Adventures in Canada

I painted in Canada almost every summer for the early 2000s. Many of those visits I took workshops in plein-air landscape painting from artist Sharon Yates through Sunbury Shores Art and Nature Center in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Sharon is a great teacher who taught for many years at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, and in her I found a teacher who really reminded me of my art school days in Philadelphia. She has helped me get past many stumbling blocks and bad habits in my painting technique. Also, going back to the same area summer after summer was very helpful, as I revisited the same places and gained a familiarity with the subject.

The following paintings are roughly in chronological order, oldest to newest, but I'm not sure what year they were done. I think the first summer I went was 2002.

Clicking on a painting will give you a larger image.

"Beaver Harbour" oil on board, 11"x14". This is on the coast, just east of the border with Maine. It is close to the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in the world. The tides here are over 21 feet, and trying to paint the quickly moving water was very frustrating. I struggled and wrestled and painted a lot of bad pictures that first year. I think this was the first halfway decent painting I did. The boats were very interesting to paint, but that tide was a killer. I think when I started the painting, the water was at high tide, and it (and the boats, of course) sank rapidly. At the end of about two hours, the water was down where I depicted it. This was one of those paintings that I kept changing. Not only that, but the white boat in the middle was drifting left to right, and the perspective kept changing. But I struggled with it until it worked. I think the least successful thing about this painting is that the distant land is too green, so it doesn't stay back in the distance enough.

"Beaver Harbour Boats" oil on board, 10"x10". Also from the first week of the first year. I found the easiest way to deal with the tides was to paint things that float, and avoid the conjunction of water and land. The little shed is on a floating dock. You can see the high water mark on the pilings, which are as tall as telephone poles when it is low tide.

"Fish Packing Plant", oil on board, 12"x14". Also at Beaver Harbour, which is a very busy industrial area. Eighteen wheelers were in and out of the parking lot I stood in, but were careful not to run me over. This time I stood on the land and looked out on the water at low-ish tide. You'll notice more of those pilings sticking out. I'm still not dealing with where the water meets the land, and the fog also helped.

"Picnic Table", oil on board, 9"x12" Painting in the shade, close up beside a building, has become a recurring motif with me. But this was the first time I did it. This painting felt abstract to me.

"House at Richardson's Cove", oil on panel, 14"x18". I decided to turn my back on the water and paint a house. This was much less stressful!

"Pottery Creek, Fog" oil on board, 10"x12". I don't remember if this was done the first year or the second. The class spends a day or two painting here every year. At low tide, there are lush grasses and red rocks, with a little stream meandering through. High tide turns it into a small bay, and all of this is under water.

"Adirondack Chairs", oil on linen, 11"x14", 2003. This is the back yard of a house that is right next to Pottery Creek. The owner very kindly allows the class full use of his property. I painted this under his porch roof in the rain.

"Pottery Creek, Low Tide", oil on linen, 10"x10". The land in the far distance is the coast of Maine.

"Pottery Creek Grasses", oil on linen, 10"x10". At low tide.

"Rowboat on the Dock", oil on linen, 12"x12", 2003. SOLD. Another year, back at Beaver Harbour. This time I stood on a floating dock, so I went up and down with the tide. Much easier! And painting a boat that was not floating was easier, too.

This is one that never got finished. I may still dig it out and try to finish it off. I was standing on a floating dock, so the tide wasn't really an issue. But fishermen kept coming down and getting in the boats and driving them away! Or coming back and wedging their boats in between the ones that were there, making the boats tied to the dock move around like teeth. Maybe that's why I never got this painting done. Still, I like the feel of this painting. The photograph is too yellow and light.

Another unfinished painting done from a floating dock, and also a bad photo. These docks are connected to the wharves by a long ramp that is attached by hinges. As the tide goes up and down, and the floating dock raises and lowers, the ramp goes from being very steep to being almost level. You have to be sure not to set up under the ramp, or you will be crushed, or at least your easel will.

An unfinished "still life" of skiffs tied to the floating dock. Sometimes I just didn't feel like dealing with the landscape! A little problem with boat anatomy here.

"Chairs, View of St. Andrews Wharf", oil on linen, 18"x24". 2004. The next summer. This painting was done on the grounds of the place I was staying. I did this painting over two days. It was high tide when I started it (nothing but water to the left of the walkway with the chairs,) and then the water was gone when I painted there the next day. I decided the view was much more interesting without the water, so I repainted that part.

"St. Andrews Wharf", oil on linen, 14"x18", 2004, SOLD. Done on a rainy afternoon, standing under a large umbrella. It is low tide. At high tide, the water is almost up to the top of the wharf, and that angled ramp going down to the boat is level.

"Houses at Stuart Town", oil on canvas, 14"x18", 2004. I was getting a little braver about dealing with the juncture of land and water. I had to change where the shore line was a couple of times. The strangest thing about this painting was that when the tide turned, it suddenly became very windy. It went from being a warm day with no breeze to a 30 mile-per-hour gale in an instant. I had an umbrella attached to my easel to shade me from the sun, and the wind grabbed it and almost knocked my easel over. I had to take the umbrella down and finish the painting hanging on to my easel so it wouldn't blow over.

"Lobster Traps", oil on linen, 10"x12". 2005. Another bad, yellow photo. This was the year I went to St. Andrews and rented a house with friends, but didn't take the class. I had four paintings in a show at Sunbury Shores, and one of them was sold to a resident of the town.

"Boat Repair", oil on linen, 12"x14". 2006. A cool, gray day, in a very hot week.

A picture of the unfinished painting still on the easel. It's the back of Sunbury Shores. I was very unhappy painting this, because it was HOT - in the low 90s. That's just not right for Canada! Must be global warming.

"Beach Rock", oil on linen, 10"x12". Another painting done in the vicinity of Pottery Creek. the land in the far distance is the coast of Maine.

"Porch Chair", oil on linen, 16"x20". Done on the property of the nice man next door to Pottery Creek. That's the porch I painted under in the rain for "Adirondack Chairs".

A painting in progress.

A very yellow photo of a painting that needs some work.

  At Pottery Creek. If you compare the painting on the easel with the real scene, you'll notice the tide is coming in. At high tide all the grasses are underwater. I need to go back into this painting and lighten up the shadow running along the wall.