Lakefield Trail 2-5

Today I was sitting at A Place For The Arts, in Bancroft, Ontario.

Usually, there are a fair number of people going through the Gallery but today it was fairly quiet.

Fortunately, I always bring something with me to work on when there isn't anyone in the Gallery.

I decided I would do some small drawings, from photographs (see post on 28 September 2020) while I was sketching on the Lakefield Trail.

Lakefield Trail 2

For the first one I worked mainly on a large maple tree that was close to where I was set up to sketch.

I added in a small amount of background bushes and tree trunks.

For the second drawing I worked on the trail where it had gone around the bend and in behind a large tree and went out of sight.

On the far side of the trail I indicated the trunks of a few mid-sized tree trunks and added some bushes and growies.

Lakefield Trail 3

For my third drawing I decided to change the format from portrait to landscape and do the section of the trail where it approaches the bend with two of the larger trees on the left side of the trail on one of the mid-sized trees on the far side of the trail in front of the background small trees and bushes.















Lakefield Trail 4

For my last drawing I did a row of the larger trees lining the right side of the Trail.















Lakefield Trail 5

There is only a small amount of the Trail that is showing to the left of the trees.

Lakefield Trail 1

Today I went on a paint out with the Lakefield Creative Art Group and did this drawing of a section of the Lakefield Trail near the Lakefield Beach.

While I was there I took many photographs of the beach, the Otonabee River and the beautiful autumn colours.














I was going to do a number of smaller drawings, but the wind came up and the clouds rolled in with a rumble of thunder.

I chose to go home before I got wet.

Returning Home from Chutes

Today we are leaving Chutes Provincial Park to return home.

After breakfast and before we left, we wanted to go and see a full view of Big Chute Falls.

We followed the trail beyond the observation deck and went down a long flight of steep, wooden stairs.

This put us half way below the falls and above another set of rapids. 

It was soon time for us to make our way back to the campsite pack up our things and prepare the trailer for us to go home.

It wasn't long, before we were on the road and soon back on the Trans Canada Highway.

The return home was fairly uneventful, with only two slow downs for construction.
















About halfway home we stopped for fuel, took the time to stretch our legs and have lunch.

It wasn't long before we were back on the road again.















A couple of hours away from home we stopped to have supper, before continuing on our journey.

It was nice to finally make it home, but I wasn't impressed to see by flower beds had become overgrown with weeds.

Chutes Provincial Park

Today was our first full day at Chutes Provincial Park and after breakfast were are going to go hiking on the trails.

We started at the beginning of the trail at the observation deck by Big Chute Falls.

I of course, took many photographs of the water coming over the falls but I will find a place where I can get pictures of the entire falls from a distance.

From there we walked along the trail beside the River aux Sables and at a section of the trail by the rapids one of the soles of my hiking boot came off. Fortunately, we were not far from our campsite.
















Ron told me to stay and take my pictures and he would go back to the campsite and get a pair of my running shoes and return.

While I was waiting, I thought what are the odds of me loosing another sole off another pair of fairly new shoes? Two days ago, while Ron was tying down the canoe after fishing at the inlet at White Lake, I walked up the gravel road taking photographs and realized that I had lost the sole off of my loafer.

When Ron returned, he not only brought in my running shoes, he brought along a roll of duct tape and asked if I wanted him to patch up my hiking boot. I thought why not? Especially, since there was less than 30 miles (48km) of wear on them.

We continued following the trail, past the Seven Sister Rapids and stopped at the observation area before we crossed both of the Twin Bridges and started back down the River Aux Sables on the opposite side of the river.
















We managed to make it as far as just past the last of the Seven Sisters Rapids, to the next observation area when the other sole came off my pair of hiking boots. I had enough of this nonsense and took both boots off, put my running shoes on and at this point we turned around to go back to the campsite.

I placed my hiking boots where they belonged, in one of the trash containers for garbage since they did not even survive our two mile (3.2km) hike.

After lunch we decided that we would go back out on the trail again to go through the forest and see what kinds of birds and wildlife we could find. We also brought along my last pair of running shoes and the duct tape, just in case.

We went back up the River Aux Sables, across the Twin Bridges and this time took the trail to the left away from the river.


When we came to the fork in the trail we decided to continue going away from the river.

At the next fork in the road we went toward the river which took us to a beach and the rapids above Big Chute Falls.

We retraced our steps and continued on our path going back up the river and we again bypassed the trail leading back into the forest.

We continued along the river, back over the Twin Bridges and back to our campsite completing our afternoon walk of 3.2 miles (5.2km).

After supper we relaxed with a cup of tea or coffee and enjoyed the peace and quiet of the campgrounds.

Tomorrow, there is one more small trail that we will take in the morning before we head back home.

