The Nellie Lake Loop

Painting on Leach Lake

We walked the portage to Leach Lake for fun.  Pretty little lake.

The dogs went for a swim and rested with me.  

Tried using the complimentary underneath the green and it made it look muddy and solid...didn't like the effect, but it was fun to try.  I left out one of the pieces of the landscape.

Painting on Murray Lake

I took several photos of this lake.  It changed so much according to the light.  Everyone had warned us about portaging 'The Notch' and it was actually quite enjoyable.  One of the lovliest portages that we have done to date, complete with views, falls, woods and stunning quartzite.  

We also found interesting graffiti on the campsite from 1933.  It reads:

May 15, 1933. 
W.M. and D.M. 

 Nellie Lake

Painting on Nellie Lake

Nellie Lake is the most beautiful lake I have ever seen.  I'll be back to experience more of the transparent quality of the water in nicer weather.  I ended up painting this in the rain.  If you look closely at the image above, I walked Thomson and Buffy to the mountain side before it started to rain...we are off on the bottom right on the quartzite.  The mustard coloured strip is a result of the staining of fallen pine needles setteling on the side of the lake.  Water appeared to gradate from this mustard, through green and then a blue similar to O.S.A. Lake.  On a calmer day, this must be even more breathtaking.

  Treasures surround the area if you know where to look.  We found the foundation of a log cabin, rusted metal parts that were a wood stove, wine barels and logging saw, as well as broken purple glass underneath a fallen tree.

Nellie Lake offers the cleanest water I have filtered in the park.  The filter barly needed cleaning after.  We are enjoying the last bit of fitered Nellie water today with lunch.

View from the area of Carmichael's space:

We must have been meters from his rock without luck.  It was spitting rain and we were probably too high up.  We will try again in nicer weather.

Here is the Carmichael view:  http://www.portageur.ca/images/FranklinCarmichaelatGraceLake.jpg

This is the image I was able to complete our last full day on Grace, once we returned to the site.  I'll paint this one in the studio as I'd like to create a little series of these views there.  

As usual, the en plen air experience is both frustraiting and rewarding.
It is well worth it and it was an amazing experience portaging and paddeling 61 km.

Artist in Residence at Killarney Provincial Park 2012

Painting en plein air, the view from Sunset Rock in Killarney Provincial Park.  This is a popular spot in the campground.  People have been engaged and married at this spot, as the view is tremendous.  There is a little path beside site #77, that leads to this spot.  There is also a trail leading up to this place from the parking lot off of second beach. 

The weather was great and Buffy and Thomson, my dogs stayed with me from shortly after 9am until sundown as I painted.  They had pleanty of food and water and we had many visitors throughout the day. 

The finished painting is a gift to The Killarney Bay Inn who has been so kind over the years to our family.  Bill Pittock runs a great business, clean and friendly service, in the heart of Killarney, another home away from home.

 

Here is the finished piece. 

 

My husband dropped me off with our new aramid Prospector 17' from Nova Craft and he texted me to see when I was done...sundown again.  I finished off the trees on the left as he paddled towards me.  Thomson had a great swim and Buffy stayed with me in the shade.  A few scuba divers walked up to us at one point and told us about some huge bass that swam between their legs.  I watched kids jump off the rocks and they helped me figure out the smaller rocks off of what looks like a turtle's head.  I love the sense of motion in the water here and how the rocks and trees turned out on this panoramic shape.  What a great day!

This piece, called "Sanctuary", I completed after a workshop on Sunset Rock in the campground on the Friday of the AIR program.  I feel that all of the elements that I studied this week in the other two paintings worked in this one.  Taking the most interesting slice of the view from the lookout, I built up layers slowly, completing each layer like a finished piece.  What a great way to end a week filled with lessons where 40 students a day showed up and used up the painting supplies in abundance!  Terriffic turn out and such wonderful people to work with.  I love being the catalyst in finding the talented people who don't know they have that capability inside.

I'd like to paint en plein air this fall, but next is our trip is to Grace and Nelly Lake, where the Group of Seven painted.  I'll paint some small pieces that I can work on in the studio larger from my sketches and photos. 

Cypress Lake - Completed!

I'm satisfied with the overall tangled effect of these paintings, the study of the fractal-like nature of cedar leaves and look forward to experimenting more.

The painting second from your right has a few coats of Liquitex High Gloss Varnish over the water area at the bottom.

On to the next painting...a wintery root wall in Killarney Provincial Park.

Cypress Lake Series

Today, I worked on the second and final paintings.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Philosophers-Walk-Visual-Art-of-Danielle-Gardner/186015654757263

Artist In Residence - Killarney Provincial Park

Click on the image to enlarge.

