Algonquin Artist in Residency

Algonquin Provincial Park 2019

I was fortunate enough to recently be selected for a week long residency in Algonquin Park.

The Park that is iconic to landscape painting in Canada and even more so in the transitional blaze of Autumn.

I wasn't sure what to expect but upon arrival at the Algonquin Art Center I was greeted by two friendly gallery managers and given a bag full of treats! I was then led to my accommodations which was a simple room attached to a building full of seasoned and young naturalists who work and study in the park. This staff housing is located on Found picturesque Lake Found. 

The Prairie Paintings (dedicated to my mother)

This November my mother, who has suffered from increasing dementia for the past several years, was hospitalized with aspiration pneumonia. Apparently this is a fairly common path in any degenerative disease and with this inability to swallow the downward spiral begins. 

Under Western Skies / 20" x 20"

The Beauty of Winter in Québec

7am Morning Walk / 24" x 24"

The winter figures prominently in my psyche and work these days. Having been born close to the Winter Solstice makes December a time of change and reflection for me. The ever shortening days, the receding and then returning light, the cold and snow wrapping itself around everything in a silent embrace, these all influence my work.

Gratitude in Autumn

Accept What Comes from the Silence / 24" x 30" / acrylic on canvas

At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost. ~Rainer Maria Rilke~

Cascade Forest / 24" x 30" / acrylic on canvas

This has been an extraordinary summer for the artist/gypsy in me. I have never felt so close to the bone of my soul life. I have traveled extensively, inside and out for the past five months. A journey that has peeled away the unnecessary and revealed the essence and interconnectedness of many places, people and things. 

Ten years ago my life was so confused and muddled I didn't think I would ever see clearly again. Today the waters have stilled and are crystal clear. My inner vision is

Squamish and The Chief

After a great visit and dinner with my cousin Shannon in Whistler we headed for Squamish. Fortunately for us  this is where

The Lillooet Highway from Kamloops to Whistler

 A spectacular drive from Kamloops to Whistler begins at Kamloops Lake and then crawlls and winds its way through the Fraser Canyon. Walt and I had Mercan Dede playing as this unearthly landscape unfolded around us in the early morning light. I was filled with emotions as we drove farther away form my two daughters. It is difficult leave your offspring each and every time, no matter how old they are.

The Okanagan Valley

Much time has passed since my last post from our "trip the light" road trip...the landscapes, the people, the stories...I finally stopped trying to write and paint as all our time has been taken up with exploring, travelling and awe. I will pick up the thread again now that the journey home has begun.

When I last posted we had just left Kamloops and gone to the Okanagan where we stayed in a bright and light filled airbnb in Vernon five feet from Lake Okanagan. We loved this place! Although it was very hot we could eat outside under the vine covered pergola and cool off by sitting on the dock. 

The Rockies

The drive from Calgary to Kamloops is always an exceptional experience. The mountains begin to loom into view as you leave Calgary and slowly they begin to surround you as you enter Canmore. Their magnificent presence always inspires awe. Every time I drive through the Rockies it as if I have never encountered them before and I am always moved by their very existence. It was a joy to share this with Walt who has never been in their presence before.

 A quick stop in Banff and Lake Louise to breath in the mountain freshness and cooler air. Arriving in late Spring is a good time to view the Rockies as there is still snow on the tops and the rivers and waterfalls are full to bursting with the melting snow.

Across the Prairies

#trip_the_light has been on the road for 10 days now and I am dreadfully behind in my blog posts but wonderfully filled up with painting and writing material for many months to come.

I last posted in Northern Ontario where the beauty was boundless and all encompassing.

I am so in love with the landscape and how it is always changing and revealing different aspects of itself. I am currently reading PrairyErth by William Least Heat-Moon and it is an eloquent and deep exploration of one particular landscape in Kansas. The book is full of delightful quotes but this one struck me in particular was this one:

I like to think of landscape not as a fixed place but as  path that is unwinding before my eyes, under my feet.

To see and know a place is a contemplative act. It means emptying our minds and letting what is there, in all its multiplicity and endless variety, come in. 

-Gretel Ehrlich "Landscape," introduction to Legacy of Light (1987)

This seems to be what we are doing as we travel these marvelous routes and roads and allow the places to speak their own language to us as we pass through them.

     

A wooden suspension bridge leads the way to Ouimet Canyon.

The Roaring Waters

Day two of Trip_the_light the skies cleared and the sun showed up in its's full glory! Temperature has dropped but this is a good thing as it discourages the blackflies from eating us alive.

