Grizzly Valley Hike

At the top of Rogers Pass in BC at the beginning of Balu Pass trail is a warning poster about bears in the area. The trail heads straight up in to a dark cool forest of huge hemlocks hung with lichen and roots that bulge the trail with interesting lumps and tripping bumps. It is steep  and doesn't level out till it breaks out into the avalanche slope several kilometers above.  Here in the open valley the trail is on a steady but comfortable rise...climbing through lush greenery and fern as we alternate sides of the rushing streams that are being fed by the quickly dwindling snow pack. It is simply amazing to look up pass the new lush growth to snow, talus slopes and rocky peaks far above.

The incline kept growing and the scenery just kept becoming more beautiful as we hiked.  Hot, sweaty and feeling my legs now...We crossed one avalanche and numerous snow packs before reaching the mountain top to be rewarded with the most amazing views in every direction.  Massive rock peaks, old glaciers and rich green valleys dotted with flowers made it delightful. Hiking boots have done their job, feet are tired but not sore.

Totally worth the energy to get to such a spot but at that point we had only seen several marmots, granted they were impressively large and a few chipmunks. Butterflies and bugs were plentiful but for a wildllife artist I was hoping for more. It is definitely sheep country but a detailed scan of the mountains failed to reveal even one.

Now I was expecting to see some bears. The trail we hiked was called Balu Pass...Indian for bear. The mts that I was looking up at are Ursus Major and Ursus Minor (latin for bear) or Grizzly mts. At the top of Balu Pass is a grizzly reserve.  So not to be pushing my luck but I was definitely hoping for a bear sighting.

The return trip was beautiful and allot quicker with standing slides down some of the snowy slopes and allot less energy needed for climbing. It was one Km from the bottom into the hemlock forest when I heard the movement to my right.....there about 50 yards from me was a beautiful young grizzly female with two cubs.  Her fur was rich and plush, one cub was dark like mom and the other was light colored. She watched calmly and intently as we walked on past before she proceeded to lead her cubs up the hill.

Have to say it was a pleasure to see the namesake of the valley before leaving. Wish I had a great photo but just have to share it with words. The opportunity to see her and her cubs made the trip perfect.

By the way, on the subject of bears.......
My grizzly painting "Down by the River" is one of three finalists for Artist of Year for BC Wildlife Federation.  Go to their webpage and the public can vote for their favourite.
http://www.bcwf.bc.ca

Geese, Art and my Reticular Activating System

The Reticular Activation System is part of a human brain that takes care of many important jobs but the one that pertains to this post is it job as an information filter, sorting through the mass of data and information that comes at us through our senses. 

When you have a new interest it is due to this RAS system that you suddenly seem to see more of that new subject around you. If you purchase a red car...all of a sudden you see red cars everywhere....it makes sense that they were there before but you were not activated to see them. 

Well long story short....my new interest is geese....Canadian geese. I am working on a project that features Canadian geese and this spring I find I am surrounded by them. If I turn on the TV there is a documentary on them. If I go for a walk they are there in the pond and or flying over head. If I grab a wildlife book it pops open to the page that features them. I love this. And it was all wonderfully topped off by 4 Canadian geese moving in to live on our property for a month this spring. First time in 30 years that any geese have lived here with us.

Every morning we were awoken by the hooking of geese....( that may have been carrying this RAS thing way too far) and our morning barn visits were overseen by 2 or more geese either on top of the shed or waddling ahead of us to the corral. In the last week or so the mornings have been quiet and I imagine that is was time for the geese to move onto larger water than available here. But what a great thing to have my inspiration right here for even a short time. Here are a few photos of our feathered visitors. 

Damaged brushes make the best textures.

It is true, your oldest ugliest and most abused brushes make the best textures in a painting.  But those wonderful old brushes are on their last legs and then suddenly just done. So sometimes you just have to help a few less than desirable brushes along to that wonderful state. So by twisting, cutting, pruning and plucking...I will try to recreate that wonderful old random texture that will help me to form rocks, bark, and soil textures on my painting. This photo shows two brushes that I have helped along to a ragged state with my favourite sponge.

