Rocky Creek



Rocky Creek, 10x10

AFTER A DAY of driving - with a couple false starts for good measure - where is a navigator when you need one??? - I end up in Cormack, at the edge of Gros Morne National Park. My plan is to head to L'Anse Aux Meadows, on the far northern tip of Newfoundland, and then paint my way south from there. Though I am tired, and weary, and a little bummed out by having a series of ideas that didn't work, I feel I really need to make a painting. And behind the hotel where I am staying, I find two Adirondack chairs overlooking this rocky curve in the river. I love the abstractness of this piece, and the way the light hits the left-hand side of the canvas. I have fun painting it, and it rebalances me, sets me right for the adventure to come. 


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Mural Capital of Newfoundland




THE TOWN OF BOTWOOD had already earned its place in history before it became the Mural Capital of Newfoundland. 

In the early 20th century, it was a transportation link for the pulp and paper industry. It then became a hub for air travel. The first trans-Atlantic passenger aircraft, the Yankee Clipper, left from Botwood for Ireland on June 27, 1939, according to Wikipedia. 

In World War II, the Royal Canadian Air Force made Botwood into a base for patrolling and bombing seaplanes. It had a large concrete boat-launch ramp, two hangars, a runway and four bunkers. The Canadian Army was garrisoned in the town, and built a water system and military hospital. Botwood housed about 10,000 Canadian and British military personnel. 

At the end of World War II, they all left. Military buildings were sold, demolished or moved. Commercial seaplane service ened in 1945. Botwood continued to be an important link in the shipping train for paper, until the Grand Falls-windsor paper mill closed in 2009. 

In 2010, the Botwood Mural Arts Society commissioned Manitoba artist Charlie Johnson to paint "Pulse of the Community," above, a mural celebrating Dr. Hugh Twomey, and, according to Johnson, the way a "cottage hospital drives a community." 

Other murals in town show the history and changes in Botwood over the centuries. 











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Dog of the Day

Here's Henry, left, with tow of his pals. Henry is a friend of mine from Connecticut. 

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A Final Thought
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do 
than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. 
Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover." 

- Mark Twain


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