Trip to Kamouraska - Part 2

L'Islet-sur-Mer

Blog 39

Every day, we have to make a decision about our destination when painting. By now, we have enough experience to know that it is best to stay in one spot, because once you pack up your gear and drive around looking for another painting spot, you lose a lot of time. Therefore, we try to find a picturesque spot that offers many painting possibilities. This is also helpful as we all create at a different speed. The size of the canvas or board certainly plays a role in this but so does the painting style. Some of us are rather fast while others take their time to capture their impression.

Following is the second part of my travelogue for this year’s trip to Kamouraska:

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Baby Bateau, oil, 8” x 10”

Before I tell you about today’s gorgeous day, I will quickly summarize yesterday’s activities. After I wrote my blog, I finished the painting of “Baby Bateau”, that I had started in 2011. While eating lunch, I discovered some issues with my paintings from the previous days and fixed what bothered me. 

Église Saint-Louis de Kamouraska, oil, 14" x 11"

After lunch, I started my work on another 2011 painting of some of the Kamouraska houses and the Église Saint-Louis de Kamouraska, seen from Rue Saint Louis that I finished after getting groceries and eating ice cream at “La Fée Gourmande” with Janis and Helene. Helene was Tuesday’s chef and served us lasagne and salad, followed by flan cake with custard, jam, and whipping cream.

Beautiful Weeds, oil, 5" x 7"

When we woke up this morning, we could hardly see anything through the dense fog. After it lifted, we all went to L'Islet-sur-Mer where some of our group had seen an old mill next to a stunning waterfall. Unfortunately, it turned out that the only spot from which you had a great view was from a bridge on highway Route 132, which was definitely not a safe spot to set up our equipment. We were quite disappointed, especially because we had to drive about 45 minutes from Kamouraska to get to L'Islet. Instead we spent a couple of hours painting at the side of the “Chemin du Moulin”. At the beginning, I did not really feel inspired (and I feel it shows in my painting) but I still painted a small section of the St. Lawrence River panorama that extended in front of us. After lunch, I created another painting of a fascinating wildflower that I discovered on the beach. Both oil paintings are only 5” x 7”.

Later in the afternoon, we went to “L'ange de Glaces” where we could have picked “Le Choix du King”, but were very happy with a well-deserved ice cream. Next, we visited the “Parc Havre du Souvenir”, from which you had a terrific view of the rock formations of the St Lawrence River at low tide.

As Janis had injured herself while climbing down to the beach, we decided to head back to the house. As it was still so beautiful outside but I did not feel like unpacking all my gear again, I spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden sketching a couple of wild roses with my watercolour pencils.

At suppertime, Marje served delicious fajitas with chicken and vegetables followed by date squares. Tomorrow, it is my turn to cook; therefore, my painting day will be cut short. As everyone before me, I can hardly wait to put this responsibility finally behind me.

I you enjoyed my travelogue and would like to see more more photos, please go to my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/KerstinPetersPaintings where I will post photos of this year’s trip in my “Photo of the Day” post for the rest of the month. Next week, I will continue with the third part of my travelogue.