Today as an experiment I took a new foam roller and had a fun time plucking out some the foam to see if I could replicate a sandy beach texture...it did not really work, some of my ideas just don't pan out. The wild patterns of a natural sponge are much better.

 So still working with my old or newly damaged brushes, sometimes a crumpled rag to lift off some of the newly laid paint and most often my finger tips to smudge and blur the paint. (Just learning to protect fingers from too much paint with either a full glove or just a finger cut off a glove.) For me the answer to creating good natural texture is first to study it for form, color and pattern....and then find the tool that will best recreate it....most often for me it is the combination of one of my tortured brushes and natural sponge.

Raccoon Painting

The animals that manage to live right next door to us, right on the edge of our yards and the edges of our towns are the some of the most clever and most adaptable animals. These are the coyotes, rabbits, marmots, raccoons, mice and squirrels: not generally admired, they really do deserve recognition for cohabiting with us.

These animals have found their ways to live with us in spite of the dangers that we as humans present. I have to say I admire their adaptability and this painting celebrates a particular favourite of mine.

Here is an acrylic painting on board of a young raccoon delicately washing up in the creek.

 This is a painting that explores visual textures... Rocks, fur and water.......hard, soft and liquid. 

I took this as my demo painting to Opus Art Store and shared part of my process in creating textures with the artists that attended. 

My Love Hate Relationship with Gesso

Yes I love gesso. It is an awesome base that acrylic paint loves to stick to. I like to tint my gesso and put in on with a foam roller.  At first it rolls out really juicy with great coverage and then I go over it very lightly to flatten off any texture. In that way I get a lovely smooth finish and a even color base for  my painting.  Looks awesome, gives the painting a cohesion of color and holds paint really well.

Yes I hate gesso. It has such a stickiness to it that it is seemingly impossible for me to gesso without it spreading out over every surface. It has a fiendish desire to attach to everything it can.  A blop here, a splat there, a smear and dab just there....and of course because it is valued for its stick-to-it ability....what it gets on it stays on and only comes off with focused scrubbing.  I am not a messy person...REALLY!

So there is my annual gesso rant, as you can tell, today was gesso day. Prepped a bunch of canvases in light blue tinted gesso......all good now.........tools all clean .... just have to get the remaining gesso off work desk,  my hands, right toe and some on upper right cheekbone.....computer mouse and studio door knob......might leave the door knob as it looks kind of cool.

Testing New Canvas - "Watching" - Cougar Painting

Testing canvas was the reason for this painting (any excuse to paint a cat , big or small.) I have a big project coming up and wanted to check out a different canvas than I have used before...15 ounce from a different supplier.  Here is a study of a cougar that I did for the test canvas.

This heavier than usual canvas had a fair bit more texture to it....good for where I want texture but requiring at least a couple of extra brush strokes where a clean edge is needed.  Now you definitely could sand down the texture level on it if needed while doing the gessoing.  But for this test I wanted to see what it would give me without altering it.

 I am pleased with it and will order up some more.

GOABC Artist of the Year 2014

 I have participated in two Artist of the Year competitions already this year.

The first one was due to a friend who purchased my painting "Seek Solitude"  to support his Guide Outfitters Association of BC and made sure that it was also entered into their  GOABC Artist of the Year Competition at their annual convention.

It was awesome to hear that it took the top spot making me the GOABC Artist of the Year 2014.  This is coming full circle for this painting as Mike was also the person who supplied me with the perfect title for this painting. His knowledge of Mt goats is incredible and I appreciate him sharing some of that with me.

My "Down by the River" grizzly painting was one of the top three finalists for BC Wildlife Federation of BC Artist of the Year program for 2015. This grizzly and I had the perfect meeting.......each on our own side of the river we evenly paced down river for a time.  It was a stress free way to enjoy being fairly close to a grizzly.

It is great to have my artwork recognized by these outdoors organizations. Thank you!