1150 Words by Charlene Brown

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Clean and very paintable technology

Pincher Creek

Watercolour and crayon

For some time I have been fascinated with innovative ‘clean’ technology, and especially how it’s being implemented in Canada. The Pincher Creek area shown in this painting is a particularly windy part of Alberta, the province widely portrayed as the source of the world’s dirtiest oil.

I plan to paint other examples of clean and very paintable technology in the planning stages or already up and running in Canada. As far as I know, we have nothing as fantastic as the incinerator I painted during a DanubeRiver cruise in 2011,but I’m pretty sure there are lots of beautiful innovations to paint out there.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Mount Assiniboine Reflections

The Lake with the Secret Name

Watercolour

This is the north face of Mt. Assiniboine reflected in a very well-known, but unnamed, lake. And here’s my theory as to why this particular lake has never been named…

It has in fact been named by everyone who has ever seen it! I think everyone has special memories associated with it, especially those who are lucky enough to come across it very early in the morning or late in the evening when everything is calm and the surrounding mountains are reflected perfectly. And these memories are of course secret.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Virtual Paintout still in New South Wales

A glimpse of a mountain

Watercolour and crayon

The first thing I learned when I went looking for a Streetview to paint in Blue Mountains National Park is that the park is heavily forested. You can drive for miles without seeing more than a glimpse of the mountains.

Here’s my favourite glimpse, and (a few of) the trees it came with, as well as a link to the actual Streetview, including all the trees.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Virtual Paintout in New South Wales

The most recognizable harbour in the world

Watercolour

The Virtual Paintout is in the Australian state of New South Wales this month.

I was pretty sure right from the start that I’d be painting the Sydney Opera House. However, it seemed likely a lot of other painters would have the same idea, so I thought I’d better find a unique angle, and seriously considered this view from the bridge for a while, before settling on this Streetview from Milson Road on Cremorne Point.

Of course, I also had a look around for paintable mountains and found lots of pretty panoramas in Blue Mountains National Park. Maybe next week…

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

The Banff of Dorian Gray

Altered panorama

Watercolour and crayon

Like the Portrait of Dorian Gray, this painting has changed drastically from previous paintings (by which I mean my previous paintings ) of the same subject, while the subject itself has remained unchanged over the years.

Unlike Dorian Gray himself, however, the ‘real’ panorama of Banff is in fact the real thing. Since the 1980s when development in Banff National Park was capped to control the environmental footprint of the town, the appearance of this part of the Bow Valley has hardly changed. The whole place is still just about perfect.

Friday, February 19, 2016

Great design in Winnipeg

Canadian Museum of Human Rights / Provencher Bridge

Watercolour, CP and crayon

Charlene Brown

I love the design of this museum. It opened in 2014 to much acclaim… and protests from groups – the Métis, for example – who believe that Canada’s actual human rights record isn’t nearly as grand as the building. Prime Minister Trudeau donated a sketch he had made of the museum to a charity auction last week, and it fetched over $25,000! A friend in my Wednesday morning painting group said he’d pay at least that for this one… as soon as I become Prime Minister.

When I started drawing this Google Streetview, I thought the cables on the left were holding up the bridge the camera was on, but when I crossed the road and had a closer look, I discovered they were attached to a separate side-spar cable-stayed pedestrian bridge. This part of the bridge, the Esplanade Riel, was named after Louis Riel, a Métis who was hanged for treason in 1885.