After planting impatients around the upper bird bath, we rested on the swing.  Our conversation went something like this:

“The chickadees’ eggs must have hatched,” said Lloyd.  “They’re both flying in and out with something in their beaks.”

“I wonder why no one wants the chalet bird house in the old walnut tree?” I said.

And then . . . zoom-m-m!!  Mother Sparrow landed on the chalet’s perch . . . and I grabbed the camera.

Father Sparrow led the way.  They  popped inside, one after the other.

“I hope they can get out again,” worried my husband.

Lloyd hauled out the step ladder and gathered some tools.  After rasping the hole larger, he didn’t have the wire attached to rehang it before Mother Sparrow returned . . . and claimed her house!

Yes, Sir, the Ten Little Puffins have flown all the way from Newfoundland to greet you!

Fascinating would be an understatement when trying to describe the ways of these birds of the sea!

Learn more about the puffins of Newfoundland as you listen in to Mother Puffin’s advice to her wee puffling.  I don’t think she’ll mind.

The painting of “Ten Little Puffins” is drying in the studio, and will soon be photographed.  While they are fairly modest birds, I overheard one puffin admitting that he can hardly wait to hear what you think when you see his handsome springtime beak!

In the meantime, the puffin under the rock (watch out for this little guy) let it slip that the artist who brushed them into life is preparing to paint her absolutely most favourite of all spring wildflowers:

Dutchman’s Breeches

Lloyd made this mother mould to support the silicon rubber mould.  The larger hole indicates the position of the horse’s ear.  Pouring will be done through the smaller hole.

Mother Mould

Lloyd is mixing the two components for the silicon rubber mould.

Pouring moulding silicon rubber into cavity between master sculpture and mother mould.

Completed silicon rubber mould.  Lloyd will brush in casting material impregnated with either bronze or marble dust.  

Lloyd is building a mould in order to produce copies of his wall-mounted high relief horse’s head.  He will be offering it in cold cast bronze.

I was ready to work on the waves dashing against the rocky shore in the foreground . . . when two more puffins flew in!

One returned to her burrow under a rocky shelf on the right, and sat peeking out from its dark entrance.

The other joined his comrades on the centre rocks, standing with his back toward me.  I’ll try to capture the sheen of his dark plumage in spite of his rudeness.

This makes ten little puffins in all, and Pete, my studio companion, apologizes that the late arrivals have caused yet another delay in showing his kinsfolk to you.  Why puffins don’t have the decency to arrive on time is more than I’ll ever know!

My Pal from Newfoundland

On New Year’s Eve, we had friends over for dinner and an evening of croquinole.  It turned out that the wife was the mystery donor of the puffin that flew to my door a few months ago!  Of course, I took them to the studio so they could see Pete the Puffin, and also have a peek at the puffin painting.

Pete  sits on the edge of the sewing machine not far from my easel.  His delightful arrival and his presence in the studio has actually been an encouragement while I have been painting his “kinsfolk!”  I was delighted to learn that he was purchased a few years ago while they were on a visit to Newfoundland, which makes him authentic.

Listen!  Pete is trying to say something:

 Keep an eye on the blog.

You will soon be getting a peek at my relatives,

all eight of them!

Working on our front porch on one of the loveliest pre-winter days, a friend of Lloyd’s, a professional welder, joined a steel rod onto a pipe.  It will form part of a hoist Lloyd is constructing to help lift the horse sculpture in its heavy mould up and out of the cement mixer.

I never tire of looking at WIND IN MY MANE:

http://mcdonaldart.com/sculptures/windInMyMane.htm

I have a pretty good idea who couriered the puffin to our door, and left its delightful greetings . . . but they won’t fess up . . . in spite of two email inquiries . . . so the mystery is still intact.

In the meantime, Pete, the patient Puffin, sits on the corner of the sewing machine in the studio, keeping me company.  He wishes I’d quit dabbing and scraping on the rocks and concentrate on his cousins instead.

