North to Newfoundland

  Above, Port-Aux-Basques Overlook, 10x10 I'M HOME, in Wachapreague, safe and sound, and glad to be with Peter and our menagerie. It was an amazing, inspiring and challenging trip, the fulfillment of a long-held dream, and I am delighted to have gone and seen and experienced. I drove more than 2,500 miles, made 26 paintings and took more photos than I can count. I saw more than my share of clouds and less than my share of rain and sun, too. I was lucky to have a good friend to travel with for part of the trip, and lucky, too, to have another stretch of time to pass in solitary contemplation and deep work.  I met kind and generous and lovely people. I felt welcomed by Canada and Canadians. I was impressed with the general good cheer and impressively good health of the people I met. The Newfoundlanders I encountered love Newfoundland, and by and large, want never to leave, never to live anywhere else. They are a tough breed, to live in such a difficult clim...

Island Park Morning, 10x10 I HAVE GOTTEN ahead of myself, and so early in the trip! We arrive in Channel Port-Aux-Basques Thursday on the ferry (more on this below, and on the blog), and are struck by how utterly foreign the landscape is. It looks like the Shetland Islands, or some place even more distant. As we drive out of Port-Aux-Basques. the landscape normalizes a little. Trees begin to appear, and the rocks recede a little, or are covered with grass and small hills. It is beautiful, but in a more known way. Early in the day, we pull into a lovely little provincial park and I make this painting. I am sure it will be one of my favorites of the trip. The sky is quiet, birds sing and fly, the morning air is crisp and the water clear and blue. After I finish this painting, THEN we head to Gros Morne, the subject of the yesterday's newsletter. *** Weather Watch IT IS COOL HERE in the mornings, in the upper 50s, and every morning has been cloudy...