My husband and I have had the privilege of spending two summers touring the island of Newfoundland in our travel trailer. We were there for two months in 2007 and three months in 2019.

While exploring the back roads of the Bonavista peninsula on our more recent trip, we came across this rusty gas pump on its concrete pad, smack in the middle of a field of grass, in the tiny settlement known as Red Cliff.

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 families who lived and worked in this beautiful place. I knew this would make an exciting painting subject and took lots of photos.

Back at home the following winter, I got to work on a watercolour interpretation of this scene, beginning with a pencil drawing on 300 lb cold press watercolour paper.

I used Sennelier watercolour paints which are made 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 mixing every colour needed in this painting.

First I painted blue on the sky and water, working wet in wet and avoiding the row of houses in the background.

The grass was finicky to paint, using many layers of masking fluid and paint to achieve the effect of individual blades of grass. This part of the scene took the longest to paint.

I began by protecting the body of the gas pump with masking tape, and the fence posts and blades of grass in the foreground with masking fluid.

Once that dried, I painted in the first layers of the grass field and the concrete pad, working on wet paper to create soft transitions of colour.

After the first grass layer dried, I masked out more blades of grass over the existing paint, let that dry, added another layer of green paint, and let that dry.

Repeating this process a few times gradually built up grass blades of differing values, and this variety is what makes watercolour grass look real.

After removing the masking, I deepened the blue colour of the ocean, making sure to keep the horizon line absolutely straight and level.

I added colour to the white blades of grass that had been under the first layer of masking fluid, and painted in the shadows of stony details on the concrete pad. 

The rusty gas pump was an absolute joy to portray in watercolour and very easy to do, compared to the grassy field.

Having well-focused reference photos of the pump from every angle, and up close, was key to recreating this relic in a realistic manner.

I worked on dry paper using a two-brush technique. One brush was loaded with colour and one held only clear water. I laid down paint in the shape I wanted, and then used the clear brush to subtly blur or soften the edges, to bleed out the colour where needed. This was very effective in portraying streaks of rust.

The same two-brush technique was used on the black rubber hose on the pump, creating the soft grey highlight that produced the look of a cylinder.

I used a magnifying glass and super fine Micron pens with archival ink to do the lettering on the pump.

The final step was to paint the dilapidated houses and fishing sheds on the seashore in the distance.

Again, I had taken excellent reference shots of the buildings when we were there, and used the photos extensively to portray these rustic structures accurately.

I love the atmospheric feeling of this scene. It brings to mind stories of the glory days, when this was a thriving little settlement full of energetic families, with a glorious view of the sea.

In this photo, I am holding the finished painting in my art studio. In front of me, you can see the three tubes of paint I worked with as well as the #12 round sable/synthetic brushes I used to paint this artwork.

I titled the painting, 'Yesterday's Dreams', (varnished watercolour on 14 x 11 inch panel), paying homage to the families who called this place home during the last 250 years. A collector acquired my painting a few months later.

Although the original has found its forever home, art prints of Yesterday's Dreams are available from my publisher FineArtAmerica, a world-renowned print-on-demand company. This image can be enjoyed on canvas, paper, wood, acrylic, or metal prints, or featured on other fine products. Click here to see the 'Yesterday's Dreams' selection on my FineArtAmerica web page. 

Newfoundland remains one of my favourite Canadian destinations, featuring the hospitable, fun-loving, hard-working inhabitants, their wondrous musical abilities, and world-famous natural attractions such as Gros Morne National Park and Western Brook Pond.

We also greatly enjoyed the historic Viking settlement re-enactment at l'Anse aux Meadows, numerous iceburg-sightings, a vast array of lovely wild flowers, and learning the history of the cod fishery at Twillingate.

The Skerwink cliff trail and historic architecture at Trinity, magnificent sea views at Bonavista, berry picking on the Avalon, and the vibrant culture and architecture of St. John's all were wonderful experiences.

I believe every Canadian should visit the island of Newfoundland, given the chance. If you need persuading, check out the adventure highlights of our most recent trip in my other posts: 'Icebergs of Newfoundland', 'Top 14 Vistas of Newfoundland', 'A Whale of a Tale in Newfoundland', and 'Seeing Caribou and Moose in Newfoundland'.

