The grass is greener on the other side

Mt. Olympus from Hurricane Ridge

Watercolour and crayon

©2017 Charlene Brown

It’s true – the grass is greener on the American side of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This is because they get much more rain than we do. In fact Victoria is said to be in the ‘rain shadow’ of the Olympic Mountains. Moist Pacific air dumps everything it’s got on the area I’ve painted (represented by the biggest red cloud on the weather map on the right) before it gets to Victoria.

They don’t have actual hurricanes – as the name of the ridge and its appearance on the weather map would imply – but they get a lot of rain.  And anywhere from 30 to 60 feet of snow every year!

A bunch of us from the Esquimalt racing group went over for an afternoon of hiking along Hurricane Ridge last weekend and we had a great day, with high cloud, almost no rain at all, and just enough of a breeze to cool the July day down to perfect!

The spruce trees are bluer on the other side too…

Canada C3 (Coast to Coast to Coast)

Sam Ford Fjord

Watercolour and crayon

©2017 Charlene Brown

Canada C3, one of the Signature Projects for Canada's 150th Anniversary, is an epic 150-day sailing journey from Toronto to Victoria via the Northwest Passage. Through this unprecedented journey, Canada C3 is celebrating our environment, sharing the stories of coastal communities and connecting Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

I was looking for locations to paint on the expedition's scheduled route, and selected Sam Ford Fjord – initially because of its memorable name, and then because I discovered it is quite spectacular. Canada C3 will reach the Sam Ford Fjord on August 10. 

Not in Alberta or British Columbia

Lunenburg

Watercolour and marker

©2017 Charlene Brown

I painted this mainly to round out the collection of paintings of all parts of Canada for my Haiku project – which was definitely short of locations in the Maritime Provinces. I selected Lunenburg because it was so peaceful and seemed to be about the prettiest place in Nova Scotia.  And I was a little surprised when research revealed that is has a long (for Canada) and often-violent history.

Lunenburg was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, to protect its ‘unique architecture and civic design’ and because it was considered to be the best example of planned British colonial settlement in Canada. The aim of this British colonial settlement was to drive out the Mi’kmac and Acadian Catholics, which they apparently did very well.

Hydrolaccoliths

Pingos in the Northwest Territories

Watercolour and crayon

©2017 Charlene Brown

One quarter of the world’s Arctic ice dome hills, called pingos, are located in a region near Tuktoyaktut just east of the delta of the Mackenzie River. In various stages of growth and collapse, their striking profiles dominate the skyline in this very flat area even though they are only 5 to 36 meters in height.

I plan to use this painting in my Haiku project.  I wonder if there is any significance in the fact that their other name, hydrolaccolith, has five syllables ?

Virtual Paintout in Malta

Hagar Qim Temple

Watercolour and crayon

Charlene Brown

The Virtual Paintout is in Malta this month. When I learned that, I headed immediately to Hagar Qim, one of the megalithic temples of Malta, as I’d been there in 1999, and wanted to see if I could find the location I’d painted at that time. I found it, even including the island of Filfla in the distance. 

The whole area is now nicely shaded by the canopy I’ve included in this painting. (We found a similar arrangement at Persepolis in Iran when we were there a couple of months ago.)

Here's a link to the Streetview of Hagar Qim above.

On the right is the painting I did eighteen years ago. I used to paint more carefully then.

Alberta Badlands (not)

Killdeer Badlands

Watercolour

©2017 Charlene Brown

Who knew there were spectacular badlands in Saskatchewan? Everyone but me, apparently, and the Killdeer Badlands have been described as the baddest of them all.

This wild, other-worldly landscape features free-standing flat-topped buttes, hoodoos and other weird formations… and, most years, very little grass. Even sage and cactus have a tough time surviving. This is noteworthy as they are part of Grasslands National Park. 

Nunavut again

Pangnirtung Fjord

Watercolour and crayon

©2007 Charlene Brown

Pangnirtung is the only place in Canada where I’ve actually seen chartreuse arctic poppies. I like these flowers so much that I transplanted them all the way to the painting of Yukon I posted last October. 

The northern end of this fjord is in Auyuittuq National Park the most accessible of the National Parks in Nunavut... which is to say, it’s hardly accessible at all