tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34030250075525976542024-03-13T06:26:25.592-04:00Karstad Biodiversity Paintings: adventures in the colour of CanadaAleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.comBlogger437125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-65572599115028060032024-02-20T09:14:00.001-05:002024-02-20T09:19:02.340-05:00Outfall at Nuclear Beach<p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ulWMDvY3OhnOz853P-ljorp6ckfc0sze4aDqnnm9QMPERSzFvpc77yhSUxk55mbERKLUCMbzQ4WJoKqts2Z-dWV8_1mymPaH9UKZWJz2wOnZ2PrBql9Hg7Ogn3pnKGKEkMzN4qIzMRXzD-NG-lzC7oAAMC99DsCtwaMA6ZlNENY88elIP7xHbgJYDLl2/s1200/30yl2024%20Outfall%20at%20Nuclear%20Beach_1200.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="956" data-original-width="1200" height="510" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ulWMDvY3OhnOz853P-ljorp6ckfc0sze4aDqnnm9QMPERSzFvpc77yhSUxk55mbERKLUCMbzQ4WJoKqts2Z-dWV8_1mymPaH9UKZWJz2wOnZ2PrBql9Hg7Ogn3pnKGKEkMzN4qIzMRXzD-NG-lzC7oAAMC99DsCtwaMA6ZlNENY88elIP7xHbgJYDLl2/w640-h510/30yl2024%20Outfall%20at%20Nuclear%20Beach_1200.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Outfall at Nuclear Beach (oil on birch panel 11x14 in.)</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>24 January 2024</b> finds me starting a plein air painting on the icy shore of Lake Ontario, near Pulaski, New York, looking east across Mexico Bay toward the cooling stack of the Nine Mile Point nuclear power station. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>I have set myself up to paint on a low ice shelf close to the water, near a bank of amazing ice cobbles tumbled smooth in the waves of a recent storm. At my feet a creek is running free from beneath its silent sheets of ice, along a high barrier of storm-piled frozen wave-spray mixed with ice cobbles. The gentle swells moving in from Lake Ontario splash against ice covered boulders where it finally meets the lake. After I took my initial reference photos, cousin Delos who had guided me here to his favourite spot for photographing sunsets, departed to prepare supper. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">By the time I had decided on a painting spot and arranged my plein air studio, the dark clouds on the horizon had lightened, spreading across Mexico Bay toward me. Just as I raise my brush for the first stroke, dark speckles of drizzle appear on the "underpainted" surface of my panel. Without the shelter of the big umbrella (an important part of my plein air kit, but left beside the door at home) I packed up, this paints, my winter "en plein air" <br />adventure in plein air painting defeated. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On 12 April, 1995, Fred took a break from his survey of Chorus Frogs to explore the mouth of Grindstone Creek, in Selkirk Shores State Park, about 1.5 km northeast of here. Here are some of his notes from that visit: </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;"><i>Water at the site was permanent natural brook-slow creek and Lake Ontario. Water level in the creek was low. The bottom was cobbles shingle gravel sand. Water movement was small waves in the Lake, with fast flow at the mouth of the Creek. Drift on the beach was embedded in massed peaty fragments piled 30 cm deep by the waves.</i></span></div>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><i><br /></i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>10°C, rain, moderate breeze. Lampsilis radiata (Eastern Lamp-Mussel) (Mollusca). 2 shell, drift, specimen. 2 old valves, larger 71 mm.</i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><i><br /></i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Elliptio complanata (Eastern Elliptio) (Mollusca). 2 shell, drift, specimen. old, 14 pairs, 1 incomplete pair, 3 valves, largest 71 mm.</i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><i><br /></i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Dreissena polymorpha (Zebra Mussel) (Mollusca). common shell, drift, specimen. embedded in drifts of peaty material. 36 pairs, 15 valves, largest 26 mm. No snails noted.</i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><i><br /></i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>Orconectes propinquus (Crayfish). common shell, drift, specimen. large fragments, sample includes another species.</i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><i><br /></i></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i>He also noted two dead Crows in the beach drift and several dead Pike, as well as parts of Lake Trout, Catfish, and Bass. </i></p><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i><span><a name='more'></a></span>The original 11x14 inch oil painting, <b>"Outfall at Nuclear Beach"</b> is available for purchase at the price of <b>$450</b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>For more information about this painting and others, or to commission a painting, please contact Aleta at <karstad @ pinicola.ca> - remember to remove the spaces in the address.</i></div></div><p></p>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-18621964626827761732024-01-04T22:57:00.004-05:002024-01-04T23:38:05.181-05:00Little Marsh in Limerick<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b></b></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguebT07gxAKSViJWofnMzzbW6hYd7ZXtESfskijaw1Xl4iLVNz7W0SLq9Na_uovNcklzxWL2YmTkSkaQefnFG0xIoiDS5wIn4cM1WHkNEWckjuhC8dzp5noGBoPZIyy0vMCHxlx0CpfvYq62tEZHtYuQ7Isj_leCL2uJURasWsvZwfIYDxBiE-zGhzCE1r" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1005" data-original-width="1000" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEguebT07gxAKSViJWofnMzzbW6hYd7ZXtESfskijaw1Xl4iLVNz7W0SLq9Na_uovNcklzxWL2YmTkSkaQefnFG0xIoiDS5wIn4cM1WHkNEWckjuhC8dzp5noGBoPZIyy0vMCHxlx0CpfvYq62tEZHtYuQ7Isj_leCL2uJURasWsvZwfIYDxBiE-zGhzCE1r=w637-h640" width="637" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Little Marsh in Limerick" (Oil on birch panel, 6 x 6 in.)</i></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><br /></b></span><b style="font-family: inherit;">26 December 2023</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> finds me capturing sunset colours through a tear in the clouds over a small Cattail marsh on Forsythe Rd, 2.3 km E of McRoberts Corner, in Limerick Forest, Grenville County, Ontario. It is 7C after rain, and the road is muddy. We’ve had a rainy Christmas with temperatures well above seasonal average. Cheryl is in the driver’s seat, watching me paint my annual birthday plein air in oils on a</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">6 x 6 inch cradled birch panel, trying to get it covered with paint before we lose the light and go home for supper.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><p></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This little marsh, only a few minutes from home, is a familiar scene. There are observations in Fred’s database over the course of 40 years from this spot, of Muskrat, Beaver, Snapping Turtle, Painted Turtle, Green Frog, Great Blue Heron, and Red Squirrel. This is a few hundred metres from “Site F” where we listen each spring to monitor Wood Frogs, Gray Tree Frogs, and Spring Peepers. </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Until recent years Forsythe Rd was only used as an access road for forest management, and wasn’t open in the winter. Limerick Forest is a sprawling tract of natural forest and conifer plantations owned by the United Counties of Leeds & Grenville. Its vast network of wetlands (mainly out of sight of roads which tend to follow high ground) act as a natural sponge to retain water and reduce flooding. Around here they drain into both the Rideau and South Nation Rivers and it’s hard to be sure where the watershed boundaries are, as Beaver dams have often changed the direction of flow. </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We have been hearing more about the value of Beavers recently. Native engineers of a healthy landscape , they create wetlands for a stable (higher) water table. Beaver-maintained wetlands slow drainage like a natural sponge on the landscape, lowering the risk of serious flooding, and reducing the climate change threats of drought and fire.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEheTRyOFz1MBpu_xSUGU6ZM-svQnMrq8wUmVOSu2-WWJyyHO7qhFuT8jzS5WdaKPMxNr3UCUA-55ulBM3yNlvFHNwxzASfOanxUPX6C1siPAk3ov5anet_K4-okaRPNZNa_TX2CE9PGkkuhOm8ifmUxjnPU5DXqBFKpj5_1AxsUrCeSrQOOtFw6-C1DwfaE" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="2577" data-original-width="2610" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEheTRyOFz1MBpu_xSUGU6ZM-svQnMrq8wUmVOSu2-WWJyyHO7qhFuT8jzS5WdaKPMxNr3UCUA-55ulBM3yNlvFHNwxzASfOanxUPX6C1siPAk3ov5anet_K4-okaRPNZNa_TX2CE9PGkkuhOm8ifmUxjnPU5DXqBFKpj5_1AxsUrCeSrQOOtFw6-C1DwfaE=w320-h316" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Here is my “en plein air” birthday painting as I brought it home on the evening of 26 December. I made subsequent changes with reference to my photos, signing it as finished (at the top of this post) on 1 January. </span><p></p><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>The original 6x6 inch oil painting, <b>"Little Marsh in Limerick"</b> is available for purchase at the price of <b>$250</b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><i>For more information about this painting and others, or to commission a painting, please contact Aleta at <karstad @ pinicola.ca> - remember to remove the spaces in the address.</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div></span></div>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-68055598550302229052023-10-23T19:49:00.001-04:002023-10-23T19:51:34.878-04:00Cooper Marsh Late August<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy8vBzgzvKxttCMRqlCOsD8bPscwYYOnjNSHnB1GbHyRlSE24GYjru8vvsSMrOFcdANUFCQPHzAiYCkK5ZvTzXySYSsSNAvWuOZkDLoCRUwmxnlxrDGJ48HogIEJUpKbZiyW7WDieEiN-1Arstqtj3m6TjAASHExgSOKdJpc_9PecUv9MMfS7QFZsSoE8f/s3311/30yl2003%20Cooper%20Marsh%20Late%20August.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="3311" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy8vBzgzvKxttCMRqlCOsD8bPscwYYOnjNSHnB1GbHyRlSE24GYjru8vvsSMrOFcdANUFCQPHzAiYCkK5ZvTzXySYSsSNAvWuOZkDLoCRUwmxnlxrDGJ48HogIEJUpKbZiyW7WDieEiN-1Arstqtj3m6TjAASHExgSOKdJpc_9PecUv9MMfS7QFZsSoE8f/w640-h492/30yl2003%20Cooper%20Marsh%20Late%20August.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Cooper Marsh in Late August (oil on birch panel 8 x 10 in.)</i></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">28 August 2023 found me painting on the back deck of the Visitors Centre at the Cooper Marsh Conservation Area. It's a hot day, and I'm demonstrating plein air painting as part of a workshop hosted by the Raisin Region Conservation Authority and inspired by our mussels project with the River Institute. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It's a hot day, so we stayed in the building's shade rather than venturing out into the sunny marsh. Also, the deck offers a higher view across the marsh to the thin line of the pale blue St Lawrence and the deeper hazy blue of the north shore of New York State, visible between the Poplars and Willows.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An Osprey calls loudly and insistently overhead. A Red Squirrel scolds chirrs every once in a while, in irritation that we are still here, and once a Bull Frog thrums unseen, from open water somewhere out there among the yellow-green Carex or the dark green Scirpus, this side of the strip of tall, pale-plumed Phragmites reed that grades into a band of Purple Loosestrife, dark and dull as it's past flowering. Each change in colour and tone out there shows a transition from one kind of dominant vegetation to another. I would like to know what they all are, but I can't both go wandering across the marsh taking notes, AND demonstrate plein air painting from up here on the deck!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Cooper Marsh is a managed wetland, created by the flooding of what had been farmland as the St Lawrence was dammed to create Lake St Francis for hydro power and ship passage. It's centred on land that was owned by the Cooper family, with subsequent acquisitions by the Raisin Region Conservation Authority. The marsh is surrounded by dikes, with deep excavated channels, and water levels controlled by pumping. It is managed for avian and plant diversity, which are maintained by periodic drawdowns of water levels. This may reduce the chances that the goal of our quest - Saggitunio nasutus, Ligumia nasuta, the Eastern Pondmussel, or Pointed Sand-shell, will have a population here, but we've triggered interest in the question of mussel diversity, and we'll have to see what is found.</span></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">________________________________________________</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>The original oil painting, "Cooper Marsh Late August" is available for purchase at the price of <b>$350</b></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>For more information about this painting and others, or to commission a painting, please contact Aleta at <karstad @ pinicola.ca> - remember to remove the spaces in the address.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div></div><br /><br /></div><br /><br /></div><p><br /></p>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-15572221629846653482023-09-14T22:41:00.065-04:002023-09-14T23:19:16.097-04:00Bissett Creek Waterslide<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwq-x9vDnWcA7iPp99CSQvdlT0e3EGuv3JdyUZdkcRmRZwrEtH739pgyctKgGG4BfJH8VvzcQabJ5KT4dHKBb7wCY7Q0z_QaOWI_bx_-i-TVtrKdV-FJisR0-wNbHBIGdffPWyzztD3N0q9DwcQYIP9qsvdNB79C50EyMDfZQ3L-QyJnKavdxckA2S-IEq" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="971" data-original-width="1000" height="622" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwq-x9vDnWcA7iPp99CSQvdlT0e3EGuv3JdyUZdkcRmRZwrEtH739pgyctKgGG4BfJH8VvzcQabJ5KT4dHKBb7wCY7Q0z_QaOWI_bx_-i-TVtrKdV-FJisR0-wNbHBIGdffPWyzztD3N0q9DwcQYIP9qsvdNB79C50EyMDfZQ3L-QyJnKavdxckA2S-IEq=w640-h622" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; 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font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b> August 4, 2023</b> finds me on the bank of Bissett Creek, 16.2 km west of Stonecliffe Ontario, painting the alternate ribbons of white foam and silky dark water of a sloped waterfall.