Title: "Granite Rock / Whitefish Lake" 5"x7" acrylic on canvas. I've been guiding fishermen
for over twenty years on Whitefish Lake. Granite Rock is one of my favourite fishing holes on this lake.
There's a creek that comes in on the left hand side and washes down food to hungry bass and walleyes.
I like to stop here, shut down the outboard motor and just listen to the sound of the running water and the wind in the spruce trees.
I posted of photo of Granite Rock...can you see the creek?

Status: Available
Price: $85.00 includes my "Gitche Gumee / Songs From the Lake music CD and free shipping anywhere in Canada and the USA.
Don't live in Canada or the USA?...no problem, just email me for a shipping quote which isn't that much more!


Birch Trees

 Birch trees clinging to a

Rocky shore

Seem brave

And unafraid of a future

That has no tomorrow

Existing in an endless day

In this natural world

Filled with only a moment

To be cherished forever

Don Charbonneau

Art and Word Fix

North Wind

North wind blows

away the memory

of warm summers

and sends us scurrying indoors

besides woodstoves

where we warm ourselves

against the elements

and despair.

North wind sends us

warm dreams

and each other

to hold and comfort

and stand together

like trees with deep roots

we brave yet

another winter storm

These paintings are part of my North Wind series and come with the  poem. I used bright colours to this rather bleak winter scene with the hopes of dispelling some of the cold and restless feelings associated with long winter days!

Status: These paintings have been sold. Prints and Cards are available

Title: North Wind Word and Art Series all four are 8"x10" acrylic on canvas. 

This series is available in 5"x 7" art cards and 8"x10" prints.


 5x7 Art Cards: $5.00 ea or 3 for $12.00 includes North Wind poem with 3 different images ~ free shipping in Canada and USA. All other countries please inquire about shipping to your country. (shipping to other countries should only be a few dollars more)

8"x10" glossy digital prints: $22.00 ea. or three (all different) for $55.00 includes shipping in Canada and USA. All other countries please inquire about shipping rates.(should only be a few extra dollars) These prints come in a plastic sleeve with backer board. Included with the prints is an artist bio and North Wind poem. It's shipped in a bubble wrap protective envelope.

White Pine / Katherine Cove

Fishing Boat / Katherine Cove

Dark Skies Over The Lizard Islands

Early Spring / Katherine Cove

                                                       Lizard Islands / Katherine Cove

                                               Spring Snow / Katherine Cove
We had beautiful weather last week up here in Northern Ontario. Balmy twenty degrees (celsius) temperature and clear blue skies. I decided to head down the highway to Katherine Cove, one of my favourite places on the Lake Superior coastline.
I've been painting in my studio all winter and actually had quite a productive run with small and large paintings. But getting outside near the big lake with warm weather and sunshine was a welcomed
relief.
I spent two days hiking and sketching and came back with some good stuff. The thing about working outside is getting the paint on the canvas before the light changes. That can happen pretty quickly on the Lake Superior shore line.
A slight change in the wind and the water changes colour and the same things happens to the sky.
At times the Lizard Islands seem just a short distance from shore and then they just sort of disappear in the water and seem to be miles away. It's just amazing how the atmosphere changes the perspective - there's power in this place filled with magic.
These paintings of Katherine Cove were painted on sight. Some of the canvas is left exposed and minimum colours were used to express the simple beauty of this place.

Status:
Title: White Pine / Katherine Cove   "5x7" acrylic on canvas $85.00 includes shipping and my "Gitche Gumee Songs From the Lake" music cd.

Status:
Title:"Fishing Boat / Katherine Cove  ''8x10'' acrylic on canvas $135.00 includes shipping and my "Gitche Gumee Songs From the Lake" music cd.

Status:
Title: "Dark Sky Over The Lizard Islands" 8x10" acrylic on canvas $135.00 includes shipping and my "Gitche Gumee Songs From The Lake" music cd.

Status:
Title: "Early Spring / Katherine Cove" 5x7" acrylic on canvas $85.00 includes shipping and my "Gitche Gumee Songs From The Lake" music cd.

Status: Lizard Islands / Katherine Cove ''5x7" acrylic on canvas $85.00 includes shipping and my "Gitche Gumee Songs From the Lake" cd.

