In my previous post, I told the story of our camping trip to Lake Superior this summer. Although I am in the midst of teaching watercolour techniques to over 50 students this fall, I have carved out some private painting time in my studio, inspired by my Lake Superior trip photos.

The painting above, Clarity (watercolour, 28 x 11"), was the first major work inspired by this trip. I used several experimental techniques and am excited with the result. The scene depicts a view from the coastal trail near Rossport, on the north shore of Lake Superior. The water is so clear, it becomes almost impossible to tell if rocks are above or below the surface. I'll let you decide.

I made a short time lapse video, showing how this painting grew from start to finish. Click on the arrow below to view:

Click here to see more information about Clarity.

For my second Lake Superior painting, Time to Head South (watercolour 16 x 20") shown below, I was able to combine the activities of teaching and producing a major piece of artwork. I began by drawing the two Monarch butterflies and the autumn leaf in pencil on my watercolour paper. Then I drew in the stone shapes as a background.

During three of my one-day Pebbles 1-2-3 beginner workshops, I used this composition as my demonstration painting. I shaded and coloured the stones, working around the butterfly and leaf shapes. I used my Lake Superior trip photos as inspiration for the specific stone markings.

As with all of my paintings, every colour in the painting was mixed from primary red, blue, and yellow paints. Once the background was finished, after the third workshop, I painted the Monarchs and leaf.

The title, Time to Head South, refers to the annual fall migration of Monarchs, to their winter habitat in the mountains of Mexico. I hope we see lots of their descendants here in Ontario next summer.

Click here to see more information about Time to Head South.

These paintings are just the beginning of my Superior collection. I look forward to sharing more of them with you.

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Over the years, our travels on the trans-Canada highway have taken us past the north shore of Lake Superior countless times. We always seemed to be in a hurry to get out to the western provinces to visit family, or to return to our home in central Ontario. We never took the time to stay in this wild and beautiful region of northern Ontario.

This summer, we finally planned a two-week camping trip to explore Rossport and Wawa on Lake Superior. The Lake Superior view above is from Nicol Island at Rossport.

On the way there, we enjoyed several days in a private campground on Brownlee Lake (east of Lake Superior), which we were able to explore fully by kayak. That's me in the photo above.

The leaves of the waterlily plants had started to change colour when we were there in August. These photos will make great painting subjects.

As we explored the perimeter of Brownlee Lake, we found many colourful mushrooms had recently emerged. This one reminds me of a fairy toadstool.

Our hikes in the region took us to many scenic waterfalls. I am pictured above in Rainbow Falls Provincial Park, east of Rossport. The second photo is High Falls, which is accessible via a commercial wild blueberry farm near Wawa.

The most scenic part of our holiday was spent at Rainbow Falls Provincial Park (Rossport), which has a campground right beside the beach. The park's rocky point pictured above is the subject of a sold-out watercolour workshop I am teaching in my Lindsay studio this fall.

The view above is from the Rossport Coastal Trail on Lake Superior. The water is very cold and clear, so you can see the colourful stones on the lake bed. I am working on a stunning new painting, inspired by this scene.

The photo above shows our truck, trailer, kayaks, and dining tent set up in Rainbow Falls Provincial Park, just steps from Lake Superior. This park provides water and electrical hookups. We have a furnace, air conditioner, hot water heater, fridge, stove, oven, three-piece bathroom, and a queen-sized bed. All the comforts of home. That's why people often call the RV lifestyle 'glamping', short for glamorous camping. (What, you pictured me in a tent, sleeping on the ground? Those years are long gone!)

Lake Superior is the largest body of fresh water on earth, with a surface area of over 82,000 square km, and over 4,000 km of shoreline. One beach we visited near Wawa had lovely white sand, clear aquamarine water, and surf (shown above), just like in the Caribbean.

The beach at Rainbow Falls park was mostly smooth stones and pebbles, like the ones pictured above. I took over 100 'incredible pebble' photos. The colours and patterns within the stones are remarkably beautiful and varied.

All too soon, it was time to head home. The photo above shows the moon at sunset over Lake Superior, with a solitary person out for a stroll. The headlands in the distance are the Rossport Islands.

My usual habit, after we get home from a trip, is to print just the photos I think I will use for future painting references. After our Lake Superior trip, I printed almost 400 photos! I'll be very busy this winter making 'Superior art'.

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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.

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This spring, we explored Canada's eastern provinces on a two month journey, traveling 8,000 km from Ontario through Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island.

This article is the first travel story from this trip, and the photos below show the top five things that, to me, make holidays memorable.

