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

This past spring and summer, my husband and I spent 3 months and drove 15,000 km with our truck and trailer, exploring the island of Newfoundland. I took over 2,000 photos of the beautifully rugged scenery and abundant wildlife, distilled to almost 300 paint-able references.

During our journey, we were thrilled to see the sometimes-elusive wildlife for which this province is famous: whales, moose, caribou, and puffins.
 
In a previous post I shared our whale tales. Today I am presenting our sightings of the four-legged variety.

We spotted caribou herds on two occasions. The first sighting, shown above and below, was at the Port au Choix National Historic Site on the northwest coast.

This small caribou herd is a familiar sight to residents of Port au Choix, roving regularly between the lighthouse on the National Historic Site, through streets and back yards, as far as the Foodland grocery store on the other side of town.

The Port au Choix herd has a mix of bucks and does, with two babies. The youngest one is still white and is pictured standing in the photo below.

The caribou is depicted on Canada's 25-cent coin (shown below).

Our second sighting of caribou was on Hwy 480, which connects Stephenville to the remote port of Burgeo on the south coast of Newfoundland.

The native species of caribou in Newfoundland is named woodland caribou, and numbers about 32,000 animals.

Woodland caribou are a sub-species of reindeer. (Yes, the ones that pull Santa's sleigh.) 

I was thrilled to film a few of these magnificent mammals, including one on the highway in front of our truck and trailer. Check out the short video below which shows both sightings described in this article.

Our sightings of moose were more distant ones, for which we actually are thankful. With an island-wide population estimated at 125,000 to 150,000 animals (the highest density of moose in North America), and an average of 700 to 800 moose/vehicle collisions each year, we were OK to see these large animals from afar.

When we left our campground in Kings Point, (which overlooked a saltwater bay full of visiting icebergs and whales), there was an 8 km stretch of gravel road on the way to the trans Canada highway, due to construction. We crawled along at 20 km/h with our 4-way flashers on, to avoid damaging our trailer on the bumpy gravel. Our slow pace allowed for two excellent moose sightings. We spotted a bull beside a pond (shown below) and only a minute later, a cow crossed the highway in front of us (shown above). We were able to stop and get pictures even though the animals were fairly far away.

Their long legs make moose ideally suited to forest living, stepping over logs, negotiating thick brush, and moving through deep snow. Their hooves spread widely, supporting the animal's weight in bogs.

The most interesting moose sighting was at the L'Anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Before our guided tour of the 1000-year-old Viking settlement remains, we spotted this cow moose with twin babies (below).

A few days later, we journeyed onward to Roddickton, which apparently is the moose capital of the world (see photo below). There was a very interesting moose interpretive centre there. 

We learned that two breeding pairs of moose were introduced to Newfoundland in 1904 to add variety to the local diet. It is believed the current population is descended entirely from these 4 animals.

But the most fascinating fact we learned about moose is that they are truly at home in water. In fact, they can snap their nostrils shut and dive down 5 metres to feed at the bottom of a pond! Who knew?!

If you have unusual animal sighting stories or other comments 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 travel tales, painting stories, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming painting classes and exhibitions.

As my husband and I explored the island of Newfoundland earlier this summer, we were thrilled to see the wildlife for which this province is famous: whales, moose, caribou, and puffins.
 
Today I am sharing our 'Whale Tales'. Sometimes their visits were brief and far-off, but on a few occasions I was close enough to take a video.

The photo above shows a baby Beluga whale surfacing at North West Brook, near Clarenville on the Bonavista Peninsula. The reason we were there to see it was because of a couple of tips from the locals.

We were camped at a golf course that also had a small RV park, way out in the boonies near Hatchet Cove, which is on the north shore of the Southwest Arm of Random Sound (a long skinny fjord off of Trinity Bay). A lady at the Clarenville tourist info centre recommended we take a drive along the south shore of Southwest Arm on highway 204, because there was a very pretty fishing port out at the mouth of the fjord.

We took her advice the next day and thoroughly enjoyed the drive on a very hilly, windy, bumpy road out to Southport, pictured above and below.

