More viewpoints are more fun

Middle Spring on Sulphur Mountain
watercolour and ink
©1992 Charlene Brown

A month ago I used a recent painting of the Middle Spring to illustrate a blog post about a hypothetical self-sustaining CO₂ removal loop. 

The painting on the left, of the same location, was done back in the day when I used to limit myself to one viewpoint.  I prefer the 2024 version -- and paintings with more content, in general.

These additional viewpoints can be achieved by rotating your field of vision or moving to a slightly different vantage point. Or both.

In my latest book, Paint Every Mountain,  I devote a whole chapter to ‘Moving Around, Combining and Superimposing for a Better Composition’ and next week I'll write about the ultimate multi-viewpoint presentation.

 

Flying to Vancouver

UBC from a Floatplane
Watercolour and crayon
©2024 Charlene Brown

It used to be that harbour-to-harbour flights from Victoria to Vancouver were routed directly over the terminal at YVR and across Point Grey about three kilometres east of the University of British Columbia. 

But floatplanes are now required to fly over water as much as possible. This safer route serendipitously results in a much more interesting view of UBC, whereby much of the campus, the downtown core of Vancouver, and Mount Baker can all be lined up in one reference photo. 

Well, three photos, actually, shot in rapid succession, because one of the airplane’s propellors, which was right beside me, cut out a slice of each shot.  

Another illustration for The Grand Tour of 2000

A view of the garden at Chateau Hautefort

Watercolour and crayon

©2024 Charlene Brown

Back in 2020 when we couldn’t go anywhere or do anything, I wasn’t getting out to paint much.  So, I wrote a series of blog posts expanding on the Christmas letters I had written and illustrated since 1990. 

In 2000 our activities had included a two-month Grand Tour of Europe   ̶    resulting in a longish Christmas letter that year.

Here is a thumbnail illustration of that letter 

A couple of months ago, I decided to write a two-part version of that Grand Tour on Medium, an online publication that actually pays writers and illustrators for stories.

 The second part was a little short of paintings, so I added Chateau Hautefort to the mix.  

Here's my description of our day there:

In the second week of June, we were in the Périgord region of France, where we toured the Chateau Hautefort. The estate was a real treat — acres of Cedars of Lebanon and geometric and filigree-sculptured boxwood. We probably should have stayed outside in that wonderful garden.  But it was threatening rain most of the time we were there, so in we went. The inside was mainly spiral staircases and furniture they didn’t encourage you to sit on. But you do get a nice look at the geometry of the gardens from the tops of the turrets.

Solving two Anthropocene problems with a self-sustaining loop

The cave and outflow from the Middle Springs

watercolour and crayon

©2024 Charlene Brown

Another proposed combination of technologies may result in a synergistic cost saving by creating a self-sustaining loop.  CO₂ removed from the atmosphere by Direct Air Capture (DAC) is stored in deep, hot aquifers.  Heat brought to the surface could then be used to power the DAC process.  Thus the excess CO₂  itself could reduce the high cost of removing it from the atmosphere. 

Like the nearby geothermal source I wrote about eight years ago, however, this particular hot spring would not be a suitable location for such a self-sustaining loop.