1. The Company of Good Folk

This was our first lengthy RV trip with others - friends who brought their trailers too. Our group is pictured below, left to right, John and Karen, Sheri and Al with their dog Jack, and Carolyn and Roger. We have known these friends for many decades, get along well, and we had a wonderful time exploring the sights together. Sheri and Al spent the first two weeks with us, while Carolyn and Roger stayed with us for the entire two months. We also met some lovely strangers along the way, fellow RVers or local folk, who shared their stories with us. We learn much from others, when we take time to listen.

2. Interesting Architecture

Wherever our trips take us, we love to discover unusual or historic buildings. In the town of Sherbrooke, in the scenic eastern townships of Quebec, we had a guided walking tour of 14 murals. These are some of the most outstanding and realistic murals we have seen. A few are pictured below.

3. Wild Places of Rock and Water

Scenery that demonstrates the forces of Nature excites and rejuvenates me, and provides inspiration for most of my paintings. New Brunswick is exceptionally beautiful and two of its natural wonders are shown below. Grand Falls was thundering with spring runoff when we visited. These two photos hint at the magnificence of the Saint John River flowing into the Gorge.

We visited Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy at two separate times, so we could explore the flowerpot islands and shore features at low tide, and then see the islands at high tide. They truly are impressive formations, as the following photos attest. The first one shows John and I beside a flowerpot island.

And below is the same scene at high tide. The seawater in the Bay of Fundy looks like chocolate milk, due to sandstone sediment.

4. Great Local Cuisine

We like to sample the regional food of the places we explore on holiday. So of course we had to have a lobster dinner feast, complete with fresh fiddle (fern) heads, while in New Brunswick. Yum!

5. Stones I Can Bring Home

I was thrilled to find lots of colourful beach stones to bring home as souvenirs and painting subjects, from Maritime beaches. These ones below are from near Cape Enrage, New Brunswick.

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

This spring, I taught a 3-day Hollyhock and Stone watercolour class, for intermediate and advanced students. We each chose different reference photos and painted different blossom colours. I chose a pink and burgundy mix (shown above) for my demonstration painting, with a finished size of 16 x 12".

We began by drawing our composition on layout paper (using proportional squares to enlarge the photo image), then tracing that drawing onto our 300 lb watercolour paper using graphite transfer paper. Then we masked out the fine veins inside the flowers with masking fluid to preserve the white paper.

For my paints, I wanted to evaluate a new (to me) brand of watercolour paint - Schmincke, which is made in Germany. I chose Helio Blue Reddish, Permanent Carmine, and Gamboge Gum Modern as my three primary colours, and mixed all of the painting colours from these three. I loved the smoothness of this brand, and look forward to doing more paintings with my Schmincke paints.

I find the most successful method for painting plant life is to work up the shadows in gradual layers, and adding a coat of brighter overall colour at the end. When the first shadow layer is dry, the next layer adds deeper colour, just in the darker shadow areas. The photo above shows the flowers after three layers and the green buds and stems after two layers.

In the photo above, I have added one more shadow layer on the green buds and stems, followed by a bright green glaze over all the green parts. When this was dry, I painted the cement mortar of the stone wall with a two-tone tan.

In the photo above, my students are pictured in my studio, working on their hollyhock compositions. My demonstration painting is at the bottom, and you can see several of my favourite #12 round sable/synthetic brushes beside my painting.

Once the mortar sections had dried, I wet each building stone, dropped in two paint colours, and then sprinkled on salt to produce a mineral effect. I used a cool neutral mix (blue-gray), and a warm neutral mix (brown-gray). Once this was fully dry, I brushed off the salt. Then, using a dark gray mixture, I added some shadowy cracks between the mortar sections, and some subtle shadows to make the mortar look less flat.

In the photo above, I have added shadows across the faces of the stones, using a charcoal gray-black (mixed from the primaries), and added more shadow details to the mortar. I removed the masking fluid from the petals and washed over them with a pale watery pink to change the veins from white to pale pink.

We're on the home stretch now. I deepened the burgundy colours around the centre of the main flower and added some soft shadows to the upper petals. I added a soft blue wash over some of the stones to create a greater variety of stone colours. I added a very watery blue glaze over the mortar to make it less dominant.

This completed painting Hollyhock and Stone, watercolour 16 x 12",  will be on display at my solo exhibition at The Shipyards in Gravenhurst from July 28 to August 11, 2017.

