Pictured above is my watercolour painting 'Reflections of Yesterday' and today I am recounting the story of how this remarkable painting came to life.

In the spring of 2017, my husband and I and several friends explored New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island for two months in our travel trailers. I posted three stories showing the highlights of this fantastic trip ('Perfect Prince Edward Island', 'Camping in Beautiful Nova Scotia', and 'Top 5 Must-Have's for Travel Fun').

While exploring the quaint seaside village of Victoria in PEI, I photographed a colourful, weathered shed window from five different angles. I knew the various elements of this scene would work well as a watercolour portrait. The two views shown below are the ones I chose as painting references.

I liked the colours better in the red window trim in the left hand photo, but I preferred the reflection of the jellybean house in the right hand photo. One of the advantages of being a painter is that I can 'mix-and-match' my references.

Every inch of this painting was pure joy to create, from the cracks in the wood shingles, to the flaking red paint of the trim, to the distorted reflections in the vintage window glass.

For this painting, I tried out watercolour paints made by Sennelier in France and I was very impressed with their clarity and strength of colour. The three pigments I chose (Sennelier Red, Sennelier Yellow Deep, and Phthalocyanine Blue) worked perfectly for this piece. I will be using these paints again!

Fortunately I had the foresight to take photos as I worked on this challenging composition. From these work-in-progress photos, I assembled a short time lapse video, so you can see the flow of this piece to its completion.

Click on the image below to view the 2-minute story:

The completed painting (shown below) is mounted on an archival wood panel, trimmed, varnished, and presented in a black wood floater frame. There is no glass to get in the way of enjoying the details of 'Reflections of Yesterday'.

This 12 x 16" artwork was acquired by a collector in Sunderland, ON shortly after completion. A little piece of my heart and soul went with this painting. I consider it to be one of my master works.

Click here to see more details about this painting.

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Shown above are the three watercolours I completed last month. They form an eclectic group, with each painting having been inspired by a different journey. The trait they share is that I have wanted to paint these subjects for a while, sometimes years, and I finally got around to it this winter.

The smallest painting, 'Frozen Two', watercolour on panel (no glass) 6 x 12" is shown above and pictures an ice falls that forms each year near Lake St. Peter, ON. I photographed the icy cliff while snowmobiling several decades ago (photo shown below) and always thought this scene would make a dramatic painting subject.

I am drawn to the contrast of dark brown rock and light blue icicles, so I enhanced this colour scheme and value contrast in the painting. I added the deer to the picture to give a sense of scale and a spark of life. Shown below is me in my studio working on this piece.

Disney's latest cinema blockbuster, Frozen II was playing in theatres during the time I was creating this watercolour. I couldn't resist the play on words when I was searching for a title for this sweet little painting.

Click here for more information about Frozen Two.

My next two pieces are from trips to the East Coast of Canada. 'Reflections of Yesterday', watercolour on panel (no glass) 12 x 16", is shown below.

In the spring of 2017, my husband and I and several friends explored New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island for two months in our travel trailers. I posted three stories showing the highlights of this fantastic trip ('Perfect Prince Edward Island', 'Camping in Beautiful Nova Scotia', and 'Top 5 Must-Have's for Travel Fun').

While exploring the quaint seaside village of Victoria in PEI, I photographed this colourful, weathered shed window from five different angles. The two views shown below are the ones I chose as painting references.

I liked the colours in the red window trim better in the left hand photo, but I preferred the reflection of the jellybean house in the right hand photo. One of the advantages of being a painter is that I can 'mix-and-match' my references.

Every inch of this painting was pure joy to create, from the cracks in the wood shingles, to the flaking red paint of the trim, to the distorted reflections in the old window glass. I am trying a new brand of watercolour paints this winter. They are made by Sennelier in France and I am very impressed with their clarity and strength of colour. The three pigments I chose (Sennelier Red, Sennelier Yellow Deep, and Phthalocyanine Blue) worked perfectly for this piece.

Click here for more information about Reflections of Yesterday.

The next new painting, 'Yesterday's Dreams', watercolour on panel (no glass) 14 x 11", is shown above. I used the same three paints to create all the colour mixtures for this scene.

Last summer, by husband and I spent three months touring the island of Newfoundland in our travel trailer. You can read about key adventures and see highlights of the trip in these posts: 'Icebergs of Newfoundland', 'Top 14 Vistas of Newfoundland', 'A Whale of a Tale in Newfoundland', and 'Seeing Caribou and Moose in Newfoundland'.

While exploring the back roads of the Bonavista peninsula in northern Newfoundland, we came across this gas pump on its concrete pad, smack in the middle of a field of grass, in the tiny settlement known as Red Cliff (photo below)

The price on the pump was 75 cents a gallon, so it probably made its last sale in the 1970’s, before the metric system was adopted in Canada. Any surrounding buildings were long gone. On the shore beyond, a row of houses and fishing sheds had succumbed to wind and rain. I could imagine a story here about the folk who lived and worked in this beautiful place. I knew this would make a fine painting subject.

The grass was finicky to paint, using many layers of masking fluid and paint to achieve the effect of individual blades of grass. The rusty gas pump was an absolute joy to portray in watercolour. I used a magnifying glass and super fine Micron pens with archival ink to do the lettering on the pump.

