Here’s what happens when you ask for suggestions

Spirit Bears

Watercolour and oil pastel

©2018 Charlene Brown

I asked for ideas when I was wondering what to paint this week, and my daughter suggested a bear. I reminded her that I usually paint landscapes and she had a simple solution, “Put it in a landscape – a foggy forest.” In my mind this quickly became a rainforest, so the bear had to be a Spirit Bear or Kermode and it had to have a couple of cubs.

The Kermode, which is white, is a rare mutation of the American black bear, found only along the coast and islands of British Columbia between the southeastern tip of Alaska and the northern tip of Vancouver Island.  Pictures of Kermodes on the internet showed various combinations of black and white parents and cubs, not including a white mother with one black and one white cub but I decided to go with that anyway.

If you’re interested, have a look at my two other bear paintings, grizzlies in British Columbia and polar bears, probably in Manitoba, but done from a picture found on the Isle of Man). 

What the Late Second Millennium CE looked like around the world

Americas and Pacific

Morro Castle(Castillo de los Tres Reyes Magos dei Morro, named after the Biblical Three Kings) is typical of 17^th century Spanish American military architecture.  It guards the entrance to Havana Bay in Cuba.

Europe

The early 18th century Roccoco-style architecture of the Alte Stadt (old city) of Innsbruck in the Tirolean Alps is sometimes described as the exuberantly decorative final expression of the Baroque movement.

Near East & Africa

The Shah Mosque, completed in the 17^th century, was renamed the Imam Mosque at the time of the Islamic Revolution in 1979.  It stands at the south end of spectacular Nagsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan.

Asia

Jodha Bai’s Palace, a mixture of Hindu and Moghul styles, is at Fatehpur Sikri, a small city just west of Agra, that was founded by a 16^th century Mughal emperor.

Working with a sow’s ear for a few years yet

Haro Strait

The controversial issue of sending more tankers full of dilbit from Alberta through the Georgia and Haro Straits on their way to Asia is causing much disagreement between the provincial and federal governments.

Negotiations have included the promise of greatly improved clean-up capabilities (the silk purse) to deal with any spills (sow's ears) that may occur in the years before the globally sustainable post-carbon economy kicks in. Retro net zero, or retro-fitting existing homes so they are significantly more energy efficient is another silk purse possibility.

What the Third Millennium BCE looked like around the world

Americas & Pacific

The pre-Incan Temple of the Crossed Hands, in Kotosh, Peru, is the oldest archaeological structure in the Andes.  Stone constructions suggest that complicated building work began here in the third Millennium BCE centuries before anywhere else in the Americas.

Europe

Construction of Mnajdra, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Megalithic Temples of Malta, began in the fourth Millennium BCE, and this part on a hilltop overlooking the sea and the islet of Fifla, was built in the third Millenium BCE. The temples of Malta are among the oldest religious structures on Earth.

Near East & Africa
This stylized version of the bas-relief carving on the Garden Tomb of Hili  at the Al Ain oasis in present day United Arab Emirates, represents the Umm Al Naar civilization that flourished at the southeast end of the Persian Gulf in the third Millennium BCE. The tomb was constructed in the same time period as the much grander neo-Sumerian ziggurat at Ur in present-day Iraq, and the Old Kingdom Pyramids and Sphinx at Giza in Egypt.

Asia

Mohenjo-daro, one of the largest settlements in the ancient Indus River civilization, was built in about the middle of the third Millenium BCE. It is located in the province of Sindh, Pakistan.

The city was abandoned soon after the beginning of the second Millenium (19^th century) BCE, and the site was not re-discovered until the early 20^th century CE.