Sunday 10 July 2016

LAST POST FOR AWHILE..........

This will be my last post for awhile, quite awhile possibly.

Sometime ago I mentioned that I was contemplating writing a new book. Well, Ive begun, and I do believe that it will take up a lot of my time. I'm revisiting one of my first publications, WHERE RAVEN PLAYS - An Artist's Guide to Algonquin Provincial Park, with the idea of introducing a lot of new sketches and paintings. It's been 15 - 20 years since I first published, and since then I've done  new work and I'm very interested in returning to Algonquin to explore further.

In the meantime continue to enjoy what I've posted, and from time to time pay a visit to blurb.ca to see my new publication when it becomes available:-



Oxtongue Lake -  Pencil Sketch  2016

Patterson Bay - Oxtongue Lake      Graphite Drawing  2016

View From the Top - Patterson Bay-  Oxtongue Lake   Graphite Drawing 2009



Patterson Lake - Oxtongue Lake   Watercolour Painting  2016


  Misty Morning - Algonquin Provincial Park                          Watercolour Painting

Saturday 2 July 2016

SOMEONE TELL ME THAT I'M WRONG

A few days ago we went up to Awenda Provincial Park. For those of you who may not know about this provincial park it’s situated on the shores of Georgian Bay a few miles from Penetanguishene, Ontario. It speaks to the history of the area, both Aboriginal and the European settlement of the area. It’s a beautiful park, a great place to enjoy nature, and a wonderful place to soak up a bit of solitude, at least until the arrival of summer when the park becomes stressed with a flood of people from our towns and cities seeking relief from their stressed lives spent toiling in overpopulated spaces.

We used to go up to the park year round. In the winter it used to be a favourite place, close to home, to cross-country ski with access to frozen over Georgian Bay. Then, inevitably, age and health catches up with you,  so we now go up to the park with the arrival of spring to enjoy nature, until that is the hoards arrive, the campers with their screaming children, dogs, and bicycles. Their all nice people (probably), but in their enthusiasm for escaping their overpopulated space they lose sight of the reason that they’ve come to this bit of heaven, and become a bit obnoxious and revert to their miserable selves. Fortunately, come September quiet returns to the park, and we, and nature, once again get to enjoy a bit of solitude before the winter gales out on the Bay.

Okay, so I’ve been ranting a bit going on about hoards of people and the loss of (one of) my personal place of solitude, but I’ve done so to point out that a part of the problem with this thing called global warming is caused by hoards of people. You see, I’m an older person and my memory goes back to a time when there were fewer people in the lifeboat. If you haven’t guessed my reference to the “lifeboat” is my way of describing the earth, our home, and in a manner of speaking our slice of heaven in our, what appears to be, hostile galaxy.

Anyone who has read my blog knows that I am not a great fan of the eco-evangelists who tell us that if tomorrow we stop burning fossil fuels our planet will return to its former self, and we’ll all live happily ever after. Rubbish. These people must live in Lala Land, or have ulterior motives. In my few years on this planet, which by the way, in my opinion, is the only slice of heaven that the vast majority of us will ever see, the world population has increased (to say substantially is an understatement) from a couple of billion mostly miserable souls, to almost 8 billion, with the promise to increase to as many as 12 billion by the end of this century. Now, even if tomorrow we STOP! using fossil fuels damage has been done that will require a hundred years, perhaps more, for the Earth to undo by itself. So, if we stop using fossil fuels we may be able to slow global warming, but it’s not the solution, nor with ever increasing population growth is it at all feasible.

So, my point is that while politicians of all ilks have been dancing on the head of a pin the world’s population is increasing, and regardless of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions it cannot keep pace with the need for more and more energy to support, let alone sustain, population growth at the pace that exists. There will always be greenhouse gas emissions. Let’s face it, it’s a natural process. Greening the Earth will help in carbon capture, but in my opinion it is not enough. 

Unless someone has the courage to address the problem of overpopulation there is no solution to global warming, and I’m banking on the fact that as people mean political power at all levels, no one is going to address the problem. Tell me I’m wrong. Please! In the meantime my advice is to begin preparing your children to find ways of living in a much warmer, and more hostile environment. Political unrest and mayhem is only the tip of the iceberg. There’s much worse on the horizon.

 As for me, well I’m old, and growing older, so with this, and my attempts to be a good citizen having practised reuse and recycle long before it was fashionable, I feel that I’ve done my bit. I do hope, however, that I’m wrong, wrong, wrong, and that tomorrow’s children can get control of the situation, and that the lifeboat can be fixed.



View of The Giant's Tomb from Awenda Prov. Pk.                   Watercolour Painting


The Giant's Tomb from Awenda Provincial Park     Pen & Ink Field Sketch   2016

Shoreline - Awenda Provincial Park     Pencil Field Sketch 2016