Hello 2015

The people gathered at the mouth of Roberts Creek, fragile boats in hand. They are here to set intentions for the New Year, to float away the encumbrances of last year, to invite in the wishes for this year.

The one on the left is my boat, an Origami Sampan, inspired by Kim Oka’s enthusiasm. She was the BoatMaster. I made three, one each for me, Robert and Janet. Sue Bailey tucked a wish into the prow of my boat. I think intention boats can take unlimited requests, but her daughter Hannah had secretly made her a boat too, so she was well covered. Robert braved the rocks to take our boats to the water while Janet and I watched from the pier. With candles lit, they are surprisingly swift as they silently fly over the waves and out into the Salish Sea. Can you see them?

Mine said, “Fear Out – Faith In” and had my favourite Joni Mitchell lyric…  We are Stardust. We are Golden. We are Billion Year Old Carbon.

And the first day of a New Year feels so good.

Beautiful greys.

The first real weather of the season is rolling in. Colour? Gunmetal. Payne’s Grey. Ivory black. Smudged charcoal. And I feel a kind of a thrill. Long ago, at the beginning of my painting, I spent 2 years using only black and white paint. Like Georgia O’Keeffe, I later read. Greys? I have them…..

Contemporary bodies..

Art Historical re-imaginings… I can still hear my Art History professor Josephine Jungic (also my friend, so missed) saying – “oh, what have you done to Duccio??”.. with a smile…

More recent details made large, and a lesson learned – when you buy black paint, from anywhere, make sure you buy enough – black is never the same black. Ever.

I wish I knew where this painting was……….. a rare loss. I try to know where all my children of the soul have gone.

Is it my destiny to love this coast so much?

All I know is, I don’t fear the grey. I think it is most subtle, silvery, deep. And full of potential. We need dark to understand light, as simple as that, and as complex.

Amanita obsession

A Thanksgiving reunion with a friend and a chance discovery of some weird lumps at the side of the road started it. We were meandering happily to the Gumboot Cafe, she strolling, me scooting, not two minutes away from my house when something bright, bright red on the edge of the road caught our attention. We stopped to peer into the leaves and grass, and there they were, fascinating in their odd perfect roundness and shocking  colour. But we didn’t really have time for gazing at crazy mushrooms – limited moments of laughter and beer and catch-up were much more important – so Sandra snapped a quick phone photo, and we continued on to a perfect afternoon… but I knew I would need to go back for a closer look.

The next day, scooter and camera would be required. I am aware that a parked shoprider and a woman scrubbing around in the ditch is not an everyday occurrence, but in the Creek people really don’t make much of a fuss about these things, so I was happily undisturbed during my little photo session. I got some great shots and a nice wave from the bus driver. I may have been a tad bit close to the edge of the road.

It wasn’t enough, though – already growing bigger and so, so beautiful, not only did I sketch them, but I went back a third day as the cap was expanding. I used those shots to make a transfer for my ideabook.

I intend to keep going back for as long as they are there. These spectacular gifts on the side of the road may not appear again, I have never seen them before… maybe those people who can roam this rainforest see them every year, but for me on my scooter at the bottom of my road – they are a quite rare and wonderous sight. Magic, indeed.

 

 

Last Roses at Davis Bay… Welcome, Fall

This summer on the coast has been spectacular, and I have relished every minute of it, but of all the seasons I have to say I love Fall best. As a Person With Multiple Sclerosis (aka PWMS) summer can be a bit torturous depending upon the big, warm sun. I like to fill my eyes and my skin with light and warmth every second I can, but if I miscalculate and the heat rises… well I am flattened. Like a bad pancake, weak wobbly and yucky.  And that is no fun. So it is a bit of a dance every day to take advantage, carefully, of summer’s intensity. But Fall, now this is my time. Days are shorter, but the air is soft and crisp. Here we can sometimes spin it out for months, and many a day will be bright with sunshine – minus the high temperature, though it can get very pleasantly warm. Perfect I say. So Ella and I went for a little jaunt to Davis Bay to check out the day, the first day of many to come before the rains… we hope.

Scented wild roses are sending out their last buds, and all the big rose hips are turning colour.

 

I snapped some shots, and nipped some buds and returned home to my sunny deck for an afternoon of sketching – no wobbling or retreating inside from excessive heat. Supremely lovely.

Ella, although born in the Caribbean, appears to be adjusting quite nicely to the Sunshine Coast. Good girl.

 

 

Nasturtiums

Not a whole lot of sketching getting done these days… 29 days without rain in the rainforest means that aimless wandering, pleasant lunching, and general deck lounging is taking up all my time.

I’m falling into the fantasy that it is always this warm and mellow here….

I’m going to let myself be lulled by coastal summertime perfection for just a little while longer…. it is so much sweeter for its brevity.

Finding Food Trucks

Food Truck Culture is exploding. Here on the Sunshine Coast, we have only one, and it’s Pub food expensive fare isn’t really appealing to me. But on a recent trip to Seattle, I knew there might be literally hundreds and I was excited to go hunting. A craving for fish tacos narrowed the field, and a quick Google later El Camion was the choice for lunch.

Despite its rather dubious location in the parking lot of a less than perfect apartment complex, right next to a Home Depot, and even though it had a skeleton dangling from the pick-up window, we trusted that the reviews must be right and ordered our tacos.

And for $2 per taco, $4 per person, we were so glad we did….

Fresh, quick and soooo delicious – a brightly coloured lime and cilantro tinged platefull, which was gone in about 60 seconds!

The Rubber Lizard screwed to the tree beside us was an added bonus.

Food Trucks are fun!

Beauty and the Beast

I took my regular scoot down to the end of my road today,  to catch the late afternoon sun on a spectacular day – but a beast blocked my way.

A digger, and quite a big one, is perched ready to do some damage to something … maybe the empty little house, which I know is slated for removal. Too bad. Or maybe it will crawl down to the ocean and attempt to tame the logs tossed up by the winter sea – a futile effort, the ocean will just put them back when it wants to.

So, my camera was turned from the sublime blue view to the scratches and mud of the machinery. I must admit, I find the abstract roughness quite attractive.

But I know I will hear the grinding and growling tomorrow, and I won’t go down that way until it is finished.

I turn around, and on the way back up my lane I see the fragile perfection of a Dandilion ready to let go its wishes. To me, neither more or less beautiful than the beast.

Tomorrow will be a fantastic day for finding these shells:

…because today was a day of extreme tides and wild wind.

When the weather settles, should make for a super sunny beachcombing day… and I might even take the Dog’s new ride. We have a ShopRider accessory.

So now, when the rascally Jack gets to be too much to handle, in he goes.

And look at all that space for picking up … stuff…!

“The sight of the Green colour of young plants nourishes the soul through the eyes..”

Yellow Emperor’s Inner Classic is absolutely correct. I am supremely surrounded with Green here in my Raincoast cocoon and my photography shows it.

Even on our trip to California last year I found the greenest frog:

But I had a hard time finding a painting that had any green at all in it, much less a bright green… Bronzino’s St. Michael will have to do… really.

I’ll have to have a little think about that…. Monumental Spring Green…

A ShopRider with a View

Every weather chance we get, we rattle down to the end of my road… and gaze.

The Dog and I.