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

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When my husband and I were travelling in the Airstream this summer and fall, I was able to paint ten small watercolours at our dinette. You can read about this mobile studio setup in this post: My Art Studio on the Road.

Working in a confined space meant I was limited to making paintings about a square foot or less in size. Once we were about four months into the trip, I started to yearn for my roomy home studio that would allow me to paint some larger, more impactful paintings.

One day when we were driving in the truck, I perused my digital folder of hundreds of finished paintings going back over thirty years. I made a list of a dozen extraordinary scenes that I felt would be suited to large-scale paintings.

In other words, I would consider these previous paintings to be studies for big, new, and exciting reinterpretations of scenes that still touch my soul.

Once we arrived back home last month, in very short order I got to work sketching out a couple of these paintings.

I am thrilled to be immersed in larger works; the first one I completed was this tall Lake Superior pebble beach scene, Simply Superior (varnished watercolour on 36 x 12 inch panel).

I remembered to stop and take photos of the work as it progressed, so I could share on social media the steps of creating this artwork. I have posted these photos below.

My strategy was to finish a small section of the scene before proceeding with the next section. This provides exciting glimpses of the final artwork and encourages me to continue through the difficult middle phase that all paintings experience.

I used masking fluid to save the white of the paper to represent highlights on the exposed stones. The underwater stones were difficult to create. The water in Lake Superior is so clear that underwater stones have the same colour and clarity as wet stones above the waterline. Several pale blue layers helped to 'submerge' the underwater elements.

After three days of work, the upper half of the painting was completed, except for some minor adjustments that would be made in the final 'polishing up' of the painting.

Next I worked on the warm coloured stones in the lower half of the scene. Each stone required three or four layers of paint, with at least several hours of drying time between each layer. I painted a blue wash over the underwater section to help me get a grasp of its boundaries and to subdue the colours that would follow.

Once again, I completed one limited area of the painting at a time, to help fuel my excitement for the project. With a painting this large, it can be difficult to remain patient enough to work through the relatively unattractive early and intermediate stages, before reaching the satisfying realism of the final stage.

It took me twelve days in total to complete this painting, spread over a month. That averages three painting sessions per week.

Here is a photo of me holding the completed painting in its frame. This was a challenging piece but worth the struggle, as you can tell by my smile of relief.

Click here for more information about Simply Superior.

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My husband and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring western USA and Canada in our Airstream trailer this year. It has all the comforts of a small apartment, and I often refer to it as our mobile condo.

During the 20 weeks we were away, we drove just over 20,000 km which made for a comfortable, relaxed pace. Some locales we visited only a day or two, and others had us settling in for a week or more, depending on what there was to see and do in the area.

In previous blog posts I shared my favourite photo highlights from the first half of our trip. If you missed them, here are the links:

My Summer Travels in the High Desert

Pacific Northwest: Forests and Freshwater.

I will be sharing more travel stories and including videos and photo highlights of our trip in coming months, as time permits. I have a lot of painting to do, since the fall and winter seasons are when I produce the majority of my artwork.

However, as we travelled, I made sure to take time for a few hours of painting every week or so.

I have learned that this regular creative time is essential to my well-being. I get cranky if I have a long stretch of time without having fun making art.

My husband would go off to see a car show or for a walk, and I would set up my portable studio at the dinette in our trailer, as pictured here.

My painting setup is very simple: a fistful of brushes, two small travel palettes, a dozen small tubes of paint, pre-cut sheets of watercolour paper, a few foam board supports, and some reference photos. I also employ a folding LED desk lamp, old rags to protect the dinette surfaces, and some repurposed pantry equipment.

I generally had three paintings in progress at any one time, so if I had to stop working on a painting while it dried, I could work on another one in the meantime.

Getting all my equipment set up at the dinette takes about five minutes, so it is no trouble to paint for just two or three hours, and then put everything away.

Cleanup takes about ten minutes, including washing my brushes. Watercolour is especially suitable for a mobile studio like this, as there are no solvents needing disposal.

