Happy Thanksgiving!!

I LOVE North Vancouver Island, our home for the last 36 years. Usually I can't find enough adjectives to describe its beauty, but this time of year I often wander afield to find fall colours because there are so few deciduous trees that show off in autumn. My favourite spots have been in the interior in the high plateaus of the Cariboo and the Chilcotin or to the old haunts of my youth in Eastern Manitoba and Northern Ontario.

Lately I re-discovered local colour that had eluded me, since in the fall  during the last few years, I was making these excursions inland and over the prairies. I was looking at some photos I had taken several years ago of my grandchildren on Mt. Cain in autumn and the background colour knocked my socks off. Since it was early September, too early for colour, I used these old photos as references to create a 16x20 acrylic that enbled me to use my"hot" colours. I waited for the beginning of October and watched the weather for the first opportunity to trundle up the Mt. Cain rocky road. It happened! The weather and the colour co-operated and I got my first sketch and a number of photographs. Blueberry bushes are everywhere on Mt. Cain so an endless variety of reds pervaded, but there were lots of yellows, golds, magentas, purples, and autumn greens as well. At this moment, we are into a few rainy days but as soon as it clears a bit, I'm going back! This sketch I did will tell you why.