Blog 41
This is part 2 of the
travelogue about the Plein Air Ensemble trip to Lake Clear.
Sunday, October 4, 2015
I woke up early today, just
after 6am. When I looked out of the window, I saw one of the most
beautiful sunrises. The sky was just pink over the blue water of Lake
Clear. Unfortunately, now, an hour later the sun seems to have
disappeared. As long as we do not get rain, I am happy. It has been
very windy since we arrived and looking for painting spots does also
include finding a sheltered area.
Today, Hélène and I plan to
go to the other side of the lake where we hope we will be sheltered
from the wind.
Yesterday, we had a great
painting day. Hélène, Janis, and I drove towards Combermere where
we stopped at the Crooked Slide Rapids. We painted the marsh in the
morning - Janis and Helene from one side of the river and I from the
other side. After having slept only one hour the night before, I
needed some time alone. However, the scenery was just too beautiful
to lounge about. I got busy and even started a second piece in the
afternoon. While Janis and Hélène painted the rapids, I decided to
concentrate on another view of the marsh.
We had to come back to the
cottage early because Janis was only able to stay for three days and
wanted to be home before it got dark.
Hélène and I went for a
small walk to find the marsh close to the resort. We only found the
smaller one which is beautiful but fully exposed to the wind. After a
time of rest, we prepared the “Happy Hour” where everyone was
indeed happy, not only because of the wine, but also because they all
had a great painting day.
After dinner, we were treated
to a presentation from Kathy about her father, who was friends with
A. Y. Jackson and painted with him on several occasions. He spent
most of his retirement in the Arctic and painted until his death at
age 88. It was fascinating and wonderful to see some of his original
paintings.
Let’s see what today will
bring.
_______________________________
By now, it is past 10pm.
Before I go to bed, I want to write down today’s adventures. Hélène
and I decided to stay close to the cottage as we had already done a
lot of driving the past two days. It was still windy, so finding
shelter was still important. As the day was mostly cloudy, the
colours were not as brilliant.
After checking out the area
around Manning Road, where we saw two beautiful horses, but did not
find anything else that attracted our interest, we went further to
Wittke Road where we spent the day painting two sides of a marsh.
This does not mean that the view and the crystal clear water of Clear
Lake were not absolutely amazing, but it is difficult to describe it
in words and hard to translate it into an exciting painting.
We took our time for the first
painting. Usually, Janis is the one who is finished pretty fast.
Without her the two of us lost completely track of time. As it was
already around 2 pm when we had lunch, we did not bother moving to
another spot. We found out later from a passing driver that we were
watched by a deer for quite a while. This is something different for
a change. Hélène and I were so engaged in our painting that we did
not even notice.
Back at the cottage, we put
everything together for “Happy Hour”, then decided to rest for
ten minutes. What can I say, we almost missed it. Hélène fell
asleep and I was reading and not watching the time. I was close to
falling asleep as well when suddenly my phone beeped. I am sure the
others would have been not so happy if we two organizers had not
appeared with the wine and cheese.
We were able to welcome one
last participant who could only arrive today and who found the
missing purse that was never left at a gas station in Ottawa but fell
under one of the beds in the cottage. If only we had known...
On the down side, a new
participant decided to go home without informing either Hélène or
myself. We all were very welcoming to her but “plein air”
painting is not for everyone. Even though we are very lucky to have
had dry and mostly sunny weather, it has been cold. The wind has been
strong for the past couple of days, which certainly is a challenge. I
am glad for my snow pants, winter coat, wool socks and gloves.
After another delicious dinner
(squash soup and vegetable or Caesar wraps), we had our game night
with an art infused Trivial Pursuit. The game guarantees always lots
of laughter and seems to be a crowd pleaser as almost all of the
artists participated. One of the categories is “Canadian Painters
including our Plein Air Ensemble painters”. Tonight, two of the
picked images showed paintings of mine. It was not easy to keep a
straight face. I was just glad that the comments were all very
positive.
Despite the strong groups, we
had a clear winning team at the end. I am sure we all also learned a
thing or two about art history, materials, and techniques.
It would be nice if the
weather cooperated tomorrow as well. It would be one of the few trips
without snow, rain, heavy fog, extreme wind or arctic temperatures.
We often experienced a combination of some of the weather challenges.
It certainly would be my first dry trip.
***
To find out if the weather
continued to cooperate and what we experienced the last two days
please return to my blog next Friday for the final part of this
travelogue.
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