On our way back, we drove into all the little hamlets and villages along the route. Some of them only had a handful of houses. One place with the charming name of Little Heart's Ease had a pull-off with a picnic table, on a high cliff overlooking Southwest Arm. The view was so stunning I had to stop for a photo. I'm pretty sure the spot was private property because there was a little house on the back lot and the friendly owner came out to chat with us.

She had lived in Ontario for a while but came back as a senior to live with her sister in Little Heart's Ease. While we were chatting, a neighbour woman called over "Did you see the whale?". We looked down at the bay again and, sure enough, in the distance we could see a whale surfacing (see its black back in the photo below). 

The first lady let us know about a baby Beluga whale that had been visiting the marina at North West Brook for the last several weeks. She gave us directions to the marina and we eventually figured out how to access it and stomped our feet on the docks to call the whale. Amazingly, it surfaced near us within a minute and was about the size of a dolphin.

I made the 3-minute video below of the young whale feeding and swimming near us. (Please excuse the wind noise.)

While we were staying on the Avalon Peninsula, my husband heard on the radio that humpback whales were visiting St. Mary's Bay off of St. Vincent. We made a day trip down there and joined several other people on the beach watching the show from shore (see below).

According to the very informative plaque posted on this beach, each spring about 1500 humpback whales journey from the Caribbean to the shores of Newfoundland, to feed on the annual capelin spawn. In late June or early July, millions of tiny silver fish called capelin gather in the shallow waters close to shore. They come to mate and deposit their eggs in the sand.

During their stay at St. Vincent's, an adult Humpback whale consumes up to 2500 kg of capelin each day. The whales can be seen exploding to the surface with water and capelin pouring from their mouths.

We could see large flocks of seabirds feeding on capelin and about a dozen black and white whales jumping and spouting way out in the bay. Unfortunately they were too far out to photograph well.

We also saw Humpback whales and an iceberg in one spot, completely by coincidence, while staying at King's Point in north central Newfoundland. When we arrived at the campground overlooking the bay we discovered the iceberg. The lady working at the campground store told us to take a certain road to the other side of the bay to get a better view of the iceberg (shown below).

While I was photographing the iceberg I heard a whale blow and was thrilled to be able to photograph a mother and calf surfacing and blowing (below).

I compiled this 3-minute video showing icebergs and whales in the bay:

All of the whale sightings we experienced in Newfoundland were from shore. If you visit this beautiful province and want to see whales, I recommend you find a tour company that can take you by boat to get a closer view. 

The best whale watching day we have experienced was in September 2003 in the Bay of Fundy off of Grand Manan, New Brunswick. We went out on a 40 foot sail boat (their sign is pictured below). Afterwards I spoke to one of the other passengers who was a professional photographer who had done this cruise every summer for the last 14 years and he said this was the best whale sighting day he ever had experienced.

We saw a basking shark that was longer than our boat (we knew this because the shark came alongside our boat) and later on we drifted beside a North Atlantic Right Whale and her calf for about 45 minutes (shown below). They were filter feeding at the surface. The captain used sail power to make sure we didn't get too close and disturb the whales with the noise of a motor. We felt privileged to have encountered these rare creatures, which are now listed as an endangered species.

Having had such a rare and wonderful whale watching opportunity, we don't bother going on any more whale cruises. How could we beat that day?!

The other piece of advice I would offer other tourists is to take every opportunity to speak to the local people of Newfoundland. They are proud of their piece of paradise and are happy to let you know about icebergs, whales, and any other exciting things to see in their area.

Where was your favourite whale watching experience? If you have comments 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 travel tales, painting stories, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming painting classes and exhibitions.

As my husband and I explored the island of Newfoundland earlier this spring and summer, often I felt compelled to use the 'panorama' function on my camera to record beautiful vistas. I found that standard 'landscape' format would not capture  the scope of many impressive views. This happened so often that I decided to present my best panoramic photos in this post to try to convey the vast beauty of ‘The Rock’.

