Going Camping in Algonquin Provincial Park

Today we went up to Algonquin Provincial Park in Whitney, Ontario for the rest of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

We stayed at the Lake of Two Rivers Campground which is of course, located on Lake of Two Rivers.

Algonquin Provincial Park, was established on 27 May 1893 and is the oldest provincial park in Ontario and the first provincial park in Canada.

Facilities include lodges, campgrounds, scenic drives, hiking and skiing trails and over 930 miles (1,500 km) of lake and river canoe routes.















The park lies across the southern edge of the Canadian shield and is located between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River and has Highway 60 running through the south end of the park, while the Trans-Canada Highway bypasses it to the north.

Additions since it was first created have increased the park to its current size of approximately 2,955 square miles (7,653 square kilometres).

The rolling landscape was smoothed and gouged by the glaciers that receded 10,000 years go during the last ice age which also created the over 745 miles (1,200 km) of streams and rivers and over 2,400 lakes which provide access by boat to the interior of the park.















The park is considered to be an area of transition between the Northern Ontario coniferous forest and the Southern Ontario deciduous forest. Due to this unique mixture of the different forest types and also the wide variety of environments within the park, it allows the park to support a wide diversity of both plant and animal life.

The on land the park is famous for its wolves and a wide variety of other animal species are common and almost 250 bird species have been recorded throughout the park. The cold, deep, lakes are home to trout, small-mouthed bass, pike, muskellunge and walleye can also be found.

In 1992 Algonquin Provincial Park was named a National Historic Site of Canada in recognition of its many heritage values, a few of which are its role in the development of park management; it being an important site for wildlife research; its role in inspiring artists, which gave many Canadians an appreciation of their country; pioneering visitor interpretation programs many of which were later adopted by both national and provincial parks across the Canada.















A new visitor centre complete with bookstore, museum and restaurant was opened in 1993 to celebrate Algonquin's centennial.

Algonquin Provincial Park is the only designated park within the province of Ontario to allow industrial logging to take place within its borders. Logging began in the 19th century, especially for white pine and today over 70% of the park is still subject to controlled logging.

Recently park planning and land use pressures and have led to a lot of public debate regarding the appropriate use and designation of the park, which in my opinion doesn't bode well for the Park.

The last thing I want to see is a subdivision in the middle of the park or the lakes being ruined by having hundreds of cottages and motorboat traffic destroying the peace and tranquility of these pristine areas.

OSWOA - Barron Canyon 1

Today I was painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group and I took a number of smaller paintings to work on including this one that I had started a while ago (see posts on 0 May 2014 and 23 October 2015).

I added more raw sienna into the left side of the canyon walls and a few more trees.

For the distant hills behind the canyon walls some pale greyed green trees were added to the top and I put in a very pale wash of raw sienna against the bottom of the rocks.

Next I washed some alizarin crimson over the rocks at the base of the right side rock wall, which was followed by a mix of French ultramarine blue and burnt sienna.

The tree at the edge of the narrows was darkened and more were added along the top edges of the rocks at the base of the cliff with various mixtures of green.













With the greyed green from the background hills, the edges of the outcroppings on the cliffs were lightly indicated. Then trees were put on the tops of the outcrops and against the skyline at the top of the cliff.

The water was put in using layers of Antwerp blue, burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue.

I lightly drew in a canoe and it was painted with cadmium red and cadmium yellow.

The OSWOA shown here is an original watercolour painting using Artist quality Winsor & Newton paint on 140lb. Arches 100% rag, acid free watercolour paper. It is priced at $50.00 and sold unframed. SOLD

If you would like more information about OSWOA please go to my post on 12 March 2010.

Windmill 1 - 3

Today was very busy day for me as first thing this morning I had to go to the Visitors' Centre in Algonquin Provincial Park to tear down the Nature's Palette show.

I then returned to Peterborough and picked up my painting at the Canadian Canoe Museum from the Peterborough in Portrait: Our Inclusive Community exhibit and fortunately I had an extra box as they threw the out.

Windmill 1

Even though I did a lot of running around today I also took the time to do a few quick sketches along the way to and from Algonquin Provincial Park.

Since the sun was coming up as I went past a farm that had a windmill silhouetted against the sky, I had to turn around and go back to do a quick sketch of the windmill standing alone in the field which, at a later date I make into a painting.

Windmill 2

Further along the way I came across another windmill in the field and the sun was much higher in the sky which changed the lighting on the windmill.

Once again I stopped and did another sketch of that windmill and took a number of photographs before continuing on my way.

On my way to Peterborough I came across a third windmill and did another sketch.

Windmill 3

Perhaps I will use these sketches to create the four seasons with windmills, or various times of day, who knows what I will do, but at least I will have captured a part of the past that is rapidly disappearing.