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.

Unicorn Sketches - A Work in Progress

I had a long call and was put on hold a number of times and I started to doodle my usual subject, something relating to horses.

In this case I did a couple of unicorns rearing and leaping.

Unicorns are in the top five of my favourite mythical creatures to draw and paint.

I have drawn many of them over the years, most of which I wish I would have photographed so I would have a permanent record of the artwork.

I may still add another unicorn onto the paper before it gets filed.

If I develop theses sketches I will post them at a later date.

Thank you for coming to look at my artwork and I hope you will return often. 

Buckhorn Artists' Group Blog - Show Updates

I have updated the Buckhorn Artists' Group blog with a listing of shows some of the various artists in the Group are exhibiting their work in during the month of August.

If you get a chance come out and visit them at one or all of the shows.

Confirmed Shows for 2015-2016 - August

This is a listing of confirmed shows that I will be exhibiting my artwork at this year. I will update the list as more shows are added.

Kawartha Arts Network - Art on Kent, Lindsay, Ont.
KAN
02 Jul - 01 Aug 15 Annual All Members' Show
Opening Reception 04 Jul 15 from 1-3pm.
03-31 Dec 15 and 07 Jan-16 Jan 16 Affordibleism
Opening Reception 05 Dec 15 from 1-3pm.

Kawartha Artists’ Gallery, Peterborough, Ont.
KAGS
26 Aug - 27 Sep 15 Faces and Figures
Opening Reception 29 Aug 15 from 1-4pm.
11-29 Nov 15 Outdoor Painters' Show - Elements of Nature
Opening Reception 14 Nov 15 from 1-4pm.
02-20 Dec 15 and 06-17 Jan 16 Christmas Show and Sale
Opening Reception 05 Dec 15 from 1-4pm.
24 Feb - 24 Mar 16 The Abstract Show
Opening Reception 28 Feb 16 from 1-4pm.
13 Apr - 05 May 16 Floral and Still Life
Opening Reception 17 Apr 16 from 1-4pm.
15 Jun - 10 Jul 16 Figuratively Speaking
Opening Reception 19 Jun 16 from 1-4pm.
24 Aug - 11 Sep 16 Black and White Plus 1 Colour
Opening Reception 28 Aug 16 from 1-4pm.
28 Sep -23 Oct 16 Fall Show
Opening Reception 02 Oct 16 from 1-4pm.
26 Oct - 13 Nov 16 Outdoor Painters' Show
Opening Reception 30 Oct 16 from 1-4pm.
30 Nov -18 Dec 16 and 04-15 Jan 17 Christmas Show and Sale
Opening Reception 04 Dec 16 from 1-4pm.

Lockside Trading Company, 2805 River Ave, Youngs Point, Ont.
15-16 Aug 15 4th Annual Art @ the Locks from 9am-6pm.

St. Matthews Church, Buckhorn, Ont.
BuckhornArtistsGroup
15-23 Aug 15 25th Annual Shades of Summer Art Show

Fenelon Falls Fair Grounds, Fenelon Falls, Ont.
KawarthaArtsFestival
05-06 Sep 15 Kawartha Arts Festival

Township of Douro-Dummer Library Art Gallery, Warsaw, Ont.
08 Sep - 24 Oct 15 Three Good Friends
Opening Reception 11 Sep 15 from 7-8pm.

Millennium Park, Peterborough, Ont.
5th Annual Purple Onion Festival
20 Sep 15 from 11am-4:00pm.

Dancing Blueberries, 360 George St. N., Peterborough, Ont.
02-28 Oct 15

Please come out and enjoy the artwork displayed at these shows.

Lovesick Lake VI and VII - Two Works in Progress

It is another sunny and hot 84F (28.9C) with the humidity making it feel like 91F (32.8C) day, although today and tomorrow are supposed to be the last of this hot and humid weather for at least a week.

It clouded over around 5:00pm and we have been having one light show of lightning after another together with the continuous sound of rumbling thunder.

I did a little more work on each of these two sketches that I had started last month when we were out on Lovesick Lake in the canoe.

For the sketch of the pine tree I added more details to the branches and areas of the needles.

Then I added in the dead cedar to the right of the pine tree and added the large rock.

Lovesick Lake VI - Beaver Island Pine I

Since I wasn't in the mood to start using pen and ink on this sketch I started working on the second sketch which was on the opposite side of the inlet.

I had the two main cedar trees already sketched and added some of the dead cedars on each side of them and indicated where the reflection will appear in the water.

I will probably end up doing a larger colour painting at a later date as the contrast between the sunlit cedar trees and the dark background of trees behind it will create a lot of interest.

Lovesick Lake VII - Richards Island Cedar I

I will post each of these sketches at a later date once I have applied the ink to them and am pleased with the way they look.

All Members' Show at Art on Kent

Today is the last day of the All Members' Art Show at Art on Kent in Lindsay, Ontario.

As usual I am sitting at the Gallery for the last day of the show.

The Gallery was fairly busy with many tourists coming through to look at the display.

I had planned on working on a couple of paintings while I was there but instead spent most of my time speaking with visitors about the art on display.

It was a nice mix of many different styles and subject matter.

I also let them know that next Saturday there would be the opening for the Photography Show from 1-3pm.

With all the visitors time passed quickly and it was after 3:00pm before the last person left and it was time to take down my paintings and lock up everything for the day.

Lovesick Lake I-V - Five Works in Progress

Today was a beautiful, sunny day with a nice breeze blowing and the temperature went up to 82F (27.8C) with the humidity making it feel like 89F (31.7C). It was a wonderful day to go out on the lake with the canoe.











Lovesick Lake II - Sunken Boat

We originally had planned to go to Coon Lake up near Apsley, but as we were going up 28 Highway through Burleigh Falls, we decided on Lovesick Lake instead. We hadn't been on that lake in over 20 years and we would be out on the water sooner, especially since there was to be a thunderstorm later in the day.

Burleigh Falls Lock 28 which allows access between Stoney and Lovesick Lakes has a Parks Canada public boat launch and parking available so it was an ideal place for us to stop and enter Lovesick Lake.













Lovesick Lake I

We left the boat launch and went across to the far side of the channel markers by Cut Island and stayed outside of them as we passed Ruba Island and followed them as far as the inlet on Richards Island where we backtracked and went up the shallow chancel between Richards, Taylors and Beaver Islands.

Once we were past Taylors Island we eased left and took the scenic route and went all the way around Marshall Island and saw some of the opposite side of Taylors Island before heading back down through the same shallow channel where we would let the current carry us back to the Lock.












Lovesick Lake IV - Abandoned Landing

The lake has a maximum depth of 82' (25m) but there are many shallow areas with submerged trees and large rock shelves, which provides wonderful fishing spots for the many game fish including: large and small mouth bass, muskie, walleye, perch, bluegill and pumpkinseed sunfish, black crappie and carp.

Ron enjoyed himself and caught two large mouth bass and two walleye, all of which were quickly returned live to the lake. He also had numerous fish that he almost landed but got away just shy of the canoe.














Lovesick Lake V - Porters Island Cottage

As we came out of the channel we passed close to Porters Island and stayed fairly close to shore until we had to cross the between the channel markers making sure there were no boats coming toward us in either direction and returned to the boat launch.

Perhaps next time we go to Lovesick Lake we will follow the shore on the opposite side of the channel markers and follow the shoreline into Lower Buckhorn Lake and Deer Bay.















Lovesick Lake III - Survivors

I will post each of these sketches at a later date once I have gone over them with pen and ink.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.