three photographs tell a story

Our recent weather gave me inspiration and time to spend a few hours learning about and experimenting with water-colour paint spills and splatters.  On the morning when I was in no mood to face what faced me when I opened the curtains, I settled in to begin new lessons on winter watercolour painting.  

While my car is not red, what I saw when I opened that curtain looked similar to this beetle stuck in the snow.   This was the first painting I did where I started upside down.  I placed a thin wash of dark paint across the middle of the paper and then tilted my book until that paint began to run down the paper.  That was how the trees were created.  When I was content with how they looked, I then turned my book upright and let the paint dry.  A few strokes of lighter and darker paint were added to complete the forest.  The bottom part of the paper was left white except for a few grey strokes to give the appearance of snow drifts.   White acrylic gouache was used to make snow on the car.  Then came splatter time!  I quickly learned you cannot use just any paint brush and also to cover over where you don't want splatters, like my table and me.   

I accepted it would take a little time before I would get my car out onto the road and with that came the realization I would then get to be one with all this weather.  While my hair is not that colour, I would like it to be.  Many times I have collected a bundle of snow in my hands where I examined it, made a wish upon it,  then tossed it into the air.  This time I picked the correct brush to make the splatters, but before doing so, I covered everything that I did not want covered in snow flakes.  

To the splatters it was time to add spills!  Some times when life happens, a glass of wine gets me to a happier place.  I am finding getting lost in watercolour painting will get me to that place too.  Pair together  sipping a real glass of white wine while painting two glasses on red, that's when the spills came into play.  While I did not go overboard with sipping nor spills, I did go overboard with splatters.  In this case the more the merrier!  Cheers!

Winter walloped us and once it settled down, I wanted to be out and about in the aftermath. I picked Confluence Park as the place to see what Mother Nature created.  This was the first time this season I needed to don full on winter wear from head to toe.  Oh that blue sky and sunshine can be so deceiving! No one had been before me in most places which made the trails that much more appealing to me to look at yet it was a bit more work to get through.  What was not dressed in snow, was decorated with ice!  Mother Nature gives me ideas and inspiration to attempt to be as creative as she is.   

It was very quiet at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary on this morning.  Those few that winter here are here, all others have gone south.  Beauty abounds after a new snowfall and I wanted to experience that here. The snow created a canopy that kept the quietness in.  It was a mid autumn wonderland to wander through seeing ice formations and how the snow collected in places.   The numerous ducks I saw and the few birds I heard paired with the peaceful pretty trails was plenty enough to offer me fulfillment.  

I had three missions in mind when I walked out my front door in the dark on this morning! First I wanted to be up on Nose Hill for when a new day dawned.  After witnessing that, I had a goal to cover eight kilometres hiking up and down the many hills.   My third mission was to find the goats and their Shepard so I could have some kind of a visit with them.  I did not bother taking my headlamp so stuck close to a wide main trail that headed straight up the centre.  It was a gorgeous start to this brand new day.  Many sights caught my eye but I stayed focused to get those eight kilometres covered.  I could not pass by this piece of ice though.  When I looked closely, I could see it was a leaf covered in a very thick layer of ice.  I found the goats being herded by the dog in the direction of the Shepard who was waving at me to come on over.  I went over!  He invited me to go in amongst the goats and visit with them which I did after a half hour chat with the Shepard.  There were a few rough nights on The Hill and there would be more to come.  There is no heat in his trailer except for when he runs the propane at supper time.  His days are long, starting at 9:00am and ending at 6:00pm.  I should be able to get one last visit in with them before this contract is up.  Three missions accomplished!