Dumoine Evening

 

"Dumoine Evening" (6 x 6 in. oil on birch panel) 

4 August, 2021 finds me standing on the path just in front of my "meditation log", with my toes in the black, loamy saturated soil at the edge of the water, looking down the Dumoine River toward towering pink clouds of a humid-hazy early evening. 

I love my private stretch of the Dumoine and all its lovely scenes, up-river to the east, especially in the mornings - down-river to the west in the evenings, and any time of day across to the bright grassy islands and the forested far shore. 

There are three other tents pitched under the trees here along the river, but we all come and go as quietly as deer and I never see the others this side of the road to the cabin. 

My tent is pitched in the shade of tall pines and spruces, and although it is cooler here than in the sunny yard of the cabin where most of the artists of the DRAW art camp have pitched their tents, the weather has been so humid that the damp cuffs of the pants that I hung inside my tent, have not dried in two days, so I may as well hang them outside and risk getting them rained on.

This is our fourth "Dumoine River Artists for Conservation" retreat. We are far from the internet and cell phone connectivity of the busy world that we left behind for these seven days of communion with the wilderness and one another. We have only each other to depend on - and in case of emergency, a device that connects to satellites for sending texts from John's phone. He's the organizer and facilitator of this year's DRAW camp for fifteen artists who will each donate one piece for CPAWS-OV's fundraising. 

Lyndon is our excellent volunteer cook. They drive out together in John's truck to a nearby spring to fill the several large water containers that are lined up on the cabin porch, and will make at least two trips down the long road to civilization to replenish fresh food and ice for the coolers. So in spite of our isolation us artists are well provided for, and have little to worry about except how to make the most of this great opportunity for inspiration, camaraderie, creativity... and to support CPAWS Ottawa Valley's campaign for conservation of wild rivers.