Picking Redberries - Digital Drawing

Picking Redberries
Digital Drawing - 600 px x 600 px

In other parts of the world, these berries are known as Lingonberries, or Partridgeberries, or Foxberries. Whatever they are called, these berries are appreciated for their tart, rich fruity taste and for their health-promoting nutrients. Around here, people simply call them Redberries, and they get out their recipes for redberry muffins, jams, puddings, cakes, breads and steaming spicy redberry teas.

I had the good fortune to go wilderness berry picking several times in the past few weeks, and besides bringing home buckets of these bright red beauties, I also brought back a store of ideas of images and stories that I want to illustrate.

I will be experimenting with my digital graphics tablet and from time to time, you will get to see these explorations. And if you have some Redberry muffins or Redberry tea at hand while you are following my explorations, so much the better!
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Bones of the Earth - Capstan Island Battery

Bones of the Earth - Capstan Island Battery
Oil on Canvas, 11 3/4" x 15 3/4"

detail: Bones of the Earth - Capstan Island Battery

No matter how ancient and impressive the geology might be, there are times when it is outstripped by the fleeting drama of the clouds and the transient character of the foliage in a scene.

Each of these natural processes take place in its own time frame and with its own cycle of activity. That's a lot to think about when you are looking at a painting!

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Preliminary Drawing: The Battery 1

Preliminary Drawing for Bones of the Earth series
"The Battery" - Capstan Island, Labrador
Graphite on paper, 7" x 14"

The weathered cliff face of "The Battery" rises to a height of over 900 feet above sea level on the Labrador side of the Strait of Belle Isle in eastern Canada, between the communities of L'Anse au Loup and Capstan Island.

This astonishing formation is made of layers of different types of rock which settled at the bottom of a primordial ocean thousands and thousands of years ago. Nowadays in the summertime on this headland, we can see green and brown stripes of vegetation clinging to the hills, and in the winter, we can see blue and white stripes of ice and snow blown into crevices.

That we get to see anything at all is because of geological forces which pushed this mass of rock well above sea level as part of the Appalachian mountain chain, and because of weathering forces which have eroded this ancient peak into its present rugged form.
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