#3042 "Cold Frontal Signature in Cloud Script"

#3042 "Cold Frontal Signature in Cloud Script"
8 X 10 oil on canvas.
Started September 10th, 2026.

I described my motivation for participating in the 24th Official International Plein Air Painters Worldwide Paint Out in #3041 "September Morn Ancient Red Cedars". That is something I have done every year in remembrance of the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City. The world lost some precious characteristics that morning. It has been an ongoing struggle to rebuild honour, trust, and integrity. Democracy is even threatened. 

After completing those ancient cedars, I turned my easel cyclonically to watch the cold frontal cloud exit to the south. The northwesterly winds were brisk and increasing in the wake of the cold front that had crossed Singleton Lake earlier in the morning.

Every line in the sky was real and spoke of a steep cold frontal surface and wind shear. Reading "Cloud Script" is not that hard, and it makes weather watching that much more informative. For this post, however, I will refrain from describing all of the distant cloud details. As Albert Einstein remarked:  

“It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense. It would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.” 

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” 

I am not Beethoven or Tom Thomson, but have described these cloud patterns and wind shear many times before, so I was content just creatively interpreting what I saw before those clouds vanished beyond the southern horizon. Letting the brush strokes speak for themselves, as encouraged by Albert. 

The cool and clear air of the cold air mass was very much appreciated after a sweltering summer of heat, humidity and wildfire smoke. The contrast brought by the cool Arctic air reminded me of a Canadian Association for the Club of Rome (CACOR) presentation by Ralph Torrie: "Prometheus’ Fire or Demeter’s Harvest? Energy Myths at End of Fossil Age". I would highly recommend both this lecture and CACOR in general. Torrie's talk was both positive and uplifting. Torrie emphasized that humans might leap past midnight on the "Doomsday Clock" into something much brighter. The future might yet be rescued by people with such optimistic outlooks!

Torrie is a student of Greek mythology and used it effectively to illustrate two very divergent future paths. 

Prometheus represents human advancement, science, defiance of tyranny, and the price of enlightenment. When Prometheus tricked the gods and stole fire, Zeus retaliated not just by punishing Prometheus, but by sending a cursed "gift" to humanity: Pandora's Box. Our Prometheus released the magic of carbon from Pandora's Box. The consequences of that action have been the accumulation of carbon dioxide through almost three centuries of industrialism, extraction, colonialism, consumerism and capitalist greed - simply the Climate Crisis where the billionaires profited. Clearly Prometheus' future is not sustainable.

Demeter is the Greek goddess of agriculture, grain, and the harvest. The name Demeter roughly translates to "mother earth". Demeter's approach is for smaller, sustainable approaches, living in harmony with nature. 

One slide from Torrie's presentation is included below. It summarizes the divergent paths for energy distribution and life. 

We have tried to follow Demeter at Singleton Lake with the goal of not wasting energy and using the sun as much as possible. Our home features:

• Passive solar design.
• Triple-glazed windows
• Maximum insulation with airtight ICF (Integrated Concrete Form) construction. R45 outer walls.
• Solar hot water roof-mounted system (80% efficient) for domestic hot water and augmenting/supplying the in-floor radiant heating storage tanks.
• Solar PV  (about 20% efficient) MicroFIT (10 kW) followed by net metering in 2032 when the twenty-year contract expires. The grid-tied MicroFIT also circumvents the need for storage batteries by using the power grid for when the sun does not shine. 
• Open-loop geothermal heat stored in large storage tanks. That energy is used for in-floor radiant heating 
• Ductless Mini-Split Heat Pumps for air conditioning- heating or cooling down to minus 30 Celsius. 
• Heat storage in slab-on-grade (6-8 inches of concrete) - no basement, thus no risk of radon gas or an unwanted, accidental indoor swimming pool.
• Stone exterior for thermal mass. 
• Spray foam insulation for all sloped attic surfaces and blown-in cellulose for flat areas. R60 at least in the attic areas. 
• Lifetime metal roof.
• Deciduous trees from the east, through the south to the west for maximum summer shade.
• Conifers on the north side for an effective wind break. Mainly red cedars.
• A propane-powered backup generator for when the power grid fails... and it will!

Given the construction techniques, we never really expected to need air conditioning when our home was completed in 2012. Climate change has happened much faster than I thought possible. We are very relieved to have that cooling option now! Grid brownouts will become more frequent due to the Climate Crisis. 

The Prometheus "economy of scale" approach requires the centralization and distribution of services, favouring billionaire industrialists. The 20th Century has revealed the weaknesses of that approach. The rich get richer, and the poor become dependent on the monopolies of big business. 

Small, sustainable approaches can be more self-reliant and independent of massive, expensive distribution networks. The sun delivers energy to everyone's doorstep - for free. Reliability becomes achievable with multiple approaches to saving and harnessing energy. 

