Annapolis River (oil on canvas 5 x 7 in)

oil on canvas 5 x 7 in.   $275

10 September finds us in the quaint town of Annapolis Royal, in a parking lot overlooking the Annapolis River beside the historical Fort Anne. The tide is going down, revealing red mud flats and turning the river pink under dramatic evening clouds. Buildings are visible across the river in the town of Granville Ferry which serves a military base, under the long silhouette of the richly forested hills.

I am having fun with this painting, as the river is making long smooth strokes of dull purplish pink with hints of  pale greenish-blue. I must work quickly though, as every time I look up from my painting its appearance is changed. When we arrived the river was strikingly striped by mud-pink, foam, and strips of slick upwelling, its appearance changing every few minutes and I have had to paint fast, but as the Sun sets and overcast moves in, the water becomes more unicolor. My photos will help me to finish it.
Fred comes back from the boardwalk where he had been poking about at the top of the mudflats as I sit painting in the front of the van where I can get the best view. He reports that he "found the top of the tide was a fine drift of grassy bits, then there were piled broken rocks liberally dotted with Littorina littorea, and a slope down past many Mytilis shells to a level where living ones are abundant, blackening the surface, with little Crepidula and more Periwinkles. Then there was a mudflat onto which it didn't seem wise to venture. The whole slope is dotted with Mya shells. 


The Molluscs are protected by signs that proclaim them to be too "contaminated" for use as human food. The whole scene is festooned with Ascophyllum of exuberant growth, both on walls and breakwaters and on chance rocks on the slope down to the mudflats - there's also some ruffly Fucus (Rockweed), as well".

Annapolis Royal has an interesting history, having changed hands seven times and been under attack thirteen times, more contested than any other North American place. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annapolis_Royal,_Nova_Scotia


This original painting is available for $275. For information on purchase and shipping, please contact me at karstad@pinicola.ca

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