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Friday, 21 October 2016

Lake Clear - Plein Air Ensemble Fall Painting Trip 2016, Part III







Sunday, October 2, 2016

As expected, we woke up to rain. It was more mist than rain drops, and it had stopped after breakfast. Even the fog started to lift. Hélène and I decided to stay close to the cottage, so we went to the swamp next to the entrance. Hélène wanted to paint a second painting of the starting tree, and I decided to paint the beautiful red wine leaves in front of the barn.

Unfortunately, the rain started again and continued on and off. While I was pretty dry under my umbrella, Hélène was more exposed under hers and went back to the cottage while I continued painting until 2 p.m. When I arrived at the cottage, I was starving. I never feel hungry when I am painting because I am so focused on my image, but as soon as I stop, I am usually famished.

For the rest of the afternoon, I prepared my Tuesday drawing class, read, wrote parts of my newsletter, and took a quick nap.

Tonight, everyone was so tired that we skipped the Trivial Pursuit art game we had brought for the evening entertainment. Instead, we had lively discussions which was nice to see. As an organizer, it is always very rewarding if the people get along well. That makes our work really easy.


Monday, October 3, 2016

We were quite disappointed this morning when we woke up to rain. The weather forecast had promised sun with the occasional shower, but not mist and fog.

Hélène and I decided to drive around a little bit hoping that it would clear up. Even though the sun did not appear, at least the drizzle stopped. We drove towards Cormac, then turned towards Foymount. Unfortunately, the mountainous area was totally enclosed by fog. We returned to Cormac, and we continued through marshes and fields all the way up to Killaloe.

At the end, we went back to another swamp on Cormac Road, where the colourful fall trees and a view of the mountains caught our attention. We had an early lunch. Afterwards, we spent the rest of the day at the swamp. When we started painting, there was a complete cloud cover, then a couple of patches of blue sky and a little bit of sun had peeked through, but disappeared quickly again. However, by 2:30 p.m. the sun came out at full strength. Temperatures climbed to about 20 degrees. It was hot in the sun. I was glad that I had an umbrella. Unfortunately, painting the scene got really tricky as the bright sunlight changed the colours of the scene. I continued to compare colours with the areas of my painting that I had already worked on. There is still some work to be done but I am quite happy with what I painted. I found it quite hard to capture the foliage successfully. As we only had less than an hour left before we had to leave for the cottage, I just started a small painting of a tree stem overgrown by a red wine.

When we finally returned to the cottage, we were amazed how calm Lake Clear was. Neither this year nor last year had we ever seen the lake that quiet. There was absolutely no wind. What a beautiful sight! I took pictures not only of the big mountain on the other side of the lake, but also of a grey heron, and later of the beautiful sunset that tinted the water light pink and blue.

Tonight was our last evening together. Everyone put up some of their paintings from the weekend. We had the vote for the most creatively decorated name tag, and lots of discussions about the paintings and the beautiful spots everyone had discovered during the trip.

Hélène and I are extremely happy that everyone had a good time. We are looking forward to the spring trip at the end of March to Orford in Quebec. If you would like more information about the Plein Air Ensemble please contact me at kpeters@DomingoInformatics.ca.

I hope you enjoyed my travelogue. If you would like more information about the Opeongo Mountain Resort please go to the website: www.omresort.ca. Katia and Niels Klauk offer a very welcoming atmosphere.

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