Torngats 2015 - Where Nature and Culture Connect 25

Colours of Summer

Wildflowers of the Torngats...  

...masses of pure, bright colours.   

From June to August, the colours of wildflowers light up the northern Labrador landscape. The Iceland Poppy in yellows, oranges and creamy tones, the River Beauty in magenta and pink, and the Snowy Gentian in spectacular dots of shimmering blue, are only a few of the colourful plants of the Torngat Mountains.       

Seeing What's Not There - Day 12

Shadows on Birchbark

Shadows and a Sunny Glow

- from the birchbark on a mature treetrunk.         

The winter takes its toll on the outer layers of birchbark. The wind shreds it, and the frost splits it, and the coming and going of daytime sunshine expands and contracts it. And the shadows from bright sunshine enhance the textures of the birchbark and the volume of the tree trunk. 

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 9

The Colors of Birch-bark

Birch-bark on a Bright Day

- intense sunshine reveals brilliant colors  

It's a cool and crisp day, with full strength winter sunshine reflecting off the snow. On a day like this, you see more color everywhere because there is more light to reveal it. Birch bark's natural colors go way beyond pale grays and beiges, they are oranges and pinks and yellow-oranges, glowing in the sunlight.

On My Back Door-Step #6

Bunch of Fireweek (#6)

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Watercolor on paper 11in x 15in
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It's a rainy day and not good for watercolor painting outdoors. So I set up my painting gear in the light coming through the back door, put a handful of fireweed flowers into a Mason jar, and settled in. Indoors or out, I still have to record the image before the light moves, so once the pencil sketch was established, I applied paint just as loosely as I would do out of doors.
This painting is a great example of wet-into-wet washes, without doubt the loosest of watercolor painting techniques.
Wet daubs of pink blurring into pale green stripes give the gentlest of neutral shadow tones. A fat painty brushstroke touching into a clear water shape defines a flower form. Then there's the background, all water and paint with a characteristic back-flow effect revealing the blue and brown pigments that this gray was mixed with. Back-flows can be disastrous or very effective, and this painting has examples of both.
So be it.