Disappearing Glaciers

Crowfoot Glacier 1910

Watercolour and crayon

©2010 Charlene Brown

This is what the Crowfoot Glacier looked like about 100 years ago, based on a photo by Byron Harmon. Next week I’ll paint this glacier, which is about 35 km NW of Lake Louise in Banff National Park, as it is now – using my own photographs.

I had intended to paint both versions in the manner of Eric Aho a contemporary superstar whose wonderfully spontaneous landscape drawings I have just discovered through the Art of the Landscape blog – and got off to a fairly successful start scribbling crayon, as Aho does pastels. But when I tried to apply a watercolour wash in place of the blending of the pastels, I pretty well lost the effect. A little scribbling was reintroduced when I flipped a few lines in over the dried wash using a No.3 rigger. I will try to replicate this style (whatever it is) when I paint the much reduced, but still impressive, present day glacier.

Landscape Painting Timeline

History of Design, Page 8 (of 10)

InDesign document

©2010 Charlene Brown

I’ve recently joined a terrific art blogging group,The Art of the Landscape, a project started by Katherine Tyrrell to learn more about landscape art. A timeline of landscape art has been started as we’re looking at how some movements or schools have influenced others.

To help keep these straight in my own mind, I have hi-lighted examples of landscape painting in “History of Design” a cross-cultural time-line of archaeology and the history of art, architecture, design and invention that I started putting together a couple of years ago. This ten-page outline runs from the earliest rock art through to the present day. Landscape painting developments are hi-lighted in colour, get passing mention on pages 4, 5 and 6, but only feature prominently on pages 7, 8 (shown on the left) and 9.

23 days to go!

Evening in Whistler Village

Watercolour and crayon

©2010 Charlene Brown

There are just 23 days until the Winter Olympics open in Vancouver, and it’s possible conditions will be perfect! A couple of weeks ago there was a Pineapple Express (just as the American Midwest tends to blame the Alberta Clipper, a cold wind from Canada, for any bad winter weather, we blame the Pineapple Express, a soggy wind from Hawaii, for winter rain). That took out some of the base at Cypress Bowl, the venue for moguls and freestyle on the mountain above Vancouver, but they’ve been making snow and have stock-piled it at higher altitudes and have things back together. And at Whistler, venue for the Alpine events, snow conditions have been excellent all winter.

Back in My Mountains

Rocky Mountain Sunrise

Watercolour

©2010 Charlene Brown

There is a mystique to having lived in mountains. You never want to be away from them for too long, especially your own mountains. I grew up in Banff and I love to go back to the Rockies as often as possible. (I am sometimes asked why I would ever leave such a beautiful place, and I usually reply that it was like growing up in any other small town in the fifties - I couldn’t get out of there fast enough!)

When we visit our daughter and her family in Calgary, we sometimes stay at their cabin in the ranchland just east of Kananaskis Country, a Provincial Park that borders on Banff National Park. This is what it looked like Christmas morning. I hope I have conveyed some of the magic of the place in this painting…

Virtual Paintout in Corsica

Albertacce, Corsica, France

Watercolour crayon and ink

Charlene Brown

Corsica is the January location for the Virtual Paintout and a surprisingly snowy, mountainous location it is! (for an island in the Mediterranean) Being rather fond of snow-covered mountains, I spent some time on Google Streetview finding what I think is the snowiest, most mountainous place – Albertacce, which is in the northwest.

Next week I’ll be back painting the mountains I still call home – the Canadian Rockies, as seen from our daughter and son-in-law’s place west of Calgary where we spent some time over the holidays.

The Plan for 2010

I started this blog exactly a year ago to commit myself to painting and writing regularly and sharing ideas with other artists. This pretty much worked the way it was supposed to, so I’m not going to make any big changes. Yet.

I’m often asked if I sell much on 1150 Words, and of course the answer is No – I haven’t even tried yet. Maybe next year…

Anyway, here’s the plan for 2010…

• Paint more spontaneously.

• Do more journaling - flashbacks to late Twentieth Century, to redo travel journals with more watercolour illustrations

• Continue to participate in group blogs such as Virtual Paintout (watch for Corsica next week) and apply to become a member of a new group blog, The Art of the Landscape
  

• Write more articles for Empty Easel.

• Finish graphic novel - learn how to use tablet (if I develop proficiency at drawing anything other than straight lines, I will come back and alter the artwork for Chapter 1, below)

• Paint more videos - learn how to use Adobe Flash.

Chapter 1 (Prologue and Chapter 4 posted previously)

InDesign document containing digital photo montage and Wacom tablet drawing (altered 22 October to include characters by Philip Hogg)

©2010 Charlene Brown