deep snow. This view was looking eastward across some of the fencing that had already been included in previous works. The colours of the basswood trees in the sunlight, as well as the colours in the grass and the distant cedars, caught my eye. Retreating stratocumulus hung low over the Toronto horizon. The city had not yet swallowed up Hammertown, but it was coming... 

Once again, my honey bees were flying and landing on my palette and my clothing. It was nice to hear them buzzing around me. I'm certain that it would have made some people very nervous, but these were my employees and friends. 

The family Chesapeake was with me and proceeded to tear the lower, dead branches off the pine trees and chew them down to size so that I could throw them. She spent a lot of time roaming in Jimmy Coulter's fields across the fence line. She did not disturb the cattle and was simply curious. 

This is a special place on the crest of the Oak Ridges Moraine. It is land that is worth preserving. The devious efforts of the current Conservative Provincial Government to profit from the dismantling of the "Greenbelt" are really quite criminal. The authorities have yet to put anyone in jail. 

I loved my honey bees, but could not keep them alive due to the proliferation of chemicals and diseases. There were six healthy colonies at the peak, around 2001, producing more than a thousand pounds of unbelievable honey. I used to sit quietly in the grass watching the bees come and go. Sometimes I had my film camera with me, which provided the above memories.

My friend Paul Chantree was a professional apiarist and generously guided my efforts. I learned much from Paul. He was also a knowledgeable weather enthusiast interested in preserving the safety of the community. We were very active in CANWARN. His family continues his legacy.

I compared commercial Billy Bee Honey to preparing a fine meal, but first taking that delicious spread from thousands of bee colonies and passing it through a blender before the flavours reached your palate. What a mistake that would be... so Philly Bee refused to do that to his bees. I spun out each frame separately into mason jars so that the bees' effort and specific flavours were preserved for all to enjoy.

There are many other paintings from this part of the fence line. Here is a collage of just a few of those. 

The smooth and slippery surface of  "One More Drift" was fun. A lot of oil was used. The brush strokes got a little wild. Lay it in and leave it alone was my plein air motto. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2996 "Curious Red Fox Kit"

#2996 "Curious Red Fox Kit" 
16 X 20 (inches).
 Started at 10:30 am, January 24th, 2026

This is another image taken by my friend, John Verburg, a naturalist and terrific photographer. The curious but very startled kit fox was rounding the corner of his barn to an encounter with a camera. Canvases #2993 through #2995 were very wet, so I decided to forge ahead on another canvas. It was still bitterly cold outside.

John had a fox family living on his farm and was hoping to catch the kits at play. John is seldom without his camera and long lenses. He is very conscious of not interacting with wildlife and encouraging them to be unnatural, even if they choose to live nearby. This kit had bounded playfully around the corner of the barn. The kit and John were probably equally surprised, but John managed to take a photo of a lifetime - a wide-eyed kit with a bit of a smirk during its close encounter with an alien species.  

The challenge for me was to preserve the vitality of the image on canvas. The temptation in the studio with the luxury of time and materials is to revert to photographic realism and lots of detail. I tried to use bigger brushes and keep the oils textured. This was a challenge for me... The eyes were especially intriguing, and one of the reasons why I paint. 

The red fox is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora. Males are called tods or dogs, females are called vixens, and young are known as cubs or kits. 

Red fox are found around the entire Northern Hemisphere, including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus parts of North Africa. Its range has increased alongside human expansion, having been introduced to Australia, where it is considered harmful to native small and medium-sized rodents and marsupials. The red fox is included on the list of the "world's 100 worst invasive species" because of its impact on native species 

The red fox is distinguished from other, typically smaller fox species by its ability to adapt quickly to new environments. Despite its name, the red fox produces individuals with other colourings, including whitish (leucistic) and black or nearly black (melanistic) individuals. Forty-five subspecies are currently recognised which are divided into two categories: the large northern foxes and the small southern grey desert foxes of Asia and North Africa.

The eyes were the mission of this portrait... 
Even the expression on the snout was quirky.