To avoid the risk of mould or mildew, I have to let my paintings, brushes, and rags dry fully before I pack them away. I also need to let my palettes dry so the paint won't spill during storage. Watercolour paint can be reused another day, by adding water to dissolve the dried paint. This is another factor that makes this medium ideal for travel.

I came up with the idea of using the shower stall in our Airstream bathroom as an overnight drying area. This keeps all the materials out of our way so we can use the living area of the trailer. This photo shows three paintings drying after a painting session.

The shower seat holds the paintings on their supports as well as my palettes. On the floor is a zippered clear plastic bag (the kind that blankets come packaged in) that I use as a storage case. Resting on top of that is a rag and my wet brushes. The shower stall has a small retractable clothesline (not shown in the photo) that I use to hang more rags to dry.

After drying, all my painting supplies fit into the blanket bag, which I then stow into one of our overhead cupboards in the Airstream.

I was very happy to complete these ten new paintings during our travels. That equates to an average of one painting every two weeks.

Back home in my art studio, I mounted the watercolour paintings onto archival wood panels, shown here.

I use various heavy objects at hand (including my awesome pebble collection) to help affix the watercolour paper to the cradled panels.

Once the adhesive was dry, these paintings were trimmed, varnished, and framed. A few of these new paintings have found their forever homes and the rest are being delivered to my retail galleries in Huntsville, Fenelon Falls, and Port Perry, ON. To view details and locations of the remaining pieces, visit the New Paintings page on my web site.

For a complete description of how I mount and varnish my watercolours, see my article Framing Watercolours Without Glass.

We had a wonderful holiday and it feels great to be back home again. I am keen to start on several large scale northern landscape paintings in my roomy studio. Now that cold weather is here, my little gas fireplace will be put to good use.

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

Earlier this year, in the post New Works: Magical Northern Lights, I explained the genesis of a new series. These imaginary scenes depicted rocks, trees, water, skies, lakes, and northern lights, and were created using my new Holbein watercolour paints and vast photo library.

This spring and summer, I have continued to paint mythical, peaceful scenes of the north, based on memories formed over the course of my life.

I grew up near Algonquin Park in Ontario, and as an adult have explored the Canadian Shield landscape throughout northern, central, and eastern Canada on foot, in a kayak, on a snowmobile, on a motorcycle, and in our travel trailer.

In this post, I am introducing five of my recent fanciful scenes that portray morning or evening skies and feature the colour pink.

Rhapsody in Hues, varnished watercolour on 9 x 12 inch panel 

I began this painting by masking out the stars and creating the background swirls. I built up layers of pale yellow, red, blue, purple and black, letting each layer of colour dry for several hours before adding the next. The masking was removed and trees were added onto dry paper at the end of the process.

This painting was inspired by a previous work Awakening, which had the three-tree cluster on the right side. For Rhapsody in Hues, I added the majestic tree on the right side for balance.

For more information about Rhapsody in Hues, click here.

Still Standing, varnished watercolour on 8 x 8 inch panel

This scene was inspired by many small, rocky islands I have seen on Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods and was painted with a similar strategy to Rhapsody in Hues.

When I see trees growing on these seemingly barren hunks of rock with very little soil, I am amazed that they can find enough of a foothold to remain standing.

For more information about Still Standing, click here.

Not a Care in the World, varnished watercolour on 10 x 10 inch panel

There is something about calm northern lakes that touches the soul and brings peace, whether we are quietly fishing, kayaking, canoeing, floating, or just gazing from shore. We need to pause and appreciate these beautiful moments whenever they happen.

This painting is a re-imagining of a scene I painted a few years ago titled Old Friends. I changed the colour scheme and added a foreground tree silhouette to make the viewer feel more immersed in nature.

For more information about Not a Care in the World, click here.

Little Bit of Heaven, varnished watercolour on 8 x 8 inch panel

This scene is inspired by many rocky islands I have seen in the 30,000 Islands region of Georgian Bay.

There is something special about the vintage cabins I see, perched on these weathered rocks. The humble, sturdy dwellings make we wonder about the lucky folk who own these little bits of heaven and what their lives are like.

For more information about Little Bit of Heaven, click here.