White Lake Campsite 79 - A Work in Progress

Today was our third day at White Lake Provincial Park with another sunny and warm 82F (28F) day.

After taking the dog out for her morning walk and enjoying the loons and their babies on the calm lake we returned to the trailer and had breakfast.















While relaxing over our morning cups of tea or coffee, we discussed our plans for the day. Ron wanted to go fishing and try his luck again, but with my knee still hurting from being in a cramped position in the canoe yesterday, I decided I would stay here at the campsite and sketch.

After taking a number of reference photographs I started this sketch of the empty campsite across the road. It had some lovely birch trees nestled among the pine and spruce trees, with a lot of wild flowers in bloom around the edges of the lot.

Ron returned a few hours later and once again he didn't have any luck catching Walleye, Northern Pike or any other type of fish for that matter.

We decided that after lunch, we would walk the Deer Lake Trail which gives the option of a 1 mile (1.5km) long walk to the observation deck or continue around Beaver Pond for 1.6 miles (2.5km).

The trail was fairly level with just one section that went slightly uphill and then back down to the observation deck.

The observation deck allowed you to view almost all of the Beaver Pond.















From there we opted to follow the Deer Lake Trail around the Beaver Pond.

Aside from a few pathways through the forest we were pretty much within sight of the pond.

Some areas of the path went over soft, wet, marshy areas and a pathway made of wood planking wound its way through the forest on the edge of the wetland.

While on the trail you would catch glimpses of birds and butterflies, hear the rustling sounds of small animals scurrying through the underbrush and the never ending chorus of frogs.

It wasn't long until we were back to the beginning of the trail and heading back to our campsite.

We saw the sign for Clearwater Lake and decided to check it out which is listed as a fairly easy trail and only 1.2 miles (2km) long.















When we arrived at the start of the trail, Ron wasn't particularly thrilled about reading the warnings about meeting a bear on the trail, but decided that with it being fairly well travelled, the odds were worth going anyway.

The trail going through the forest was of hard packed earth and fairly level without a lot of tree roots near the surface which, if you are not watching where you place your feet could be a problem.















It didn't take long for us to make our way to the lake which as we approached it, we could see the sandy bottom through the crystal clear water.

There were canoes available for rent and a bench by the water where you could sit and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the place. The only sounds were the whispering of the leaves as the wind blew though them.















It was nice to see the fingerling speckled trout in the water by the shore and I watched them for a little while, until it was time to retrace our steps back to the car.

As we drove back to the campsite we talked about going on the Tiny Bog Trail in the morning and going fishing in the afternoon on our last full day in the park.















It wasn't long after we returned to the campsite that we had supper and the dog was taken for her final walk.

As the sun was setting it was time for a bonfire while we relaxed and enjoyed the evening.

Pathway 1 and Reflections 7

Today it is back to being another overcast day at the Knoepfli Inn, but hopefully the rain will continue to stay away.

After breakfast I went down to the Magnetawan River and this time I wanted to sketch some of the trees on the far shore and their reflections in the water.

There were a number of trees that had not changed from their bright green foliage in behind the ones closest to the shore. I liked how the pale dead tree trunk beside a brilliant orange maple were reflected into the dark water of the river.

Reflections 7

I added in a few of the plants into the foreground of the drawing that where on this side of the river.














Pathway 1

On my way back to the Inn for lunch I stopped and did this sketch of the pathway near cabin 1.

I will post each of these drawings at a later date as more work on them is completed.

After lunch Norma and I brought our friend back from the hospital in time to join us for supper. 

Path Through the Woods I

Today is the first time in a while that the weather has been nice so we could go out on the side by side without the rain.

Ron has been using the rocks he picks out of the back fields for filling in the trail through the sugar bush.

The mosquitoes swarm you when you are in the forest and some of them seem to be the size of jumbo jets.

I did this sketch of the trail which is about three quarters of the way down the trail.

Needless to say, we didn't spend a lot of time in there, but we did put three loads of rock on the trail trying to make the path easier to traverse; and I did a nice little sketch.

Triad I

Now that all the fields have been plowed and will soon be planted my horses needed a new pasture.

So on the weekend we put posts around the infield of the track. Putting them in was difficult with the ground being so hard and dry due to a lack of rain.














Next we attached the hot wire to the posts and hooked it up to the paddock fencing and it was time to let the horses out in their new pasture.

Of course Tai just had to touch the wire and got zapped. Since then he has been giving the fence a wide berth. I doubt that he will do it again.














It was a lot of work but it is nice to be able to look out my kitchen window and see the horses grazing in the infield again.














As I sat at the kitchen table I did this little drawing of galloping horses.

This original 3-3/4" x 5” original pen and ink drawing when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $30.00.