It has been raining in the area for almost a week we are told. This would explain the engorged rivers and streams that are roaring everywhere we travel. What an excellent time we have chosen to cross this patch of planet. Spring is bursting into full blown tender green bouquets all around us as we roam these parts.

The first roaring falls that we come to are Chippewa Falls located at mid point on the 4860 mile long Trans Canada Highway. The TCan is the longest highway in the world and was the dream of Dr. Perry Dolittle, the first man in Canada to own a car. There is a monument to him at these Falls.

The infinite colors of these exposed rocks takes my breath away on a regular basis. There are so many colors and textures being stored away for future paintings.

A delightful first stop where the air was so fresh and pure that I felt drunk from breathing it.

Not too much further down the road a huge moose crossed our path as we slowed down to watch it lumber up into the woods. About an hour later I saw two black bears perched up on a grassy knoll above the highway. Hawks and Ravens soar above us in abundance. There is almost no one else around anywhere we stop. I love this place.

Trip the Light Travels - Day #1

Every good trip has to have a name and ours is named "Trip the Light". We set off on our travels last Thursday morning, right after the Open House at my studio building in Montreal.

I had hoped to write daily but the wifi has been sketchy and the awe factor has been high so not much writing has happened. Here I am though, Day Four of the trip and completely saturated in awe from head to toe. I will start to tell the tale now.

The first morning there was a lot of rain, pouring down, windshield wipers flying kind of rain. By afternoon the skies cleared and everything turned lush, green and golden in the late afternoon sun. 

We pulled off the beaten path at the confluence of two great rivers, the Mattawa and the Ottawa. We followed the directions down a winding dirt road until we arrived at our first airbnb of the trip. The Mongolian Yurt could not have been more charming or welcoming in the golden light of the setting sun.

The doors and interior beams were authentically hand carved and painted creating a delightful space to escape from the 10 million black flies that attacked us instantly!

Ahhh, how does one describe black fly season in the woods of Northern Ontario....impossible.

At least we weren't camping that night.

We had a picnic supper of paté and cheese that night as we listened to a symphony of birdsong welcome down the dusk. 

It is the "drumming" season of the Ruffed Grouse and this rhythm also joined the chorus of birdsong. Eventually the light faded and all was still. We fell asleep to the most indcredible silence broken only by the hoot of a nearby owl. 

 A fine beginning to our adventure of Tripping the Light.

Progress of a Deep Forest Painting

The Art Barn

I just found this video on youtube put together by India Littler of Cloudberry Studio. Lots of great memories from this vibrantly alive collaborative studio that I was part of for four glorious summers in Mont-Tremblant, QC

Heart Stopping Beauty on Hwy 99

 

 Spent the day cooking, walking and talking with my eldest girl. Left her behind with a few tears this morning. I have always loved how effortlessly Amy and I can flow together no matter how long we are apart from each other.

Spent our last evening walking in the golden light of the remarkable landscape of Kamloops. The dry climate allows for a remarkable range of dusty colors from ochres to rose to sagebrush greens. I could paint the textures and colors here for a long time.

 

 

Amy sent me to Whistler via Hwy 99, also known as the Lillooet Hwy. What a drive!

The most beautiful vistas and views so far! But first as I exited Kamloops on the Trans Canada I came across Kootenay Lake, utterly magnificent with the shifting shadows and light of the breaking clouds.

 

 A bit further down the road I turned onto Hwy 99 and was given one last taste of that delicious palette of blonde grasses and pink brush, made all the more intense by the brooding dark skies.

 Now I started to really enter the "Rockies". I was happy that it wasn't snowing or raining today as this is not a road for the faint of heart. Some serious hair pin turns and deep canyons looking down into the Fraser River. Unfortunately there wasn't much place to pull over and take photos of this incredible canyon.

 

 Many, many views of lakes, rivers, and creeks along the way. Not much traffic at all and every time I stopped to take a few photos I was greeted with complete silence or rushing water.

 

 

Just before arriving in Pembroke I came across this beauty. A jewel of a lake, quiet and majestic just sitting there in all her majesty. I stopped and sat beside her for quite some time. The silence was deafening.

 This whole drive was so full of heart stopping beauty that I gave up taking pictures after a while as it was impossible to convey it all. This gives a small sampling of that drive but nothing even comes close to the real experience of it. Amy described it best when she said that it is "one of her favorite stretches of earth". Mine too.