Dune, Marsh, Bog (oil on canvas 5 x 7 in.) SOLD!

25 August finds me on the Richibucto Dune, northwest of Cap Lumiere, sitting at the edge of the dune grass on a knee-high bluff that crests the soft dry sand of the beach, gazing across at 'another world'   All along the beach this afternoon, ever since the krumholtz forest dwindled to a few outlying birches, the dune, crested with waving beach grass has been our horizon.

I was trying to decide on which view of the beach I should paint, when Adam came down from the crest of the dune with news of a wide panorama of different habitats visible from up there - beyond our horizon. It was a surprise to the eyes after days of revelling in beach and sea, to suddenly see beyond our horizon.....  salt marsh! The very marsh that I thought was unattainable in the short time we have for hiking before breaking camp this afternoon, is suddenly revealed to us - a vast flat variegated salt marsh vista, blending gradually from bogs in the south and east to the channels of the estuary in the north.

The scene I  am painting is only a very small section of the salt marsh panorama - the part that shows the most striking silhouette of bog forest. As I paint the narrow strips of vari-coloured vegetation, I remember exploring this marsh during field work for Canadian Nature Notebook. I wish I could be out in it now, re-introducing myself to the plants of the salt marsh - all specially adapted to changing salinity, as fresh water flows through on its way to the sea, the returning tide covers it with salt water, and every thing is rinsed whenever it rains.