Winter Trail 3

To say I was not impressed to wake up and see that the ground was covered in snow and it was still snowing is putting it mildly.

So after doing the barn chores and having breakfast as I watched the snow continue to come down I thought I may as well do a winter scene.

I decided to do the pathway by the paddock that leads into the two front fields below the house and barns.

I went back out into the snow and took a photograph of what I wanted to paint, although normally I would go out and make a sketch first.

Using titanium white and ultramarine blue I put in the sky first and the under paint for the snow in the foreground.

With burnt sienna, raw sienna and a small amount of white I painted in the background trees first. Many of them will be covered up by the foreground trees, but their colour will show through the branches of the closer trees.















The next layer of trees had more burnt sienna in it with a small amount of ultramarine blue.

More blue was added to the paint mixture to darken and make it a little greener for the front row of trees in the background.















Next I added a small amount of the tree colour to the white and put the tree shadows across the snow below the background trees.

Using ultramarine blue, pthalo blue and raw sienna I put in some of the foreground pines, next I added burnt sienna to the mix and added more trees.















With a mixture of ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and alizarin crimson I painted in the trunks and bare branches of the deciduous trees throughout the pine and cedar trees.

Lastly, I put in the dark shadows across the snow from the foreground trees.

Snow Scenes

In less than a month and it will be Christmas and in keeping with the season I thought I would like to do a couple of landscape drawings with snow covering the ground.

On my first drawing I decided to do one of the snow covered trails on my property that ends at the Snelgrove Brook.















Cold and Calm 1

It is only during the winter after the ice has frozen that I can reach my property on the other side of the brook, otherwise I would have to drive over to the Buckhorn Road to access that section of my land.

For my second drawing I did this pathway from the concession road that runs along my south fence line and again ends at the Snelgrove Brook.















Snow Trail 1

I thought to create interest by leaving a trail of footprints in the snow.

Either of these drawings could be easily developed into beautiful paintings, which I may do at a later date.

Selwyn Beach Conservation Area I-VI

The sun was shining, the was a nice breeze to keep the bugs away, for the most part and it was warm 74F (23.3C) making today was an ideal day to go over to the Selwyn Beach Conservation Area, located at 2251 Birch Island Road.

I arrived at the Park for 9:00am trying to beat most of the people who would come out to spend the day at the beach and for the most part I succeeded.

For many years from the time Christine was a year old child we would take her to the Beach most week days during the summer and do other things on the weekend when the beach was crowded.

Selwyn Beach IV

One of the things she liked was going along the trail from the parking lot through the shadowed tunnel created by the trees and coming out into the bright sunlit and running across the grass to the sandy beach.

We would take her on the hiking trails and eventually she walked the entire 3.1 miles (6km).

Selwyn Beach VI

The unsupervised beach is located on the northeast shore of Chemong Lake.

There is a marked off area that reaches a depth of 4.5' (1.37m) and the bottom is sand to that point. Once you go under the rope the bottom becomes a little bit on the weedy side.

But in all the years I have lived in this area the Beach has never been closed due to water quality.

Selwyn Beach V

The 72 acre (29.1 hectare) Park was purchased by the Otonabee Region Conservation Authority (ORCA) in 1973 to make sure that the public would have access to a section of the lake.















Selwyn Beach I

There are many small barbecues and picnic tables in the area around the beach area where families have the opportunity to spend the day and cook a meal in the great outdoors.

There is also a picnic shelter complete with a large barbecue for birthday parties, family reunions or other special occasions which can be reserved by contacting the head office.













Selwyn Beach II

Selwyn Beach also has a public boat launch and dock and years ago in the off season I would sometimes take Pagan and Fancy there to swim.

Pagan preferred to stay at the edge of the water and just get his feet wet; whereas Fancy loved the water and would race to the end of the dock and jump out as far as he could into the lake and would sometimes dive down for the water plants.












Selwyn Beach III

I will post these sketches at a later date once they have been completed and paintings have been started.

It was well worth paying the daily entry fee of $10 per vehicle.

Winter Trail 2

I was going through some winter photographs of the trails going through the woodland at the south end of my property and thought I would like to do this part of the trail which is just behind the pond and gives you c choice of going toward the road to the west or deeper into the forest as you go east.

I started by putting the sky in with a mixture of ultramarine blue and titanium white and as I got to the bottom of the painting I added a cobalt blue and pthalo blue into the sky colour for the snow on the ground and the snow shadows.

Next I mixed various different greens for my trees using raw sienna, yellow ochre, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, pthalo blue and cobalt blue.

Using more of the paler yellow greens first, I put in the distant trees into the background and gradually darkened green mixtures as I put in the closer trees and added more details to them as I worked my way forward through the background trees.

