Deciduous Shore Youth T-Shirt

This is number nine in the Canoe Lake Paddle as numbered along the path of the paddle.

I paddled a bit further northward along the west shore of Canoe Lake. The birches and soft maples along the shoreline became more numerous than the black spruce. They lit up the forest with their atumn colours. There was a fresh painting with every stroke of the paddle. The overcast stratus gave a gentle and diffuse light to the forest. As a result there was no dazzling sunlight to over-power the emerging colours of the maples and birches that lined the shore. The reflections in the dark waters of Canoe Lake were just as brilliant as the original colours direct from the trees themselves.

I used a lot of paint on this small and very slippery surface. I simply laid the oils in and tried to leave them alone - continued stroking of the paint would turn the oils into mud. I scratched my signature into the wet paint with a tooth-pick.

I paint outside - nothing between my eyes and the inspiration. That special connectivity gets into the pigments and you quickly realize that we are all stewards of the land, privileged to appreciate its beauty during our lifetime but responsible for leaving the environment better off for the future and all inhabitants... Phil was born and raised along the St. Lawrence of Ontario, Canada and studied at Queens University as a nuclear physicist. A meteorologist for Environment Canada for 35 years, Phil specializes in severe weather and training. Remote sensing is his forte - you might want to see a tornado before you die... but not just before you die! He has farmed, raised bees, written books and articles, lectured and instructed...