St. Andrews Day One -- August has been a great month for vacationing and visiting nature preserves. After New Brunswick Day, our family got away to St. Andrews for a few days of vacation time. There are many preserves in the area, so I managed to visit one each day. The first day, we celebrated the birthdays of my niece Grace and nephew Elliot. Afterwards, Bridgette and I got out for an early evening walk around Pagan Point. This included an easy walk along a short path through a small stand of Acadian Forest and along a beautiful sandy beach. From the beach, you can look across the Passamaquoddy Bay and see Minister's Island with some of its unique architecture. We watched the tide come in at the far end of the preserve where it trickles into a salt marsh behind the beach. I was reminded of similar features at the Meredith Houseworth preserve on Grand Manan. My initial thoughts for a painting are to include a view across the bay, but also to capture the "place of the little forest." The advice that I would give anyone exploring for the first time is to avoid wearing sandals as there are many of the famous St. Andrews biting red ants along the path. Lesson learned :) The next two blogs will cover two more preserves visited over Day Two and Day Three of our St. Andrews trip.
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Join us this coming Saturday in Florenceville-Bristol for the Grand Opening of the Green Island Nature Preserve! I am very much looking forward to visiting the island, and am hoping that many will join us for a fun printmaking art workshop on the theme of bugs (in honour of the island's endangered cobblestone tiger beetle). Hope to see you Saturday!
Earlier in the month I had the opportunity to join naturalist and conservationist Jim Goltz on a search for Furbish's Lousewort at the George M. Stirrett nature preserve near the village of Tilley. This preserve is a narrow parcel of land along the shore of the St. John River, and is one of five known sites where Furbish's Lousewort is known to exist. Jim wanted to do a census for the Nature Trust after hearing that the populations had recently diminished. Sure enough, we only found a total of four plants nestled closely in a single area of the preserve. A concern to Jim is that we could not find the lousewort in areas of the shore where he would expect to find it in previous years. Also, as you can see in the last image above, there is evidence of four-wheelers having traveled through the preserve, including areas where the lousewort would be expected to grow. This is the second time I've been on a nature walk led by Jim, and he has an amazing wealth of knowledge about the natural world that he is very eager to share. Many other interesting plants were pointed out to me as we searched the site. After concluding our search at the Stirrett preserve, Jim took us to a couple of other locations near Aroostook in search of other interesting species. This included a visit to a second site known to contain Furbish's Lousewort where we only found two of the plants. It was a true delight to spend a day in nature learning from Jim Goltz. I feel much more keenly aware of the delicate balance of nature when it comes to the survival of rare species such as Furbish's Lousewort.
The 6th Annual Dooryard Arts Festival in downtown Woodstock has come and gone. This year's Dooryard was very successful after a few changes from previous years, including a switched time slot in the calendar and a slight trimming. The event still managed to break records in attendance and a great time was had by all! This was the first year I took a complete break from being involved on the organizational committee and instead participated as a guest artist. This year, event organizer Adam Schriver set up an exhibition at the Dooryard HQ entitled Let Nature Take its Course, inviting artists Janice Wright Cheney, Joël Culligan, Kerry O'Toole and myself to participate. The official opening took place on Thursday, July 24. I was very pleased to be a part of this exhibition, which also offered the opportunity to unveil the next three paintings in the Conservation on Canvas series: Ashburton Head, oil on canvas, 24 x 48", 2014 The Bishop, oil on canvas, 48 x 30", 2014 Lady Slippers at Sea Dog Cove, oil on canvas, 24 x 24", 2014 On Saturday, July 26th, I delivered an afternoon Artist Talk at Connell House to present the Conservation on Canvas project to the public, explaining the adventures behind each painting, and revealing some future plans. Photo credit: Caity McEwing
Last weekend, I took part in the annual Paint the Heartland event at the Walter Chestnut Library in Hartland. This is a two-day weekend event that invites local artists to paint "en plein air" in the downtown area of Hartland. This also happens to be the home of the Arthur Kyle Nature Preserve -- which consists of a small island named Becaguimac nestled between the Hugh John Flemming bridge and the world's longest covered bridge. I set out to paint the Becaguimac Island with the covered bridge in the background. Although I managed to cover the whole canvas over the two days, I do not consider the painting to be complete at this time. So I will be working to complete it in the studio. I will be sure to update the blog with more progress as it develops further.
This was a very fun event to be a part of, and a wonderful opportunity to paint outdoors in beautiful weather. It was great to mingle with other artists and talk about the project with visitors. The latest landscape paintings for the NTNB Conservation on Canvas project will be showing at the 6th Annual Dooryard Arts Festival in Woodstock. Check out dooryardfestival.com for complete details.
As one of the festival events, I will be giving an Artist Talk on Saturday July 26th at 2PM at Connell House. For more info, visit our Facebook event. It's time for some more painting updates. Below are some images of the more recent progress on Ashburton Head. The last update can be found here. The completed painting will be on display at the 6th annual Dooryard Arts Festival.
Last week, stewards Ida and David MacPherson offered to give me a tour of the Sea Dog Cove Preserve on the Kingston Peninsula. It was a beautiful sunny day with just enough cloud cover to offer a warm, dappled light along the trail. I met the MacPherson's at their home, just a kilometer or so from the trail, and we traveled together to the site. There are actually two trails you can take on either side of Summerville Road. We chose to explore the longer one first that runs southwest to Kennebecasis Bay. This took us on a 45 minute walk with lots of interesting plant life to observe along the way. A highlight at this time of year is the many pink lady slippers or moccasin flowers in full bloom along much of the path. The trail brings you to Barlow's Bluff where you find a different type of terrain with many more rock features. There is a less distinct trail that will take you down from the knoll to the waters edge. It is not an easy descent with some slippery spots even on a dry day. But at the bottom of the trail is a beautiful old white pine clinging to the edge of the rocks and growing in a bow shape. You can also catch a glimpse of the ferry shuttling cars to Saint John and back across the Bay. There are a lot of beautiful trees on the preserve, including many old pines. After returning from the first trail, we took the shorter trail that runs northeast to Sea Dog Cove -- for which the preserve is named. Just before reaching the water we came across a gorgeous oak tree with branches sprawling in every direction. I am discovering that these visits are becoming as much about the people as they are about the landscapes. It was a joy to meet Ida and David and to learn what was most special about the site to them -- noting the moccasin flowers, the old pines and the great oak as some favorite features. We expressed our mutual love of lifelong learning and how much there is to learn about nature. We also expressed our appreciation for the many people we had met who have been willing to share their knowledge in anything from identifying plants and wildflowers to bird calls. This project has certainly been a great learning experience so far!
On Saturday June 7th, I had the opportunity to kayak through a couple of NTNB preserves with a small group of enthusiastic paddlers, including Renata Woodward -- NTNB's Executive Director. We joined Andrew Cuthbertson of Tumblehome Paddlers on an excursion starting at the James Yerxa Preserve, passing by Sugar Island Nature Preserve, and continuing down the Saint John River to Fredericton. This was a National Paddling Week event. It was a gorgeous morning out on the water as you can see in the photos below...we even managed to stir up some wildlife: Thank you Andrew and Nature Trust for hosting such a wonderful event!
Here is a watercolour pencil study of The Bishop, one of the landmark points that can be seen along the trail of the Thomas B. Munro preserve in Grand Manan.
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M McEwingNew Brunswick Artist and Art Educator Archives
July 2017
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