On the closer trees on each side of where the trail divides I continued to darkened the colours and added more details to the trees.

Next I mixed a dark of ultramarine blue, burnt sienna and a little bit of alizarin crimson and put in some dark shadows at the base of the trees as well as a few of the bare tree trunks.

Selwyn Beach - A Work in Progress

The temperature certainly has dropped from yesterday's hot and humid temperatures. In fact the high for today was 40F (4.4C) with a strong wind and rain for most of the day,

When there was a break in the rain I decided to take a quick trip over to Selwyn Beach and see if I could get a couple more quick sketches of the trail leading from the parking lot to the beach.

I managed to do this sketch and before I could start on another one the rain came pouring down and after getting soaked I decided to be happy with just the one sketch.

Fortunately the beach isn't very far away and I will just have to pick another day to go back to do more sketching. It would probably be best to go early in the morning before all the picnickers arrive.

One nice thing was that the sun did come out for s short time before it set bringing with it a completed double rainbow which makes up for the fact that the furnace came on during the night.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Four Seasons 3

It is not quite as warm as yesterday but I am happy with it reaching 54F (12.2C) and the bright sunshine which is helping to dry everything and my lawn is showing signs of starting to turn green.

Today I am painting with the Buckhorn Tuesday Painting Group and I thought that I would do four different drawings each representing one of the four seasons with people on a roadway..















Spring 3

I thought I may as well start with spring, which is well known for its rainy days. After putting in the road and some trees on each side I put in a few puddles on the road.

Then I added a lone figure walking on the road and carrying an umbrella to keep off the rain.















Summer 3

Next it was time to work on the summer road, with its hot days and trees covered in leaves which provide shade from the sun.

After getting the road and trees put into the drawing, I thought for this one to put two couples out for a walk on the road heading toward each other.














Autumn 3

After lunch I started on the autumn road with its semi bare trees on each side of the road and a scattering of leaves at the edge of the road.

For this one I thought I would like to have three people walking down the road.















Winter 3

Before the afternoon was over I wanted get the last season completed. I started by indicating the road and putting snowbanks on each side of the road with the trees bare of any leaves.

Lastly, I put an adult with a child walking along the road.

At a later date I may decide to do painting of the four seasons.

ACEO - Fog 2

Nothing like having to go to Toronto and knowing that you are going to have to drive in a snow storm that will change to freezing rain just to make things a little more difficult. But at least we made it back home safely.

After making myself a cup of tea I decided I would work on a small painting and pulled out this piece that I had started a number of years ago (see post on 27 February 2013).

I mixed a grey of burnt sienna and French ultramarine blue and working backwards, I put in the foreground tree first.

Next, I lightened the colour slightly by adding water and put in the next closer trees as well as the growies in the foreground on the right side of the painting.















I continued to add a little more water to the paint for each layer of trees until they faded in the distance.

Lastly, with raw sienna I painted in some grasses at the base of some of the trees.

If you would like more information about ACEO please go to my post on 11 March 2010.

The ACEO 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 $20.00 and sold unframed.

Winter Woods

Today I went to KAGS in the morning for the still life class where the subject was toys.

Unfortunately, nothing that I drew worked out the way I wanted so, I took a number of photographs that I may use in future drawings or paintings of toys.

After lunch I stayed to paint with the Outdoor Painters' Group and worked on this painting of one of the many trails that can be found throughout the woods at the bottom of the front fields on my property.













I am pleased with the snow and the general composition of the painting, but before I consider this piece completed, I think it needs some time.

I will decide whether it needs some colour added into the wooded area and perhaps post it at a later date.

I would like to thank returning collector Mrs. Sheila Stanley of Norwood, Ont. on her purchase of Golden Moments (see post on 18 September 2012).

Through the Forest I

18F (-8C) and sun, what a pleasant change even though it did cloud over for the afternoon it made it up to a high of 28F (-2C).

I came across this sketch while sorting through some boxes that I had brought home from my parent's house in Toronto when it was sold many years ago and I had been placed in the loft.

The foreground grasses, some of the main trees, the horses and riders had already been inked in and I started to add in the rest of the forest.
















Each layer of trees was made smaller and with less detail the further back it was placed in the drawing.

This original 4-1/2" x 6-1/2” pen and ink drawing when matted and shrink wrapped will be available for $50.00.

Thank you for taking the time to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often.

Birch Trail

While up in Magnetawan last month the cabins were surrounded by mixed forest and one of the trails leading down to the Magnetawan River had many colourful maple, oak and birch trees.














I came across a one of the quick paintings I had started while there of the trail just past the big cottage in which I had stayed. All it needed was the dark marking painted onto the birch trees.

This 5" x 7" framed, original watercolour is available for $95.00.