The Promise, varnished watercolour on 10 x 8 inch panel

This sunset scene was composed of a collection of vintage white pines I photographed in the Temagami region of northern Ontario.They tower above the surrounding forest, making for an impressive sight I admire every time we drive through that region.

The title refers to the saying 'Red sky at night, Sailor's delight', which promises good weather the day following a rosy sunset.

For more information about The Promise, click here.

I hope you have enjoyed this tour of my latest paintings of fanciful northern scenery.

Which painting is your favourite? 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 of her painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming exhibitions.

I decided to spend a few months this winter and spring focusing on painting cloudy sunset scenes, to try to determine where I had been going wrong in the past, and figure out what strategies might work better.

As I experimented with new painting processes, I was able to confirm, at least for me, that there are three secrets to creating glowing skies. This realization resulted in several ground-breaking paintings, and I learned a lot in the process of painting them.

First, I did some research at the 'University of YouTube', watching instructional videos by a couple of professional watercolour painters I admire greatly. When I reviewed painting approaches used by Birgit O'Connor in her Atmospheric Landscapes online course, and Steven Kozar in his free tutorials on high realism, I realized where I was going wrong. It was mostly about the pace of painting.

As I experimented with new strategies in my paintings, I was able to confirm, at least for me, that there are three secrets to creating glowing skies:

• Do colour tests to make sure the selected paint colours work well together to produce clear, vibrant pigment mixtures when dry.
• Be patient and don't add rich colour to the painting too quickly. Instead, build up colour in gradual layers over many days.
• Add each single layer of colour to wet paper very quickly and step away from the painting well before the paper starts to dry. Resist the urge to fiddle, in other words.

As a result of employing these painting principles, I was able to create the following successful paintings from complex reference photos:

Solstice Sunset, varnished watercolour on 8 x 10 inch panel, captures sunset during the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. The warmth of the sun slowly fades, heralding the beginning of a long dark night.

The contrast of golden radiance and soft purple clouds behind the dramatic silhouettes of old growth trees captures a captivating moment in time and the promise of spring.

The painting was inspired by this photograph I took of the view from my bedroom window last December. The trees grow in the hedgerow between farm fields behind our house, and every morning I look out my window to absorb the beauty of nature.

Click here for more details about Solstice Sunset.

The Wonder of It All, varnished watercolour on 6 x 12 inch panel depicts a glowing sunset over a northern lake. Sometimes I look at a splendid sky and just have to marvel at the artistry of nature. She creates the most marvellous paintings, just using light and water vapour. I am awed by the wonder of it all.

The painting was inspired by this photo of Six Mile Lake in Muskoka, taken by Sharon Hopkirk and used with her gracious permission.

Originally my painting was to depict the entire scene including the puddle on the lake and the bushes in the foreground, but I ran into technical difficulties when the masking film I used damaged the lower half of the paper. I discovered the problem after the sky was completed and realized I would have to crop the painting. I thought the sky was beautiful enough to be the star of the show and invented a simple treeline to give context to the scene.

Click here for more information about The Wonder of It All.

I was still entranced by Sharon's gorgeous photo, and started a second attempt at painting the full scene. I took a photo at the end of each day so I could show you the layering process.

Here on Day 1, a strip of masking tape forms a lower boundary for the sky and the first layer of colour is on.

Day 2 The second layer of colour has been applied, using the first layer as a placement guide.

I start by wetting the watercolour paper with clear water, giving it a minute to soak in, then painting on various colours, and letting them mingle before the paper dries. Paint application has to be done in the space of a minute or so, depending on how much water is used.

Day 3 The third layer of colour is on.

The wet-in-wet process produces lovely soft-edged shapes, but it can be difficult to get the right shapes in the right places, because the paint spreads out beyond where it is initially laid. It takes skill and practice to apply just the right amount of paint to control the spread.

Day 4 The fourth layer is on and the colours are intensifying.

This might seem like an inefficient use of my studio time, to work on a sky painting only a few minutes a day, but I always have several paintings on the go and while one dries I can work on others. 

Over the next three days, I added more golden tones to the sky and puddle, working on wet paper. After that dried several hours, I added more scarlet to individual clouds, working on dry paper and feathering out the edges with a clean wet brush.

