Memory enhancement: 1955 and all that

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Paint pots
Watercolour and crayon



©2015 Charlene Brown




For centuries, the Ktunaxa, Stoney and
Blackfoot First Nations used the ochre beds surrounding the ‘paint pots’ in
Kootenay National Park as a source of pigments for ceremonial purposes.  The ore was even mined for a time in the
early 20th century, before it was decided that this was incompatible
with the objectives of the National Park system.
I was there on a school hike in 1955,



and have vivid memories of the site and its surroundings... well, not that
vivid actually, and not necessarily in the arrangement shown.



      


 




 
 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
 

How to illustrate a physics textbook

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The Fine Art of Physics

Photograph and Photoshop™

©2015 Charlene Brown

This is the cover of
the book I’ve been writing over the past year and a half. It’s
available on Amazon  and it’s in a format that allows you to read a
few pages for free.

The reason I titled
this post ‘How to illustrate a physics textbook’ is that, for quite a while,
that was the working title of the book. It ended up being the title of Appendix
IV, which includes nine (sometimes serious) ways to illustrate a physics
textbook, using 30 examples from The Fine Art of Physics.  

The cover
illustration ‘Multi-disciplinary Bridges’ is an example of an allegorical
representation.          

My favourite place to paint

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Lake O’Hara

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

It’s been almost six years since the last time I visited this glorious hanging valley in Yoho National Park.  On that occasion I painted a series of sketches on the Opabin Plateau (shown at about the midpoint of the right side of this picture) and have been painting Lake O’Hara from time to time ever since – in hopeful anticipation of going there again some day, ideally at that magical time of year when the larch are at their spectacular best...  It is just about impossible to book the very limited accommodation during that period, or even get in on the quota of day-trippers.   

Catching up with the Virtual Paintout in Bhutan

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Taktsang trail 
Watercolour and crayon
©2015 Charlene Brown
 
The Virtual Paintout is in Bhutan this month, not far from Bangladesh, 
where we were just over a month, and one return trip to Greenland, ago. 
My first explorations of this mountainous kingdom at the eastern end 
of the Hymalayas revealed a country pretty well encased in rain clouds... 
until I chanced upon the Taktsng Trail, north of Paro. From this location, 
about as far as the Google camera car could go, the famous 
Taktsang Monastery (also known as Tiger's Nest) can be seen, 
hanging high in the cliffs.

Virtual Paintout is in Bhutan but I’m still in Greenland

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Siaqqissoq

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

I had found a couple of painting locations in Greenland that didn't happen to have icebergs, then decided I’d like to try one that did have some. When I didn't find any really spectacular ones close to shore, I thought I might just try the one Bill Guffey, who puts together the Virtual Paintout, started with at the beginning of March.

 First I went to the Location Link he posted, then I navigated a little way along the coast to this location for what I thought was an even better angle on this very paintable iceberg. The foreground in Bill’s painting is probably more interesting. What do you think?  Check it out at Virtual Paintout in Greenland. (You have to scroll down right to the bottom of the list of paintings to find it.)