</span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">This is the week of DRAW (Dumoine River Artists for Wilderness) camp. John McDonnell of Canadian Parks & Wilderness Society - Ottawa Valley, writes: </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><i><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">"Only 18 km separate the Ottawa Valley's two largest protected areas, Algonquin Park in Ontario and the Dumoine River Aquatic Reserve in Quebec. CPAWS-OV is working to fill this 'gap' in protection to ensure that species like moose, bear and wolves can continue to thrive and migrate across this landscape. Almost all this area is publicly owned Crown Land, where there is currently little to no development. CPAWS-OV hopes to see this area protected before development forecloses the opportunity. Bissett and Grant Creeks, on the south side of the Ottawa River, embrace an area rich in forests and wetlands, and offer a direct connection to the massive Dumoine watershed north of the Ottawa River. The wild land between these two creeks helps to connect the forests of Algonquin Park and the Ottawa Valley to the vast boreal forest of the north." </span></i></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">The afternoon is pleasant, the sun shining from a hazy blue sky, and a nice breeze. Driving in along Waterloo Lake Road we were impressed by large Red Pines with 30 cm wide trunks that had been planted along the road perhaps fifty years ago. We parked trail near a bridge over Bissett Creek where a trail took us steeply down through the woods to the north side of the creek. I set up to paint, sitting on a fallen tree trunk while Fred went downstream to search for mussel shells among a tangle of branches at a bend in the creek. </span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4VCztFQWdcVNXj1AVyqY96SD79RDmTvjlaKPR9uYDJI-yAGMD6pD0QZqhuss_UUmX92fLOM9i0lG9pb31EdqJED737MJy9-RzqYyOqjzkohrzKErS2QejeyZw1uZX75NqKmdsQDB614CPI1HrZ8tJWtNTrQ0Wx8eED9zkdH4xYZj47ThPLqyBhVFz0ZEN" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4VCztFQWdcVNXj1AVyqY96SD79RDmTvjlaKPR9uYDJI-yAGMD6pD0QZqhuss_UUmX92fLOM9i0lG9pb31EdqJED737MJy9-RzqYyOqjzkohrzKErS2QejeyZw1uZX75NqKmdsQDB614CPI1HrZ8tJWtNTrQ0Wx8eED9zkdH4xYZj47ThPLqyBhVFz0ZEN" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>A perfect day for the Pine Sawyer Beetles to fly around looking for mates! I heard a whirr and looked up from my painting to see a Pine Sawyer Beetle land on the wild grape vine above my head. It perched vertically, head down on the underside of a leaf which drooped with its weight. A few minutes later I captured a nice photo of another, in the process of taking off from the end of a bare, Beaver cut branch beside Fred as he leaned against the bank, and we both watched its origami-ended<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">wings unfold for flight! </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">Several minutes later a Sawyer Beetle flew up with drooping body, Hummingbird-like, to land on a Spruce branch above where Fred was sitting against the bank. </span></span></div><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj1cQ4_NX7SzBXzsR8K1ldoIjrVrCDugryWkAfSfYJ3eYWD7LXEHMptT0AdoZFlmr0nxMdMO1NqE_RB7wq13tHp2EY-3fjb8ey0BtGJ4vv7ePnfaG3NV85K8b-F94bm6yoVUqk8YsqqRaWLL3wt4ehCLerQ2NfmxcMKISWpK732pLxJb27gt0NICWvq5uD5" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj1cQ4_NX7SzBXzsR8K1ldoIjrVrCDugryWkAfSfYJ3eYWD7LXEHMptT0AdoZFlmr0nxMdMO1NqE_RB7wq13tHp2EY-3fjb8ey0BtGJ4vv7ePnfaG3NV85K8b-F94bm6yoVUqk8YsqqRaWLL3wt4ehCLerQ2NfmxcMKISWpK732pLxJb27gt0NICWvq5uD5=w300-h400" width="300" /></span></a></div><span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p>I missed that shot, but spent some time taking pictures of one that had landed on the horizontal Pine trunk right in </span>front<span style="font-family: inherit;"> of me. </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">There is a lot of variation in their appearance - from nearly black to hoary and</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">lichen-patterned.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span><p></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjLPLeDqtEJ2XtLoBXYAd_jqMUjQxE4Zvr5iQYtEv1nYVX4lIoFC0bR59Ijk5iPfMIrw9y-xfbb3KVQkgpmiF-FKgu2FxTpmIS-BJT3lY8rtxVpmP2bDkb5r2d9zw_BT6tHzNF4bplMT_km7zoUTLxwXEYZPyGa-X1yQtoXqlkvngwgmee06WP4x_-gwc67" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1041" data-original-width="1393" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjLPLeDqtEJ2XtLoBXYAd_jqMUjQxE4Zvr5iQYtEv1nYVX4lIoFC0bR59Ijk5iPfMIrw9y-xfbb3KVQkgpmiF-FKgu2FxTpmIS-BJT3lY8rtxVpmP2bDkb5r2d9zw_BT6tHzNF4bplMT_km7zoUTLxwXEYZPyGa-X1yQtoXqlkvngwgmee06WP4x_-gwc67" width="320" /></span></a></div><p></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;">Then an hour later I got a nice video of a pair of Pine Sawyer beetles (Monochamus sp) mating on the underside of my fallen Pine trunk. At first it appeared that they were fighting, but the female quieted as the male licked the back of her thorax, and pivoted alongside her, then mounted. The part of the mating I was able to see clearly lasted for a little less than a minute and my video ended with the female moving out of sight, the male following with his forelegs still on her elytra. </span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="clear: left; float: left; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1005" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht21RX5fuMooOVR1-V20T-5P2ksL_X2so9S0Ck5EshCxJGDQ-x9UuIs9wbi0cGMPvGg7FPkXuQsWIJAKl_hcM4EXcu9b7Pi3R3kySOcGrPEsQUV14mrwCdAvWhXZfGWkvXtN_J-PIaDGDMRWMpL0l5mLfrUlmPMLukEc1tvqVbiCQLpRlE5Cfa5kIxWm6I/s320/IMG_0453.jpg" width="318" /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;">It has been a very exciting day for beetle-watching, but I must try to get more water painted before packing up, as it's a two hour drive home. This one will have to be finished from my photos in the studio. Notice the "nymph" in the upper right quarter of the painting - a crooked vertical line scratched into my underpainting - a pale grey-trunked young Ash tree in the finished painting. Keep checking in... this fall or winter I will paint a portrait of her from one of my reference photos of this scene.</span><p></p><p style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"Bissett Creek Waterslide" has been donated to CPAWS-OV for their fundraiser in late fall of 2023. Information will appear on their <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cpawsov" target="_blank">FaceBook page</a> with the date and location. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>For more information about this painting and others, or to commission a painting, please contact Aleta at <karstad @ pinicola.ca> - remember to remove the spaces in the address.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-5250812611717122942023-04-23T23:21:00.004-04:002023-04-24T11:02:55.244-04:00White Water Lily<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEju32PTnVn-7Z0LHmvCo9c3XMXqPhEzQPUmCWXvWfid4CLjp6MSUG7eQaMrdvESq7Xrq8AAtvfhtDDU_bQd3t6kZHYMOVcdxKkcV0o4hO8_AhYB1dyIO8Bnv0QFpbMWPWIJ9OQVLlcygXxh6ZESDG1f1FXqxW4AZmmXX4VZaBeJFvIWvyqUz1NCQaapcw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1015" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEju32PTnVn-7Z0LHmvCo9c3XMXqPhEzQPUmCWXvWfid4CLjp6MSUG7eQaMrdvESq7Xrq8AAtvfhtDDU_bQd3t6kZHYMOVcdxKkcV0o4hO8_AhYB1dyIO8Bnv0QFpbMWPWIJ9OQVLlcygXxh6ZESDG1f1FXqxW4AZmmXX4VZaBeJFvIWvyqUz1NCQaapcw=w393-h400" width="393" /></a></div><p></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><b style="font-family: inherit;">6 August 2021</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> found me exploring Robinson Lake on the Dumoine River by kayak. Taking it all in from the intimate position of just above water level was enchanting! It was difficult to be still enough to photograph the White Water Lilies <i>Nymphaea odorata</i> as I awkwardly circled a group of them, poising like dancers mirrored in the dark water. I was amazed at how, when my clumsy paddle brushed them, they closed to keep the water out of their delicate yellow inner parts, popping up dry and open on the other side of the kayak. </span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In the middle of the channel, I spotted a Painted Turtle on a deadhead, and bumped into it, approaching to take photos. One can’t simultaneously take photos and manoeuvre one’s craft.</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As the sky lowered and the wind roused the water into a chop I photographed some "Swamp Candles", <i>Lysimachia terrestris,</i> with twisted yellow petals, blooming along the shore, and then turned the tip of the island and into the wind. There were small waves in addition to the chop, and the clouds were lowering. I paddled hard to catch up with Marisa, and as we reached the landing spot at camp, it began to rain and then pour. What a contrast to the serenity of the Water Lily bay!</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I look forward to returning in August, to join fellow DRAW (Dumoine River Artists for Wilderness) artists in a week-long camp in support of river conservation hosted by Canadian Parks & Wilderness Society - Ottawa </span>Valley<span style="font-family: inherit;"> CPAWS-OV.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>This 4 x 4 inch watercolour is one of a series of wildflowers I'm painting for the next edition of <span style="text-decoration: underline;">NatureMatch</span>, my card-matching game. Contact <span style="text-decoration: underline;">me</span> for information about purchasing the originals.</i></span></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: #eeeeee;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-63738974264541492092023-03-13T20:38:00.002-04:002023-04-24T11:02:15.295-04:00The Cedars Snow Dance<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg_d6sMbMnJF8iyOaCJCBQSvFbVs_5wWQC-JV30ye-McU8Cg_px65NzBIqPCImCKi1CDaWzGtBa2c5ZNd-kqecEylAUKxC35TUgmtOJs-FtYcK4jXLvxR0ZX76Np78gnmPMHxLmHilcGAETz0BWKy0NcbXFxnMzYPXgD9Dr_EF1mjuNMrEr_iqoKyfZg/s1500/2022%20Dec%2026%20snowy%20afternoon%20Cedars_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1177" data-original-width="1500" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg_d6sMbMnJF8iyOaCJCBQSvFbVs_5wWQC-JV30ye-McU8Cg_px65NzBIqPCImCKi1CDaWzGtBa2c5ZNd-kqecEylAUKxC35TUgmtOJs-FtYcK4jXLvxR0ZX76Np78gnmPMHxLmHilcGAETz0BWKy0NcbXFxnMzYPXgD9Dr_EF1mjuNMrEr_iqoKyfZg/w640-h502/2022%20Dec%2026%20snowy%20afternoon%20Cedars_small.jpg" title="The Cedars Snow Dance (8 x 10 oil on canvas)" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Cedars Snow Dance (8 x 10 oil on canvas)</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>26 December 2022</b> finds me plodding through the deep new snow among the Cedars behind our house in Bishops Mills, Ontario. It being my birthday, the order of the day was painting en plein air. A lovely sunny day of -4C with deep new snow - I invited Fred out in my search for a scene “out back”. </span><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;">I took photos of several - the most inspiring being a clump of Cedars with curving blue-shadowed snow-mantled branches, with the warm bright open space glowing through from behind. Knowing the light would be better in the late afternoon, I did some errands in Kemptville, and was back out to the site with a sled load of gear by 4:00. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><div><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEYOJUueMsqeuzPdjEEY8e6Jn2jazwQkpFfS_QSiDiMCP8ixc_bppJGIPIuT0C2akZbG1zMBLDycgVUXrh7r2Vzm9IgtC4z1ziDMUcA9pjdnpkkrSa7GjtNf7sXOSXCIHI5QpyozaLXJeAdYk9p5IuealhdtRz3LjrRRRcMouIh-5GusFTs92ejxb3WA/s1099/AK%20doing%20birthday%20painting%202022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1099" data-original-width="999" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEYOJUueMsqeuzPdjEEY8e6Jn2jazwQkpFfS_QSiDiMCP8ixc_bppJGIPIuT0C2akZbG1zMBLDycgVUXrh7r2Vzm9IgtC4z1ziDMUcA9pjdnpkkrSa7GjtNf7sXOSXCIHI5QpyozaLXJeAdYk9p5IuealhdtRz3LjrRRRcMouIh-5GusFTs92ejxb3WA/w364-h400/AK%20doing%20birthday%20painting%202022.jpg" width="364" /></a></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Insulated by a cushion in the seat of my folding chair, I had my booted feet in a cardboard box stuffed with a down vest, my lap wrapped with a small duvet, my hands in fingerless gloves, and a hat beneath my hood, I painted in a race with the sunset, not taking time to open my thermos for a sip of hot tea. by 5:00 the evening blush had departed from the opening beyond the Cedars, and I could hardly see to pack my painting up to finish in the studio. </span></p></span><p></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge-w3g5ZPyS9ybZy0Ew9dhRX1LABTWqr6ammGkyRyhsb5M77OtpdBDhcchnN_GOjtFbGoDPwoZqsRe6qQyIkOKHSs3pdL_jMt2t9iIOzyPxHvri-ye3CTi0XdQVInAMviD8U16EdfGLQqwIymVFbIwHfY7s3c3wwvgQrBjQ3tbntSuzGqCKT55c2wDKg/s4032/birthday%20painting%202022%20progress.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge-w3g5ZPyS9ybZy0Ew9dhRX1LABTWqr6ammGkyRyhsb5M77OtpdBDhcchnN_GOjtFbGoDPwoZqsRe6qQyIkOKHSs3pdL_jMt2t9iIOzyPxHvri-ye3CTi0XdQVInAMviD8U16EdfGLQqwIymVFbIwHfY7s3c3wwvgQrBjQ3tbntSuzGqCKT55c2wDKg/w320-h240/birthday%20painting%202022%20progress.