Not Quite An Ice Storm

Clayton vernal pool

11:00  Fred and I are booked as Invertebrate (non-insect) experts at the Bell Property Bio Blitz on Clayton Road.  This is the last Bio Blitz of the season – a very late one, at the end of a summer of more Bio Blitzes than any before.  Taking one look at the Headquarters, several tables arrayed with books, microscopes, jars of insects and rainbows of mushrooms, and computers, all set out under a series of canopies in the woods behind a banner for the Mississippi Valley Field Naturalists, gives the impression that this is perhaps the best organized Bio Blitz ever!

Adam and I, equipped with mushroom guides and painting kit, wander off into the woods toward a patch of sunlight where we’ve been told there is a wet area with lots of ferns, Read the rest of this entry »

Paudash Lake
19 September 2009

There used to be a creek running through a culvert under the highway here, but there was only an energetic volunteer fireman to tell me about it as I sat painting just inside the guardrail from the shoulder of the road, looking south across the wetland with my back turned to the lake.  He said that when the highway was repaired they neglected to replace the caved in culvert, and now there is still a  wetland but no more creek.  His brother lives in the house to the west of the wetland.  I can hear sounds of children playing from the house. 

Most of the forest is in its own shadow as the sun lowers in the west, but the billowy Maples still have their tops in the sunshine and the late afternoon sunshine is on the marsh.  Patches of autumn-bronzing Pickerelweed make crisp dark reflections of thin curving stems and curling arrow-head leaves.  We hear a splash from the lake across the road, and my new friend returns, announcing that there is a very large Beaver “checking out” the place where the culvert used to be.

I began with a dark indian red underpainting, well rubbed in, and had it all finished except the signature by the time the sun set.  Returning to the trailer, I find that Fred and Adam have left some supper  in the pan for me. Then we push on down the road as we must get to Clayton tonight.

17 September 2009

Dutrisac Bay, we drove into a commercial campground/trailer park, as the sun was setting,looking for a beach to hunt crayfish and a lake view for a very fast oil painting.

We were given permission to park our rig and told that the rocky shore was to the left, and the sandy beach was to the right.  As I approached the beach, the wind was strong in my face and the waves were whitecapped all over the angry blackish blue lake.  The sky glowed peach under, behind, and through purplish-grey clouds with a hint of green.  I parked my stool in partial shelter of the corner of a marina building, took a photograph, and began to paint  as fast as I could, leaving the strange row of trees on a mid-distance island to add later from my photo.

At one point I noticed a movement near my feet, and there was a Toad of about 5 cm long, beautifully patterned with tan, olive, black, and white.  It was heading past me toward the beach.  I wonder what it does there in the evenings, and whether it noticed the wind…

As it got dark, I added some white caps, sharpened and darkened the horizon, and packed up – only half an hour this time, but I got the canvas covered and the colours all right!