Wooly Chanterelle (watercolour 5 x 6 in.) SOLD!

-
12 August finds me in the Bio-blitz lab in New Mills, New Brunswick, painting a watercolour of a cluster of mushrooms that we collected on our hike back from Antinouri Falls yesterday.  When we presented it to Amanda, the micology specialist she asked me several questions about the habitat and condition of the mushrooms before picking, that had me embarassed that I'd taken to little time to observe.  I had taken photos though, to help me in painting - but I am not referring to them at all.  Having the mushrooms in front of me on the table and in good light is far better than any photo, and I have been contentedly painting away for hours, noting the translucent blush and the wonderfully sculptured ribs.

The Wooly Chanterelle, Gomphus floccosus is a "Trumpet" mushroom, but is in a different genus than the Chanterelle considered "choice" for eating.  The edible Chanterelle, Cantharellus cibarius, has a smooth cone-shaped cap, where ours is scaley inside. Amanda says it is the largest specimen she's seen.  We wrapped it in waxed paper and put it in the fridge last night, and today, although a little darker on the ribby stalk, it is still in good shape.  She will slice it and put it in the dehydrator to become a specimen in the New Brunswick Museum.

Comments

Post a Comment

What do you think of this painting, and what do you know about the subject that I have painted?

Popular posts from this blog

Sturgeon Chute, Upper Rapids (oil on canvas, 12 x 16 in.) Sold

-
Image
1 October finds me painting at the upstream rapids of Sturgeon Chute on the Wanapite River, 6.7 kilometres northwest of Hartley Bay. To get just the right angle on the rapids, screened by flaming leaves of an overhanging Red Maple, I'm standing on a narrow grassy ledge, the small of my back leaning against a cold wall of smooth granite, with the feet of my easel only a few centimetres from the edge. About two metres below, courses the fast deep water,
Read more

Outfall at Nuclear Beach

-
Image
Outfall at Nuclear Beach (oil on birch panel 11x14 in.) 24 January 2024 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.  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.  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 Me...
Read more

Little Marsh in Limerick

-
Image
"Little Marsh in Limerick" (Oil on birch panel, 6 x 6 in.) 26 December 2023 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   6 x 6 inch cradled birch panel, trying to get it covered with paint before we lose the light and go home for supper.   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....
Read more