Red foxes are usually found in pairs or small groups consisting of families, such as a mated pair and their young, or a male with several females having kinship ties. The young of the mated pair remain with their parents to assist in caring for new kits. The species primarily feeds on small rodents, though it may also target rabbits, squirrels, game birds, reptiles, invertebrates and young ungulates. Fruit and vegetable matter is also sometimes on the menu. The red fox is vulnerable to attack from larger predators, such as wolves, coyotes and large predatory birds.

The species has a long history of association with humans, having been extensively hunted as a pest and furbearer for many centuries, as well as being represented in human folklore and mythology. The red fox is one of the most important fur-bearing animals harvested for the fur trade.

The temperatures were in the minus twenties outside. The wind chills were much colder. 

I was employing two and sometimes three palettes on this painting. Keeping the oils clean was an important mission. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#0617 "Last Drift"

#0617 "Last Drift"
Masonite Panel 11 x 14 inches.
Started Monday, March 24th, 2003.

I had some time on the waning days of the winter, so the family Chesapeake and I headed south to the neighbour's fence line. The shadows across the melting snow in the deep drift to the north of the fence line were very strong and caught my eye. It was a beautiful day, and the warmth of the sun was amazing.

My painting companion busied herself digging through the grasses and chewing on sticks. There was also the green tennis ball that required retrieving. She never stopped. 

My honey bees were flying due to the spring warmth. One bee actually went down my jacket. I rescued her without mishap to either of us. The male drones would still have been in the hives so it had to be a female worker out foraging. Some bees even landed on the bright colours on my palette. 

It was a fun painting to do! The panel had been primed with a medium-light coat of raw sienna. 

I was still using my film camera, but thankfully considered, the moment was special enough to record in silver crystals. Once at a prestigious art gallery, I had an artist challenge me that the paintings I completed on location could not have been done en plein air. Oh my... surrounded by nature is where I find my greatest inspiration and joy.

The cover of a recent book I read (2025) sums up my response nicely... Physicist Richard Feynman was a character and one well worth knowing if only I had the opportunity. 

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick 

#2995 "Black Swallowtail Flutterby"

#2995 "Black Swallowtail Flutterby" 
12 X 16 (inches).
Started at 9:30 am Saturday, January 24th, 2026

This is another image taken by my friend, John Verburg. John shares his photographs with me as a source of inspiration when conditions outside are not conducive to plein air. Canvases #2993 and #2994 were still very wet, so I decided to forge ahead on another canvas. It was freezing cold (minus 30 Celsius) outside so the comfort of the Studio was very appreciated. 

I look for unusual words to keep the titles of each painting as unique as the chronological number in my portfolio. By mistake, different paintings have been assigned the same name in the past.  Doh!

Apparently, "flutterby" is the plural form of flutterbies, which is a spoonerism of butterfly. A "spoonerism" is a verbal error in which a speaker accidentally transposes the initial sounds or letters of two or more words, often to humorous effect. Being quite dyslexic, this comes naturally to me. 

The name for these beautiful insects comes from the belief that butterflies were enchanted 'witches' and were renowned for eating dairy products... perhaps for the calcium? There are a lot of references to this in Dutch and German dialects. In the northern part of the Netherlands, butterflies are called 'roomzoepers', which translates into 'creamdrinkers'. "Butterfly" is directly translated to "summerbird" in Norwegian, which I find to be particularly apt. 

The Black Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio polyxenes) in John Verburg's image was feeding on a thistle plant. Butterlifes (dyslexia at wrok in the previous misspelling, but I liked it so left it unfixed) are particularly fond of thistles, which are "pollinator party hotspots". These "weeds" offer copious, high-quality food resources for both adult butterflies and their larvae. Thistles are among the most productive plants for nectar, producing more per flower head than almost any other wildflower. 

Thistles are also welcome at Singleton for these reasons. A weed is just a human prejudice against a flower growing somewhere they do not want it to flourish. People are the problem and not the flower. 

Art and science are searches for the truth. Humans, and especially politicians fueled by greed, have much to learn. I think this was a male Black Swallowtail.

For this and much more art, click on Pixels or go straight to the Collections. Here is the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick