Karstad Biodiversity Paintings: adventures in the colour of Canada

A down-river view above Sturgeon Chute on the Wanapitei River, painted from a photo taken on the day I stood against the rock face to capture the view of the upper rapids. At one point along the portage trail high above the Chute I turned to look back through a space in the trees, and the sun shone brightly from whitewater rushing toward the distant falls. It was one of those days, and one of those places, where every time I turned my head, a new paintable scene presented itself, and the rushing of the water so energized and inspired me that I felt that I could almost transcend the constraints of time, and paint them all in one day - but alas, I had to take the photos home, and if I don't do more paintings of where I was on that day, I'll visit Sturgeon Chute again to paint for more than a day.

Our 2013 calendar is published!  "Precious Wild Rivers"  is a collection of my oil paintings en plein air of rivers, rapids, and waterfalls in Ontario. This autumn Fred and I traveled to precious wild rivers that still run free with rapids and waterfalls, to paint and explore for little-known native mussels and crayfish, documenting these vulnerable wild communities in art and science. I've gathered all of these paintings as well as a few earlier ones, into a new calendar where the image of each painting is accompanied by journal of our adventures in discovering the special nature of that place, as well as the nature of the threats to its integrity, leading us to enquire whether new hydroelectric projects on our wild rivers are desirable or necessary. The calendar finishes with January 2014 and a full page essay by Fred. Preview and purchase the calendars 50% of proceeds  from the sale of these calendars supports rivers conservation by  Ontario Rivers Alli...

October 3 finds me painting the Petawawa River, looking down on the rapids below the railway trestle. I am perched on the abutment of the footbridge that parallels the railway, working on a rather large canvas which I'm holding propped on my lap. I've chosen a dark red ochre underpainting because the rocks are of a reddish granite and the water is dark with an occasional green light which will contrast with the red underpainting. The morning started sunny and calm, but now is

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,

30 September finds me painting the falls at Soo Crossing, 3 kilometres east of Whitefish, Ontario. The falls beneath the railway trestle show whitely from where I sit on the bank of the Vermilion River beside the old bridge. The autumn colour of Red Maples on the glacier-carved granite hills seems to grow warmer as the evening grows cooler. We arrived here late in the day, so I've selected a small canvas and underpainted it greyish purple, the cloudy colour between bright ripples on the river.  Fred is checking out the far shore of the river which he didn't reach yesterday, seeing a lot of trampling by Beavers and fisherpeople, but no deposits of clam shells that he could see in the falling dusk. A Spring Peeper breaks out into a few volleys of peeps. This fall calling is one of the things we record, but we're not really sure why they do it, or what it indicates about their populations. All across northeastern Ontario we've been hearing very little fall calling...

28 September finds me looking down at the Vermilion River churning over the steepest drop in a series of several rapids out of Wabagishik Lake, south of Nairn, Ontario. I sit on an Aspen log at the edge of a rocky overhang above the falls. The forest rises steeply behind me and an ancient portage trail traces the brink of the gorge along the rapids from my perch. Fred tears the bark from rotting logs for land snails and slugs, also finding wild native Wood Roaches, and Linda Heron has gone back along river, lake, and highway, to fetch my painting kit from her house. Both Fred and I had thought that my burden was a little light on the trail here from where our boat landed, and it became evident when I selected my spot to paint, that it was light because I'd forgotten my paints! For now I sketch on the back of a business card from Fred's wallet.  This is the most threatened of the potential dam sites along the Vermilion River, a narrow gorge between two lake-like stretches o...

25 September finds me painting at the base of the middle fall of Triple Falls on the east side of the Ivanhoe River, 40 km north of Foleyet, Ontario - another in our series of wild waterfalls threatened by hydro dams. We left Fred below the downstream-most of the three falls, Hugh and Marigold the Dog and I following a forest trail around to its crest where we clambered over a high-stranded raft of drift logs worn smooth and blond, their surfaces slippery with