#2451 "Snow Morning at Jim Day Rapids"

I wanted to loosen up my brushwork. Plein air is the best way to do that for me and I wanted to experience the muted light of nature first hand. I was also using a smooth panel and that helps to fauve up the brush work as well. I did not look at the weather details. 

The overcast skies could do almost anything in the winter. The winds were calm and it was wonderful to paint outside surrounded by the sounds of nature. Ravens could be heard. Squirrels chattered at me as well. The ice made a lot of noise probably as a result of the water being drained from the Gananoque River system. There was a noticeable drop and quite a current at Jim Day Rapids and I could hear the rush of the water. 

After a while, snow started to fall. A southwesterly wind developed. The snow fell harder and reduced the visibility across the lake. My bare hands started to notice the windchill. I painted faster. It snowed harder still. Meltwater coated the smooth panel. I painted even faster. I could still feel my fingers when I finished. They felt cold. If I had checked the weather, I would probably not have started to paint and that could have been a mistake. Snowsqualls off Lake Ontario are very predictable but I am retired now. 

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#2450 "Hi Cirrus"

The beautiful sunset was from the previous evening (Saturday January 9th, 2021) at 6:00 pm. The Langmuir streaks of cirrus told the story of increasing high level moisture even though we were in the middle of a large ridge of high pressure. The next day would dawn as a milky overcast under the advancing upper warm frontal surface. The blanket of cirrus would keep the temperatures mild overnight. 

I wanted to play a bit of a pun in the title. I was saying "hello" to the cirrus in the sunset painting. The high cloud was probably at 20,000 feet above the ground. 

The hot pinks of the sunset also told another story. The atmosphere is on fire. Our globe is burning. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels levels have been rising steadily as a direct result of human pollution since the industrial revolution. The facts and science are clear. The graphics summarize the history and point to the future. 

In encouraging a green, circular economy as a COVID recovery, I coined the phrase "fossil fools" to describe the bane of the industrial revolution boom. I meant the term to describe groups who employ dishonest methods to perpetuate personal profit from the carbon-based economy while denying the fact and science of climate change. I try to use humour even if it just a pun, to make a point. Progress is seldom achieved by bashing.

In observing and painting this skyscape, it is important to see the sunny side of the weather knowing full well that climate is the long term summation or integral of the conditions we experience every day. COVID has presented the Globe with a final opportunity to start fresh. Leaders can build a green future that benefits all instead of perpetuating the present and subsidizing the carbon-based past. That is what I meant by "fossil fools" and I carefully considered the science while I painted. 

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#2449 "Singleton Icy Sunset"

I thought it would be interesting to complete a pair of paintings from the same time with one overlooking the forest and the other depicting the view across the lake. The reflections across the lake are controlled by the open water, the ice and the snow. Every such painting of Singleton is a study in optics. The open water is very reflective at glancing angles of incidence so it reflects the sunset sky. The rough ice and snow are far less reflective and some of those surfaces are already in the shadow of the western shore. 

The previous painting #2448 "Long Reach Forest Sunset" was the forest view of the same sunset. 

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#2448 "Long Reach Forest Sunset"

I thought it would be interesting to complete a pair of paintings from the same time with one overlooking the forest and the other depicting the view across the lake. This is the forest view under overcast skies but with a shimmer of the red sunset glow illuminating the forest. The drainage swale in the foreground floods after a heavy precipitation event. Extended periods of drought separated by such extreme precipitation events was one of the predictions of climate change science and has come to pass even without our lifetime. The white pines poke well above the canopy of the deciduous forest. The next painting #2449 "Singleton Icy Sunset" will be the lake view of the sunset. 

The high pressure was to the west of the Great Lakes. The circulation would provide a chilly flow from the Arctic for the next several days. 

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#2447 "August 22nd Sunrise"

August 22 was my Mother's birthday. My parents encouraged my art and the least that I can do, is my best. A sunrise always instill a promise for the coming day. 

I paint to please myself but am honoured when it touches someone else. The best art can grab you – affects for feelings – influence your mood. Hopefully in a positive way. There must be an unspoken connection between the artist and the audience. That is what I strive for and it is fleeting and difficult to achieve. If you have accomplished that even once as an artist, you are on your way. You can do it again. Keep trying. 

The art can be almost anything: visual, music, dance, writing. There are countless creative disciplines that provides the artist with an outlet for expression and maybe even an audience. What excites me is that sometimes those outlets fuse and the sum is greater than the parts. A friend I never met is a favourite example of this. 

Marko Burrows is a one man music machine creating a library of music in much the same way that I create the Singleton Sanctuary Studio full of art. We are driven to create. Several years ago my art connected with Marko over the internet. He reached out and asked permission to write a song about me as an artist and my art. We never met but Marko knows me very, very well as displayed by the lyrics of his song. 

I love this song as it brings back memories of Marko and it reveals many truths about me. and maybe you will too. I have tried to find him but have been unsuccessful. I hope he is still writing songs and enjoying life to its fullest. 

