Souris , the Swinging Bridge , Gabriel Faure's music and my enchanting painting excursion

Always enjoy French composer Gabriel Faure’s music, especially his Pavane . Yesterday on my way to Souris, there swirling from CBC Radio 2 is his Pavane on the air. There is something enchanting about his music, so is my afternoon painting excursion in the beautiful town of Souris. It is no wonder that the melody from his Pavane just refused to leave me throughout the afternoon and all the way through the evening. My very first visit to Souris was on a beautiful fall morning of 1993. I remember how enchanting the town appeared to be at my first sight! The Souris river flanked by groves of oak trees , the golden blankets of fallen leaves dazzling in the morning sunshine, and  of course the swinging bridge that strikes its graceful profile across the river like a bow of string  across a mellow cello. I cannot believe that was already more than 20 years ago. After the new bridge was constructed last summer, I attempted to go there to paint but it did not work out. So a few weeks back when Kim asked me if I would like to come to paint the bridge again, of course I could not wait to make it happen before school starts in a few days and I will have to be back working in the classroom again.  After a shower of rain in the morning, the sunlight came back with blue sky in the early afternoon. As I set up my easel, standing there on the bank of the river, enchanted by the view in front of me, I could almost visualize the melody from Faure’s Pavane in oil colours. It did not take me long to finish my plein air of Souris swinging bridge, accepting her kind invitation, I stayed for supper at Kim’s home. At 8 in the evening on my way back to Brandon, from its palette the magic hand of nature had imbued prairie land and sky with such glorious rosy hues  that I could almost see Gabriel Faure  start to dance  away with his Pavane. If you have never listened to Faure's Pavane, here is the link .