Fall Colours, Lac Philippe

Acrylic, 28×22 on gallery wrap – $680

With sun lower in the sky in the fall, the light, even midday, is more angular. This makes for dramatic lighting, brilliant colours and the shape and texture of the landscape more defined. A cloudless sky and no wind made for a gorgeous few hours.

Muskeg Gold, Mer Bleue

Acrylic, 24×18 on gallery wrap – $480

This piece is reminiscent of a beautiful day in October on the board walk at Mer Bleue. It was a day of high contrast: brilliant sunshine and warm, then moments later, chilled when the scudding clouds blocked the sun.

Must have been thinking about John Constable’s clouds when I took the reference photo. I was reading his biography at the time. As a miller’s son, he came by his interest in meteorology when he was young. Weather was very important to the  mill operator and bargeman. Constable did many studies of clouds and maintained the sky was the source of light and inspiration in landscape painting.

I tried to capture the drama as well as the glorious colour: yellow gold of the larch and the red of the sphagnum pet moss, set off against the black spruce.