Soaring out of sight again

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The other side of the mountain

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

Last May, I posted a painting of Lake Louise that didn’t include the top of the glacier above it.  

I hadn’t tried this before even though I’ve always thought the ‘topless’ effect evokes the precipitous nature of a mountain most forcefully, in Group of Seven Paintings for example. And I thought at the time that I’d probably try more paintings of mountains soaring out of sight.

This view from the Opabin Plateau includes the even more precipitous south face of the continental divide above Lake Louise – in my opinion among the most paintable string of mountains anywhere.  

Virtual Paintout on the Monterey Peninsula

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Golf cart crossing on 17 Mile Dr.

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

The Virtual Paintout is on the Monterey Peninsula in California this month.  I’ve certainly heard of Monterey, and was quite surprised when my first foray on Google Streetview was kind of dull.  

My daughter, who has been there, overheard my comment that it was quite nice but not particularly interesting, and suggested I try ‘something’-mile drive along the coast... it’s spectacular! And she was right. Click here to see the Streetview of this part of 17 Mile Drive. 

Elegant Clean Energy Haiku

Blinkity-Blank

Drawn-on-film animation ©NFB

I got an email from the GVPL the other day to tell me the Japanese Design book I’d requested was available for pick-up. Unlike some of the history books on the reading list for our November trip to Japan, this book has lots of pictures, so it’s easy to remember some of the stuff I’m reading. For example, did you know the Japanese have at least twelve words for ‘elegant’? One of these words (suki: informal, subtle elegance) could be said to describe the clean energy haiku I hope to program a computer to write.

My plan is to have the computer illustrate the haiku it generates as well, in an appropriately suki manner, possibly reminiscent of the hand-drawn animations Norman McLaren produced at the National Film Board of Canada about sixty years ago. The classic McLaren animation, Blinkity-Blank, is an excellent example of his signature irreverent and playful style, which often features lines, dots and other abstract forms, along with people, birds and the occasional horse. And it goes on f o r e v e r. It was created in 1955, well before we all developed 22-second attention spans.

Another Banff Sunset

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Late evening, early summer

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

This was supposed to look like it belonged in a set with the Banff Sunset I painted a couple of weeks ago. As it happens, about all they have in common is a lot more detail than can normally be seen after sunset, when the only natural light is alpenglow.

There are a couple of reasons they’re so different. I didn’t have the other painting available for reference when I painted this one and, more importantly, I couldn’t find my indigo paint, so I used Payne’s gray instead.  I haven’t used my Payne’s gray for so long it took almost five minutes to get the lid off the tube... And I think I like it better!

Virtual Paintout in Santa Fe

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Looking east on West Palace Street

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

The Virtual Paintout is in Santa Fe, New Mexico this month . 

After motoring around town (sometimes along streets with instantly melting and reappearing snow cover, apparently not photographed entirely in one day) I selected this view including the New Mexico Museum of Art. 

The Museum, just one of four state-supported museums in Santa Fe, is in the next block on the left side of the street. I think it’s one of the most attractive examples of the iconic Pueblo Revival style of architecture, featuring rounded corners, irregular parapets, thick battered walls and projecting wooden roof beams, which is very popular in Santa Fe. If you click on this link to Google Streetview, then click a couple of times on the arrow that appears on the street, you can travel to the next block, then pan the camera left to see the front of the museum.

Mid-year update

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Banff Sunset

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

Here are some highlights concerning progress on The Plan for 2015:

I’ve excerpted and combined information and ideas from old projects that I haven’t looked at for a while and made some of them part of a new project – recycling a lot of paper and freeing up almost a gigabyte of computer space in the process!

My new project is an offshoot of the Fine Art of Physics book I completed in April. 

Painting our Christmas trip to La Vegas is the only travel journaling I’ve done so far this year, but I have big plans for painting during and following an Art Gallery trip to Japan I’ll be doing this November... and I’ve done my usual 'virtual travel journaling' by participated in six Virtual Paintouts this year, Philadelphia, Bangladesh, Greenland, Bhutan, Cesky Krumlov, and Estonia.        

Canada Day!

Canada Day in Victoria
watercolour, crayon and Photoshop™
©2007 Charlene Brown

We're enjoying another bright sunny Canada Day here in Victoria, and tonight we'll have the problem I humble-bragged about (that's bragging disguised as complaining) the first Canada Day after I started blogging -- with a video of  this painting, 'Canada Day in Victoria' that I had made for the Victoria Film Festival 1-Minute Video Competition in 2007. To see the whole video, click here 

Hope you're all having a great Canada Day too!

A weekend on the mainland

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Skill-testing signs

Watercolour and crayon

©2015 Charlene Brown

The trip to the mainland is at least as spectacular as any cruise you’ve ever been on, but it has its bewildering aspects, at least the first few times you try it. 

First, there may be an electronic sign telling you the ferry you thought you’d be on is full... and what, you might ask, is entailed in a ‘1 sailing wait’? Well, it turns out a 1 sailing wait can be pretty terrific, with a nice restaurant and a craft market! A 2 or 3 sailing wait, not so much. 

Then somewhere in the eight-tollbooth jousting for position in the parking lot, or the eventual 2-lane race up the ramp to dive onto Deck 4, you might notice the enigmatic instruction to avoid using your GPS... though anyone who has ever tried to follow GPS instructions to board a ferry (Recalculating route. Make a U-turn as soon as it is safe to do so) will understand that one. 

The green destination sign, on the other hand, is a huge relief – it lets you know, in English and a Coast Salish language, that you are still on the right road. This reassuring sign is on the Sea-to-Sky Highway a few kilometers past West Vancouver, just around a sharp bend immediately after the TransCanada Highway you have been driving on has darted off to the right down a cliff.