#2206 "Dark Cherry Sunset"

This sunset sky was only 15 minutes after #2203 "Langmuir Streak Sunset" on Thursday September 6th, 2018. The sky changes in seconds at sunset. The yellow sunset had changed to cherry red with more purple hues at higher angles. The tropical moisture from Hurricane Gordon was responsible for these spectacular scenes. I was not making those colours up.

The broad Langmuir streaks parallel to the jet stream were still evident. The gravity waves in the cirrus at the tropopause were also still obvious. The deformation zone banding perpendicular to the jet steam winds were missing. After all, it was getting dark. The warm conveyor belt flowing with the jet stream and the baroclinic zone cirrus foretold of the arrival of the tropical moisture and rain with the remains of Hurricane Gordon. Every line in the atmosphere has an interesting story to tell. I was living in my meteorological laboratory and hoping I was not a mad scientist. Art and sunsets always make me happy.

The porch light was still on at Dale's home on the western shore of Singleton. The bright speck on the shore of Singleton Lake was no accident. The west shore was in darkness while we get to sit and enjoy the colours of the setting sun. Life is all about location.

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#2205 "November 13 Sunset"

Who said the 13th was unlucky? I got two nice sunsets out of that day. The cold front went through as we sat and enjoyed the close of the day and the end of the warm sector. The southwesterly winds snapped around to the northwest with a gust of fresh Arctic air. Streets of pink turbulent stratoculumus soon followed.

Hang back shades of fibrous grey cloud persisted just as far as the mid level deformation zone associated with the departing low pressure area. It was going to clear and get much colder overnight. This was the second painting from 5:45 pm. I visited the same sunset #2213 "Pink Lines Sunset Singleton" at 5:40 pm on Sunday December 16th, 2018 and the sky looked very different from just five minutes earlier.

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#2204 "Orange Moment of Singleton Sunset"

It was 5:30 pm on Thursday November 8th, 2018 and the burst of orange lighting was only going to last a moment. The orange phase of the golden hour of sunset only lasts a few minutes at most. The trees were already casting a shadow on the forest wall along the marble ridge of Long Reach. There was a special energy in the sky and the forest that I tried to put into the oils. Everything had a rhythmic movement to it and I had to try to capture it.

This is the view from the porch overlooking the Laurentian forest to the east. An autumn rain storm and low pressure area had just shifted to the east of Singleton Lake after a day of rain. Using satellite meteorology terminology the fabled dry slot was upon us just in time for the sun to shine.

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#2203 "Langmuir Streak Sunset"

In the early days of my meteorological career I would have spotted this deck of cirrus and happily identified baroclinic zone cirrus (BZCI). Satellite imagery was just becoming available via hard copies on photographic paper - the fabled K560. Animation ws achieved by cartoon flipping the hard copies. VHS filming of the hard copies was the next step to make animations of the low resolution imargery. Computer handling of the data was still a dream in the 1980's. This new data in the late 1970's was enough to make me a convert to remote sensing though. Weather was three dimensional and did not arrive as the intersections of circles on Venn Diagrams.

Every line of cloud has a story to tell and I spent my career listening to what the skies had to say. Much of this research was published through COMET in Boulder, Colorado. Some other topics like langmuir streaks in the atmospheric fluid never made it to press even though I discussed the concepts many times. There is so much still to learn.

This sunset sky was from 6:50 pm Thursday September 6th, 2018. I had to paint it for both the colours but also the meteorology. I believe that the banding of the baroclinic zone cirrus results from the same process as Langmuir streaks in water. The tropropause provides the stable layer equivalent to the surface of the water. Distinct bands parallel to the strong winds in the fluid contained by the stable layer reveal the associated vertical motions therein.
I like to think of elongated helical tubes stretched out along the direction of the strong winds which comprise the jet stream. The three-dimensional circulation in these helical tubes interact and the bands of cloud result.

The deformation zone banding results from the other fluid process that I have built a meteorological career around. The warm conveyor belt flowing with the winds of the BZCI is revealed by the larger bands within the relative atmosphere perpedicular to the strong winds. Smaller wavelength bands are gavity waves within the stable layers of the atmosphere. Deformation zones tell a different story of heat and moisture and weather.

I painted the same sunset as it appeared a few minutes earlier in #2187 "Another Sunset Revolution". Sunset skies can change dramatically by the minute. I would paint this same sky again in #2206 "Dark Cherry Sunset" as it appeared about 15 minutes later. The tropical moisture from Hurricane Gordon was the star of these sunsets.

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#2202 "Singleton November Sunset Altocumulus"

The thin layer of altocumulus were packed a bit like dumplings in the gently rising current of the next warm conveyor belt. The deformation zone was a bit disorganized but I believe that the col of the pattern had moved northeast of Singleton. It was the colours of the sunlight and how they played across the waters that caught my eye. I was too tired from chain sawing to get my easel out but I knew what I was going to do the next day.