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p>After several days of errands and interruptions, I finally had it finished it on 31 December. This was a challenging scene - but I love the way it dances. <p></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For $425 it can be yours!</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">E-mail me: karstad (at) pinicola.ca if you are interested.</span></p></div>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-82470077374511014282021-09-06T23:00:00.004-04:002021-09-06T23:08:37.032-04:00Dumoine Moose Marsh<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9OR4uqBTajU/YTbEvCs2lHI/AAAAAAAAE5U/nvA_o2w6dMwsAHsv9Nd8VFG43go6NCdVACLcBGAsYHQ/30yl2021%2BDumoine%2BMoose%2BMarsh_1000.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="1000" height="389" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9OR4uqBTajU/YTbEvCs2lHI/AAAAAAAAE5U/nvA_o2w6dMwsAHsv9Nd8VFG43go6NCdVACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h389/30yl2021%2BDumoine%2BMoose%2BMarsh_1000.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>"Dumoine Moose Marsh" (6 x 6 inch oil on birch panel)</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>7 August 2021</b> finds me carrying my painting supplies along a twisted well-trampled path through a stand of Firs, to a small marshy lake or large pond.<br /><br />A recently built viewing platform stands back a few feet from the waterline, well shaded by the forest edge. There's plenty of room for three standing easels, but I decide to paint a lower view of the left end of the lake, and sit on the floor to look between the railings with my legs dangling out the front. Catherine Orfald and Ruth Tait are painting with me on this fifth day of the week-long DRAW artists retreat - Dumoine River Artists for Conservation, hosted by CPAWS-OV, the Ottawa Valley chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.<br /><br />A few Pickerel Weed are blooming here, and one candy-pink spike of <i>Spirea tomentosa</i> (Steeplebush). Small floating Water Lily leaves pattern the surface through an opening in the rushes and bushes, and dapple the open water. <br /><br />A persistently “chipp”ing Song Sparrow forages among the bases of Scirpus in shallow water, hopping from one clump to another. Occasionally a little brownish Warbler-shaped bird moves quietly about in the Alder bushes. Four Black Ducks swim and dive, close by at first and then along the far shores. All is quiet for a while and then a Loon calls from the sky - and we all stop painting to watch a family of four, flying high above the far shore, with one calling - perhaps a parent cheering the young ones on. <br /><br />A chilly breeze comes from across the lake and after a while Ruth lends her wool shirt to Catherine - but eventually she too became chilled too and they both pack up and leave. They had painted for three hours and I stayed for six - still not quite finished my 6 x 6 panel. The scene is complicated - or I’m just slow. <br /></span><br /><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></p><div class="p1" style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i>Dear patrons and supporters,</i></div><div class="p1" style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></div><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></p><div class="p1" style="background-color: #eeeeee; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><i>This 6x6 inch original oil painting is for sale for $350. If you would like to purchase it, please <a href="mailto:karstad@pinicola.ca" style="color: #005582; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><b>contact me</b></a> <b> </b></i><i> </i></div><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-7521861330780022032021-08-29T22:24:00.002-04:002023-04-24T11:05:37.574-04:00Dumoine Evening<p> </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0ena2HGoFRk/YSwtAk8Xn-I/AAAAAAAAE44/b2TDh4fzMF0PEj3qHb6JoVPBDELQgFkggCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/Dumoine%2BEvening_1000.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="998" data-original-width="1000" height="399" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0ena2HGoFRk/YSwtAk8Xn-I/AAAAAAAAE44/b2TDh4fzMF0PEj3qHb6JoVPBDELQgFkggCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h399/Dumoine%2BEvening_1000.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Dumoine Evening" (6 x 6 in. oil on birch panel) </span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><b><div><b><br /></b></div>4 August, 2021</b> finds me standing on the path just in front of my "meditation log", with my toes in the black, loamy saturated soil at the edge of the water, looking down the Dumoine River toward towering pink clouds of a humid-hazy early evening. <p></p><p>I love my private stretch of the Dumoine and all its lovely scenes, up-river to the east, especially in the mornings - down-river to the west in the evenings, and any time of day across to the bright grassy islands and the forested far shore. </p><p>There are three other tents pitched under the trees here along the river, but we all come and go as quietly as deer and I never see the others this side of the road to the cabin. </p><p>My tent is pitched in the shade of tall pines and spruces, and although it is cooler here than in the sunny yard of the cabin where most of the artists of the DRAW art camp have pitched their tents, the weather has been so humid that the damp cuffs of the pants that I hung inside my tent, have not dried in two days, so I may as well hang them outside and risk getting them rained on.</p><p>This is our fourth "Dumoine River Artists for Conservation" retreat. We are far from the internet and cell phone connectivity of the busy world that we left behind for these seven days of communion with the wilderness and one another. We have only each other to depend on - and in case of emergency, a device that connects to satellites for sending texts from John's phone. He's the organizer and facilitator of this year's DRAW camp for fifteen artists who will each donate one piece for CPAWS-OV's fundraising. </p><p>Lyndon is our excellent volunteer cook. They drive out together in John's truck to a nearby spring to fill the several large water containers that are lined up on the cabin porch, and will make at least two trips down the long road to civilization to replenish fresh food and ice for the coolers. So in spite of our isolation us artists are well provided for, and have little to worry about except how to make the most of this great opportunity for inspiration, camaraderie, creativity... and to support CPAWS Ottawa Valley's campaign for conservation of wild rivers.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-962919281910389162021-08-26T17:55:00.003-04:002023-04-24T11:05:21.184-04:00Dumoine Serenity<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sAb57VDisDM/YSgLsa71EMI/AAAAAAAAE4o/agRCc9OIm1YYJV_3UbkgESzF8OApRC9uwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/Dumoine%2BSerenity_1000.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="998" data-original-width="1000" height="399" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sAb57VDisDM/YSgLsa71EMI/AAAAAAAAE4o/agRCc9OIm1YYJV_3UbkgESzF8OApRC9uwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h399/Dumoine%2BSerenity_1000.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Dumoine Serenity" (8 x 8 in. oil on canvas)</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></b><div><b>5 August 2021</b> started out foggy just as yesterday. I stepped carefully barefoot down my little trail to the river edge just before 08:00 to see if I could see a misty morning scene to paint. Everything was blurry except foreground Sweet Gale and Alder bushes, and the bright flecks of foam floating lazily down from the mouth of a creek, or the churning canyon of La Grande Chute. I took a few photos and went up to breakfast, during which the sun burned through, heralding another hot day. <br /><br />Now at 09:30 all the mist is gone, leaving a blue haze on the forested hills and a white haze in the sky, with a faintest tint of blue overhead and a brassy glare to the east… and that’s my morning scene, to the east. My focal point will be the glossy black river where it snakes past the far end of a narrow island, between a leaning White Pine and a golden-tipped stand of grasses, backed by the blue forest and it’s downswept skyline against the bright brassy sky. <br /><br />As I sit on my log to write this, a sturdy black Dragonfly darts and hovers, turns to dart again and hover, above its perfect reflection and. water Striders dart about erratically, hunting the surface for erratically, leaving a brief wake with each thrust. For 20 minutes I watched one, then another - three individuals - a darting white mote on dark hill reflection and darting black mote on sky reflection, and saw them pounce on small flying insects that came to the surface. But what eats Water Striders? In all the time I watched, many sudden concentric rings appeared - fish snatching some tiny unfortunate from the surface, but none of the Water Striders I followed were captured from below. <br /> <br />As I write a “splurp” makes me glance up quickly - to see nothing but the ripples left by something going down. Perhaps I was being watched by a Muskrat or an Otter. Whatever it was stayed underwater or travelled out of sight. A Pike wouldn’t be interested in Water Striders, would it? In the distance Blue Jays carry on a raucous family conversation. A no-See-Um drills into my wrist, a painful winged speck, easily crushed into nothing. <br /><br />10:40 and the sun has become very hot, and combined with rainforest-like humidity, painting here at the river-edge is impossible - so I’m retreating several metres into the cool piney shade by my tent to paint this morning scene from photos. </div><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div><i>This painting is my donation to Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Ottawa Valley in support of their campaign to conserve wild rivers. It was done at this year's 7-day DRAW artists retreat on the wild, undammed Dumoine River which drains an immense tract of Quebec wilderness into the Ottawa River west of Ottawa.</i></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p><br /></p><br /><br /></div><p><br /></p></div>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-42753574662895207122021-07-26T11:58:00.001-04:002023-04-24T11:06:21.364-04:00Helleborine Orchid<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pPj6mcR66iU/YP7SLV0evtI/AAAAAAAAE38/pSNy4Jnu3fIKahaelYUUdtS2Ji1cCn2nwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1226/Helleborine%2Borchid.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1226" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pPj6mcR66iU/YP7SLV0evtI/AAAAAAAAE38/pSNy4Jnu3fIKahaelYUUdtS2Ji1cCn2nwCLcBGAsYHQ/w418-h640/Helleborine%2Borchid.jpg" width="418" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>25 July 2021</b> finds me finishing my watercolour of Helleborine Orchid. It has been a patient and robust subject, as it came up in a handful of grass as Fred weeded the garden on 17 July and I've had it in water, waiting to be painted, then being painted - in increments... Fred labelled and pressed it today. It had finished opening all of its flowers. </div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">The first time I saw Helleborine was in a campground south of Tobermory on Ontario's Bruce Peninsula. I was amazed at all it's tiny fierce Lion-faces! I painted it - a very pale greenish individual, which was growing in the shade - and published it as the August page in my Wild Seasons Daybook. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Here is some information we've found about this interesting plant:</p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Epipactis helleborine,<i> the broad-leaved helleborine, is a terrestrial species of orchid with a broad distribution. It is a long lived herb which varies morphologically with ability to self-pollinate. ...widespread across much of Europe and Asia, from Portugal to China, as well as northern Africa. In North America, it is an introduced species and widely naturalized mostly in the Northeastern United States, eastern Canada and the Great Lakes Region, but also in scattered locations in other parts of the continent, including Michigan, Wisconsin, and the San Francisco Bay Area. In the US it is sometimes referred to as the "weed orchid" or "weedy orchid."</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Found in woods and hedge-banks and often not far from paths near human activity. It is one of the most likely European orchids to be found within a city, with many sites for example in Glasgow, London and Moscow. Sometimes spotted beside car parks. ... known for its successful colonization of human-made or anthropogenic habitats such as parks, gardens or roadsides. These roadside orchids exhibit special features such as large plant size and greater ability to produce flowers - </span><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5398293/">https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5398293/</a><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> - </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epipactis_helleborine">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epipactis_helleborine</a></div></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">There is also information about how difficult it is to eradicate - but we wonder why one would want to...</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;">Jean Gregson wrote in Field Botanists of Ontario: </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"><i>"My experience is that it pops up in odd places all around our yard (west island Montreal) although not in great numbers. The individual plants last only one or two seasons so there's never more than three or four around in any one season. I'm inclined to agree the 'invasive' label refers to the fact that it is non-native, rather than an aggressive spreader."</i></span><br style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;" /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px;"></span></p><div style="background-color: #eeeeee; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><i style="color: #3f3f3f;"><span style="color: #333333;">This original 5 x 6 inch watercolour is available to purchase. </span></i></div><div style="background-color: #eeeeee; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; widows: 2;"><i style="color: #3f3f3f;"><span style="color: #333333;">For more information, or to purchase a print, please </span><b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: #8b8b8b; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0b5394;">contact Aleta</span></a></b><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></i></div><div><i style="color: #3f3f3f;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></i></div><div><i style="color: #3f3f3f;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></i></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-69568303762245824982020-06-22T22:48:00.001-04:002020-06-26T21:54:10.936-04:00Ponera Ants on Cladonia<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-43QDUKWz9I8/XvENAyuGC0I/AAAAAAAAElg/64UP2Ghpw_Mzi6jjxgOY66z6wpsoKvZxQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/30yl2020%2BPonera%2Band%2BCladonia_1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="890" data-original-width="1000" height="568" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-43QDUKWz9I8/XvENAyuGC0I/AAAAAAAAElg/64UP2Ghpw_Mzi6jjxgOY66z6wpsoKvZxQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/30yl2020%2BPonera%2Band%2BCladonia_1000.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ponera Ants on Cladonia (8 x 8 in. watercolour)</i></td></tr>
