Limerick Forest Fiddleheads (oil on canvas, 4 x 6 in.) Sold

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On 11 May, 2006 I painted Fiddleheads in Limerick Forest, on a small canvas,  just downhill of The Forks on Forsythe Road, Limerick Forest, south of Bishops Mills, Ontario.

Heavy mosquitoes in spite of a breeze. Overcast, began spitting rain around 20h00 so I raised the blue and white umbrella over my cross-legged position and peered more closely at the fiddleheads in the growing dusk. My bug jacket held most of the mosquitoes at bay, but my hands were pestered constantly. The best paintings are done under duress of one kind or another.

It is a darkish burnt sienna underpainting, on which the lively taut fiddleheads burn with the green flame of spring sprouting, snuggling their pale-ruffled, rusty-fuzzed cheeks together like a litter of new kittens as they rise together on arching green stalks.

I photographed them with the painting before completing the surrounding grey scramble of last years dry fronds. Tiny tender horsetails bottlebrush delicate green in the upper background. After packing up at 21h30 I picked a few handfulls of the tender knobs in the near-dark, and left.

Fred's notes for this place, on 11 May 2006, retrieved from EOBase, are as follows:

Canada: Ontario: Grenville County: Limerick Forest, 'Y' intersection. (50m waypoint), 31B/13, 44.85159N 75.62455W TIME: 1830-2130. AIR TEMP: 18 ca, cloudy, light rain, Beaufort moderate breeze. HABITAT: intersection/parking area in mature Pine plantations. OBSERVER: Aleta Karstad Schueler. FWS06May112000/c, Matteuccia struthiopteris (Ostrich Fern) (Plant). abundant sprout, oil, forage. 


Comments

  1. Kay L. DaviesApril 1, 2013 at 1:43 PM

    Some of the paintings are just gorgeous, Aleta, but of course none is as lovely as the one you did of our dog.
    Thanks again for the great job you did.
    K

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Art of Phil ChadwickApril 6, 2013 at 5:08 PM

    YOur work is quite terrific Aleta... I already have a few of your pieces but let me look again :>)

    ReplyDelete

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