Ripley's Aquarium of Canada

Today started off fairly cool this morning at 27F (-2.8C) and a layer of frost on the grass, but at least the sun is shining and it supposed to get warmer as the day progresses.

After the chores were completed we headed out to Toronto to go to Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, which is a place I have wanted to visit since it first opened to the public in October 2013.

With the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team playing today it took a while to find a parking spot as most of the closer parking lots were already filled. We were fortunate and finally found a parking lot south of the Aquarium that had a few spaces available.

While Ron got the tickets to enter Ripley's I enjoyed looking at the various kinds of goldfish they had in tanks at the waiting area.

Once inside we took our time to enjoy the nine different galleries into which the Aquarium is divided. One gallery flows into the next. They include:
Canadian Waters,
Rainbow Reef,
Dangerous Lagoon,
Discovery Centre,
The Gallery,
Planet Jellies,
Ray Bay,
Life Support Systems and the Shoreline Gallery.

Seahorses

In the Canadian Waters Gallery there is amazing range of fresh and salt water displays featuring Atlantic lobster in a wide range of colours, Pacific octopus, a vast array of game fish, a large, shimmering silver, school of alewife and an impressive display of a Pacific kelp reef.

This towering display tank has a ramp which starts at the main level and wraps itself around the tank allowing you to view the inhabitants from the top all the way to the base of the tank. Needless to say this was one of the displays where I walked back up the ramp to enjoy the wide variety of fish before returning to the bottom where Ron was patiently waiting for my return.

From there we entered the Rainbow Reef Gallery which is a stunning display of the colourful reef fish of the Indo-Pacific region. To dive in the reefs surrounding the Fiji Islands and visit Micronesia and dive the many WWII wreck in Truk Lagoon is on my wish list and after seeing the multitude of fish in this display makes me want to go sooner.

We had just missed the every other hour interactive dive show, which leaves something to look forward to enjoying on my next visit.

From there we entered the vast Dangerous Lagoon exhibit.

It starts out as a large tank and changes into a tunnel where you are surrounded by the underwater world and as you look up you can see a variety of sharks, reef fish and green sea turtles swimming overhead.

Seahorses I

This display features a moving sidewalk running alongside the main display area where you can watch the ever changing reef, or you can step off the sidewalk and stroll along beside it and observe the sharks and other sea life on the opposite side of the tunnel stopping whenever you please to enjoy the fish.

This was another display that I had to go through a couple of times. I took the sidewalk to the end which leads to the Discovery Centre where Ron decided to wait for me as he watched the people in the pop-up research submarine replica located within the waters of the Dangerous Lagoon.

When I joined him there after walking back to the beginning of the Lagoon and taking the sidewalk back again, he decided he would find a table at the far side of the Discovery Centre and pick up lunch for us while I went back through Dangerous Lagoon for the third time.

On my return I strolled through the Discovery Centre which is a wonderful place for children to view fish up close in the viewing bubbles as well as having the opportunity to touch horseshoe crabs; which are living fossils, unchanged since prehistoric times.











Seahorses II

After lunch we continued on our way through the Aquarium to The Gallery which is home to many of my favourite fish species from around the world and also houses an impressive display of propagated corals (grown in an off-site facility) showing the wide variety of types and colours in one amazing location.

Ron and I enjoyed watching the deadly beauty of red lionfish as they slowly glided about their tank. Their bold coloration of black, brown, or red and white stripes and showy pectoral fins, serve as a warning to potential predators that they have defenses such as being poisonous which is backed up by their venomous spiky fin rays.

We moved on to the tanks filled with my favourite family of marine fish Syngnathidae which includes seahorses, pipefish, leafy and weedy sea dragons. Ron at first didn't believe that the weedy sea dragons were real, since they look just like floating seaweed in the tank, but once he saw their eyes moving he was amazed at how well they were camouflaged.

The next Gallery is called Planet Jellies, which is an enthralling room filled with back lit and colour changing display tanks featuring five different species of jellyfish. Even the ceiling has a delightful display of aptly called translucent moon jellyfish.

Ray Bay is made up of two Galleries in one; the lower level features three species of stingrays and like the Rainbow Reef Gallery features daily interactive dive shows.

The upper level called the Shoreline Gallery, which has a small beach area and offers a two hour package called the Stingray Experience where you can have a closer, hands-on experience with the stingrays.

I have always considered rays to be the butterflies of the underwater world and have had many experiences with them as they gracefully glide through the water past us while diving and snorkeling in the Caribbean. We snorkeled with nurse sharks and rays when we visited Marinarium Park, in Cabeza de Toro, Dominican Republic and while in the Bahamas we spent an afternoon on Nassau Balmoral Island and had unlimited time in the sting ray pool feeding and swimming with the rays.

The last Gallery is probably the most important one to the well-being of the many wonderful animals at the Aquarium and is called Life Support Systems Gallery. It gives a behind the scenes look some of the massive life support and filtration equipment needed to maintain the water quality and conditions for the survival of the marine life. What you see there is only the equipment for the Dangerous Reef and Ray Bay and there is much more not being shown that is required to maintain the other Galleries.

I enjoyed my visit to the Aquarium and will return again in the not too distant future.

Trent University, Canadian Studies Department, Art and Culture Tour

Today we set up the display at the Peterborough Public Library for the Trent University, Canadian Studies Department, Art and Culture Tour.

