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...

Eddie's Cove West / 18x36 BASICALLY, I COULD move to Eddie's Cove, paint every day and be happy. There wouldn't be anything else to do, but I think that would be OK. Peter and I could travel down to Cow Head and hang around with the guys I met there one morning. We could chop our six cords of wood, and dig around in our garden by the road. Aside from that, there would be painting, walking and staring out to sea. And some days, that sounds just about perfect. The landscape is beautiful and brutal at once. The sky and the ocean are the color of rocks, and in the mornings, look hard and immobile. Clouds bunch like fists, threatening, nearly every day. The sea churns, but the waves are not huge. I marvel at how close the buildings are to the water. Above, Eddie's Cove West is marked. Newfoundland is so large, it's hard to show one town, one place. I hope you've been looking at the map as the trip has progressed! *** Money, Math and Two G...

Eddie's Cove II / 10x10 THE AMAZING PAINTING DAY continues. I drive a few miles down the coastal road and come upon this building, perched near the water. It calls out to me, the way so many of these landscapes do - the solitary house, or the two or three homes close together, at the edge of the Strait of Belle Isle.                                                                                                                      There's Eddie's Cove East, where I believe I am when I am painting this, and Eddie's Cove West, which I will hit tomorrow. Eddie's Cove East was settled by Philip Coates and his wife Sarah Duncan, says Wikipedia. The first census - 10 people - was in 1869....

Black Duck Creek / 18x18 on cradled board I AM HEADING HOME. Heading south, toward Channel Port-Aux-Basques, toward the ferry, toward Nova Scotia, Maine, then eventually Wachapreague. I am loving Newfoundland but honestly, I can't wait to get home. Can't wait to see Peter and the dogs, and all my friends, and family on the way - can't wait!                                                                                                  This is an interesting trip on many levels. It is great to have Carol with me for the first week, but when she leaves, I find myself feeling rudderless. The pattern of the trip changes. Partly it changes because I'm alone, and partly because of where I am.  Every morning of the trip, Carol and I st...

L'Anse Aux Meadows / 16x16 IT IS HARD for me to describe the feelings I have while I am walking around this most historic of historic sites. I don't cry, but I almost do, and I am astounded at the emotion that overtakes me.  Here, in these fields, in this place at the edge of the sea, Europeans set foot on North America for the very first time. The Vikings - with Leif Erikson probably among them - left Greenland and sailed into the wilderness, crossing the ocean in small, small boats and landed at L'Anse Aux Meadows.  To them, it was the new world. They built a village there, housing anywhere from 30-160 people. There were trees on the land at that time, and they used the wood to build boats, their homes, furniture. Their houses were sod huts - the earthen roofs are gone but the foundations remain, and that's what you see when your tour the area.  In 1960, explorer Helge Ingstad and his wife, archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad, spoke with Georg...

Cliffs I, 10x10 I KNEW WHEN I LEFT Wachapreague that wind was likely to be a problem here in Newfoundland. I just hadn't realized how much of a problem it might be. My second day painting in the Bonavista area, there is no fog, but the wind is mighty. An easel would be useless, so I open the side door of the van and station myself there, sitting on the van floor, the canvas inside. Even at this, it is hard to paint. The wind blows the canvas, blows my arm, blows the little knife, shakes the very van. It's hard to stand up, even! Woody, our smallest dog, would have blown away.  In a series of challenges, I've chosen cliffs. It's hard for me to paint them, to get the sense of massive bulk, to get the sun, the shadows, and now, water. I like the first one (above) but get an idea halfway through and decide to do a second painting.  By the end, I am thoroughly exhausted, from painting, yes, but mostly from fighting with the wind. Little did I know, this was...

King's Cove /10x10 WHEN CAROL AND I are driving toward Bonavista the first time, we start seeing big signs for the Round Da Bay Inn. At the Bonavista Cafe, we see paintings by the guy who runs the inn, and Miranda, who owns the cafe, points us to a pamphlet about the place, and says that Charlie and Karen, the innkeepers, are really great.  When Carol leaves, I am feeling a little lonely, so after a day of wrestling with the fog - now there's a good book title, "Wrestling with the Fog" ! - I decide to check it out.  (More on the Inn, and Charlie and Karen, below). I have a good night's sleep, feel welcome and safe and like family, and decide to spend a second night there, go back to the Bonavista area again to paint.  Wind is forecasted, but it hasn't started yet when I stop in King's Cove to paint. I love the boats in the harbor, but I know this will be another challenge - boats, water, buildings and a pile of old wood in front of it all.  ...