The scene above is Western Brook Pond, the jewel of Gros Morne National Park on Newfoundland's west coast. The Long Range Mountains, the most northern section of the Appalachian Mountains, flank this freshwater fjord, which has 650 metre cliffs and is up to 165 metres deep. The Park covers 1805 square km and its natural beauty and unique geology earned Gros Morne UNESCO World Heritage status in 1987.

Below is Arches Provincial Park, just up the coast from Gros Morne. Three large holes have been eroded into the long rock formation by ocean waves. The beach, which stretches off in both directions, is composed of smooth round pebbles with fascinating markings. The people in this scene give a sense of scale to the rock formation.

The view from King's Point RV Park in the Baie Verte Peninsula (below) shows charming fishing stages in the harbour as well as the visiting iceberg. Our visit happened to coincide with capelin spawning season, so humpback whales were feeding on schools of tiny fish in the bay while we were there. We could hear the whales blow and occasionally see them surface throughout the day and evening.

We enjoyed hiking in the sunshine along the coastal trail at Sleepy Cove, near Twillingate on the north central coast of Newfoundland. In the scene below the bay on the right is part of Sea Breeze park, the site of a former copper mine, where you can camp for free and watch the sunset. I included the speedboat on the left to give life and scale to the vista.

While in the Twillingate area, we drove to Hillgrade to have dinner and enjoy musical entertainment at a seafood restaurant on the wharf. I took several photos of the gorgeous sunset that evening (shown below).

Near Embree on the north central coast, a light rain shower was approaching in the distance and created a misty perspective in the islands shown below. The scene reminds me of a watercolour painting.

When we explored Dungeon Provincial Park at Bonavista on the north east coast, the sun broke through the clouds to illuminate the rocky peninsula pictured  below. The shadowed background enhanced the dramatic lighting in this scene. The terrain of Newfoundland is predominantly rock, sometimes with a thin layer of stony soil on top that can support only stunted trees and shrubs. But some fantastic wild berries grow in Newfoundland and Labrador.

While most of the beaches we saw in Newfoundland were made of pebbles, gravel, or rock, there were some sandy shores. The one pictured below is Windmill Bight Beach in Lumsden on the northeast coast. Our weather was cool and windy so we didn't see any swimmers that day. 

Acting on a tip from the locals, we drove to see an outport on the Bonavista Peninsula near Clarenville. Southport, shown below, is a scenic hamlet and active fishing harbour in Trinity Bay. There were lots of paintable subjects there so I took many photos. The late afternoon light was lovely. We also saw beluga whales that day.

We spent a week exploring the Burin Peninsula on the south coast of Newfoundland. This is a beautiful region that has vast flat plains as well as hilly coastlines. The photo below shows one of the historic homes remaining in what once was a busy port when the fishing industry was booming.  

On the Avalon Peninsula on Newfoundland's southeast coast, we found many impressive coastal scenes. The one shown below is Bay de Verde, right out at the northern tip of the Bay Roberts peninsula. 

On the west side of the same peninsula, near the town of Whiteway, I took this photo below of Shag Rock. I love the serenity of this simple scene; I think it would make a great painting.

In photography, as in paintings, the way the light catches focal points in the landscape can make or break a scene. One day we were hiking the coastal trail at Cupids near Bay Roberts on the Avalon Peninsula and the sun shone through a gap in the clouds to illuminate this point on an island (below). This is the same kind of dramatic lighting I enjoy creating in my paintings. 

While touring the backroads of the Avalon Peninsula south of St. John's, we drove over a hill and way off in the distance I saw a series of headlands in the ocean. We stopped and I took a quick photo through the windshield of our truck. Afterwards I cropped the photo to emphasize the contrast between the sharply focused foreground trees and the misty background (below).

Many people have asked me which parts of Newfoundland were highlights for me. If I were to plot the locations of these panoramic vistas on a map, you would see that they represent most of the island. That is one remarkable feature of Newfoundland: its beauty is everywhere.

If you have comments 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 travel tales, painting stories, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming painting classes and exhibitions.