The Christmas Trails of Victoria 2013

This Christmas Day Holiday,
We've spent with our families,
Beacon Hill Park last week was a snowy wonderland,
With all those snow covered trails,
Before this Victoria Christmas,
The snows would melt,
And then would be replaced for Christmas Day,
With the colours of Christmas,
In their familiar reds, greens and golds so bold,
It's a Merry Christmas to all too behold.

The Pine Trees Reach 2012

Could be the sky or the land below,
No higher will it grow,
Its bluish-green colors,
Could be the union of peace and celebration for others,
This land will fill our spirits high as we pray,
For everything reaches far and beyond on this day,
These are the Similkameen trees so vast and sure,
We loved each moment there last June,
Not alone but many like ourselves with paints in hand,
Managed to captivate this wondrous land,
Dozens of red squirrels move about to feed on the cones,
Wild birds nourish by their fill on those spilt seeds that sown,
Another long look higher up into the boughs that don’t break,
For the pine trees reach waits too exhilarate.

This Autumn Trail 2013

Such is the leaves which depart,
They’ll flutter down along these empty trails,
With those sudden fog drifts which prevail,
This moment we’ll touched the branches that become bare,
For here we've waited long below the trees,
Looked and saw the time that no one else would care,
Thousands upon thousands of autumnal colored forms,
Fill each space below us here at Jordan River,
That are weathered and worn,
Soon…but not too late,
All will crumble and decay too supplement,
When the darkness has filled this forests increment,
But this cool misty light will guide us on,
Once more in a sense,
This autumn trail found...but felt our absence.

Happy Thanksgiving Day Everyone 2013

Landscapes in Which To Dream 2012

Those are the dreamy landscapes,
Perfect as this autumn scene,
With those sudden cold spells,
Moving deeper into this territory of Castlegar,
Which we have seen,
Never remember those leaves,
Their shapes we know,
But their colors shift into the hues that show,
And in time they’ll seem to fall,
The rains cool with its liquid volume,
Cascading the many washes over us below,
Foliage will release when its time has come,
We will depart from this very woodland heart,
And all will return in spring when the songbirds begin to sing.

Wild Sweet Peas Along The Riverbank 2013

Perennial  bank bursting with the pinks so delightful,
Earlier in May so mild as this day,
Our garden this spring grew those plants,
With their forms so fluid,
As they'd dance in the breeze,
Touch the leaves,
And watch them flutter to each engaged visit,
Many bumblebees with pale-white butterflies drifting,
Throughout those garden petals,
But now in this September moment,
Where the river flows for no one in Delta,
It will leave untamed and mighty always,
A gift in each of those painted wildflowers,
Lovely is each pink blossom with petals catching our lasting hours.

Summers Liquid Day 2013

Smooth bark shone,
Under its mahogany warmth,
As this summers liquid day,
Only left the leaves to seemingly pray,
Transformed this forest of Springwoods,
With the viridian shields rustling high,
Below its green canopy of filtered strain,
Higher up the sun attempts to shine,
Never is too late on this day which turns gray,
Its tepid air laments away the gray jays,
A vision impressed on this canvas of plein-air,
For one day it'll become the forest of my dreams so fair.

The Wild Roses Too Hip 2013

The wild roses too hip,
But smoothly grown in the warmth of this day,
July's breath will palpitate and leave the air we breathe always,
So calm now for we’ll paint in this way,
No summer songs for the birds which are silent,
There in Ladner Harbour Park they'll wait as this climate relents,
Reddish hips of those flowers so sweet,
Within their capsules full with the juice which flows,
Just the pulp remains to dazzle the birds that know,
Filtered light and soft screams from the young wild pups,
Splashes move along in the quieting rivulents,
Where the frogs lolled and felt the days heat,
In this place another day awaits for our chance to meet.

This Wild Country Road 2011

Conformation of this land,
Its topography always known,
Smooth as the highway,
Once laid but now overgrown,
The old way roads hide and show,
More of the beauty…always,
And in many ways,
We’ll have a rest,
For our artistic ways seem the best,
Many a wild birds’ flock,
With their glorious colors too brilliant for the crows to mock,
Yellows and the darkest of reds,
Even the tawny and orangey-ochres glimmer,
Within their feathery jackets the songbirds appear to shimmer,
Way out in this sun filled Chilcotin realm we roam,
This wild country road leads us home.

Happy Canada Day Everyone!

So Wild As The Roses Could Be 2013

These petals caress the leaves,
And ruffles so pink as to tease,
The warmth of the air complements our remembrance,
When we breathe in the delights of its fragrance,
With the wafting perfume,
So we have come to know,
It could only be the wild rose,
As we visited Hawthorne Park this spring,
It is the purple finches we listened to,
For each will sweetly sing,
Those wild roses will play with the breeze,
Luscious and pale green moments throughout those trees,
So wild as these roses could be,
Many soft with light watery paintings for her from me.

