Time Spent Making Art: LET'S CELEBRATE AUTUMN

This past March, with spring in the air, I promised myself to get out of the studio and head to the marsh and various wilderness places, to enjoy nature, and to do a bit of sketching. I promised to return when the winds blew cold, and there was ice on the Bay. Well, there’s no ice on the Bay, yet, but the winds are beginning to blow cold, and there’s snow in the forecast, so perhaps it’s time to return to the warmth of the studio and to do a bit of writing and painting.

To catch you up on the events of the past few months, in the early spring we headed out to nearby Tiny Marsh and witnessed the waterfowl migration followed by the return of the songbirds. For those of you who may be avid birders and interested to learn, numbers appeared to be down and the migration itself was spotty. All the same it was quite interesting and was made more interesting by sighting increased numbers of Bobolinks, and out on the marsh, an increase in the number of Black Terns.

Not so exciting out on Georgian Bay, however, which is a part of Lake Huron. The water level continues to drop, now surpassing its historic low. No one seems to have a definitive answer as to why, less snow melt than in previous years, an increase in human consumption, or a problem relating to dredging at Lake St. Clair. The water level is down over one meter, which accounts for a lot of water when one considers the size of Lake Huron. Perhaps, it’s as the result of global warming and a change in weather patterns? I suppose that in time to come, hopefully not before it’s too late to alter the trend, we’ll learn and set things straight.

Come August we headed up to Algonquin Provincial Park and hiked and sketched a bit. Anyone who has read my previous blog entries will know that over the years we’ve spent a lot of time running from the moose, bears, black flies, and mosquitoes up in Algonquin. As a consequence, it’s a bit difficult to get excited about sketching a scene that you’ve sketched many times before. Over the years I do believe that I’ve made several hundred sketches and paintings of various parts of Algonquin. Still, I continue to be motivated, partly by changing my method and materials. The great thing, which elicits a “ha, ha”, about growing old(er) is that one no longer needs to worry about whether what you produce is liked by anyone. With old age, and no longer the need to market one’s art, one can simply make art for the sake of making art. Have fun in other words.

A couple of weeks ago we headed up to Lake Superior Provincial Park hopeful to enjoy a bit of good sketching weather and witness a bit of autumn color. Well, Lake Superior wasn’t to be denied its influence on the weather, and as things grew cold, our sunny entrance turned to rain and fog, and we experienced miserable sketching weather. Still, as events like this are to be expected, ignoring the occasional drizzle we hiked several trails, and simply took the time to enjoy nature. I managed a couple of sketches, stressing the word “couple”, and made a few photos for possible reference during our long winter.

So, as we’re coming to the end of autumn, and as the trees are about to lose what remains of their leaves, I thought to share with you a few attempts to catch the autumn colours made over the years...........