AWENDA PROVINCIAL PARK

Over the years I've  emphasized the importance of making sketches. There are many reasons for doing so. I suppose the most important reason is to reinforce one's memory of the occasion the sketch was made, to enable something more serious to be created back in the comfort of one's studio. There is another reason, however, one that you perhaps wouldn't expect, and that's to preserve the history, moments in time, of places visited. Nature is continually evolving. Once stripped of its trees, Algonquin Provincial Park here in Canada, has seen the trees grow back to the point that once familiar landscapes no longer exist. Tom Thomson would fail to recognize the landscape that he once painted. 

Another park that I've often visited  over the years is Awenda Provincial Park, a portion of which is located on the shore of Georgian Bay. Awenda has seen the water level of Georgian Bay rise and fall over the years, from a record low to a record high. With almost every visit to the park I made a sketch, or two, and I find myself with a visual record of the park along the shoreline over a span of almost 20 years. In fact one of the first sketches that I did was a pen & ink sketch going back some 40 years ago.

First Sketch - Awenda Provincial Park  circa. 1980

Awenda Provincial Park  2005

Awenda 2008

Awenda Provincial Park 2014

Were I to do a sketch now, in 2019, the water level in Georgian Bay would be shown to have reached an almost record high. There exists very little sand beach. The water level is almost up to the tree line in some areas. The fear amongst cottage owners and businesses located along the Bay's shore is that another winter with record snow pack and snow melt, compounded by a storm surge, and there will be considerable damage to private property. Nature at its best, although some might say, at its worst.

Anyway, it's interesting, if only to me. Memories become a sort of history of time passing, and the changes being brought about by Nature.