Once I was happy with these areas and they were fully dry, I masked out the inner edges of the puddle and painted the blue snow in three layers, drying several hours in between. I stopped when it was dull and dark enough to look like twilight and contrast dramatically with the sky hues. Once dry, I removed the masking.

Day 8 and done! I added the treeline and hills on the far shore, and the twigs in front to complete this painting.

The finished artwork is Crimson Twilight, varnished watercolour on 11 x 14 inch panel. I love the vivid warm orange hues in the sky and reflection, contrasted with the cool dark blue of the snow.

Click here for more information about Crimson Twilight.

Having completed these three sunset scenes successfully, I feel a new confidence in how to approach complex sky subjects. I have added another skill to my repertoire. That is what I love about watercolour: there is always something new to learn, explore, and discover.

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

Reunited (varnished watercolour on 24 x 24 inch panel), pictured here, was the first artwork I painted this year, but it marked the second time I painted this peaceful, imaginary place.

The first rendition was last August, when I created a small watercolour study while we were exploring northern Ontario in our travel trailer. I framed the 10 x 10 inch painting when I got home and sent it off to one of my galleries in a shipment of new work. The eventual fate of this painting was revealed several months later, thanks to Facebook.

In the meantime, my husband and I did some fall camping. We towed our trailer to Fergus, ON, to join a small gathering of Airstream trailers belonging to the Ontario Unit of the Airstream International Club.

While there, we met many friendly, interesting folk, including a couple who had gutted and rebuilt a vintage Airstream for themselves and their kids. We enjoyed a tour of their awesome trailer and after conversing a while, felt like we had known this guy and gal for a long time. She was very interested in paintings of northern scenery, bought a selection of my Art Cards, and said she would peruse my web site with a mind to possibly choose a painting.

Back at the studio two weeks later, I learned from the gallery that two of the new paintings, including Reunion, had sold to an unspecified buyer.

The next month, I thought of following up with the lady we met at Fergus, but didn't want to appear pushy. I figured we probably would run into the same couple at a future Airstream rally and could see where things might lead from there.

At the end of the year, I posted this collage of my Top Nine favourite paintings of 2022 on Facebook, with a thank you to all my fans and followers.

Of the many posted comments that followed, one woman wrote "Amazing! J**** surprised me for my birthday with two pieces from this collection. I was thrilled!!!! And so lucky. Beautiful!!!!"

As it turned out, her partner had contacted the gallery two weeks after we met in Fergus and bought Reunion as well as the painting in the centre of my Top Nine. I was really happy to learn this, and glad I had not followed up with her in October or I might have spoiled the surprise her partner had in store for her.

I kept thinking about the islands and canoes of Reunion the following month. Apparently the scene wasn't done with me yet, as if it had more to teach me about glowing light, luminous colours, and the quiet power of Nature. I decided to paint a larger version of the scene, and in doing so, spend peaceful hours under the spell of this mystical northern lake. 'Reunited' was the result.

I paused and took a photo now and then throughout the painting process, so I could share with you the visual creation story. Click on the photo below to view the two-minute video.

Working on this piece gave me a chance to practice on my oversized watercolour paper, and I look forward to creating more larger scale pieces. Stay tuned for further painting and travel adventures!

For further details about Reunited, click here.

If you have suggestions or 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 of her painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming exhibitions.

This ambitious painting project - the largest watercolour I have ever done - took me two months to create. It was pure joy to paint, if a bit intimidating, due to the large scale of the piece.

Under normal circumstances, I could have produced eight of my average-sized paintings in this time frame, so it took some bravery on my part to commit two full months to just one painting.

I grew up near Algonquin Park and never tire of painting the rocks of the Canadian Shield, but when each stone is bigger than my head, the logistics of painting on a large scale come into play. I had to use big brushes and work quickly, because the drying rate is the same for painting a large area as a small one.

The painting is titled 'Where Garden Meets Rock', and is mounted on a 40 x 28 inch panel. The subject is my own perennial garden and river stone border beside our driveway.

I took this photo of my garden over a year ago and knew I wanted to paint from it one day. I was excited about the artistic contrast of bright spiky flowers and leaves against the subdued hues of the round river stones.

