3 short stories

These days my palette contains those earthy autumn shades and no doubt it will until the time comes to start working with negative space (blank white areas) or with lots of white gouache, you know where I am heading with that, the "s" word!  Before even going to Waterton Lakes National Park last week, I knew I would be creating a painting from one of my photos once I was back home.  When I have a painting intention in mind, I find I pay greater attention to the composition in the photograph.  During that wildly windy encounter on the shore of Lower Waterton Lake, I planted my feet, held on to my hat, aimed my camera with the other hand and tried my best to keep still to capture a photo worthy of a painting.  This is my watercolour creation using the photo below as a reference.   

Wherever I go these days, it's to witness the beautiful autumn colours.  The season is so sweet yet can be so short.  It has been many  moons since I last wandered through Pearce Estates to admire the scenery.  The first to-do thing when I arrived was to find the Siberian Larch Trees. There are a dozen or so in one area and as of this day, they vary in their stage of changing shades.  The first photo in the collage shows the one that holds the most beauty with colour, size, fullness and degree of healthiness.   I took every path I could, each being tree-lined with colours galore, some followed beside brooks, others were being enjoyed by Robins while others lead over bridges and onward to Harvie Passage. The large photo shows the Passage is still running and open to rafters and kayakers.   

When visiting a bird sanctuary you would think the reason for going was for birding.  It's time to concede that any good birding opportunities will come again next spring.  While I did see some of the usual suspects, there was not a sighting that excited me so I have no bird photos to share from this visit to the Bird Sanctuary.  What I do have to share are a few of the dozens and dozens of beautiful autumn scenery shots that I snapped.  That's what excited me! It was a cold crisp morning with fog hoovering over the ponds offering up great photo opportunities. It was not about the birds on this day, it was all about the colours, the colours, all about the colours!