Click here for more information (including a close-up photo) about Yesterday's Dreams.

The final new painting to show you today is a commissioned piece titled 'Summer Constellations' watercolour on panel (no glass) 6 x 12". The client had seen an earlier painting I did of this scene, fell in love with it, but was disappointed when it was acquired by another client. The problem was solved by my painting a similar version. The first painting, 'Evening Constellations', (2018) shown below, was the same size.

For more information about Summer Constellations, click here.

That wraps up my latest creations. I hope you have enjoyed this glimpse into how I translate photos from my travels into unique artistic expressions. My hope is that my artwork will welcome viewers like old friends, and draw them into the narrative behind the art. Stay tuned to see what old friends February brings!

If you have comments you wish to share, please do so using the 'Leave a Comment' button at the top of this post. 

Subscribe to Karen's Newsletter if you wish to see more painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming painting classes and exhibitions

The last time we visited PEI was 20 years ago, when we were on a motorcycling holiday. This spring, as the finale of a two-month, 8,000 km journey, we spent 11 days there. We camped in our trailer, along with our good friends in their trailer. Below is a photo of me, John, Carolyn, and Roger at Greenwich Dunes.

I had forgotten how stunningly beautiful PEI is, with it's white or red beaches and cliffs, and lush, green farm fields blanketing gently rolling hills. The photos below are taken near Cavendish, on the north coast of the Island.

We saw cormorants nesting there.

One day we hiked into Greenwich Dunes National Park and I took lots of photos of the beach, waves, and dunes. It was a very peaceful place.

We planned our visit to PEI so we could attend the 150th Canada Day celebrations in Charlottetown, the birthplace of Canadian confederation. It is a charming, prosperous town, with lots of well-crafted historic architecture, as shown in the home and commercial building below.

Part of the Canada 150 celebration was a Tall Ships festival, with about eight sailing ships on display at the harbour. We toured four ships, including this impressive 4-masted sailing vessel called the Union, from the Peruvian Navy.

On Canada Day weekend, Charlottetown hosted the finals of a national lumberjack competition, free music concerts, and fireworks in the park near the harbour. We wore our Canada T-shirts and hats and really enjoyed the festivities. We are so proud to live in this amazing country, and grateful that we are able to travel to many of its uniquely beautiful parts.

Tourist season officially started July 1 and the beaches were getting noticeably busier, as shown below. I'm glad we got to experience the Maritimes in the 'off' season. It was time to say good-bye to PEI and start the drive back to our homes in Ontario. 

During our two-month RV tour of eastern Canada, we allocated three weeks for Nova Scotia, because there is so much to see and do there, even though our visit was before 'tourist season'.

Two of the campgrounds we stayed in were beside water. The photo above shows our Earthbound travel trailer and truck parked with a view of the ocean. We were near New Glasgow, in a bay off of the Northumberland Strait (the body of water between Nova Scotia and PEI).

Another lovely spot was Rayport Campground in Martin's River, near Mahone Bay. Our campsites backed onto a scenic river, and I was visited by some hungry ducks in the photo below. I had nothing to feed them, but they nibbled on my fingers anyway.

Historic architecture is everywhere in Nova Scotia. Popular places like Halifax, Mahone Bay, and Lunenburg afforded many architectural photo-ops, like the three pictured below.

We spent a week in Halifax and were busy every day touring museums, eating in great restaurants, and walking our feet off, up and down those hilly streets. We visited the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, Halifax Citadel, and the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, to name a few highlights. The Harbour Hopper amphibious tour, the Public Gardens, the Halifax Seaport Farmer's Market, and the Alexander Keith's Brewery historic tour were excellent too.

The Annapolis Valley, on the Fundy shore, is very fertile, with many prosperous farms, orchards, and vineyards. I took this photo from a lookoff above the valley, north of Grand Pre.

While we were visiting Lunenburg one day, we noticed a large schooner tied up at the dock. Closer examination revealed her identity: Bluenose II! We watched her cast off on a voyage to Boston to attend a Tall Ships festival there. She has been totally rebuilt and looks brand new. What a gorgeous piece of Canadian history (pictured on the Canadian dime). I took this photo below as she motored out of the harbour. I wrote an article about Bluenose II when we visited Nova Scotia in 2012. It is titled 'Fastest Sailing Ship in the World' and you can read it here.

I got a few great photos of fishing boats too. Pictured below are some from Blue Rocks (near Lunenburg), and from Digby.

One day we hiked into Kejimkujik National Park Seaside which is near the southern tip of Nova Scotia. The seashore there is pristine white sand with huge boulder outcroppings, a turquoise sea, and I was in heaven. We saw cormorants and seals out on the little islands, but it was the patterned rocks along the shore that excited me. Shown below are just two of the hundred photos I took that afternoon. I could produce enough artwork for a solo show, just from this one beach!

Since it was spring, everywhere we drove this holiday, we saw gorgeous lupins blooming in roadside ditches. I harvested a few seeds and will plant them in my garden at home, to remind me of our holiday in this lovely province.

Subscribe to Karen's Newsletter if you wish to see more travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming painting classes and exhibitions.

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