#3034 "Fiddler's Elbow Wildfire Sunset"

#3034 "Fiddler's Elbow Wildfire Sunset"
24 X 20 (inches) Oils on canvas.
 Started at 9:00 am Saturday, August 1st, 2026

Fiddler's Elbow is the sharp turn between the Short and Long Reaches of Red Horse Lake. The images used to depict the unique character of Red Horse Lake in the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority (CRCA) brochures all feature the Short Reach. Our home is even visible at Jim Day Rapids in the upper-left portion of photo 3. 

The Short Reach starts at the exit of Jim Day Rapids and extends to the sharp turn into Long Reach at Fiddler's Elbow. The CRCA Red Horse Lake Fact Sheet from 2017 does not explicitly include the Short Reach on its map. I believe this is in error, as there are no rapids at Fiddler's Elbow. The Short and Long Reaches of Red Horse Lake are at the same water levels. 

My friend John Verburg took this particular image after an excellent afternoon spent in the deep waters of Red Horse Lake. I have enjoyed many hours paddling the Short Reach, so I  knew it well.

#3034 "Fiddler's Elbow Wildfire Sunset"

The real background story behind #3034 "Fiddler's Elbow Wildfire Sunset" is, however, the Boreal Inferno. The global impacts of the Climate Crisis are just in their initial stages. The raging wildfires around the globe are just the start of the Century of Fire. The full impacts of the combustion of fossil fuels will span the following centuries with ever more dire catastrophes in the offing. Any last-minute disingenuous, political "heroics" to reduce atmospheric carbon might impact the intensity of the pending cataclysms but certainly not prevent them from occurring. Climate has incredible momentum, and the tipping points are already tumbling. 

The Earth has run out of time in just 200 years of releasing the fossilized carbon that was sequestered within Pandora's Box over the last 14 million years. These mind-boggling numbers measuring time raise the question. What is "time"? Humans, being clever, have answered some of that question.  

Sir Isaac Newton viewed time as a strict, universal river that flowed at the same speed everywhere, completely separate from space or observers. Most people still view time that way as a cause-followed-by-effect phenomenon. 

Albert Einstein proved that Newton's absolute time was wrong. Time is fused with the three dimensions of space into a four-dimensional flexible fabric described as "Spacetime". The speed at which time passes depends on how fast you move or the local strength of gravity.  Far out!

Time runs slower near heavy objects or at near-light speeds. In fact, time is a pliable fourth dimension woven with space, keeping the speed of light a constant. Massive objects like stars and planets distort the fabric of spacetime, like a heavy bowling ball resting on a trampoline

Theoretical physicists, including me, still struggle with time. How wonderful it would be if humans could turn back the last 200 years to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution around 1850! 

But time is something the Earth has run out of. The Climate Crisis will make the Earth unrecognizable and uninhabitable for most species within a geological blink of the eye. The climate of the Pleistocene rested on a knife-edge balance of the atmosphere. The constituents of the air were perfectly fair gatekeepers for equitable incoming solar and outgoing thermal radiation. This equilibrium maintained an average global temperature of 13.5°C to 13.8°C. The global average surface temperature in 2025 was the third-warmest year on record, estimated to be approximately 14.97°C to 15.08°C (with varying dataset baselines). The atmosphere also protected life from cosmic rays. Life was very good in Paradise.

Treating the atmosphere as a common garbage dump has pushed the constituents wildly out of stability. The climate that fostered incredible diversity of life has fallen off the wall like Humpty Dumpty. All the King's horses and men can't put it back together again... I was even lectured once that "the solution to pollution was dilution." That clever saying might rhyme, but the ideas are utter nonsense like Humpty Dumpty and glad-handing politicians. 

Data from July 29th to August 5th, 2026, while I painted this skyscape.
Red dots are active fire detections or thermal anomalies.

The result of such ignorance and arrogance is manifested by the current wildfires around the globe. Those wildfires provided the colourful hues in the sunset sky and the dangerous PM2.5 pollutants in the air we were breathing.

Time may still not be well understood, but it is already too late! Over time, humans have evolved to be very clever but have never achieved being collectively wise. 

So I stay home, paddle, paint and plant trees. It is a simple life, but it works for me. An artist friend of mine mentioned that life for them had become one of the band on the deck of the Titanic. Collectively, we continue with our creative artistic endeavours but are fully aware that the doomed ship must sink.

Ironically, the following article was published a month before the Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. The Titanic was recklessly travelling at its maximum service speed of 22 knots despite receiving multiple ice warnings. Remarkable arrogance...

Francis Molina’s article Remarkable Weather of 1911: The Effect of the Combustion of Coal on the Climate — What Scientists Predict for the Future was published in New York’s Popular Mechanics on March 1st, 1912.

Just a century later (not a few, as hoped for in Popular Mechanics), the Earth is in the verification stages of those dire, "considerable effects". Humans continue to race recklessly into the future, heedless of the warnings that were raised long before the 1912 Popular Mechanics article, dating back to the early 1800s.

The following collage includes the main steps it took to capture the fiery sunset skies due to the Boreal infernos. I take my time to get it right... Life should not be a rush.

I have painted Fiddlers Elbow before: Please see #1743 "Looks Like Thunder"; #1753 "Fiddlers Thunder"; and #2246 "Turtle Point" among several others from nearby locations. 

For this and much more art, click Fine Art America or go straight to Collections or the new Wet Paint Collection. Thank you so very much for reading, and stay well!

Warmest regards, and keep your paddle in the water,

Phil Chadwick