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To celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, John and I, with friends Rick and Nancy, embarked on a 3-day guided snowmobile adventure on Baffin Island, in Canada's far north. Our trip was on Easter weekend, to take advantage of the long hours of daylight and milder spring temperatures.

We flew via First Air on a Friday morning, from Ottawa to Iqualuit, the capital of the territory of Nunavut. After a 3-hour flight, this was our first view of the town from our airplane. We stayed at the big brown building at the top of the photo above.

Our guide from Arctic Kingdom picked us up at the airport, and we collected our snowmobiles. John and I are pictured above on our Arctic Kingdom Polar Expedition Grand Touring Skidoo.

We all went on a short test ride on the sea ice. The photo above shows John and I beside our Skidoo, with our friends in the background. Rick and Nancy each drove a Skidoo.

We saw lots of dogsled teams tied up near the shore. In the background are fuel storage tanks, that are refilled every summer from tanker ships, to provide fuel for the town of Iqualuit all year.

After an excellent dinner and comfortable overnight stay at the Frobisher Inn, we set off early Saturday morning across the sea ice of Frobisher Bay (shown above). This 20 km crossing took us over tortuous 2-meter pressure ridges near Iqualuit, then over smoother sea ice to the far shore of the Bay. 

Our destination was the tiny village of Kimmirut on the other side of a large peninsula on Baffin Island, about 130 km away. The photo above shows the two traditional qamutik (pronounced KAMmatick) expedition sleds made of wood and twine, and five snowmobiles, that made the journey. We had to bring all our gas, personal luggage, safety equipment, camp stove, and food with us.

We followed tundra trails through more than 100 km of Katannilik Territorial Park, and along the Soper River valley. We enjoyed sunshine and blue sky all day, surrounded by glaciated mountains and pure white snow. The trail was busier than we had expected, and we saw about 50 snowmobiles that day, because there was a snowmobile race along the route we were taking.

Shelter cabins, like the one pictured above, were provided at intervals along the route to Kimmirut. Travelers use them to get out of the wind for a lunch break or even to sleep in overnight. The huts are very plain, with one window, one door, a chimney vent, and three raised platforms inside. Visitors have to provide their own heat source, such as a camp stove.

The photo above shows the inside of the cabin where we stopped for lunch. This is Wayne Broomfield, our unflappable, capable guide, boiling water and heating soup on a camp stove. We enjoyed homemade vegetable beef soup and biscuits, hot chocolate, and ham, cheddar, and lettuce wrap sandwiches for lunch. Delicious! Wayne grew up in northern Labrador and still spends time there. In addition to working as an expedition guide on Baffin Island, he is a professional photographer. 

After lunch we prepared for a steep descent down a mountain pass. We left the second qamutik full of gas cans beside the trail, hidden behind a rocky ridge. Malaya Qaunirq Chapman, our guide's assistant, is shown in the photo above, sans qamutik. She was born in the Iqualuit area, spent several years in Los Angeles, and returned to live in the north. She was fully bilingual and a delightful addition to our group.

The photo above shows Malaya in full riding attire, Baffin Island style (i.e. parka and goggles rather than snowmobile suit and helmet).

We passed through the only 'forest' on Baffin Island – the Giant Willow Tree Forest. The trees reach 3 meters (10 feet) in height, although the ones we saw looked to be about 1 meter tall above the snow.

We reached Kimmirut by late afternoon and got settled in our rooms above the Kimik Co-op store.

This photo is our view of the harbour from the dining room above the Co-op. The tide is out, so the sea ice has subsided beside the iconic peninsula in the harbour.

We were served a wonderful dinner - homemade buns, shepherd's pie and poutine with cheese AND bacon. Good job we all had worked up a good appetite that day.

After dinner we walked around the village and visited the local museum to see their collection of traditional artifacts, tools, and clothing. We also saw this polar bear hide beside a house.

After hot showers and a good sleep, we embarked on our return journey on Sunday morning. The day was windy with some haze, but it was interesting to see the scenery under different weather conditions. The photo above shows our friends Rick and Nancy with our guide Wayne.

As the day progressed, the wind increased and visibility decreased, but Wayne guided us confidently through the route back to Iqualuit. We wore our sunglasses the whole trip, because the Arctic spring sun is very strong and can cause snow blindness.

We stopped to see this huge frozen waterfall on the Soper River. It was the same gorgeous aquamarine colour you see in glacier crevasses.

Our guide, Wayne, took the photo above. John and I are on the snowmobile on the left. Behind us are Malaya and three local women who joined our group when the weather worsened.