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<b>10 August 2017</b> found me in Spednic Lake Protected Natural Area, near McAdam, New Brunswick, following Aaron Fairweather around as he collected ants. Traveling light that year, I had decided that all my paintings for the New Brunswick Museum's BiotaNB survey would be in watercolour - a couple of scenes, and several wildflowers... and this painting of a few of the ants we collected, shown exploring a tuft of the Gray Reindeer Lichen, <i>Cladonia rangiferina </i>that was growing near their nest.</div>
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<i>Ponera pennsylvanica</i> live in small colonies of no more than 60 workers, under stones and in rotting wood, foraging out singly for mites, springtails, and small insects. They are very tiny ants, only about 2.5 mm in length, so I was able to use one of the museum's microscopes to begin the painting in the BiotaNB lab set up in the Lion's Hall in downtown McAdam. For lifelike poses I referred to YouTube videos of this species in captive colonies. </div>
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I spent hours watching videos of <i>Ponera</i> colonies, and capturing frames as reference photos. They have short legs which they hold close to their bodies, looking almost worm-like in their movements. What flexible bodies they have, able to bend in half to turn around in one of their tunnels! </div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RqoAggtYm9A/XvFW4CA-efI/AAAAAAAAEls/56oWFrGr-sIv9J55elzc9zydetiWoihtgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/30yl2020%2BPonera%2Band%2BCladonia_crop_1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="742" data-original-width="1000" height="296" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RqoAggtYm9A/XvFW4CA-efI/AAAAAAAAEls/56oWFrGr-sIv9J55elzc9zydetiWoihtgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/30yl2020%2BPonera%2Band%2BCladonia_crop_1000.jpg" width="400" /></a>When I set my microscope up at home, to resume the painting, I found that its large objective lens was corroded, and that replacing it would cost as much as a new 'scope. After a couple of years of indecision, I decided to borrow one from my good friend Greg Hutton, and have finally finished the painting, working with specimens I had brought from New Brunswick. I added a fourth ant to improve the composition. Alternately peering through the scope and focusing on my painting, I realized that when it comes to painting detailed subjects, I'm a glutton for punishment!</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I asked Aaron for more information about this species, and this is what he wrote: <i>"Ponera is a genus of ants that shares more ancestral characteristics than any other ant group, making it a good reference for what early ants looked and behaved like. Their back facing, curled stinger is indicative of a highly predatory species of ant. The major characteristic we use to identify Ponera is a constriction of the first segment of the gaster. This constriction is likely what turned into the post-petiole in all other myrmicinae, which is a really cool evolutionary trait! Ponera are typically also nomadic, they don't maintain one permanent nest, rather move locations frequently. The Ponera pennsylvanica I found in spednic weren't new records for the province but they were for that area and PNA". </i><br /><br />Ants are just starting to get attention in the maritimes thanks to the work of Aaron Fairweather and several other early-career entomologists. Ants in the martimes are fairly unknown, and Aaron's work is the first ever assessment of ants in New Brunswick. So far he and his colleagues have found 88 species of ants to call New Brunswick their homes, and new species each year - a rich diversity of species that traverses dozens of habitat types, from dulotic (slave-making) ants, to social parasites, to bog specialists and nomads like the <i>Ponera</i>. </span></div>
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Here is a portrait that I painted for the New Brunswick Museum, of Aaron in August, 2016, when BiotaNB was in the with a small vial of ants that he had just picked off the stick that he is holding. We were in Nepisiguit Protected Natural Area near Mount Carleton, in northwestern New Brunswick that year.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Aaron and the Ants" (oil on canvas, 8 x 8 in.)</i></td></tr>
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Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-30104451432682205842020-03-31T20:12:00.000-04:002023-04-24T11:06:37.911-04:00Resident Chipmunk<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VW5m3ZG-4ZQ/XoPJ4S-o5AI/AAAAAAAAEjs/DZx_SrxQnjQgSEfm1e1mcixV1vg0Gpk6ACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/30yl2020%2BResident%2BChipmunk_800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="630" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VW5m3ZG-4ZQ/XoPJ4S-o5AI/AAAAAAAAEjs/DZx_SrxQnjQgSEfm1e1mcixV1vg0Gpk6ACK4BGAYYCw/s640/30yl2020%2BResident%2BChipmunk_800.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">"Resident Chipmunk" (oil on birch panel 6 x 6 in.)</span></i></td></tr>
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<b>On 14 March 2020</b> our resident Chipmunk was out - sitting pertly on the mossy hump of carpet that marks our dry well just outside the kitchen window. He didn't stay long, but scampered up past the Red Currant bushes and popped into a small round hole just below our Asparagus patch. This was probably its home burrow for the winter, and had me wondering whether Chipmunks eat the roots of Asparagus!<br />
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<b>19 March</b> finds me painting the scene, sitting against the house wall, all wrapped up and settled on cushions, my first plein air of the year.<br />
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As soon as I have the underpainting done, a rough sketch scratched into it with the tail end of my brush, and the mossy green hump of carpet laid in with its halo of red sporophytes, I refer to the photo of the Chipmunk on my phone, and paint in the Chipmunk.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wikv0uI8n8Y/XoPOECeLGNI/AAAAAAAAEj4/_HlHPQk9hpQzF7R0T3NuwHs9h9yk87QqACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/image2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wikv0uI8n8Y/XoPOECeLGNI/AAAAAAAAEj4/_HlHPQk9hpQzF7R0T3NuwHs9h9yk87QqACK4BGAYYCw/s400/image2.jpeg" width="300" /></a><br />
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit;">A flock of 40 Canada Geese just flew over the village, clamouring - their V much longer on the west side than the east. As I finished counting them, a loud scuffle of claws on shingle burst out on my left, and a Red Squirrel exploded into a squeaky, hiccoughing tirade, berating me for camping too close to its entrance. It moved to the Grand Fir to continue scolding, but stayed hidden. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The snow patches have disappeared except for the one where snow and ice have slid off the roof, just to my left. Ice is showing, a grey border all around its edges and the snow's dimpled surface is dotted with black specks and sprinkled with fir seeds shaped like tiny soaring Red-tailed Hawks. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Starlings are practicing the calls of other birds in the Manitoba Maples. They haven’t begun nesting yet, just talking about it. Mourning Doves call, repeating their gentle notes, three the same. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">6:30 Suddenly I hear a rustling in the grass and leaves at the base of one of the Currant bushes, and then appear two small gray beasties in some kind of altercation. They are about the size of large Meadow Mice - but slate gray, not brown. At first I thought they might be moles - they are so large, but not black enough. I didn’t hear any squeaking. One of them scampers toward the drain pipe from the eaves troughs, which is right beside me, and disappears. The world is full of drama, little and big!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Daylight is waning, turning that subtle shade of cloudy day lilac, and Robins call peevishly, not the familiar vesper song, but an irritable, scolding stataco. The ground is beginning to soften - I wonder if they’ve been able to find any worms yet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As I lose the daylight, I paint faster, trying to get as much of the underpainting covered as possible before having to stop and pack up. </span></div>
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Cheers,<br />
Aleta<br />
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<br />Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-59877755042820655622020-01-30T15:56:00.005-05:002023-04-24T11:50:11.363-04:00Musselscape<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Musselscape" (oil on birch panel 12 x 24 in.)</i></td></tr>
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<b><br /></b><div><b>29 January 2020</b> finds me finally putting my signature on this oil painting of a scattering of native mussel shells on the shore of the St Lawrence River near Montreal. This commission has been dragging on through various events and illnesses since I painted most of it in October at my parents' place in Westbank, British Columbia.<br />
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My client tells me that he has always been impressed with how brightly coloured the mussels are at this location. Fred and I have often found the same kinds of variants expressed (in shape, thickness, or colour) within the mussel community at a site. The extreme expressed in this community is the intensity of colour in the 'nacre', or pearly inner shell.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-md2C2WpCJBo/XjNCAOqq5HI/AAAAAAAAEi0/aZyOMFNeKOguYtXvEt12-MMQZogWY_1kQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Musselscape%2BAleta%2Bwith%2Bshells.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="800" height="345" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-md2C2WpCJBo/XjNCAOqq5HI/AAAAAAAAEi0/aZyOMFNeKOguYtXvEt12-MMQZogWY_1kQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Musselscape%2BAleta%2Bwith%2Bshells.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
It was useful to be able to refer to the shells that he sent to me, but the scene was painted mainly from his photos. The water was still in the photo, but the more I worked on it, the more it moved under my brush - so here you the scene after a wavelet has sloshed up and is trickling back through the rocks and shells. The leaves are stranded, their fall finished. But the shells, though trapped motionless among the rocks, I see as if they are stopped in one rhythmic movement of a waltz, in which they'd been flaunting glowing silks and satins, flaring tartans and glossy leather. I never know when a dance is going to break out in one of my paintings.<br />
