Paintings from the Yukon River trip with David Neufeld, late July, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had the privilege of making another river journey with Western Arctic and Yukon Historian David Neufeld.

We had painted the river at intervals the summer of 2012, as part of David’s place-based historical practice. He is writing a book about the history of the Yukon River. This time, we stayed put for a few days at Blanchard’s Woodyard just north of Minto, on the other side of the river from the Hell’s Gate Rapids, and at Fort Selkirk. It was a wonderful 5 days for me. The quiet of Blanchard’s Woodyard was the perfect tonic for how worn down I had gotten along the road. And in Fort Selkirk, I got to perform in an ad hoc ukulele concert in the tiny old Catholic Church.

These paintings are all 9×12″, oil, $275 ea.

I’m planning to include them in my upcoming solo show at the North End Gallery in Whitehorse, YT in February of 2015, but please contact me if you’re interested in them sooner.

Cliffs across from Fort Selkirk

 More cliffs across from Fort Selkirk

 Rainy Day, Island from Blanchard’s Woodward.

 David’s boat, from Blanchard’s Woodyard

Cool Clouds, from Blanchard’s Woodyard

Evening Cliffs, from Fort Selkirk

some ending bits

Hixon wins.

50 km fell right at The Whistle Stop Pub. Fortunately there was a great space to paint from up near the road. It was hot for Itsy. Halfway through I walked into the bar (a painter walks into a bar) to get a ginger ale to go just for the ice to add to the dog’s water.

Just after I put the painting away, someone did a u-ie in their pickup to check out what I was doing. Finally! Maybe it was because it was so hot I didn’t have the high vis vest on.

The last one I did, July 2, was just outside Prince George. A fabulous storm rolled by in front of me, adding drama to the sky. I was glad for it as it cooled things off for the dog. I was also glad it didn’t rain right into the truck, but instead, I got to see lightning walking by.

After a lovely musical evening with the Two Rivers Gallery curator George Harris and his wife Anne, where Itsy had a great time playing  with their son William, we began driving home. I took the Stewart-Cassiar (37) to preview it for painting next summer. The highway 16 towards the 37 begins to be the “Highway of Tears”, famous for disappearing women. I hope to enlist a human companion to paint that part of the road next summer, perhaps as far as Prince Rupert. I have some ideas for additional things to add to the project for that section… more on that later.

The 37 will be a challenging highway to paint – very narrow shoulders, few pullouts and those that exist likely busy with logging trucks, lots of bugs. Also very remote. I will have to provision myself carefully, and perhaps be prepared to sleep with no campground one of the nights. Bring a fresh box of pic coils and full length lightweight pants. That was good to learn.

Dinner at the Bell 2 lodge was wonderful if the camping was buggy and there were few trails for walking Itsy. Salmon on a bed of seasonal veggies nestled into squash puree. I had been kind of hoping for the luxury of a hot turkey sandwich, and this blew that dream out of the water. I will plan to stop there next year!

 

Itsy, packed and ready to go, for the last day of driving.

It was so good to reach the Yukon, to see things on the road I recognized. One 11 and then another 12 and a half hour driving day later, I arrived home to cool weather, rain, and the comforts of home.

Christina Hart, Ursula’s Mom, kindly gave me some lavender-scented ostrich oil. I had been putting it on my painty ankles. I found that made the paint rub off in the bath, particularly with the pumice paddle I have for my feet. In the future I will use a barrier cream, oil and this method for keeping less paint on my skin.

In fact, I will use it tomorrow, when I start with the Plein Air painting festival organized by the Yukon Artists @ Work cooperative. Painting 6-11 Sunday then 11-4 each day till Thursday, with an opening Thursday evening at 5:30. I’d better prepare my panels.

BC paintings; rest days

 

 

 

Thank you so much Susan and Jack Hotson! These rest days have been wonderful.

Here are the paintings from Spence’s Bridge onwards displayed around their garage:

 

I thought I’d offer you blog readers a little glimpse of these paintings.

This one is about 50 km past Spence’s Bridge:

This one is about 45 km East of Hope:

This one is just West of Hope:

This is the one from the parking lot of The Reach Museum Gallery in Abbotsford. Actually, that road past the exit was the old Trans Canada Highway before they built the big highway – that’s what the Mayor of Abbotsford told me when he dropped by to check out what i was doing.

 

This one is just before Squamish:

 

Tomorrow morning I’ll continue on, beginning to paint about 50 km north of this one on the 99.

 

 

 

Preparing for the next road series

Hello!

I will soon be leaving to paint the next chunk of my road series. I will keep a blog as I go. Last time, I just posted the blog on pages on my website. But I think using WordPress will make my blog more accessible to more people, so I will try using this platform instead. Follow this blog to come along with me.

I will be extending my Get There From Here road series this summer. Click here to learn more about that project and access lots of fun links about it. In short, I have painted about 183 one foot square oil paintings from the back of my truck, from Montreal, Peterborough and Toronto across to Edmonton, Whitehorse, Inuvik, Fairbanks and Anchorage, stopping every 50 km to do so. Each painting is painted on site and during the time I am stopped by the side of the road; they usually take 2-3 hours apiece. Here is one of them to get the idea:

Get There From Here is booked for the summer of 2016 at The Reach Museum Gallery in Abbotsford, BC. I need to paint Abbotsford into the picture. So I will drive back to Portage La Prairie and paint across to Vancouver, making a stop at Abbotsford to paint in the gallery parking lot, then continue north to Dawson Creek to link back onto the rest of the paintings. This summer’s series will link on just before the painting above.

I estimate that with art supplies, gas, camping etc, this will cost about $5000. I’ve set up a kickstarter-like fundraising system that you can find here if you’re interested in supporting the project.

Or just follow the blog, to know where I’m at and what I’ve seen. Heck, if you or your friends are locating somewhere near where I’m painting, come by for a visit!

Looking forward to your company on the drive,

till soon, Nicole.