The rain actually changed quickly to snow as the evapourative cooling dropped the temperatures in the lowest level of the air mass to the wet bulb temperature which was below freezing. It was a good choice to paint in the studio with the wood stove.

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#2201 "Robinson Lake Misty Dumoine Sunrise"

I was down on the shore of Robinson Lake working on #2171 "Robinson Lake Thunderstorm Sunrise". The CPAWS DRAW camp had disbanded the previous afternoon. I had spent all of the time since their departure simply painting up a storm. The lake was quiet although people had arrived in the cottage on Robinson Lake the previous (Monday) evening. They were not up yet when I started to paint. I wonder whether they were up when I went for my swim and shower the evening before?

The overnight severe thunderstorms were still visible on the eastern horizon. The torrential rain shook my little tent. I do not remember much in the way of wind but apparently there were tornado warnings issued for the area. The wind near a tornado is nothing compared to the wind within a tornado. I had a great sleep and was up and ready to paint with the sun. Large fish frequently rushed the shallows chasing down minnows for their breakfast. The splash of water at my feed startle me everytime like the clown in a Jack-in-the-box. Funny!

I based this painting on a photograph I took while looking for the subject matter of number 2171 "Robinson Lake Thunderstorm Sunrise". I liked the way the southeastern shore looked at 6:15 am on Tuesday August 7th 2018. The western slopes of those hills were all in shadow. The mist reduced the visibility and fog and stratus hung over the tops of the hills. I had this unusual elongated canvas and thought this would be a good subject matter to try it out on.

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#2200 "Wet Day in November"

It was pouring rain outside. The windows were streaked with rain. I wondered what I could do looking out the studio window across the field to the Laurentian forest on the Long Reach. There was only one way to see.

This is the view toward the southeast and the adjacent marble ridge. Marble ridges of rock are dominant in the Singleton Lake portion of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere. The ridges all run from southwest to the northeast where they submerge and transform the landscape into farmable soils. This granite and gneiss and schist bedrock dates to nearly a billion years ago when shifting plates of the earth's crust collided and pushed an enormous range of mountains into existence. These mountains ran southwest to northeast. Over hundreds of millions of years, the softer rock of the mountain peaks weathered away, leaving only the "roots" of the mountains; the durable rock that cradles Singleton Lake today. The northeast-southwest trend of the ridges and valleys belies the orientation of the long-eroded mountains. The shape of the lake is molded by the pattern of the slopes and valleys of the old mountain roots. While glaciers gouged and rounded and deepened and broadened the old valleys over millennia, the topography today is not unlike that of hundreds of millions of years ago.

The hardwoods have cloaked the slope. I liked the way the deciduous tree trunks mixed with the afternoon shadows. I had to be careful not to overwork this little canvas. I liked how the paint was going on the canvas. I typically try to make my art “perfect” but the perfection really lies in the imperfections and the bold strokes. Let them be. Perfection is something I strive for but never attain so I use that word with a huge grain of salt and a smirk.

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#2199 "Daylight Savings Sunday Sunset"

Another autumn storm was on the way. The weather had been wet but we needed the rain to bring the lake levels up and to get the trees ready for freeze-up and winter. Singelton was to the southeast of the approaching col in the deformation zone. This means that the heaviest rain would pass well to the northwest. The convective showers and thunderstorms would likely pass well to the south. Those dark lines were contrails of jet on their way to Europe arriving with the sun the next morning. It was still too wet to paint en plein air though. I picked a small panel and had some fun with lots of paint.

The time had fallen backward from Daylight Savings to Eastern Standard the previous night. The sun had set on daylight savings so to speak. This meant that sunset was going to happen sooner than later. This changing of the clock causes a lot of nashing of teeth. It does not affect me much if at all.

Daylight Saving Time (DST) was designed to save energy and make better use of daylight. It was first used in 1908 in Thunder Bay, Ontario. About 40% of countries worldwide use daylight savings to make better use of daylight and to conserve energy. Although modern DST has only been used for about 100 years, ancient civilizations are known to have engaged in comparable practices thousands of years ago. For example, the Roman water clocks used different scales for different months of the year to adjust the daily schedules to the solar time. For me as a believer in solar energy, the principle is really simple. I get up with the sun and go to bed when it sets. Simple.

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#2198 "August Showers"

Wednesday August 8th, 2018 was a very similar day to Friday November 2nd, 2018 when I actually painted this skyscape. It had been raining for a couple of days and I needed to paint. It was far too wet outside so I worked in the studio in front of a merry fire in the wood stove.. Life is very good.

A series of thunderstorms were poised to cross Singleton Lake on Wednesday August 8th, 2018. I had just returned from the Dumoine River CPAWS DRAW and this late afternoon sky caught my eye. I was far too tired to paint en plein air but I stashed the image away for a rainy day. Such a day came on November 2nd, 2018.

The bubbling cumulus towers climbed to great heights. Showers swept across Singleton Lake in waves. I wanted to capture the same energy on this little panel. Art is all about energy and making memories and of course, having fun.

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