I was honoured by being the first official Artist In Residence of Killarney Provincial Park. During my stay, I taught two weeks of drawing and painting both privately and organized lessons. I painted seven paintings towards my Woods project. Painting en plein air was exhilarating, exhausting and completely worth it! I was able to understand my subject matter and the artists who have worked before me. I met like minded individuals who I taught and they created unique works of art of their own. Painting with Jim Morlock was a plus and it was great to collaborate with him. Both staff and campers felt that the days teaching and creating were a successful in teaching about the idea of art for art's sake. The time provided me with the studio of the outdoors for which I have an even greater respect. Through the support of the Friends of Killarney Provincial Park, and the Friends of Killarney Park committee this past year, my idea of the warm up hut A.K.A. the Friends Cabin being moved from the middle of the parking lot to the picnic area overlooking First Beach became a reality. During our stay, hard work took place building an enormous deck outside of the moved structure which will be the center of the Friends' activities in the future. Murray O'Brian and other volunteers made the structure useful for the program to house supplies and hold art activities on open studio and artist studio days. Friends and campers signed up for the art activities and enjoyed learning about art for art's sake. Special thanks to my husband Bill and daughter Maryn for their support and patience while I worked sometimes 7 hour days without a break. They also provided their skills in assisting me. Bill helped with stretcher building and him and Trish Wilson helped with prepping 7 of 12 linen stretchers before we left.

The paintings depicted here are in order that they were painted.

Painting 1

Staff Short Cut - Sold

Painted with Jim Morlock and Gerry and Elizabeth Daminato / Bone.

Jim helped choose the complex composition and stayed from 8 - 10am. A nice couple stayed until 12. I painted until 4:30 and finished it. Gorgeous root system. It was funny when the staff who used the short cut to get to the beach as I was painting.

Painting 2

La Cloche Finish Line

Painted another piece beside the sign of the La Cloche Exit. The trees from last year look interesting with this piece. I was able to achieve a lot of depth and texture in the rocks. It was nice to work close to the site for the day.

Painting 3

H54 AY Jackson Lake

I hiked in the stretcher on an interior trip and began painting at the side of the site in front of the part of the lake that flow out eventually into George Lake. I forgot my white paint! I used yellows, golds and skin tone as my light colours and mixing colours. This gave a morning glow to the painting. The only part of the painting that white was added to was to achieve a better sky colour after I got back. Painted from 1 - 8pm.

Painting 4

Site 87 George Lake - Sold

Painted a sketch the night before to see which spot to paint. Chose a selection on Betty Batty's site and leaned the stretcher onto a tree. I was wedged in between a tree and a large rock. Betty fed me throughout the day. Worked from 8 - 5pm and taught two private lessons in the morning.

Visited by Dave Moase and his nephew Brandon. Fraser and his wife came by to visit Betty and we all had a nice chat. Most of my time was spent referencing the tree the painting was leaning against as it was the same red wood pine I was depicting. I studied and mimicked the texture of the bark.

Painting 5

OSA Last Bend

Painting 6

Killarney Lake - First Bend

Painted OSA and Killarney from prints at The Friends Cabin after a wonderful interior trip. Worked more hours on Killarney over the course of three days for a signature piece to represent the park and the program and my stay there. It is a very distinctive rock that people will know as it is the first bend after the portage. Killarney Lake is a tropical green colour and you can see to the bottom of it. OSA is an impossible ultramarine colour that appears silver and phalo blue when the sky is dark. Lots of visitors and comments by passers by.

Painting 7

Site 4 George Lake

Paddled out the stretcher on an interior trip. Next to no under-painting, wet in wet. There were some dry time issues but it was raining so I had to move quickly. I painted the white quartz mountains from about 1-5pm. Touched up the sky and the tree bark and a little of the green on the pines when I got back to the campground. Visited by interior staff. Great painting session with pleasing results.

Cypress Lake Plan

The next in the series will be worked from photos from Cypress Lake, Bruce Penninsula, taken last fall. I have chosen five cropped images for this wall.

Paintings 6, 7 and 8

Three weeks up in Killarney Provincial Park. Painting with families and teaching the artist's hike was great.

It was challenging to paint these en plen air paintings without the use of photos. It made me work harder because the painting had to be finished at the end of the day.

The last painting, the one on the far right, had to be reworked as a result of a three hour thunder storm. It blew over when the paint was still tacky and I had to rework it. I like it better now that it has this history of a natural occurrence to it. After all, we all have a life span and so does artwork.