The Look of Ladies Gowns 2013

Search to the forest and all becomes well,
In and among the ferns their colors seem to dwell,
Just imagine this floor of nature,
And to another moving with adventure,
All is below and peering from above,
A wren peers up from its secret place we love,
For what is the eagles nest see?
So high-up but peace in that glorious oak tree,
Even the swaying spruce tree with boughs stretched,
Reminds me of our once upon a time when we sketched,
The winds of Beacon Hill Park prepared us all for the storm,
Forests are the best place to protect our form,
Dominate the blue colors of a hyacinths nights,
Magenta's and the silk smooth silvery whites,
Subtle small flowers which seem to curtsey and swoon,
Like the fair ladies in their ball gowns as such,
To dance for the fancy breeze of a gentlemen’s touch.

Goodes Creek Canyon Trail 2007

During our 2007 sojourn to the Okanagan, we visited more friends in Kelowna that we have known for many years. We went out again on an enjoyable painting day with the same motorboat. The Okanagan Lake Valley Parklands has many historical trails dating back to 1860. Our painting destination for that day would be along Goodes Creek Canyon not to far from Wild Horse Canyon. This lovely impressionistic oil painting was done along the trail at Goodes Creek Canyon. That's where we picnicked and I love all the subtleties in the colors of the small trees and the sunlight dancing throughout the leaves; with that hot desert breeze coming in from the parklands.

Natures Flower Pot 2012

This spruce tree had fallen,
Years gone by but never sullen,
Even the screamers silenced,
With a worn back down past,
We'd hike towards the Nisnak trail,
Reach for the end of this and prevail,
This natures vessel never discarded,
But reused and to replace,
Its desiccated remains forgotten,
For the once found place,
In this forest floors domain,
Only these woods with their forest so old and overgrown,
Schoen Lake with its mountain and parkland known,
A cavity in that trunk,
Filled with the herbage sunken,
This is natures flower pot filled,
Now all those ferns, ivies and wild geraniums so stilled.

Waters Of Chatham Sound 2012

Those are the sun kissed waters,
That shimmer with an innocent glow,
Cobalt blues mingle with the bright ocher fluids,
Which hide in its insipid depths and fret away,
All dancing and pure on this mornings fate,
Paint all day and rest for the nights they'll wait,
Never, will one think that it's a summer sun,
Oh, but the winters hands are cold and cruel,
It leaves everything icy and pained for nothing will forget,
To urge us on and out of this place,
And then all is dark,
As the clouds hide the suns yellow hue,
No more liquid dressed blues,
For the orcher partners cast out this winters doom.

Okanagan Lake Provincial Park 2007

We arrived by motorboat and walked up the lakeshore towards Okanagan Park above. It hadn't been raining there for many weeks and the park was very dry. In this impressionistic oil painting, I left those pretty late summer wildflowers and the landscape looking rough and spontaneous like expressionism. The colors of the flowers were mostly yellow, but there were many in pale white, creamy-beige's and pinks. Everything looked so dusty that day and even those wildflowers and grasses were soft and pastel like. I painted this one at the end when we were back down by the boat and many more in that style up in the parkland. I find this composition interesting with the horizon line skewed and I love the way it will draw the viewer to the top.

Our Winters Seas 2013

The land far beyond where the ocean will meet,
Pacific storms of our winters will see,
From Tofino we travelled,
Those are the familiar roads that we know,
Hold onto that sanctuary at Grice Bay,
Of another small wet painting in oil of that very day,
Now, especially is this oil of the Pacific,
An ocean with its waters grayish-green,
And with such fairer days seen,
It is the skies which would not hold still,
Yet clouds shift-changing high-up in that vague blue serene,
All the children once so young but grown,
As this land's alive and all about much known,
But it's the memories of our winters seas we own.

The Arctic Spells 2013

Leave a shiver from within this sheltered brook,
The spruce boughs break and morning waits,
From the minute stream the ice will crack,
With the land around crisp in this attack,
We saw many a snowy owls and bald eagles feed,
Upon this empty icy land with snow light and easy too see,
Way down towards the bog more wrens play,
But feed awhile in brambles and make our day,
Sweet hushes low and down along the breaks upon the ice,
A coyote tests before crossing and perhaps a kill,
For the pheasants journey to leave before its hunger filled,
Oh, too hear a cry but who has lay down onto this land,
Too dream of frosts and weary hearts of cold abandoned wastes,
For Botany Bay Park with ice sheets sounding like arctic spells and haste.

Happy New Year's Day 2013 Everyone!

It was the New Year's Eve Night,
For the lights shined so bright,
In the heavenly sky tonight,
The year ended with joyous burst and bang and shine,
New Year's Day 2013 has just arrived in time.