Even better, the gardener in me understood there was a turf war going on - a slow, silent struggle for territory between living plants and solid rock.

If you have grown these dwarf iris, you know how quickly they spread and how firmly rooted they become. Left alone, the iris will win the battle and start to envelop these stones in just a couple of growing seasons.

Over the last year, I had gathered the materials to make oversized paintings and decided this garden composition was complex enough to justify a large scale artwork.

I was eager to test drive a new brand of watercolour paints, having been awarded a lovely set of Holbein artist-quality paints last summer from the Women in Watercolour International Juried Competition. In the poster below, you can see my 'Bathing Beauties' did Canada proud by winning the Holbein Merchandise Award in the Landscape & Water category. (You can read the creation story for 'Bathing Beauties' here. This painting now graces a home in Pakistan.)

The 300 lb cold pressed watercolour paper I used was made at the Arches paper mill in France. This world-renowned company has been making fine papers since 1492. I could not find a Canadian source for the large format sheets and had to have them shipped to me from the USA.

The cradled birch wood panel, on which the finished painting would be mounted, was custom ordered through an Ontario art supply store and produced by Apollon Gotrick in Quebec. The wood floater frame to match was custom ordered through the same art store and milled from Canadian lumber by a framing supply company in Ontario.

I bought a selection of watercolour wash brushes in the 2-inch and 4-inch sizes, to allow me to apply and blend paint mixtures over large areas quickly.

With all these exciting new materials at hand, I began the iris project in early November, finished the painting by Christmas Eve, and did the mounting, varnishing and framing by New Year's Eve.

I made a 2-minute video showing the steps of this ground-breaking art project. Click on the image below to view the video.

I am very happy I took the time to create a painting that comes from my heart and soul. It embodies two of my favourite pastimes: gardening and studying stones. I learned so much along the way about how water, paint, and paper behave at this scale, and have gained enough confidence to try other large subjects.

My husband has built me a massive paper-stretching board so I can attempt some large-format peaceful lake scenes, the scariest of watercolour subjects. Stay tuned for more of my painting adventures!

'Where Garden Meets Rock' went on display at Eclipse Art Gallery in the prestigious Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, ON right after the varnish dried, and was acquired by a Muskoka art collector a few weeks later.

If you have suggestions or 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 of her painting stories, travel tales, studio news updates, or notices of upcoming exhibitions.

Usually when we travel in the Airstream I fit in a painting day once a week or so, just for the joy of it.

The rest of my time is spent living the simple life with my husband: hiking, kayaking, making healthy meals, and slowly exploring the region in which we find ourselves.

This past summer, with steady sales of my artwork continuing in the galleries back home, I was keen to paint more frequently.

I found the dinette in our trailer (pictured above) to be the perfect spot to set up a simple painting space for a few hours at a time.

By the time we got home and I returned to the art studio, I was able to mount and frame a half dozen new works (pictured here).

In these paintings, I have continued to focus on misty northern lakes, bringing more imaginary places to life, venturing into a moonlit night scene, and branching off (pun intended) into a pile of colourful maple leaves.

This pair of blue lake scenes began as simple blue graded washes for the sky and a few horizontal streaks of blue for the water ripples. It took 3 or 4 layers of paint to build up the colour density I was after. I left large blank white areas in the middle to add some islands and reflections later.

Listen to the Silence, varnished watercolour on 14 x 11 inch panel.

I invented the overlapping blue hills for the background, wetting the bottom edges with clear water to simulate mist.

When that was dry, I painted an imaginary island, again with mist cloaking the shoreline, and a canoe seen coming towards the viewer.

I added a soft reflection under the island so it would not draw the viewer's eye away from the canoe.

Click here for more information about Listen to the Silence.

The Answer Will Come, varnished watercolour on 14 x 11 inch panel.

I knew I wanted an interesting island centred in this piece so I looked through my treasure trove of Lake of the Woods photos. (We visit family there most summers.)

This is the reference I chose, adding some hefty rocks to the front of 'my' island. Again, I added water when painting the bottom of the island, to simulate a foggy shoreline.