Status:
Title: "Spring Snow / Katherine Cove "5x7" acrylic on canvas $85.00 includes shipping and my "Gitche Gumee Songs From the Lake" cd.

Title: "The View From Up Here"  8x10'' acrylic on canvas. I painted this scene from memory and a series of photos I took while driving down Highway 17 from Wawa to Sault Ste. Marie last fall. The colours were on fire, electric orange, yellow and reds. Members of the Group of Seven painted not to far from this spot...no highway to break up the landscape in those days!

Status: this painting is available 

                    Price: $195.00 includes frame and shipping.

An Old Friend

A mature white pine with a distinctive curve in it's trunk standing it seems forever overlooking Lake Superior (near the Coldwater River) has disappeared from the landscape and is sadly missed by this writer. I first noticed it missing late last fall while driving to Sault Ste. Marie to set up our Christmas art store in a local mall. As I rounded the corner and started my descent of the long hill where this pine tree has stood for decades, I noticed a gap in the familiar landscape: something was missing. I looked in my rear-view mirror and  still couldn't see it and decided that I must have been preoccupied thinking about the work that I still had to do. While driving home a few days later I couldn't believe my eyes. When I rounded the same corner traveling north, this magnificent white pine was no longer standing. The "Sentinel" which I had painted earlier in the spring as part of my "North of Superior Art series was gone. 

This tree had withstood countless storms coming off Lake Superior and lived through some of the darkest events in the world. It witnessed the passing of a number of great Canadians. A.Y Jackson, a member of the Group of Seven drove by this tree in the early 60's when this highway was first completed. He was on his way to his cottage on Sandy Beach and would have local marina owner Lyman Buck take him on several sketching excursions. Composer Glenn Gould drove by it on his visits to the Wawa area. I often wonder if some of his compositions were inspired by the wind blowing through it's branches. It witnessed the passing of a young long distance runner on the race of his life. In August of 1980, Terry Fox struggled on the hill where it was slowly growing and taking shape and it's curved trunk reached out to him. It witnessed the westward migration of thousands of young Canadians on a search for peace, love and harmony. It was a journey that would bring them full circle and  eventually confront them with their own humanity and mortality -including this writer.

Status: 1st painting title: "Sentinel" 8x10" acrylic on canvas. This painting comes in a frame and shipping is included in the price: $225.00

Status: 2nd painting title: "Old Friend" 8x10 acrylic on canvas. This little painting was mostly painted just below where this majestic tree used to stand...I added the artist painting and rock inscription in my studio...a touch of realism, folk and impressionism - all good I hope. 

Status: available and comes with a frame, one of my Gitchee Gumme/Songs From the Lake Cd and free shipping..$175.00

Title: Blue Canoe "8x10" acrylic on canvas. Blue is the dominating colour in this little semi-abstract. You look at this painting and wonder where the person is...just put yourself in this fragile craft and drift awhile on a gentle river and listen to the sound of your heart...see where it takes you!

Status: available
Price: $125.00... Includes shipping and a copy of my CD "Gitchee Gumme /Songs From The Lake" which has a whole bunch of Lake Superior and art inspired songs for free.

Katherine Cove Highway 17 near Wawa Ontario Canada

(65 kilometres east of Wawa Ontario~ Tran-Canada Hwy. 17

                               Plein Air Today

 My part of Northern Ontario warmed up today to a balmy 11 degrees.(that would be in the low 60's-a heat wave for us living here in Northern Canada. I loaded paint, canvas, peanut butter and honey and banana sandwiches, a thermos of coffee and headed down old highway 17 on the Lake Superior coastline. It was an amazing day, a bright warm sun in a powder blue sky, and a gentle southwest breeze blowing on shore.
After working in my studio most of the winter it took me a while to get my bearings with what was happening outdoors. I just closed my eyes for a few minutes enjoying the peace and tranquility I always experience when working outdoors.
 The colours seem to find their place on the canvas on their own. I just have to remind myself that the biggest challenge in creating a good painting is getting my head out of the way and just let the stuff get on board!
I ended with 6 small paintings on this trip and will post them in the next couple of days.