Wayne took this picture above. Rick and Nancy are in front, with John and I behind them. You could not tell where the land ended and the sky began - everything was white. But Wayne got us through and back to our hotel by late afternoon. Three of us ended up with a bit of frostbite on our necks, where the wind sneaked in between our jackets and helmets. Gotta have battle scars, right?

We returned our snowmobiles and qamutiks to the Arctic Kingdom office in Iqualuit (shown above). Afterwards, we had dinner at the Frobisher Inn, and Wayne entertained us with more enthralling tales of his Arctic adventures.

While we dined and talked, several local artisans came through the restaurant, offering their creations for sale. (This is an acceptable practice in the north.) It was wonderful to meet these Inuit folk, and it was a convenient and affordable way to acquire some quality paintings and carvings, as souvenirs of our visit to Baffin Island.

On Monday morning, Wayne picked us up from the Frobisher Inn, to give us a driving tour of town, before we flew back to Ottawa in the early afternoon. Above, we are pictured at the Arctic Kingdom office - John, Nancy, Wayne, Karen, and Rick - in front of four brand new qamutiks.

This is one of the residential streets in Iqualuit, above. Wayne told us house prices run in the $300K to $500K range and jobs are very well paid here.

This is one of their grocery stores, above. Groceries are more expensive here due to freight costs - goods have to be shipped in during summer when the sea ice is out, or flown in during the rest of the year.

Stop signs are tri-lingual in Iqualuit.

And, yes, there is a Tim Horton's here too... Now you have no excuse not to go to Baffin Island!

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Last fall, I enjoyed six weeks of teaching watercolour to a total of 30 students, at my studio in Lindsay, and at Meta4 Gallery in Port Perry. Here are some graduation photos.

My 'Island in the Storm' (2-day beginner/novice) class ran twice and it was amazing to see such excellent and varied interpretations from our reference photos:

My 'Pebbles 1-2-3' (absolute beginner) class also ran twice, as shown in the two photos below.

One of the students had this to say the next day: "Thanks very much Karen.  What a wonderful space you have to create!  I am so inspired and excited to see where this path takes us!!  I spent the evening in my studio last night and did a second copy of what we did yesterday and read half your book already lol.  I'm going to play this week in the evenings to just move paint around a little and get more comfortable.  I'm so inspired!  Thank you so very much for lighting this in me! ... Thanks so much for the wonderful introduction to watercolour.  I can't wait for the next Class!"

Shown below are the grads from my 'Underwater Stones' 3-day intermediate level class, with their wonderful paintings well underway (to be completed at home):

Here I am pictured below with some of the students in my 'Cedar Waxwing' intermediate level 6-week class:

Last fall, I donated a free class for five students to Soroptimist International of Kawartha Lakes, for auction at their Snowflake Gala. Pictured below are the winning bidders, enjoying their class with me in my studio last month. We had a blast!

One of the students wrote to me after class and confided: "The watercolour class was so much fun and hard, too.  I loved the challenge.  I never thought I could feel that successful on my first lesson."

Another student wrote: "I want to thank you again for a very inspiring, and exciting day!  We were all pleasantly surprised at how our artwork turned out, and you definitely made us feel comfortable so we all had fun. Thanks so much!"

Thank you to all my students, who made a watercolour journey with me in the last few months. Together, we learned a lot!

Click here to see Karen's class schedule.

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Recently, I completed this 16 x 12" watercolour titled 'Moongazer' (above). It is an imaginary scene, based on these three reference photos (below). The trees and water are from our travels along the north shore of Lake Superior, and the full moon was seen from my house. The sketched watercolour paper is shown beside the photos.

The second photo above shows the painting after two layers of sky colours. I didn't like the way the colours were granulating, and I thought the moon should be higher and smaller, so I turned my watercolour paper over and started afresh with new colours.

Here is the new painting above, with the tree and moon covered in yellow masking fluid, and the first sky layer on.

This painting was slow to complete, as I had to let each sky layer dry at least 24 hours before applying the next layer. Shown above is the finished sky after six layers. The masking fluid has been removed from the tree, revealing the white paper.

In the photo above, the first paint layer has been applied to the tree foliage and two layers have been painted on the tree bark. I left some paper bare at the top of each foliage mass, to give the effect of moonlight shining there.

In this last photo, the tree has received three paint layers. Then I painted the distant hills and lake and let that dry. Finally, I painted the foreground forest in one layer.

This painting has an atmospheric mood that really captivates viewers. I am delighted that it found it's new owner even before I had it mounted and framed.

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