Life After Eighty

In a wee while I'll be bumbling into my mid eighties, and I've been thinking about making some less serious art and playing with some paint and paper producing various impressionistic watercolours. Here's one of my first attempts. It's of nowhere special just a vague memory of time spent wandering along the shoreline of one of the many lakes that we've paddled over the years... 

Shoreline    Watercolour Painting   2025

This painting was teased from my memories of time spent at  the Blue Spruce Resort on Oxtongue Lake, located near to Dwight, Ontario.. Many memories made here both hiking and canoeing. Too old and wobbly now to enjoy these activities but no regrets, thankful for the time had making such memories.

 

Oxtongue Lake      Watercolour Painting   2025

The Giant's Tomb  Island, Georgian Bay, ON    Watercolour Painting  2025

REASONS

                      

Reasons For Making Art......

I've been making art, drawing, painting, printmaking, and writing, for decades. Having reached that point where one questions reason for making more, one reflects on just why one turned to making art as a profession. The decision wasn't easy, not by a long-shot. I could have stayed where I was working at a job that paid well, and seemed at the time to have a future, but no, I decided to pursue a dream. Decades ago I watched in awe as my great aunt turned a blank canvas into an autumn forest landscape. I was hooked, and with the thought still fresh 40 years later, I left the work-a-day to pursue my dream of becoming an artist. Reflecting back I suppose that I sought, and continue to seek admiration for my efforts, just as my great aunt had from me. I'm still trying some 40+ years later......

There are, no doubt, many reasons why persons make art, and being compelled is another way, I believe, of saying that I do it to gain attention. No one is born with creative ability. Not unlike any other skill it’s learned. Some appear to learn more quickly, giving the appearance that it comes naturally, however, it's not unlike other skills where some excel, while others struggle.

Musicians and writers, I believe, are really no different than visual artists, using their learned talent to tell a story, fictional, or experienced, and in so doing to also gain attention.

Art is not taught. Technical skills might be shared, but art, other than commercial art, is a journey of learning with deemed positive results, reinforced by gaining the attention of those that profess to know what is thought to be art, i.e. critics.

Financial success in the arts is simply the result of good marketing, and the artist succumbing to the need for public attention. Rarely does financial success result in lasting art.

And so it goes. Many young persons devote their lives to becoming artists, not realizing that one never actually becomes the artist that they hoped they'd be. It's an unending life time struggle, but, and I personally can say, that I've enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, the struggle.

 

Oxtongue Lake, Algonquin Highlands, Ontario.                  Memory - Pencil Sketch 10, 2025

ALGONQUIN ONCE AGAIN

 On September 8th we travelled to the Blue Spruce Resort near to Algonquin for the umpteenth, and possible last time. Hey, we're getting old, and needless to say when one gets in their mid eighties hustling up to Algonquin some 100 miles away is no easy feat....and then there's trips into the park on a daily basis. with heavy traffic  dominated, it seems , with crazy, speeding drivers. Still we managed and although we seem to have missed the fall migration of the songbirds, we did get to see and hear some Common loons, and my friend RavenI also managed a couple of sketches, one at Canisbay Lake, and two at Oxtongue Lake of the same scene, a test to see if I had forgotten how to sketch with watercolours.

We've reserved for next year, just in case, as one never knows....

WHATONEARTH

I recently responded to an article posted on the CBC News  "Whatonearth". There is concern by many of the threat to what was a common site on our fresh water lakes, the Common Loon. Here's what I wrote...

Hello Emily and Hannah

Being well into my 80s I feel that what I have to say, have observed over the years, will in all probability be ignored as simply the ranting of some old fart, however, I’ll have had my say just the same…..

Regarding the disappearance of loons on our lakes I have no doubt that global warming, air pollution, and so on, as studies by scientists suggest, should be considered as aiding to the problem. However, let’s be truthful the real problem, as Walt Kelly’s Pogo suggested back in the 70s on the first Earth Day, is us. I’ve paddled, stress paddled, many lakes where at one time there were loons, and now there are none. They, together with myself, were chased off these lakes by human activity. Where once was quiet with the odd cottage, there’s now million dollar cottages, jet skiis, and large motorboats. Try paddling against the wind when faced with the wakes of motor boats, coming at you from all sides. Then think of the loons attempting to nest at the side of a lake. Pristine is gone. Chaos brought to the lake by those trapped in a fast paced world seeking solitude, has

destroyed….everything.

And then there’s the problem of the loon’s winter feeding grounds. Some may migrate to ice free inland lakes in the US, but the majority migrate to the oceans where, there’s no need to elaborate, that life for creatures depending upon their bounty is under threat, resulting in increased competition from all sides.

So, the problem, not only with the disappearance of loons, but the death of Nature itself….too many people. We’re killing ourselves. The oceans are dying, the sky is burning, people are starving, wars rage, species are going extinct, and the human migration seeking safe shelter has begun. Sadly, there really is no going back. Consensus, as to a solution, is, seemingly, not possible. Too many voices. Adaptation the only solution. Sadly, the loons do not have this choice, and like the Dodo an artist’s interpretation, and photos, will have to serve for what once existed.

Perhaps, we should have heeded David Suzuki’s warnings? 

I do enjoy, and look forward, to your articles.

Ernest Andrew Somers

Midland, ON

                  Misty Morning, Common Loon, Whitefish Lake, Alg.   Acrylic Sketch

                                        Disturbed, Common Loon, Hand-coloured Etching.

And Then What?

 

Georgian Bay - Watercolour Painting

I find some enjoyment playing with words, reading the news, then attempting to write something that emphasizes my take away from a news item. Unfortunately, there’s very little news that makes you come away with a smile on your face. The news in this day and age is filled with conjecture, and slanted towards the negative. Hence I find myself writing very little that could be considered cheery. The news these days is dominated by wars, seemingly never ending, when the big news, or what should be considered the big news, is our ongoing efforts to simply destroy ourselves with seemingly never ending greed a curse with which we seem to have been genetically afflicted. Today I read an article that implied that we have, humanity has but three years to halt the Earth’s rising temperature …............

And then What?

With the dominos falling

picking up speed

a warning has been issued

but few,

very few, 

take heed.

A warning has been issued

a threshold declared

1.5 Celsius, 

or misery everywhere.

Weather once predictable 

will become rare, 

as heat unbearable

no longer a phenomenon 

now suffered everywhere.

The dominos now racing,

the end nowhere in sight,

societies struggle, as others

take flight.

But where?

No shelter in sight……

Then what?

Adaptation

by but a few, and

for the others….

no one really cares.

And then what?

Obvious!

~~~~~~~

Without giving my age I should mention that I am on the cusp of leaving planet Earth for somewhere, somewhere. Sad to leave knowing that the Earth is in such a bad state, Sad, that we've simply screwed up a possible paradise for wanton greed and stupidity. Hopefully, AI and technology come to the rescue in time to prevent total disaster. In the meantime, however, I would suggest to everyone reading this blog to sit for a moment, and develop a plan to adapt to the weather and social changes that are about to take place.

Watercolour Sketch - Chikanishing Hiking Trail, Killarney Provincial Park