The Kawartha Artists Gallery and Studio had forty four works of art by twenty two of their members on display in the Auditorium of the Library.

It was a beautifully set up display, which was well worth seeing.

Unfortunately, of the 200 delegates who were to attend the tour less than ten were able to leave from the original start point to go the two blocks to our location.

And as far as I am concerned it is their loss and they should be ashamed of themselves for not taking the tour which was set up for their benefit.

The artists who were at the exhibition had an enjoyable time and were pleased that a number of the general public came out to enjoy the display.

I worked on a number of pieces at the show and I will post them at a later date.

ACEO - Shapes 4

I thought I would like to work on an abstract painting today.

First, I used a pencil and marked in the various shapes.

Next, I used alizarin crimson and painted in the thin line on the left side.

This was followed by using Antwerp blue in the corner of the right side.

I mixed the two colours together and painted in the bottom space on the right side.

From there I painted the small space at the centre top with cadmium yellow.

Cadmium red was used for the line across the bottom starting from the left side.

Lastly, I mixed the yellow and the blue and painted the remaining shape green.

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.

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

Deer in the Shadows I - A Work in Progress

Nothing like starting a spring morning off with 32F (0C) temperatures and the wind chill making it feel like 23F (-5C) but, the sun is shining and that is a bonus.

It was bound to get a little warmer as the day progressed and I decided to go for a walk through the fields behind the barn.

As I was walking up the slight hill by the north fence line just before the coming to the opening in the fence leading into the middle field a doe came out from behind the trees and stopped in the opening looking around before moving out into the opening.















I quickly pulled the camera out and did manage to get a slightly blurred photograph of the deer just before she turned and bounded away across the middle field and out of sight.

I will post this sketch at a later date once more work on it had been completed.

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

Backgrounds 34-38 - Five Works in Progress

Today is another unseasonably hot day with the temperature climbing to 80F (26.7C) and with the humidity feeling more like 94F (34.4C), but I am not going to complain about it one little bit as I know the temperature is going to drop back down again.

These backgrounds are from the leftover paint from the class with Melanie Melanie Browne I took over the weekend.














Background 34

For the first panel I used most of the Titanium white, some of the black and a little bit of the Grumbacher red.














Background 35

On this one I used a lot of the remaining Grumbacher red, all of the Hansa yellow and a small amount of the Titanium white.














Background 36

On this one I used about half of the remaining black, all of the brown mixture and a little bit of the Grumbacher red.














Background 37

For this one I used the most of the remaining black and all of the remaining Grumbacher red.















Background 38

For the last panel I used all the remaining black paint, the last bits of the Titanium white and the small amount of the French ultramarine blue.

I will post each of these pieces at a later date once I have decided what I will paint on them.

Imperial Chinese Horse I-V - Five Works in Progress

Today is the second day of a workshop in abstracts with Melanie Browne at KAGS. I thoroughly enjoyed the first day doing the sketch (see yesterday's post) for the image I was going to use for the series of small paintings.













Imperial Chinese Horse I

For the first canvas I drew the sculpture fairly realistic and have lines for the background to show movement and to ground the horse.














Imperial Chinese Horse II

For the second canvas I drew a more stylized horse, concentrating more on the negative space, which will be filled with colour.














Imperial Chinese Horse III

For the third canvas I used more of the geometric shapes found within the horse sculpture. It will be interesting to see what colours I finally decide to use for both the horse and the background.













Imperial Chinese Horse IV

On the fourth canvas I exploded the shapes of the horse using squares and rectangles and it will be on a pale coloured background for a strong contrast.













Imperial Chinese Horse V

On the first canvas which is similar to the fourth canvas in that the horse shapes are exploded but the background is also made of geometric shapes.

I used a limited palette of black, French ultramarine blue, Grumbacher Red (Naphthol red AS-D), Hansa yellow and Titanium white.

I started by mixing my background colours making the various mauves of blue and red with touches of white and black, then the greens of blue, yellow adding white and a tiny amount of black. These colours were used throughout the painting creating an interesting pattern.

In a few areas I used pure French ultramarine blue as well as mixing white and a small amount of black or red for variation.

Next I added a little more yellow into the green and a lot of white for a pale yellow green and painted in the mane and tail as well as a few areas to create movement throughout the painting.

I under painted the horse shapes with a mix of black and red for a warm colour, then to lighten I added yellow and a bit of blue and went over them leaving a few areas of the black mix to show.

It still needs a little more work before it is completed and I will post each of these paintings at a later date as more work on them is completed.

Imperial Chinese Horse

It is the Victoria Day weekend and it seems so strange not to be going to Buckhorn, Ontario for what would have been our 27th Annual Among Friends Art Show.

So I filled the first two days with a workshop in abstracts at the Kawartha Artists' Gallery and Studio with Melanie Browne.

Most of the morning was a discussion about what we wanted to learn from the class and about a number of different styles of abstracts.

There were a number of different sculptures that had been brought in and it was no surprise that I chose to abstract an Imperial Chinese war horse copied from the T'ang Dynasty.

The first step was to do the sketch of the image I was going to do and then transfer it to a canvas and do a realistic painting with an abstract background.

Unfortunately I had to leave early and was unable to do more than the sketch.

Tomorrow I will draw the five images for a series of the various stages of abstracting the horse.

This original 4-1/4" x 4-1/2” graphite pencil drawing when framed will be available for $40.00.