As special as Christmas is, it is good to get back to ordinary activities – back into the studio – working on “Splashing Through the Crags!”

Good riddance this week to the remaining white space on the canvas!

Onward to the right-hand mountain, planting spruce, aspen and tamaracks in its jags and crags!

Splashing Through the Crags was set aside while I jumped through hoops . . . preparing for my husband’s surprise 75th birthday celebration on December 4th.

Sending out invitations, baking, buying supplies, wrapping favours, creating name tags, designing a quiz, preparing two boards of pictures depicting Lloyd’s 75 years, hunting down recipes for hors d’oeuvres (and making them) was all done on the sly! Special friends helped carry it off, and Lloyd was TOTALLY surprised!

The party room in our son’s condo in downtown Kitchener accommodated about 50 all told.

Some of the guests

 Daughter Joanna, Eleanor, Granddaughter Rebekah,       Son John, Lloyd

Now that I am no longer working undercoverfrom dawn to dark, it’s great to get back into the studio, brushing some of Newfoundland’s rugged grandeur onto canvas!

Hopefully, the right-hand rock face will get some attention this week.

The painting took a back seat while we were busy preparing for winter. Deciding to take the goldfish indoors rather than keeping an air hole open for them in the pond throughout the snowy months, Lloyd patiently worked at netting them.

Their temporary home was a large pail topped with lily pads so they could relax while the temperature of the pond water in the bucket became the same as the temperature inside the house.

On top of the thick layer of pebbles on the bottom of the aquarium, we arranged some of the corals collected during the years we served with Trans World Radio on the island of Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles. Roots of live water plants were buried in the pebbles, as well as a piece of Bonaire driftwood and a couple of sea fans.

What fun we had arranging the white shells in the black stand below the aquarium!

Meanwhile . . . in the painting . . . you can see that the water has begun cascading through the crags!

Hopefully, by next week, the habitat surrounding the waterfalls will begin to appear in the painting.  Its green canopy beckons some 239 species of birds to the hills of Gros Morne. Those fortunate enough to hike here may see anything from featherweight warblers to 40-ton whales.

(No. 2 in series of 5 Newfoundland paintings)

Sorry to be late in getting this posted. When Tuesday rolled around, I didn’t like the crags in the right part of the painting’s background, so began bulldozing them around. They still need more work, but I’ll let them dry a bit before inserting more cracks and crevises.

These blogs show the work in progress . . . which sometimes makes me cringe!

No doubt you noticed in the first painting that the waterfalls changed its location between postings. It seemed to fit better a little further back.

In the spring, the woodland caribou head up these ridges to upland plateaus which provide perfect birthing areas for rearing their young. Large patches of unmelted snow furnish a constant supply of succulent new plant growth. The herds move down into the forested lower elevations during the winter months.

At the moment, the waterfalls in this painting are just a blah outline on stark white canvas. Hopefully, by next week, the waterfalls will be splashing joyfully downward . . . causing you to rejoice in its musical tumblings!

I’ll let the crags dry before attempting to smudge on the mist that rises from the base of the waterfalls. This painting will portray a mightier waterfalls than depicted in the first in the series as the volume of water is much greater.

On the north side of Gros Morne Park, the town of Rocky Harbour on the coast was lovely, and our first B&B experience in Newfoundland.

Norris Point. Don’t you love it?

Later, on the way up to St. Anthony’s, we drove through Sally’s Cove, St. Paul’s, and Cow Head in Gros Morne National Park. However, time didn’t permit us to visit the towns on its south side: Woody Point, Glenburnie, Winterhouse Brook, Shoal Brook, Birchy Head, and Trout River.

Six overnights scheduled for Newfoundland just weren’t enough!

I would have liked to see the Atlantic Salmon in the river that surfaces from an underground cave, and also the pioneer village depicting the early 1900s.

Hopefully, the middle ridge in the above painting will look a lot different by next Tuesday.