For me, success is not about selling. It is about connecting with others and enriching both your life and those of your audience. It is a symbiotic relationship and it is all good. It defines society. 

Here is the poem behind the music... both by Marko Burrows.

• It’s hot in here 
• The weather’s weird for this time of year
• It’s hot in here I’ve been watching steam rising from my beer!
• A working man
• My rich boss says, “Strip the land”
• There ‘ain’t no plan
• Just more and more wealth in his hands
• I look to the sky, and I’m in awe.
• However we change it, it’s so beautiful
• It’s hot in here
• It’s hot in here
• Its’ raining more, the sky’s not ever clear
• It’s hot in here
• My car needs oars, it’s the floods fear
• I look to the sky, and I’m in awe...
• However we change it, it’s so beautiful
• And the world cries!
• It doesn’t matter what you’ve done
• Like the weather you cross my face
• I’ll still be here when you have gone
• A very different place
• It’s hot in here
• They say the tipping point is awful near
• It’s hot in here
• From this viewpoint it’s our last frontier
• A working man, How we stop it I don’t understand
• There ‘ain’t no plan.
• There’s no-one out there to lend a helping hand
• I look to the sky, and I’m in awe.
• However we change it, it’s so beautiful
• It’s hot in here

by Marko Burrows and inspired by the art of Phil Chadwick

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#2446 "Singleton Sunrise on Fire"

Winter often provides the cleanest and coldest atmosphere. The rising sun can set those skies on fire. This particular clear and quiet sunrise within the Singleton Sanctuary was from 5:40 AM October 2nd, 2012. I have seen and painted countless other skies like this one. 

Phil Vasaar's "Just Another Day in Paradise" was on my playlist when I started this memorable sunrise at 10 am Friday January 8th, 2021. There was a very chilly cold conveyor belt and light snow outside so I was in the Singleton Studio enjoying the loud music and the warmth of the wood stove. 

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#2445 "Sunny Flowers for a Cloudy Day"

This is a flippant return to #2435 "Overcast Sunflowers" that I painted on January 6th, 2021.Sunflowers were the perfect inspiration during the shortest days and longest nights of the year as well as the darkest days of the COVID-19 Pandemic. I did not know it at the time but it would be a sadly, an even darker day in the United States. History will have much more to say about January 6th but I did not learn of the attack on the White House until the evening. I was too busy trying to be constructively creative during the COVID quarantine.

I flipped this image horizontally from the first go at them when I painted #2435 "Overcast Sunflowers". I wanted one more and final try with the aging oil paints that were left on my palette before I scraped it clean. It might be the new year of 2021 but I was still having fun with the remarkable sunflowers of 2020. This was a very smooth panel and that also affects how one records the inspiration. 

The COVID-19 Pandemic was just about to hit the fan as people ignored the instructions and isolation guidance that is required to stop the spread of the virus. The virus was also mutating into variants that likely would not be effectively combated by the coming vaccines. Daily new infection numbers were close to 8 thousand in Canada and climbing. New Zealand and Australia combatted the virus wisely. 

My Father gave me wise advice as a child to "not worry about what other people were doing. Just worry about yourself". It bothered me as a youngster and still does as a supposedly mature adult, that people flagrantly flaunt the laws in an entitled, self-indulgent way, oblivious to their impacts on others and nature. I guess that I share Van Gogh's and Mark Twain's dislike of privilege and greedy entitlement. I would have liked to have known Vincent and Samuel Clements. 

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#2444 "Flippant Sunflowers"

I was called Flip Flop as a child as I was always running and tumbling and falling. This title is in memory of my childhood nickname and also in the happy and loose way I worked on this painting of the sunflowers. 

The word "flippant" also did something of a flip-flop shortly after it appeared in English in the late 16th century. The word was probably created from the verb flip, which in turn may have originated as an imitation of the sound of something flipping. The earliest meanings of the adjective were "nimble" and "limber." All of these meanings apply to me: the way I worked on the painting and the sunflowers themselves. Flippant also describes the subject matter as I flipped the image horizontally from the first go at them in when I painted #2439 "Wendy's Sunflowers". I simply wanted to have fun. I also wanted to use the abundant oils that I had squeezed out for my earlier sunflower paintings - waste not, want not. 

Sunflowers are the perfect inspiration during the shortest days and longest nights of the year as well as the darkest days of the COVID-19 Pandemic. A quiet period due to a pandemic apparently worked for Newton and Leonardo da Vinci. 

Quiet can be good when surrounded by nature and your thoughts.  

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#2443 "October Sunset on the Sunflowers"

I wanted to try this painting of a mature sunflower bloom in full afternoon sunlight again. "Sister Golden Hair" by America came on the stereo as I laid in the first bit of colour. The timing was perfect. 

I had already visited this inspiration in #2434 "October Sunflowers". I notice that my dyslexia comes through in the chronological numbers applied to my painting of the same sunflower blooms. 

Vincent would have loved to paint those flowers. I know I did. I used a small canvas and broad, rough brush strokes. I used a lot of paint too.

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