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<i style="color: #3f3f3f;"><span style="color: #333333;">For more information about available original paintings, commissioning originals, or ordering prints, please </span><b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: #8b8b8b; display: inline; outline: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0b5394;">contact Aleta</span></a></b><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-4605763758918280922019-12-30T17:46:00.002-05:002019-12-30T17:52:10.145-05:00Winter Birches by the Rideau River<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kd2_eZpN1_o/XgpAaaiqcbI/AAAAAAAAEiM/6jopuxvPJGgUGibq2AIQfz7nlAHkYPnXwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/30yl2019%2Bwinter%2Bbirches%2Bby%2Bthe%2BRideau%2BRiver_800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1114" data-original-width="800" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Kd2_eZpN1_o/XgpAaaiqcbI/AAAAAAAAEiM/6jopuxvPJGgUGibq2AIQfz7nlAHkYPnXwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/30yl2019%2Bwinter%2Bbirches%2Bby%2Bthe%2BRideau%2BRiver_800.jpg" width="458" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Winter Birches by the Rideau River" (oil on birch panel 5x7 in.)</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>On the morning of 26 December 2019</b>, the old snow covering the softening ice on the Rideau twinkles brightly between the young Maples along the river edge, while the older Paper Birches show all their different tones and colours of white, and I'm fascinated by this contrast. Our earlier explorations of these woods along the river revealed a diversity of the 'spring ephemeral' wildflower species which are so missing in so many of eastern Ontario's plantation or second-growth woods.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I was inspired to paint something foresty for my birthday, by our friend Bev Wigney, who, as part of the struggle to preserve mature forests in Nova Scotia from clear cutting, had called Boxing Day <a href="https://www.saltwire.com/news/provincial/take-back-the-forest-residents-in-annapolis-county-walk-in-the-woods-to-celebrate-a-year-of-success-392488/" target="_blank">'Take Back the Forest Day.'</a> - encouraging everyone to document some aspect of a local forest. Bev's group had gone out to the little peninsula between Corbett and Dalhousie lakes, about 10 kilometres south of Bridgetown, which they had saved from clear-cutting by pointing out to the province that nesting Birds were protected from disturbance by the Migratory Birds Convention Act.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As I lay down tree trunks over my violet-grey underpainting I listen for sounds through the open car window. My mind's ear, waiting for bird sound, picks up the squeak of a tree but it's not the "peep" of a foraging Chickadee. The woods are as silent as the ice-bound river beyond. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The older forest behind me had originally been a provincial tree nursery, but when the Harris government decided to get out of trees in 1997, the newly amalgamated municipality of North Grenville took over the forest station as a not-for-profit. The web page of the </span><a href="https://www.fergusontreenursery.ca/about-us" style="font-family: inherit;" target="_blank">Ferguson Tree Nursery</a><span style="font-family: inherit;"> says about itself: "The nursery grows native and proven non-invasive naturalized trees and woody shrubs hardy for the south-central and eastern Ontario climate as well as the south western Quebec climate."</span><br />
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Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-47425356522509996802019-10-12T02:05:00.002-04:002023-04-24T11:50:54.904-04:00Little Fall at High Falls<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Little Fall at High Falls" (oil on Birch panel 8 x 8 inches)</i></td></tr>
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22 September 2019 finds me at High Falls on the South Nation River near Casselman, Ontario, with Fred and painting companion <a href="https://www.indiantime.net/story/2009/02/26/news/mohawk-artist-wins-top-honors-at-massena-art-exhibition/1394.html" target="_blank">Charlotte King</a>. Charlotte and I don't know what to expect at a place named "High Falls", here in the apparently flat landscape of far-eastern Ontario. Certainly as we arrive, there is no high waterfall to be seen! But as Fred explains, the South Nation River flows over a series of sills on its way to the Ottawa River, and this is a long, gradual one.<br />
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The water is low since our summer drought, pooling above the hydro dam by the Conservation Area parking lot, and trickling over a spillway into a quiet shallow catchment, thence into a network of cracks and channels in the flat bedrock of the dry riverbed. Each crack is lined with tall grass that screens naturally stone-paved "rooms" from each other. The rock then subsides into a wide water mirror, reflecting every detail of the forested far shore. We thread our way along the bank under overhanging trees, to the ruins of the old bridge.<br />
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There Charlotte and I disport ourselves in photography. The long curved branches of a tree caught by the eroded footings fascinate me. Even a mat of floating algae is gorgeous, pushed together like carded wool in a tapestry, each strand a different colour of yellow or green.<br />
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We eventually follow Fred, who is some way ahead, having become a tiny part of a broad vista of flat, sloping limestone - and then we discover the hidden wonders of High Falls - deep narrow fissures in the solid bedrock that channel the flow of the South Nation River - invisible from a distance, but surprising and enchanting to come upon. I take a video of a rotating pan of foam being spun by the current at the intersection of two of these channels. Charlotte and I delight in miniature waterfalls, some wide, and some narrow, spilling over the edges of tipped-up slabs of limestone. After we wander from wonder to wonder, we try to decide which to paint, taking photos of everything, including the sky's high mackerel clouds, as colours soften toward evening. Finally I settle down to paint one of these little falls.<br />
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September dusks fall early. We lost the light after barely a couple of hours. Charlotte had painted the riverbed with three trickles coming over a shelf, the ledge along the shore, and autumn-coloured riverine forest against the sky,<br />
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...but my complicated little waterfall scene was barely recognizable and would need a lot more work! Finished now, it lacks the simplicity of a painting done entirely "en plein air". As with so many of my close-up landscapes, I find myself surprised by the amount of detail required for the painting to explain itself - for all the brush strokes it takes to express the difference between rock and water, and between rock and dried algae. I must admit, my favourite bit is the tiny pink-flowered knotweed in the foreground!<br />
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As Fred appeared with bags full of drift and shells, and sat beside me in his wet pants & socks, Charlotte and I packed up. We'd spent a wonderful day in a splendid place, and promised each other to paint again at High Falls.<br />
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Fred's notes are as follows:<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"In its course through the clay deposits of the prehistoric Champlain Sea, the South Nation River flows down across a number of limestone bedrock steps or sills - Spencerville, Ventnor, Chesterville, Crysler, Plantagenet, and Jessups Falls - but the highest of these is High Falls in Casselman. The arrival of Zebra Mussels in 2000 drastically changed the biota of the river, and collections made there since 1997 document that change.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"... a Turkey Vulture & a Great Blue Heron, the rattling of Kingfishers, an Osprey with prey, and flocks of Killdeer and of Lesser & Greater Yellowlegs fattening themselves for migration by picking the abundant <i>Physa</i><i> </i>snails off the surface of the pale green algal blankets. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />"Plants growing in the cracks of the limestone were <i><b>Purple</b><b> </b><b>Loosestrife</b></i><i>,</i> with a used-up, nearly-leafless look & reddish coloration from the herbivory of Galerucella biocontrol Beetles, scattered Giant Ragweed, and Knotweed & Wild Mint tangled in the lower levels of 2 m tall <i><b>Reed Canary Grass</b>. <b>Flowering-rush</b></i> along shore was mostly in pod with a few blooms, and at the foot of the falls, Sandbar Willow dominated the places where soil had accumulated (species in <b><i>bold italic</i></b> are, despite their loveliness, loathsome invasive aliens). Duckweeds (mostly <i>Lemna minor</i>, with some <i>Spirodela polyrhiza</i>) were interesting in occurring in vividly green patches & piles on algal flats<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">where one plant had apparently stranded when the water went down in the spring and produced a heap of offspring on top of the wet algal mats. </span><br />
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"The water flows in cracks or seeps across the surface, providing habitat for the pale green algal blankets. These were about 10 cm thick, and stinkingly anoxic just 2-4 cm below the surface. They are dotted with little Physa Tadpole Snails, safe here from predation by fish, although vulnerable to the migratory shorebirds.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />"We found a few shells of Unionids, didn't see any <b><i>Mystery Snails</i></b> (I had found our first record of <b><i>Banded Mysteries</i></b> here in 2016, and <b><i>Chinese Mysteries</i></b> are in Hess Creek upstream, and expected to soon be in the river), and didn't see any living <b><i>Zebras</i></b>, though their shells, presumably from the river upstream of the falls, were strewn everywhere across the bedrock. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />"The west bank of the falls is slabby grey limestone, with a big zone of spring-drifted twigs & branches, one corner of which provided a sample of land snails. Where Manitoba Maple trees reach over crowded <b><i>Buckthorn </i></b>and <b><i>Honeysuckle</i></b> on the edge of the open riverbed, the slabs are green with Sedum,<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>including <i><b>Sedum spurium</b></i> (Two-row Stonecrop), which, as in 2016, was rich in land snail shells, including many of the Succineidae which recent study has rendered almost unidentifiable. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">"The general homogeneity of the scene was broken by a pool near the foot of the falls, surrounded by <i>Zizania palustris</i> (Northern Wild-rice) more than 2 metres tall, with a few residual seeds in their heads, and big <i>Helisoma campanulatum</i> (Bell-mouth Ramshorn) snails all over the muddy bottom of the open water - both species not seen elsewhere around the falls. The only Amphibian seen was one Leopard Frog on bedrock near an algal flow, though a few jump-in squeaks of Green Frogs were heard. We finished up at dusk, as overcast moved in, locking in the heat of the day at 27°C, and at 24-25°C for the drive home."</span></div><div style="line-height: 18.4px; margin-bottom: 0.25cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
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</div>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-72054027186892610282019-09-25T16:45:00.002-04:002019-09-25T17:07:23.696-04:00Making it Across<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Making it Across, Spednic Snapping Turtle" (oil on canvas 10 x 10 in.)</i></td></tr>
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It's a hard life, being a turtle! I painted this portrait of a Snapping Turtle, from a photo taken by Don McAlpine of the New Brunswick Museum, in June last year at the BiotaNB survey of Spednic Protected Natural Area, near McAdam, NB. It was crossing the road at the bridge over Diggity Stream.<br />
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I've shown a thin strip of riverbank beneath the truck, and a reflection of part of the bridge in the chrome bumper, but most of the painting is devoted to the task at hand - Making it Across. The truck, in the original photo, was parked on the far side of the road, but in planning the painting, I took a reference photo of a truck wheel from a more ominous perspective - that of a crossing turtle. I wanted it to look as if the driver has rolled up close to watch it cross and to hurry it along. Or maybe the truck is threatening the plodding reptile - defending the road as Truck Territory.<br />
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Snappers raise their bodies up on surprisingly long legs as they walk, giving a sort of Dinosaur impression as they cross roads - which you can see from a distance, before the turtle crouches at your approach. You've really got to be driving distractedly, to not notice an adult Snapping Turtle, but sometimes they're hit deliberately - by truck, or gun, or even with whatever weapon is at hand, as there's still a persistent folk-myth about Snappers feasting on ducklings.<br />
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As Wolves with Deer, swampy lurkers prey on the outliers and the weakest - but the parents of Ducklings are quite capable of keeping enough of their little ones safe, and raise a nestful of progeny each year during their several-year lifespan. The nests of turtles, on the other hand, are persistently wiped out most years, especially when they use traditional nesting sites well-known to Racoons, Skunks, and Coyotes. These efficient predator/scavengers leave not one egg behind when they dig up a nest. When you see a large Snapping Turtle patiently dropping eggs into a hole that she's dug in a gravelly road shoulder, remember that this is an individual who may be older than your grandmother. The largest mamas may be centenarians! Through the many decades of her life, how many nests have escaped predation, and of those, how many hatchlings have survived to dig their own nests?<br />
