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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

Title: "North Shore Lake Superior" 8x10" acrylic on panel board. This was the first piece I painted for my last show in 2011 "North Lake Superior". These beautiful soft colours capture the essence of the Superior Coastline. This painting is now available and comes framed.

Price includes shipping: $225.00

Title: "White Pine" 8x10" acrylic on canvas board. This painting is heavily textures with a red, yellow and orange back drop symbolizing the vitality and energy of the rock outcrops and cliffs in the Lake Superior region. Often times when hiking or traveling the coastline I've seen living trees growing out of the rock. Their life force entwined in the very rock it is attached to. There is a power and magic in these trees and their mother...this wonderful planet Earth.

Status: This painting is available and will ship framed.
Price: $225.00 includes a frame and shipping.

Title: "Transition" 8x10" acrylic on canvas. The spirit of this moose will now travel to another life using the  canoe to journey to it's new destination.

No trace do I leave
of my passage through time
on my journey
to the mystic isle
using this fragile craft
to carry me
 to my destiny.

Mystic Isle lyrics ~ Riding the Rails in Paradise cd www.doncharbonneau.com

Status: Available
Price: $225.00 includes frame and shipping.

Here is what Irene Cavalier from B.C. has to say on my facebook page about this painting:This painting has such simple genius. The gentle sleep of the dead moose, the perfection of the red canoe and the subtle and gentle colors of the land that cradles and circles this silent moment in some time that has passed or in a moment that will happen. ah. yes.

I've been painting every day since the middle of January and mainly focusing on paintings with a theme related to my "A Fishing Guide's Diary of Paintings blog. A lot of these works are being painted from memory of places where I have been fishing on my guided trips.

I've been also working on another project off and on for the last couple of years and have painted four paintings to add to this exhibition that hopefully I will have ready sometime in the next year. The subject deals with the transition of the human soul as it passes from one life to the next. Some of the the paintings have messages attached to the back in the form of a poem or short story and some have another painting on the back of the canvas ...some have both. This particular painting has both.

Creation/Transition

with each breath
that we take
with each moment
that we are alive
with every act of kindness
with every tender word softly
whispered to another human being
with every gentle step that we take
on the face of our Mother Earth
we are a witness to the act
of creation
It ceases at the moment of
our transition
the trick is not to remember
the good deeds
but to understand that they
affect everything
in this life
and the next.

Title: 8x10" mixed media on canvas  and paper.
Status: Available

Today I started working on a large canvas 40"x24"...it's part of a series I started back in February. So far I have 12 small pieces and seven larger pieces (including today's). I haven't posted any of this work yet and still thinking about a title for this series. Each piece is a mosaic and full of little parts that have to be painted over in layers. Sometimes the colour changes which keeps the piece interesting to the very end!

Whenever I'm working on these mosaic pieces I normally start a couple of other small landscape...here is one I completed tonight.

Title: "Three Islands / Lake Superior" 5x7" acrylic on canvas.
 This little painting has a lot of soft end of day colours. Anywhere you place this painting it draws the eye and emits a peaceful vibration! Lake Superior has the most incredible coastline to view, photograph and paint. I'm also starting to use less paint and actually use some of the raw canvas for highlights!

Status: This paintings is available.
Price: $85.00 includes shipping.

Title: "Little Island ~Secret Lake " 8x10" acrylic on canvas. I enjoy fishing out of my canoe. There's something calming associated with the act of paddling a canoe. You see a tree or a rock outcrop in the distance and have time assimilate it and enjoy the beauty of the landscape without rushing by with a noisy outboard motor. The peace and tranquility is quickly shattered though when someone gets a fish on...there's no quiet way of saying with the adrenalin flowing..."get the net it's a big one"...!

That's me at the back holding a few nice northerns and walleyes with a guest on a guided fishing trip.

Status: "Little Island~Secret Lake is sold.

Title: "Chickadee Breakfast" 5x7" acrylic on canvas. Looking out my window a few mornings
ago I spotted this little guy (and a couple of friends) having breakfast in my Mountain Ash tree.
I live on the outskirts of Wawa and surrounded by a natural bush lot. I get to see a lot of birds and some animals at different times of year.

Status: available
Price: $85.00 includes shipping
Note: Most of the smaller paintings have painted sides and are ready to hang or display on a small easel which I can supply.

Title: "Firestorm / Hwy.101E" Two 20x16"canvas panels ~acrylic.
I was driving home with my son last June after a late evening walleye fishing trip.
 We experienced a couple of magical moments that evening. A young bull moose jumped up in front of us and we followed slowly behind for over a mile and further down the road a forest fire was burning on both sides of this small northern highway. I came away with this image embedded in my head! (The fish were biting and we ended up keeping our limits.)

Status: This painting is sold.

Title: "Three Sisters" 30x48" acrylic on canvas. This is a fairly large painting that I did from a smaller 8x10" sketch inspired by the coastline of Lake Superior. This painting only lasted a couple of days in
our summer gallery store before it sold along with the sketch.

Status: Sold