Karstad Biodiversity Paintings: adventures in the colour of Canada

14 April finds me perched on my paint box, peering into a mossy grotto in the flank of a high crest of granite that overlooks a wetland in the rugged landscape of eastern Ontario's "Frontenac Arch". This is our first visit to explore and paint a Natural Area of special interest to Nature Conservancy Canada. We plan to return several times over the course of the spring, summer, and fall, to four properties which have been donated to the NCC. This one is the "Crank Property", on Olajos Road. The crest of granite is about 50 metres long and about 5 metres high, padded on its ledges by soft green moss alternating with banks of Polypody ferns, flowing with sprays of Marginal Wood Fern, and ruffled in patches with large floppy Rock Tripe, Umbilicaria mammulata, tan on upper sides and velvety black beneath. When we first arrived we noticed the Rock Tripe on the lower shoulder at the south end, and there I took photos and searched for interesting compositions to p...

13 April finds me deciding that this painting is finished. It is always chancy to reconstruct a scene, especially when photographic reference is hard to come by. People who commission paintings often have no idea how much reference is needed! I often keep wondering for weeks after a

                                                                            11 April finds me lining up my six watercolours of female Lampsilis fasicola , the Wavyrayed Lampmussel, showing their stuff - six different styles of lures for attracting and parasitizing their host fishes.  This is highly unusual, having a diversity of lures in one species of mussel, and the reason why is not well understood! These are the original Bass-fishing lures, as the main host of this species of mussel is the Large-mouth Bass.