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Everything that isn't vegetarian will eat baby Snapping Turtles whenever they find them - Herons, Water Snakes, Mink, Otter, some fish, and especially Bull Frogs. Even adult Snappers are vulnerable to natural predators while hibernating. Coyotes and Otters eat whatever parts they can reach of a cold and helpless turtle who perhaps did not bury itself well enough for the winter, or was exposed when water levels dropped. That's what happened to the Snapper I've painted - it's front foot and at least one hind toe on the right are missing. The longest-studied population of Snapping Turtles in Canada, at the Algonquin Wildlife Research Centre, suffered 50% mortality by River Otter predation in the winters of 1986–1989, when Otters were eating the eggs out of hibernating females. In the quarter century since those fateful years, the population has failed to recover, despite careful observation and protection of many nests from predators. <i>(information from Keevil, M. G., R. J. Brooks, and J. D. Litzgus. 2018. Post-catastrophe patterns of abundance and survival reveal no evidence of population recovery in a long-lived animal. Ecosphere 9(9):21 pp.)</i><br />
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Baby Snappers emerge in the fall from gravel road shoulders near creeks and wetlands. Since they are so small, it's hard to count those that get squashed by vehicles unless you're walking and looking for them - so the percentage of hatchlings that are killed on roads would be hard to know. <br />
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Snapping Turtles are listed as a Species At Risk, despite their wide occurrence, just because it isn't known how their populations work, and what their potential is for surviving as a species in the face of road mortality.<br />
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This little one was picked up by Fred from the road at the Fly Creek bridge, near New Dublin, Ontario, shortly after it emerged on 2 September. After taking its picture, we released it in the creek.<br />
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Congratulations on having made it across again this year, big mama Snapper - here's wishing you many successful nests and lucky nestlings!<br />
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My painting "Making it Across, Spednic Snapping Turtle" is in the permanent collection of the New Brunswick Museum.<br />
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<br />Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-72378037331486683252019-09-07T19:32:00.003-04:002023-04-24T11:11:09.641-04:00Fish Images Emerging, #2<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>White Perch Emerging (watercolour, 8 x 5 in.)</i></td></tr>
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Here are three more "progress images" from the freshwater fish I painted this spring for the New Brunswick Museum, to be published by the Department of Fisheries & Oceans in their identification cards series. The finished paintings are "biological illustrations", but the stage in which each painting emerges from the paper, is Art.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Golden Shiner Emerging (watercolour, 8 x 5 in.)</i></td></tr>
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I have no "formula" for painting fish scales across different species. Some have regular rows of scales, with well-defined scale margins, but even then, the rows curve, and increase and decrease like rows of knitting - behind the head, toward the tail, and sometimes in the middle. Then there are those species in which scale row irregularities vary between individuals, and those whose scales, although arranged in rows, are so thin and transparent that the edges are not visible - just the impressions the rows make in the skin. Some fish are more iridescent than others, and many show very little iridescence while underwater, so I had to make the decision to paint all of the iridescent species as seen out of the water - the situation in which most humans view fish anyway. The Blacknose Dace has such fine, thin scales, that their edges are invisible, and the scales in different parts of the body are pigmented differently<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Blacknose Dace Emerging (watercolour 5 x 8 in.)</i></td></tr>
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Each of my reference photos showed an individual fish differently, in position and condition, as well as in angle and colour of light, so I constantly flipped through all of the photos I could find, to paint each fish as representative as possible of its species. I read about their life histories and got an almost tangible sense of their mass and shape, muscularity and texture, the stiffness or softness of their fins, the breadth of their heads, the shapes of their mouths, the details of their eyes - and gradually felt more and more a part of each species as I painted it. It was no longer "other", but as familiar to me as a family member - as Fred wrote in his song when I was painting snakes in the 1980's - "...bind another species' spirit to your own".<br />
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These three fish are the second part of my series of larger-than-life "Fish Emerging" prints on watercolour paper or stretched canvas. Contact <a href="mailto:karstad@pinicola.ca" target="_blank">Aleta</a><br />
<br />Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-56780357469166232492019-09-01T00:45:00.002-04:002023-04-24T11:14:22.886-04:00Fish Images Emerging <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zdet14ivPeI/XWsm-7JkV0I/AAAAAAAAEb4/VU61ycMgxwYBgR5IUDeIpQzFNa-GrfgXwCLcBGAs/s1600/Smallmouth%2BBass%2Bprogress%2B1000.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="1000" height="284" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zdet14ivPeI/XWsm-7JkV0I/AAAAAAAAEb4/VU61ycMgxwYBgR5IUDeIpQzFNa-GrfgXwCLcBGAs/s640/Smallmouth%2BBass%2Bprogress%2B1000.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Smallmouth Bass Emerging (watercolour, 8x4 in.)</i></td></tr>
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In June 2019 I finished the last of 20 fish watercolours to be published as identification cards by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. I remember feeling daunted by the task when the New Brunswick Museum asked me if I would do it, especially since I would be responsible for finding my own photographic reference for all of them.<br />
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I began in January, and with each painting, I learned more about googling up a useful selection of reference photos, what it feels like to be a fish of each species, and with each painting, further developed techniques for counting and painting scales, drawing and painting fins, and showing different kinds of iridescence. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Largemouth Bass Emerging (watercolour, 8 x 4 in.)</i></td></tr>
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I like to keep track of my progress on a painting, by photographing each stage. First I make a complete drawing in pencil, and then I start to paint at the head, working toward the tail. There is usually a stage in the process, where the fish seems to be physically emerging from the paper. Sometimes I became so absorbed that I didn't stop in time - but there were about half a dozen images in the 20 fish paintings where I managed to capture that moment of emergence. Here are the first three of my series of six. These images can teach you how to paint fish!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4QrqKh8fT4k/XWsoW87z3RI/AAAAAAAAEcM/ph_ypfe2enwu_3FAE6gg7wlT5ClaeF9iQCLcBGAs/s1600/Yellow%2BPerch%2BProgress%2Bprint%2B1000.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="1000" height="378" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4QrqKh8fT4k/XWsoW87z3RI/AAAAAAAAEcM/ph_ypfe2enwu_3FAE6gg7wlT5ClaeF9iQCLcBGAs/s640/Yellow%2BPerch%2BProgress%2Bprint%2B1000.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Yellow Perch Emerging (watercolour 5 x 4 in.)</i></td></tr>
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Although my completed paintings have been deposited in the New Brunswick Museum and their images, with clear white backgrounds, have been sent to DFO for publication, the emergent images, with their pencil lines and paper backgrounds are my own to present as fine art. I am making them available for purchase as 18 x 24 inch prints, considerably enlarged from the miniature watercolours <br />
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Watch for another set of three "emergent fish" to complete the series of 6. <div>To order: "Fish Emerging" prints on watercolour paper or stretched canvas. Contact <a href="mailto:karstad@pinicola.ca" target="_blank">Aleta</a><br />
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<br /></div></div>Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-53666705280457960082019-08-12T21:50:00.000-04:002019-08-12T22:24:11.026-04:00Artist on the Dumoine<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DlmipM1U3O0/XVIUPYjw2XI/AAAAAAAAEbA/JjAFdZV0JyMYmaLpO0y3DTKXyvU4PwWhgCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/Artist%2Bon%2Bthe%2BDumoine%2B600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DlmipM1U3O0/XVIUPYjw2XI/AAAAAAAAEbA/JjAFdZV0JyMYmaLpO0y3DTKXyvU4PwWhgCK4BGAYYCw/s640/Artist%2Bon%2Bthe%2BDumoine%2B600.jpg" width="312" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"Artist on the Dumoine" (oil on birch panel 6 x 12 in)</i></td></tr>
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<b>3 August 2019</b> finds me on the river bank a few minutes' walk from this year's DRAW (Dumoine River Artists for Wilderness) camp. Bonnie McQuillan is sitting near a magnificent Red Pine, painting the a downstream scene on a small canvas. On her easel is a larger painting, which she'd been working on in the morning - and I am painting her.<br />
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The water is clear but rich with tannins from being fed through leaf litter and peat over a vast forested watershed of 1,776 square kilometres drained by tributaries into the Dumoine. Its channel is so deep here that it soon descends from bright golden over cobbles to black. A bright sand bar and another of cobbles make brilliant streaks along the far bank, where an eddy makes the river flow back against itself. Mark and Phil are playing in the current, letting the strong flow in the centre convey them quickly past us to the right, about 200 metres down till their heads are just dots, and then they strike out toward the far shore and catch a slower current back.<br />
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There are several small cabins here on a high bank under pines and maples, and in the shade, the breeze feels cool, though it's several degrees warmer in the sunny clearing of our camp in the woods. This year's toadlet hops away from my feet as I shift my position on the pine-needled ground.<br />
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<b>4 August:</b> Returning to the spot to continue in the same afternoon light, first I wander up to the main cabin to see where our swimming artists descend by a stairway to the water's edge. Scott Haig, our camp photographer is there, and we both experiment with taking photos from a low angle, to capture the whole of the golden shallows, the sky reflecting on deep water, and the forested hills upriver.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fMnQ4Fe8C_A/XVIT3GbpfEI/AAAAAAAAEa0/mwNLt4s5V9MJuURwsSkXJyAtMQtpsYu2ACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/River%2BJewelwing1000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fMnQ4Fe8C_A/XVIT3GbpfEI/AAAAAAAAEa0/mwNLt4s5V9MJuURwsSkXJyAtMQtpsYu2ACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/River%2BJewelwing1000.jpg" /></a><br />
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Then I noticed an exquisite River Jewelwing damselfly landing on one of the stones... subject for a future painting.<br />
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This year 17 artists were invited to participate in the 6-day DRAW art camp in support of CPAWS Ottawa Valley's campaign for conservation of the Dumoine River wilderness. Watch for more paintings from the Dumoine. Our exhibitions and art auction is planned for the spring of 2020.<br />
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<br />Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-39830831509805632282019-07-19T18:25:00.003-04:002019-07-19T18:29:34.107-04:00New Brunswick Pseudoscorpion<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-USxG8BfIkK8/XTI-lA91HQI/AAAAAAAAEaU/BIwItu2NhI40PETaSFCtNRRopxuq2ZkjQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/30yl2019%2Bpseudoscorpion%2B1000.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-USxG8BfIkK8/XTI-lA91HQI/AAAAAAAAEaU/BIwItu2NhI40PETaSFCtNRRopxuq2ZkjQCK4BGAYYCw/s640/30yl2019%2Bpseudoscorpion%2B1000.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"New Brunswick Pseudoscorpion" (oil on birch panel 12 x 16 in.)</i></td></tr>
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<b>On 28 June 2019</b>, two days into this year’s BiotaNB survey as “Resident Artist” in the Kennedy Lakes Protected Natural Area, I found myself sliding down through the ocular tubes of a microscope, into the worlds of Rotifers and Water Bears. </div>
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As the botanists, returning to the lab trailer from their field excursions, identified their collections of fungi, mosses, and Liverworts, one of them called my attention to a Pseudoscorpion he’d found wandering among tiny mosses as if they were trees and bushes. </div>
