On a day like this,

Fallen leaves, watercolour in sketchbook

even with the sun streaming through scarlet leaves out my window, the studio seems oppressive.  So out went box of paints, sketchbook, and me.

Fallen leaves, watercolour sketch, detail

Summer, We Hardly Knew Ye

I can't quite believe you're gone, so soon.  I'm not willing to let you go, though.  I have a few more beaches and gulls up my sleeve, to try to call you back.

Beach and gull, late afternoon, oil on panel, 6" x 6"

This one is from the wonderful beach and dunes at the Pinery Provincial park, but could be anywhere, really.

Sky Sea Rock Gull

I've returned from another inspiring trip to the East Coast and am hoping to conjure some of the elemental experience of sea, sky, and land in some new compositions.  At the same time, I'm continuing to take a portraitist's approach to the wildlife that seems as archetypal as the landscape.

Solitary Great Black-backed Gull, oil on panel, 12" x 24"

While gulls, genus Larus, are found almost everywhere in the world, I associate the Great Black Backed gull, Larus marinus, the largest gull in the world, with my trips to the Nova Scotian coast.

For all of its imposing size, this a shy bird, and never allows me to come very close however stealthily I paddle my kayak.  It seems to sense, with a predators keen eye, when it is being looked at with intent and abhors my paparazzo efforts.