A Boissevain moment

With the old Patson Elevator looming large in the distance , and with an ash tree sprouting new leaves against the cloudy sky , Trevor and his family passed by. This is my third painting for today. Just as I was about to wrap up my painting for today, I heard a young boy greeting me behind. It happened that we met two years ago on the main beach of Clear Lake on a hot summer evening when I was painting and he stayed with me watching me finishing the whole painting there. He was quite delighted to see me here in his own  town today. and so were I.

The Boissevain land title office building

There is  a  sort of dream like feel about the view in front of me. Is there a better way to get to know a  new place than simply  painting it on location ? Saw Trevor again bringing back some memory from my distant past. when I was a B.U student.

A view from Boissevain this morning

Drove all the way to Boissevain this morning. It was cloudy and a bit cold  when I started my first painting.

Fresh green

Wet and cloudy. The fresh green colour from the trees and hedges look so pretty.

An enchanted night ?

The fortune cookie reading from my last visit to a Chinese restaurant says " Next full moon brings an  enchanted night" Is this my enchanted night? Painted this view at 10 p.m. when it was quite dark leaving me not enough light to paint in. The moon is ethereally beautiful tonight.

In the last glow of the day

A twenty minute oil sketch when the last light of the day hit the trees and patch of grass on Maureen's front yard at 7 p.m.

As I stood in front of our house late in the afternoon

The intense sunlight , and the fresh green leaves from the trees and   hedges are more than enough to make me stop with my easel to capture the fleeting moment of sunshine late in the afternoon.

Balmoral Bay on a sunny and warm spring afternoon

Colin came again in the afternoon today to continue his shooting of the short film  in my neighbourhood, and  you can read about his project from http://www.indiebrandon.com/patchworks/stiff-winds-steep-learning-curve/    A beautiful sunny afternoon when painting is simply a wonderful excuse for staying outside to enjoy the sunshine and the companionship of a wonderful friend,Colin.

A cross from Brandon North Hill

Colin met me at this North Hill location to try his first test shot of his short film offering a glimpse of my life as a plein air painter. It was sunny and warm but extremely windy and it was so windy that I had to hold down my easel with one hand to keep it from being blown away throughout my painting.

Fengping cooking supper on Victoria Day

I left my easel in the kitchen area last night, and when my wife, Fengping  started to prepare supper at the stove , I started to do this quick oil sketch. As soon as she  became aware I was painting she moved away, hence a ten minutes oil sketch on the rainy and cold Victoria Day. Notice how cold it was that she was wearing her outdoor coat !

Another street view from Boissevain on Sunday

Struggled with rain and wind while painting this beautiful street view of Boissevain. Though soaking wet, I enjoyed the thrill and bliss of painting on location at this time of the year when the fresh green on the trees was so captivating.

A street view of Boissevain on a rainy morning

Drove all the way to Boissevain to paint early in the morning before most people even got up in the town. It was cloudy but soon followed by non-stop rain . I was soaking wet by the end.

It stopped raining in the evening

It stopped raining early in the evening. It was so quiet outside when I looked out of the bedroom window that the only other sound is the gentle hum of the wind.

Raining heavily outside

It was raining heavily late in the afternoon.

a glimpse of Ping's flowerbed

a quick acrylic sketch looking out of the window

Rainy spring morning

It has been raining all the morning. It is so mesmerizing to paint and listen to music simultaneously on CBC Radio 2.

Spring night

Spring night when the street light was on at 10 p.m looking out of the bedroom window

Raining in the evening

Raining heavily outside when I did this quick oil sketch early in the evening.

Brief sunny moment

At a brief sunny moment early in the afternoon from our front yard

A glimpse of spring

a quick oil sketch from this morning looking out of the window when a little girl riding her bike  glided into my view.

after a shower of rain in the evening

a quick acrylic sketch after a shower of rain in the evening.

In the glare of late afternoon sunshine from No. 1 Crocus Crescent

A quick acrylic sketch looking out of the living room window when the glare was so dazzling that I could hardly keep my eyes open.

from our backyard late in the afternoon

another quick acrylic sketch for the day when the light started to fade away.

the last glow of the day

Unaware it was so late already when the last glow started to fade away giving way to duskiness. A 10 minute acrylic sketch looking out of the window. 

PPCLI Building in Shilo, Manitoba

an oil sketch of my wife on Mother's Day

My wife has always been reluctant to sit still for me to sketch her in oil. Today is Mother's Day , and finally she agreed to pose for me for an hour sitting there,  reading , sipping wine  and snacking on apples.

A spring view of Balmoral Bay

Quickly I had to capture the fleeting moment when the last light glowed and then,  was fast fading away.

The house next door

The  warm  sunshine , the casting shadows from the trees and the sunlit roof of the house next door all seem to be saying that spring is finally here.

Looking out of the window at 6 p.m. and listening to Schubert's D 960

Such a plain view from our window! Yet, listening to  Schubert's piano sonata  D 960 somehow enabled me to appreciate and respond to what is right in front of me at a quite different emotional level today when what I hear and what I see somehow combined to conjure up a special moment in my life in the past. While my brush glided across the canvas, my thought seem to have been drifting away with the soft  gentle note of the music.

The moment of sunrise at 6 in the morning

another quick acrylic sketch at 6 in the morning when the sun started to rise lifting up  the veil of a slumber night

Facing the dazzling late afternoon sunshine

a quick acrylic sketch of a window view

Colour of spring

In the warm wash of late afternoon sunshine, a lady in pink was  passing by the spruce tree with its colour turning green.

From Kin Park on Aberdeen and first street of Brandon with spring in every step

With  the  aspens trees stretching their limbs against the clear blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds , every one in the park could feel the rhythm of the burgeoning  new spring season. How could I be immune to the spring fever?

Finally the fresh green colour greeting my eyes!

How could I resist the temptation to paint when I looked out of the window greeted by the sight of fresh green colour while listening on CBC Radio 2 Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring  on this beautiful spring morning!

A Brandon Skyline from Dinsdale Park

Kim came to the Dinsdale   Park  with me to take pictures of me painting on location in the afternoon. Kim is a freelance writer for Westman Journal who writes weekly articles covering  a broad range of topics. Kim has also published an eBook The Macadamia Nut Emergency and is working on another. It was very warm with the sun shining brightly turning the Brandon skyline into a silhouette  against the clear  sky along the Assiniboine River. It may not be the best time of the year to paint on this particulate location, however, the warm presence of spring after a cold  and longer than usual winter was enough to get me excited to paint  on the bank of the river with water full to the brim lapping gently against the shoreline echoed by the occasional honking of geese.  It was hard to gauge the passage of time while engaging myself in the painting. However, it really made me feel guilty to subject Kim to stay in the hot unsheltered spot for over two hours no matter how much I enjoyed her company.

Looking across the street

Everything around me tells me that spring is finally here except that lone patch of snow.

A glimpse of a downtown neighbourhood in twilight

A quick acrylic sketch in the evening of a downtown neighbourhood.

Warm sunshine

A quick acrylic sketch from our driveway in the late afternoon when the warm sunlight casts its radiating light onto our roof and our car.

In the first light of the morning

An early morning acrylic sketch when the sun was rising lifting the sleepy veil of the night at 7 a.m.

In the warm sunshine

The accumulated new blanket of snow all melted away in the sun even though the temperature remained below zero.

After an overnight snow

Snow accumulated  over the night. A window view early in the morning