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Pseudoscorpions are tiny predators, catching and eating anything smaller than themselves - mites, nematodes, and tiny larvae of this and that. The Pseudoscorpion we see most often is a little larger than the one I’ve painted here - the indoors species, <i>Chelifer cancroides</i>, is a welcome symbiont in pantry and closets.</div>
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This one is as yet unidentified - the shape and proportions of claws to cephalothorax, the numbers of leg segments, and the placement of the sensory bristles on the claws may give a clue, IF it is a known species... but when you find microscopic life in as remote a place as the middle of New Brunswick, over 50 km from the nearest town, it just might be something new. </div>
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My painting shows the Pseudoscorpion in its natural setting - on part of the moss sample in which it was found - but painting it there was not as easy as it looks. If released to photograph there, I would have lost sight of it right away among the microscopic acres of mosses and liverworts. </div>
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Attempting to place the delicate killed specimen there, I would have broken it with the blunt spike of the finest insect pin. So instead, I positioned it digitally - cutting and pasting my photo of the living beastie onto one of my photos of the moss sample. I used this composite to rough out the painting, and then captured details of the animal (now in alcohol, and no longer scuttling about) and finishing the moss, both through the ‘scope. Needless to say, it took me the first half of the two-week BiotaNB camp to accomplish this. </div>
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<i><b>New Brunswick Pseudoscorpion</b></i> has now joined my other oils and watercolours in the “Aleta Karstad collection” of the New Brunswick Museum, painted over the past 10 years at its annual biological survey camps in NB's "Natural Protected Areas".</div>
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Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-18891506448174523672018-12-29T23:05:00.002-05:002023-04-24T11:15:09.595-04:00Winter Creek With Cedars<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--_z7-cxrEtM/XCgRsXijtqI/AAAAAAAAEWY/oxxVN70KbyQjebWohV6p3km_vrYXqe_2wCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/30yl2018%2Bwinter%2Bcreek%2Bwith%2Bcedars%2B800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--_z7-cxrEtM/XCgRsXijtqI/AAAAAAAAEWY/oxxVN70KbyQjebWohV6p3km_vrYXqe_2wCK4BGAYYCw/s400/30yl2018%2Bwinter%2Bcreek%2Bwith%2Bcedars%2B800.jpg" width="398" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Winter Creek With Cedars <i>(oil on birch panel 6 x 6 in.)</i></td></tr>
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<b>26 December 2018</b> finds me doing my "Birthday painting" on the ice of the creek that Cooks' lane runs along, while Fred helps Joyce to cut our firewood from standing dead Elms and Ashes. We are at the southeastern corner of Wolford Township, 4 km southwest of our home in Bishops Mills. About 100 metres upstream of Land of Nod Road, the creek is narrow, its current maintaining a stretch of open water. </div>
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As I sit quietly painting, I can hear the water make a deep swallowing noice from beneath the ice just across from me. The slowly rising water must have pushed some air from an under-ice pocket as it creeps infinitesimally up over the softening edges. As I paint, the 'coastline' subtly changes. The weather has been warming, and the snow that is falling now will turn to rain this evening.</div>
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In a pause between bouts of sawing I hear scritchy, grating sounds from somewhere behind me as the sharp teeth of a Red Squirrel cut through the hard shell of one of the nuts they have gathered and stored from the row of Black Walnut trees in the Cooks' yard. We have not seen the squirrels themselves, (there are fewer as this is the second winter since the bird feeders were taken down) but there are some biggish tracks that may even be Gray Squirrel in the shallow snow, and a couple of nests ('drays') made of leaves in the tops of trees.</div>
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The woodcutting has finished, and Fred comes to rest on the snowy ice beside me. A Red Squirrel chirrs from the edge of the field across the creek, and after a while, we hear the soft "Ank, ank, ank" call of a Nuthatch from the direction of the house. My umbrella, its pole held between my knees as I sit on my painting caddy, is now covered with snow, and it's a good thing that the air is calm. There have been times when breezes have driven snow flakes up under the umbrella to stick to my palette and brushes and even the paintings!<br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qNUl1tR9dtk/XChHC0AlekI/AAAAAAAAEWk/a1Ym4uO1GFAqX0Ih0Ef7Md7xhxemmyYcwCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/AK%2Bpaints%2BWinter%2BCreek%2BWith%2BCedars%2B800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qNUl1tR9dtk/XChHC0AlekI/AAAAAAAAEWk/a1Ym4uO1GFAqX0Ih0Ef7Md7xhxemmyYcwCK4BGAYYCw/s400/AK%2Bpaints%2BWinter%2BCreek%2BWith%2BCedars%2B800.jpg" width="322" /></a></div>
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Fred mentions that he's noticed a fair number of <i>Hypsizygus ulmarius</i> (Manitoba Maple Knothole Oyster) frozen, drooping, on Manitoba Maple knotholes. </div>
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Joyce uses her chainsaw to cut the wood, but only does this when someone is with her, so Fred and I play a big role in forest sanitation in the woods along the creek. This creekside was rough pasture when Cooks bought the place in 1972, but it grew up in Elm and some Manitoba Maple. The Manitoba Maples have been overtopped by Ashes, and the the young Elms have now been mostly killed by Dutch Elm Disease (Elms being most of the trees we cut). The Elm canopy spaces have been filled up by rapidly growing Ashes, which are now threatened by Emerald Ash Borer. When this tiny slim metallic green bark beetle shows up here, the woods will soon be dominated by Black Walnuts from squirrel-borne nuts, a second generation of resistant Elms, and whatever else can germinate among the ground cover of young Frangulus Buckthorn. </div>
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There are a few Sugar Maples, a planted Red Oak, a large Black Cherry very dear to Joyce, and planted Black Locusts (along the edge of the field), so we'll have to see if all of these produce progeny when the Ashes die. Older stems of Cathartic Buckthorn which Joyce has spared because the Bohemian Waxwings eat the fruit in late winter, are scattered through the woods. They are now stunted by the overshadowing Ashes, and today one was cut which had died, astonishing Joyce's saw by how hard the wood was. One big tree/shrub in the centre of the stand, with more berries than most, retained a full crown of green leaves. Most Buckthorn everywhere have very few berries this year. </div>
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As the painting was winding up (16h49), after a lull from the snow when there was no precipitation, a breeze began, and a bit of drizzle began to fall in the barely-below-freezing air. As I folded my umbrella, it dumped its load of snow - partly onto my palette! We are back at home now, getting my paints out to touch up the edges of ice and fill in a bit of Cedar... and I need to get out to help Fred do something about the way the woodshed is now completely filled with uncut lengths of logs. . .<br />
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Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-44218140666280644632018-09-17T17:28:00.003-04:002020-03-31T19:55:54.800-04:00La Grande Chute From the Bridge<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g3mDz0NjkTk/W6AIzuCVx-I/AAAAAAAAEU4/UtjwU_cv99QVxIg6OziuEWIiH4Ipet26gCLcBGAs/s1600/30yl2018%2BLa%2BGrande%2BChute%2BFrom%2Bthe%2BBridge_800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="800" height="450" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-g3mDz0NjkTk/W6AIzuCVx-I/AAAAAAAAEU4/UtjwU_cv99QVxIg6OziuEWIiH4Ipet26gCLcBGAs/s640/30yl2018%2BLa%2BGrande%2BChute%2BFrom%2Bthe%2BBridge_800.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>La Grande Chute From the Bridge (oil on birch panel, 5 x 7 in.)</i></td></tr>
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<b>5 August 2018</b> found me painting from the bridge, looking at the west bank of the Dumoine River as it rushes down La Grande Chute, on the last painting day of the DRAW artists retreat.<br />
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The day began in fog, and I was out early to see the river in a different light. I investigated the shore upstream of the bridge on the west side, where the rising sun was burning through the mist above the glassy surface of a slower part of the river as it passes a small treed island. No painting, just photos for a potential painting... Then I took some photos looking upstream from the bridge on the east side, where a majestic Cedar sweeps its branches over whitewater beginning its rush to the Chute... then turned to look downstream as the pearly light of early morning tinted the river and the sky in subtle pinks and blues - a subject more suited to a larger painting, and I had only a few small panels to choose from.<br />
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Phil Chadwick was already on his second painting, standing at the east end of the bridge, and Mark Patton was happily situated among the rocks where the bridge meets the west shore,on the downstream side, starting a painting of rocks and water.<br />
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There was still a little morning mist bluing the distance downriver when I finally chose my scene from near the centre of the bridge span. I set up my stool, umbrella, and paint box close against the bridge railing, so as not to take up too much room, as the occasional vehicle picked its way past me between holes and weak spots in the wooden deck of the bridge.<br />
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I painted quickly and steadily until around noon, not thinking much, or writing any observations, as the day was quickly turning hotter than yesterday - and there was no shade on the bridge except for my umbrella.<br />
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Here is what the painting looked like when I stopped around noon. Except for the untended underpainting left in the centre of the treed riverbank, it is an acceptable plein air sketch. But when I got it home I finished it with more detail than would have been possible onsite.<br />
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When I carried my gear back to the car, I stopped to visit with Phil and Mark in the shade, where Phil was working on his third painting of the morning. Some of us are faster than others!<br />
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Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-54620988287708798732018-09-15T22:11:00.002-04:002018-11-25T13:51:14.677-05:00La Grande Chute Gorge<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">4 August 2018</b><span style="font-family: inherit;"> finds me looking down into the gorge, part way down La Grande Chute on the Dumoine Rive in Quebec. I have hiked the east side trail downriver with Jennifer, one of the DRAW retreat artists, until it ends at a lookout, just at the narrowest part of the gorge. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here all of the leaping churning water of the Dumoine, frothing white and twisting golden like pulled taffy, plunges deep and black into the gorge. The cliffs on either side are swallowing the river - and far to my left, I see were it emerges, broad, blue, and gleaming in the sun. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m sitting on the springy trunk of a recently broken young Pine, the rest of which extends out over the chasm. The view I've chosen, straight down into the gorge, noisy with the Chute’s millions of watery voices, includes a gnarly dwarf cedar, perched on the brink just beyond a puffy mat of <i>Cladonia</i> lichen bristly with Pine needles. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Clinging to the rocks of the other side are a couple of slender White Birches, which I can see with my binoculars, as well as some <i>Polypody</i> ferns. A pair of dead White Cedars sweep their ghostly gray branches toward the bare rocks, and in contrast, my artist's eye appreciates the foliage of the living Cedars beside it as neat and rounded - green flakes feathering out of darkness. Higher on the cliffs, White Pines emerge from the Cedars to plume against the sky. </span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7CdvmLPnos8/W51v8iCBcZI/AAAAAAAAEUg/KGwCvpd5gdkYiGGxMNAWcI1Y9yyXYaCugCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/IMG_2689.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #454545; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7CdvmLPnos8/W51v8iCBcZI/AAAAAAAAEUg/KGwCvpd5gdkYiGGxMNAWcI1Y9yyXYaCugCK4BGAYYCw/s400/IMG_2689.jpg" width="330" /></span></a><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I choose a dark red oxide, "Indian </span>red<span style="font-family: inherit;">" for underpainting, and work steadily, determined to make the most of the time before </span>the light changes.<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit;">The day has been hazy and hot wih a light breeze, and after four hours of painting, the sun has come around to glare under the edge of my umbrella and reflects off my palette, blinding me to the tones in my painting. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: inherit;">So although for the past hour I’ve been “not quitting yet” in order to fill in one more feature of the cliff face or one more standing wave or blue reflection on slick black water - even holding my painting up inside the umbrella to see it better away from the glare - it’s finally time to give in and pack up. My palette knife and empty thermos which have long ago lost their shade are too hot to touch. This is as far as I've gotten - I will finish it from my reference photos. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Dear supporters and patrons of my art,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">The 6 x 6 inch original oil painting, "La Grande Chute Gorge" will be exhibited at Coronation Hall in Bristol, Quebec, from Oct 5 - 8, and then offered for sale in a fundraising art auction by the Ottawa Valley Chapter of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society. If you would like to be notified about either of these venues, please contact <a href="mailto:karstad@pinicola.ca" target="_blank">Aleta </a></span></div>