Demeter, aka Mother Earth, emphasizes respect for all ... waste not, want not and surround yourself with nature. Our home is like one of those in Demeter's Future above. We live remotely, so there are no neighbours. 

We do not travel, which can generate quite a sizable carbon footprint! Instead, we enjoy a quiet and creative existence at home. I paddle, paint and plant trees. Nature and the sun are always on our doorstep. 

For this and much more art, click on Fine Art America or go straight to the Collections. Here is 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  

#3040 "Peggy's Granite Prince"

#3040 "Peggy's Granite Prince"
48 X 60 by 1.75 deep  (inches)
Oils on canvas.
Started at 9:30 am
Tuesday, August 18th, 2026 

"Peggy's Granite Prince" is based on #0066 "The Granite Prince, Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia" from the spring of 1978. I was only sixty-five paintings into my artistic journey, with a long way to go... and much to learn. That would have been painted in the spare bedroom of our apartment in the Woodlawn Mall area of Dartmouth. I only had the aluminum easel my parents gave me, which I still use today. Good times! I really liked that painting and felt it needed a bigger and bolder format. The new 4-by-5 foot canvas alone is worth $500 without even applying any oil to it. 

Here it is set up in the back room of my Singleton Studio, where it spent late summer and all of the autumn of 2026. I would visit the canvas whenever conditions were inclement outside, and my inside chores were done. Otherwise, I spent a lot of time in the Singleton Forest.

This brings back some wonderful memories of our first stay in the "Merry Times". Those thoughts flood back to me as I apply the oils to this composition a second time. There will be some changes for sure. I just do not know what they might be yet, as I sketch in the ideas. 

I decided to turn it into a more colourful summer image with towering cumulus along the sea breeze convergence line. Lobster pots and buoys were included on the dock. As in the original, the morning sun was low in the eastern sky. The shadow of the fishing shack draped across the dock. 

The morning sun would have warmed the South Shore of Nova Scotia just enough to release the convective instability inherent in the very unstable air mass. The sea-breeze convergence line was still at the shore! The tops of the towering cumulus were bent by the return flow of the sea breeze circulation aloft. With continued heating, that line would progress maybe 20 kilometres inland, taking the convective towers with it. Peggy's Cove and the South Shore would enjoy clear skies and a cool onshore breeze from the Atlantic. The following summarizes the science behind the very important sea-breeze convergence line conceptual model. 

The Granite Prince was my favourite boat in Peggy's Cove. I painted it before it got radar. It was a beautiful day in the spring of 1978. There was no advection fog, which was a treat. We were out for a drive and a meal at the Sou'Wester Restaurant in the BC Era - Before Children. I painted exactly what I saw. We preferred to visit the Sou'Wester during the nastiest winter storms and be the only ones in the restaurant while huge waves crashed dangerously on the granite shore. 

The Sou'Wester celebrated its 50th Anniversary in 2018 and is still going strong. We always return when we get back to Nova Scotia. 

Shearwater was my first meteorological posting and my favourite! I would relearn that lesson with each subsequent career change until I finished my career with COMET in Boulder Colorado. If you wish to learn about the weather, go east, young man. The weather was always changing, and the art of a careful analysis of the science and the observations was key to understanding the meteorology and the concern of the day. I wish I had a few of those early analyses on hand-plotted maps with coloured terrain. The weather of the eastern seaboard taught me a lot. I am still learning. The staff were dedicated and keen to serve. The memories of CFB Shearwater always make me smile... but I digress. 

I did a Google search for the Granite Prince, which returned some of my paintings. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has digested almost everything ever created by humans to create a probability of what word comes next. AI has graduated from being a spellchecker to something that I find to be virally invasive. It is a struggle, but I endeavour to keep AI out of my life, preferring human errors to AI probable fabrications. The race for AI Supremacy by some nations and billionaires is a winner-takes-all brawl where the end is supposed to justify the means. Scary... but I digress... again. 

The following AI text even indicated that the Granite Prince radar equipment was installed after 1978, perhaps discovered from my post. 

"The 36-foot Cape Island-style fishing boat Granite Prince was a well-known fixture and working yellow boat in Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia during the 1970s and 1980s. The 36-foot wooden vessel was frequently featured in photographs, local lore, and writings about Peggy's Cove, including several of paintings. The Granite Prince was featured in regional papers and literature capturing the daily rhythms of the village's cod, haddock, and lobster fishermen. Sadly, the Granite Prince was eventually sold, renamed, and sank in the late 1980s. 

The Granite Prince in Fine Art: Artist Phil Chadwick captured the vessel in its prime with his painting, The Granite Prince - Peggy's Cove. His work depicts the iconic boat floating peacefully in the cove's calm waters in the spring of 1978, just before it was retrofitted with radar equipment."

At the time, during my first stint as a meteorologist in Nova Scotia, it was gently suggested that I find another place other than Peggy's Cove and the South Shore to paint... The distinctive yellow hull of the Granite Prince stands out in three of the paintings... now four.  

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