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Showing posts from July, 2012

Popular Subjects

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28 July finds me finishing a commission, the re-mastering of my Rooster painting of July 2010, and has us thinking about popular subjects. Why are they so compelling to art buyers? Why do I seldom choose to paint a popular subject? As a young teen I was already headed in this direction. I can remember stating to my family that the three things I was least interested in were

Drought Ferns (oil on canvas 12 x 16 in.) Sold

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18 July finds me sitting at the foot of a Sugar Maple near the southwest end of Otty Lake, south of Perth, Ontario. This is the second day of the Otty Lake Bio-blitz. My painting site is right beside the road into a Scout camp, and within sight of the awnings and tables of the Bio-blitz headquarters. A steady straggle of people pass by me, singly and in groups. Participating in a 24 hour, all-taxon survey of the area, they are  dressed in hiking gear and carrying binoculars, insect nets, field guides, and checklists.  My attention is caught by three drought-stricken fronds of of the evergreen fern Dryopteris marginalis, sprawling from the base of the tree, their leaflets crisply curled in on themselves. Fred points out the Polypodium virginianum ferns perched a little higher on the tree roots. Two fronds of the Polypody are curved downwards at their  tips , with pinnae curled upwards.  A

Just Published! "Island of Biodiversity"

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29 June was the publication date, but we've been too busy since then to announce it on the blog! However, our printer, Lulu.com has another sale for online orders, which ends at midnight tonight, so I figured I'd better announce the book now so folks can get their 18% discount. "Island of Biodiversity" is the result of this spring's painting and exploring around the red shale hill of North Russell, east of Ottawa, and is coauthored by Candice Vetter who lives there and has been studying the place and loving it more and more for 20 years. We call the book "Island of Biodiversity" because