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Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-68346152574099105382018-09-01T21:47:00.000-04:002018-11-25T14:14:01.043-05:00Dumoine Aspen with Lichen<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-style: italic;">"Dumoine Aspen With Lichen" (9 x 12 in.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><b>2 August 2018</b> found me painting <i>Lobaria pulmonaria</i>, the Lung Lichen, growing on the trunk of a tall Aspen near Robinson Lake on the Dumoine River, Quebec.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">A bird somewhere off in the dripping woods insistently cries “tree, tree, tree” or perhaps it’s a baby Robin begging “me, me, me”. The Lobaria caught my attention, being lime green in its wetness, and veiny, reticulated brown and White - a network of brown with white in the spaces. The Trembling Aspen is black-lumpy all the way up to its crown of little heart shaped leaves and the lower two- thirds of the trunk is striped with dark splits. Some of the lower lumps are velvety with fine mosses. The woods are solemn and still, savouring the rain and expecting more. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This morning’s clouds have lifted from the crest of the forest across the lake, and the sun and light breeze are gently drying the wet foliage that I’ve been stepping over and pushing through to set up my woodsy studio. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">The other artists have all been given rides to La Grande Chute, and Varvara is reading a book and tending the campfire. A Robin scolds insistently, "check, check, check" down by the lake, and up here, I’ve been answering a Raven, imitating its churring “cllllllk”. I think it may be curious about someone speaking nonsense in reply to its calls. I responded to its double calls, and now when I make only a single call, it said “gwack, gwack”, and flew off, saying “gwack” once more in the distance - like “why have I been wasting my time?” Once what I take to be an adult Raven sang out a few clear, woodwind-like hoots while flying over, which I didn’t try to imitate. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">My mosquito coils are hanging from the thin curving lower branches of young Firs behind and beside me, and all is still except for the occasional pattering of drops when a breeze stirs the foliage overhead. </span><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FSvINTYzA4I/W4tDWSJOpkI/AAAAAAAAEUE/XCVUalaZthsifXluN9Cy3Td9sYVcG8DgQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/ak%2Bpainting%2BDumoine%2BAspen%2BWith%2BLichen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Suddenly I’m being investigated by a young Red Squirrel, who squeaks and twitches on the shattered trunk of a fallen Fir only a metre away. Just as I turn slowly to take its picture it scoots beneath the trunk and peers at me from there, stamping its forefeet boldly to make sure I know that I wasn’t invited. Then it takes an alternate route to skirt my temporary studio, from trunk to trunk, along the low squirrel road network of fallen Poplars, Firs, and Pines. There must have been a blowdown here this spring -I had noticed a lot of cut branches and dead leaves along this track as if the roadway has been cleared recently. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">But whatever has fallen has left skyspace for a couple of tall Aspens, one of which is my knobby-trunked painting subject, and I must turn from writing to painting now, as it’s nearly noon. The sky is bright but the day’s expected heat has been held at bay by thin clouds exposing a pale blue sky in places. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">15:20 bright hot sun and Cicada song. I’m back from my lunch and a bit of a rest with my feet up in the insect-free zone of my tent, and now I have to shift the position of the umbrella so the sun doesn’t glare on my palette. Blue Jays flying about behind me somewhere, having a noisy altercation. Charlotte had walked with me back to my painting spot to see the dark lumps on my Aspen which I'd thought may be the medicinal fungus Chaga (but that grows only on Birches. This is probably <i>Phellinus tremulae</i>, which grows on Aspen). We spent some time watching a pair of Flickers flitting about nearby, and foraging in a head-up position on the neighbouring Aspen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">19:30 and the Red Squirrel is insistent that I leave now. A volley of distinct chip chip chip chip m, and he’s not stopping until I’m gone. Anyway, it's time to join the other artists around the campfire for supper.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This is what I accomplished in 8 hours en plein air:</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YDwTpT-HHUA/W4s3WJMdeyI/AAAAAAAAETs/pD9fkv657NEH3DFuvLDVZdKci3jL1YgagCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/30yl2018%2BDumoine%2BAspen%2Bwith%2Blichen_progress_800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YDwTpT-HHUA/W4s3WJMdeyI/AAAAAAAAETs/pD9fkv657NEH3DFuvLDVZdKci3jL1YgagCK4BGAYYCw/s400/30yl2018%2BDumoine%2BAspen%2Bwith%2Blichen_progress_800.jpg" width="296" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I brought it home and after several bouts of "finishing it", have now finally gotten the last of the vague areas defined. One thing I've learned over the years - there's always more to do on a lichen painting - there's no end to the detail, and one can always go deeper. It's so easy to get lost among the bodies or "thalli" of the Lobaria, and it takes a special kind of concentration - even a bit of kneaded eraser stuck to my iPad to try and keep my place in the photo. Infinite detail is unattainable, so one must strive for balance - and when that's achieved, the painting is done. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">I love this flamboyant, "leafy" lichen, <i>Lobaria! </i>I first noticed it in New Brunswick, lung-textured scraps fallen onto the hiking trails from the tops of trees after wind storms, and drew it in ink for my 1979 Canadian Nature Notebook. Wikipedia tells me that "<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">it is sensitive to </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_pollution" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Air pollution">air pollution</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> and is also negatively affected by </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_loss" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Habitat loss">habitat loss</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> and changes in </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forestry" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Forestry">forestry</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> practices. Its population has declined across </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Europe">Europe</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> and </span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">L. pulmonaria</i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> is considered </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endangered_species" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Endangered species">endangered</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> in many </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowland" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Lowland">lowland</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"> areas. The species has a history of use in </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbal_medicine" style="background-color: white; background-image: none; color: #0b0080; text-decoration: none;" title="Herbal medicine">herbal medicines</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">, and recent research has corroborated some medicinal properties of lichen extracts." It has also been used to produce an orange dye for wool, in the tanning of leather, in the manufacture of perfumes and as an ingredient in brewing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">This painting was done for Canadian Parks and Wilderness, to be auctioned this fall in support of their campaign to protect the wilderness watersheds of the Pontiac region in Quebec, west of Ottawa. </span><br />
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Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3403025007552597654.post-57699588723703317482018-07-30T15:55:00.003-04:002021-02-28T14:30:23.273-05:00White Pine Among the Boulders<div class="p1" style="color: #333333; font-variant-ligatures: normal; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify; widows: 2;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"White Pine Among the Boulders" (oil on birch panel 8x8 in.)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>22 June 2018</b> found me sitting on a mossy boulder, painting the base of an imposing White Pine in the Spednic Natural Protected Area, east of McAdam, New Brunswick. This is hilly forested terrain, full of gullies and boulder fields. The others have driven on up the road, in search of earthworms, leaving me here to clamber over moss-blanketed boulders until I decide on a subject to paint. I took many photos of Yellow Birches perched on massive fern-fringed rocks, clasping them snakelike with gleaming naked roots, but couldn’t decide which would be best for a painting. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Finally I’d wandered up over the hill and looked down to a sunlit valley of ferns and bushes. There at its edge rose up before me the tremendous trunk (about 80 cm diameter) of a lone White Pine, a mighty column sculpted in bas relief by grooved and plated bark, and towering its fine-needled crown up against the sky. I considered looking up to paint, but decided to commune with the base of this giant at my own level, where it emerges from the rusty litter of needles that covers rocks heaved by its roots.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Rocks, even moss-covered, don’t give much purchase for the point of my umbrella pole, so I wedged it into a crevice and leaned the pole against my shoulder to shade my back from the hot sun. The light breeze wafted smoke from my insect coil burners which I’d hung from the twigs of the young Fir behind me. The mosquitoes from the sunny valley were beginning to find me, and I’d not have lasted long without the smoke! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thus constrained, I perched on my low moss-covered boulder to begin an excruciatingly daunting painting. Since I’d begun to set up, the sun had shifted its position on the trunk, and promised to keep shifting, also shifting tree shadows across the leaf litter and over the flanks of boulders in the background - not to mention the confusion of high-contrast stripy trunks in the distance! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I considered just taking photos and painting from them back at the BiotaNB lab - but I was already all set up, and my companions would not be back for a couple of hours - so I took courage, applying my underpainting, laying in the base colours for the shapes of trunk and rock, and then boldly stroking in the shadows and streaks of sunshine, as they were when I’d got to that stage. I paused to take photos and a sip of water, then coloured the shadows where they lay over Pine needles or moss - then coloured the sunlight, where it lay over Pine needles or moss… and suddenly the whole scene began to make sense in the painting. Then I bravely striped in the trunks of Spruces, Firs and Birches, each in sun or shadow, made a few patches of blue sky near the top…. and then I heard voices coming down the hill - their earlier calls had been muffled completely by the blanketed boulders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I was pleased with how complete the painting looked as I set it up in the lab to apply finishing touches of bark, needle, and twig detail. A successful sketch en plein air!</span></div>
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<div style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><i style="color: #3f3f3f;"><span style="color: #333333;">For more information, or to purchase a print, please </span><b><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="color: #8b8b8b; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: none;" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0b5394;">contact Aleta</span></a></b><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></i></div><div style="background-color: #eeeeee; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><i style="color: #3f3f3f;"><span style="color: #333333;"><br /></span></i></div></div>
Aleta Karstadhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15900113759159760493noreply@blogger.com0