Six or Eight sided Snow Flakes

The snow fell all afternoon and evening the other day providing a backdrop for the paper snow flakes I had cut. The sudden blast of arctic air also froze the lake so there may be no Christmas Day water ski event this year unless we get some mild Maritime air drifting this way from the southern islands.

Cleaning up in the studio uncovered this sketch from an earlier trip in the fall. I had been drawing under the bridge and captured a view back to Halifax. 

Travelling around Dartmouth the other day I chanced a glance across a playground and noticed a huge tree standing at the far side of the park. I had my sketch bag in the car and some time to spare so I found a good spot to stop and immediately began to draw the view. The giant tree dwarfed the two homes that sat beneath it.

Earlier on the same morning, from the Halifax side of things I watched the giant tanker fill the harbour on its way up to the Bedford Basin. It was early enough to catch the sun rising over the water and the sky was filled with enough moisture to light up a rainbow. Quite the sight. I may try to scale it up once the new stretchers are ready.

I happened to talk with another snowflake designer/cutter on the phone and she told me she made hers with six sides. Six gives a different dimension and they sure look great. Maybe six sided ones would be good to try, just to add to the fun.

Painting from Memory

When I was a child we often visited family in the country surrounding the city of Toronto. You see our family arrived on various ships with the promise of land in return for farming. They lived and worked in the bush and their children were born in log cabins. That story began almost two hundred years ago and the struggle they endured had to have been seen as better than the life left behind.

At the time there were no phones and a written letter, if you could write would take at least a few months to make its way back to family left behind. Now the homes I knew as a child are gone. The great cast iron cook stoves went cold a long time ago and the homes and barns have been removed. 

As we enter another winter season with snow and arctic air surrounding us once again I thought about the room, a great room, in one of the homes that had a small wood stove at the center. 

Smooth Sailing

Happiness and Joy have often popped up in my work. The reflection of situations or objects seem to point to the unseen. Wild animals and inanimate objects can move thoughts towards better days. Form doesn't seem to matter just open eyes and ears to receive information delivered from the heart and hand.

Nova Scotia Snow Day

View at Five Islands 2016, Graphite and Acrylic on Board

Outside the warmth of our home, todays weather has taken a turn towards winter. As we approach winter solstice this year our landscape has turned from green to white and is now being blanketed in ice and snow. Thoughts are turning to drifting snow and the shovels that will dig us out. I couldn't help but pass on the view from our campsite a few months ago as we sat and watched the tide move back into the Minas Basin. 

Read More about Five Islands

Painting Choices

Looking for ways to represent ideas using paint led down a path that included illustration. I began my explorations into the medium modifying materials and scale. Work on paper started small before moving to cardboard, wood and canvas supports. Each step provided some answers and also raises new questions. 

Allowing the materials to provide direction for the next step in a path of its own design.

And guess what? The painting became stronger.

A Better Camera

On these grey days of early December when the days are shorter than usual a little bit of brightness has appeared in my studio. I had the opportunity to compare two cameras.

Recently, I was able to use a very good camera to photograph my artwork. I used the team of horse painting because it was close at hand for a quick comparison. Looking at the first image which was made with a lesser camera I see a bland and fuzzy image compared to the original.  When I compare the second image which was made with the better camera under similar lighting conditions I see a closer colour resemblance and finer detail retention to the original. 

There are so many other pieces in the puzzle which are all out of my control but on this end I will side with the higher quality.