The water ripples in the foreground needed more visual interest, so I imagined some smooth underwater stones and painted the shadowy spaces in between them. Then I added a few above-water rocks to lead the viewer's eye between the foreground and the big island. Lastly, I painted in a hazy reverse image for the island reflection.

Click here for more details about The Answer Will Come.

Reunion, varnished watercolour on 10 x 10 inch panel.

One of my painting buddies goes on an annual canoe trip with a group of women friends, and she was kind enough to supply me with several dozen photos of canoes taken at various places during her trips.

These are a great resource whenever I want to add a canoe into an imaginary scene.

For this painting, I used her reference photo (shown here) for the foreground and invented a couple of islands to make a more interesting scene. I changed the canoe colours and decided to make the season autumn, so the trees would complement the canoes.

Click here for more information about Reunion.

Misty Beginnings, varnished watercolour on 10 x 10 inch panel.

This painting was inspired by a quick photo I took out of our truck window one summer as we were driving along Hwy 17 north of Lake Superior.

I thought this little point of land on the edge of an island looked interesting.

I imagined a new scene roughly based on the photo, adding more mist, a canoe, more prominent rocks, and individual trees on the point.

Click here for more information about Misty Beginnings.

Some Enchanted Evening, varnished watercolour on 16 x 12 inch panel.

This was an experimental piece, meaning I had no idea if it would be successful or not. I knew I wanted a night scene with lots of deep blues and black, with a yellow full moon and its reflection across the water.

I imagined a slight breeze rippling the water and how the resulting reflections would behave.  I figured the rocks would have some warm tones, coming from moonlight.

I breathed a big sigh of relief when this painting turned out so well.

Click here for more information about Some Enchanted Evening.

Maple Flooring, varnished watercolour on 11 x 14 inch panel.

I took this reference photo decades ago while walking in the woods and have painted from it twice.

It is a simple scene, but that red maple leaf is so wonderfully symbolic of Canada, and it was fun to work with bright colours.

Click here for more information about Maple Flooring.

As cooler weather arrives, I feel my inner energy rising. It's time to get the garden trimmed back and close out the growing season. I look forward to having lots of studio time this fall and winter to create more new paintings, and then share with you the stories behind them.

Which painting is your favourite? 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 exhibitions.

The Lodge had a half dozen serviced camping sites adjacent to their cabins, so we reserved a spot for a week in June and brought our travel trailer.

This is the view of the little island from the shoreline of Edgewater Park.

The island looks small and unassuming from this angle, but I suspected from seeing it last winter that the island might be more impressive from other viewpoints.

These Canada geese swam by as I was taking photos from the shore.

They might be just the thing a future painting could use in the foreground.

Luckily, we had our kayaks with us, and on the first calm day of our visit, we went for a paddle along the shore and over to the island.

I had my IPhone on board in a waterproof case so I could take pictures.

My husband, paddling in his kayak ahead of me, made for a good model in some of my photos, helping to show the scale of the landscape. The island looks quite wide from this angle.

As we circumnavigated the island, it was amazing to see how its appearance changed when viewed from different directions, and depending on whether the sun was shining or hidden by a cloud.

The lake water changed its appearance also. Sometimes it was a pale blue, sometimes a deeper blue, and other times the water was so clear we could see the sandy bottom.

There were quite a few different types of evergreens on the island and they made ever-changing groupings as we paddled by.

I particularly like the dynamic cloud and tree reflections in this scene. They would be challenging to paint but worth it.  I think a large scale painting would do this scene justice.

Here are more intriguing cloud and tree reflections. The slanting lines of the waves really catch my eye in this photo.

Parts of the shoreline were rock, which is one of my favourite subjects. The warm tones of the stone contrast nicely with the cooler hues of lake, sky, and trees.

Here are some lovely slabs of rock counterbalanced with a few interesting trees and rustic sheds. I am certain these rocky shorelines and their reflections will make their way into some northern lake paintings one day.

These are just a sampling of the many photos I took of this little island. Each of them is a seed with potential to grow into beautiful artwork one day. Nature is all around us, ready to inspire dozens of paintings. But sometimes, one magic island is enough.

Which scene is your favourite? 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 exhibitions.