Catching Up

It is smoky here. Wild fires have blanketed the Metro Vancouver area (and many other areas of the province) in dense acrid smoke. The sky was yellowish on Sunday but the smoke is gradually dissipating here. It has been so dry this spring and summer and the risk of fire in the parks and forests is high and in many areas of the province it is extreme. Some fires are started by lightning but others are caused by people!

Here are some pictures I took before the "big smoke" when I visited Vancouver Island a couple of weeks ago. I was attending a painting course, and I have some pictures of that too.

Arbutus tree on Vancouver Island

Cormorant drying off after fishing

Flowers along the shoreline

 

Gull close-up

"True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island...to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing."

Baltasar Gracian

 

 

I loved the way this flower is growing up through the pilings:

 

 

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of a continent."

John Donne

  

 

There was a waterfront park near where I was staying and got pictures of the resident heron in the evening (looks like a watercolour painting to me) and in the bright early morning light.

 

 I went for a walk around Elk Lake to relax after the first days painting; there was a tree growing out of a small "island" in the lake. I stopped to photograph a raven who seemed as curious about me as I was about him. 

 

 

 The painting course was called "Reflections in Still Water". The painting is not finished yet but here are some pictures of my painting as it progressed.

First we painted in yellow and red washes in to the reflection and water area.

 

After the washes were completely dry we added a blue wash to the water, I added a second blue wash to darken the bottom of the painting.

 

Then we started painting the boats above and below the reflective line. That is how far I got by the end of the two day course.

 

When I got home I spent another 2 days working on the reflections and boat details, it is not finished yet, I estimate I have another days work to finish it. I hope to be able to show the finished painting by next week.

A belated Happy Canada Day, I took the day off, so no blog last week. Here are a couple of pictures I took on Canada Day:

 



 A very happy dog!

Flying the flag with pride.

 

 

To return to the "smoke" theme, below is a picture of the sun yesterday afternoon trying hard to penetrate the smoke. 

 

 

 

Not to diminish the seriousness of the situation but it did remind of a favorite song from a long time ago. Here is a link to Deep Purple and "Smoke on the Water".

 





I have finished this painting of basil named "Emerald Beauty":



 

It is ink and watercolour, or mixed media.

 

 It is the latest of my Food cards, which include a recipe card using the pictured ingredient. What are the recipes for these cards, take a look:

 

View at:http://www.pswhimsy.com/food-cards-series-22.html

 

or all the food cards at: http://www.pswhimsy.com/food.html

 

Next week I will show the last food painting in the series of twelve.

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 Until next time...

Thank you for all your kind comments on my last post.

 

Thanks for stopping by,

 

happy Whimsy Wednesday

 

 

 

 

 

Canada Day

Well it is Canada Day, and what a lovely day it was. I went out with my camera and was pleased to see even the youngsters getting in on the celebration. A beautiful day for the beach and for a picnic.

 

 

A beautiful day for a relaxing swing, this one under the willow trees at the park.

 

 

Lots of flowers now in gardens and in the park and the bees are loving them

 

 

I love fresh flowers on the table, and these are the "summer" to me.

I hope you had a great day!

 

 Here are a few updates.

First an update on the littlest gosling story. Below is a picture of the little one, not so small now and obviously doing very well. I saw it yesterday with the parents and the rest of the brood, the other siblings now almost fully grown. Today it was with two adults, maybe the parents maybe babysitters, but watching the youngster carefully none the less.

 

 

Still rather downy, but the adult colouring starting to be obvious,

 

and darn cute..

 

 

 

adults are watchful 

 

 

grazing

 

never too far away 

 

tired out, time to rest

 

A happy ending for the little gosling that looked as if it had been abandoned.

 

 

 

Well I am happy to report that my cold is almost gone finally; it turned into a sinus and chest infection and decided to hang around a lot longer than I had planned. I believe I have had all of my 2.8 colds for this year.

 

 

Finally an update on what has been happening in my studio, well not much actually, but I did finish a painting this week. Not a new one but one I have been working on for a few weeks. It is the painting "Out to Pasture", I spent a few more hours on the truck and added some sheep, The logo on the side of the truck is an old Canadian Pacific emblem; thanks to Allan for spotting it and letting me know. This old truck is indeed out in the middle of a pasture on Gabriola Island; how it came to be there I have no idea.

 

 

Here is what the emblem looked like before it faded:

 

 

 

I am now working on a new painting, this is a scene from a small town northwest of Venice. I am using the pouring technique and this painting has two or three poured "layers" and will get at least as many more before I am done, I will show more next week.

 

 

 

That is all for this week, thanks for dropping by for my weekly bit of whimsy,

 

 

until next time, Gillian.