(No. 2 in Series of 5 Newfoundland Paintings)

Arriving at the inland dock of Gros Morne, one is delightfully aware that he is embarking on a sight-seeing voyage of remarkable beauty.

Westbrook III is heading into the fiords.

Typical snow-filled gullies spawn numerous waterfalls.

Below you are witnessing the birth of “Splashing Through the Crags” sketched onto a 20” x 16” canvas. Is it possible to pick out the waterfalls?

A light wash removes the white of the canvas. Now the fun begins! You’ll have to wait until next Tuesday to see how much of this canvas comes to life !

Here we are aboard Westbrook II, exploring Gros Morne.

Excitement builds as each snow-fed waterfall comes into view.

Some waterfalls had unbelievable (and unrepeatable) names!

This rock formation was called The Tin Man.  Do you see his face?

The 20″ x 16″ oil-on-canvas painting below is now finished.  The original will be available, as well as limited editions on canvas or paper.

Check back next Tuesday to see the beginnings of the next Gros Morne painting . . . a close-up of a churning waterfall high up in the craggy cliffs!

A visit to Gros Morne changed the diminished expectations we held because of the over-used reference to Newfoundland as “the rock.”  The shaded area in the map below marks Gros Morne, the second largest national park in Atlantic Canada, totalling some 697 square miles of unspoiled rugged grandeur.

You can pick out Deer Lake Airport where we arrived in mid June via West Jet.  By rental car, we wound through the snow-gullied hills into Rocky Harbour for our first seaside B&B.  Outside the gate, a motorcycle was idling.  No, it hadn’t been forgotten.  A guest was charging his cell phone!  He happened to be a frequent visitor to Newfoundland, and inquired about our itinerary for the next four days.  Looking at the location of one B&B, he said, “There’s nothing there.  Absolutely nothing.”  So we did some re-routing on the spot.  Hosts and guests at B&Bs are a great source of information and enrichment.

The face of the left cliff in the painting has been taking on a bit more shape since you last stopped by my studio.    

Before you visit next Tuesday, I hope a waterfall will be splashing its way down the right-hand cliff!

Thanks for dropping by my studio!

It doubles as our framing room. You can see in the background a bit of Indian Harbour, a 36″x24” Giclee on canvas, waiting to be framed.The skylight creates an uplifting environment to paint in, and the window provides a view into the woods (Regional Forest, which abuts the Homer Watson Woods).Photos we took of Gros Morne last June, a world heritage site, have been downloaded into the laptop, which allows me to enlarge any part of the photo.The water in the foreground (which is the last thing I’ll rework in this painting) is some of the cleanest and purest in the world!

Gros Morne receives about 120,000 visitors each year. I don’t know how many visitors will “drop by” my studio next Tuesday to view Gros Morne, but let me know if you are one of them. I’ll have the welcome mat out for you!

Mid-June last year, my husband and I began a 16-day tour of the four Maritime provinces, starting in Deer Lake, half-way up the west coast of Newfoundland.

I’ve started a series of Maritime paintings, the first four of which will be of Newfoundland:

* Gros Morne

* Ice Berg

* Puffins

* Bakeapples in bloom

We visited Gros Morne on the second day.  The outing began with a 3-km trek, mostly on board walks through peat bogs and marshes, to Western Brook Pond where the tour boat we had tickets for is permanently moored.  Lloyd put his back out handling luggage that morning, so the walk proved to be a real endurance test for him, while I wished in vain for a washroom! Six hundred-metre cliffs line Western Brook Pond, a glacially carved freshwater fiord.  Melting snow in the gullies spawned numerous waterfalls.  The timing of the trip was amazing as the captain said had we arrived two weeks later, the snow would have melted, drying up the waterfalls.

The first wash on the Gros Morne painting has been blocked in, and I’ve started on the detail.  I hope to blog each Tuesday.  Drop by next week if you would like to “visit” my studio and see how things are progressing!