A birch tree from the park steeped in late afternoon sunshine

A few steps off the path was this old birch back lit by late afternoon sunlight. After a snack break , I started my 4th painting for the day.

Family time at the lake

It was already late in the afternoon when I started painting this view. The beach front of the lake were full of people now. I set up my ease next to the path along the park office building and started my 3rd painting for the day. 

Riding Mountain National Park Visitor Center

After a short break, I started to paint the Visitor Centre building, with lots of visitors coming and leaving the center , and with the intense summer sunshine beating down from the clear blue sky.

To the lake we go!

Reached Clear Lake at 9:30  in the morning, and wasted no time finding a spot to paint. Setting up my easel by the park office building looking towards the beach I started to paint this view of the lake.

Sunset clear lake

Sunsetting view of Clear Lake from the 9th hole of the Golf Course

It was such a spectacular view looking down from the 9th hole of the golf course. The lake was sparkling in the late afternoon sunlight and after a brief shower of rain the air was fresh with the sent of the pines and spruce. I wasted no time trying to capture the fleeting moment with one hand graping a piece of sandwich and the other with a brush.

Garden behind Clear Lake Information Center

It was already close to five p.m when I started this painting at the end of my outdoor painting workshop.

Gathering clouds over Clear Lake

At the end of my outdoor painting workshop, I stayed to paint on the lake when it was getting cloudy and dark again with the clouds looming large over the lake.

Lake Katharine-- the enchanted lake

At the end of my outdoor painting workshop, we drove down to Lake Katerine in the Riding Mountain National Park. It was such a beautiful moment of the day when the intense but mellow summer afternoon sunlight imputed an enchanted mood to the lake and turned its water into a sheen of emerald green. A group of people with children came to visit the lake and the kids were quite fascinated to see me painting on the spot and kept on checking on my progress to make sure that I could paint them onto my canvas. I had to explain how it was impossible to represent individual human figure visually on a small piece of canvas. Hope I did not disappointed them. We lingered on the lake sitting there at a picnic table indulging ourselves in the warm embracing of its enchanted arms.

Land of Aspens a view from lake Katharine

If I had but just one choice as to which image I am allowed to tuck it away into my memory when years and years down the road , this part of the world becomes a distant memory, I would pick the image of the trembling aspens. It was to bend on seeking a view of aspens to paint, we found ourselves at Lake Katherine again after my outdoor landscape painting at Clear Lake. I remember last year around same time of the year, I painted this view while it was raining heavily and I had to use an umbrella to shelter my painting from the rain. This year lake Katerine was in a totally different mood where the wood of aspens were soaked and steeped in the warm wash of late afternoon sunlight.

A Day at Clear Lake ---- Summer of 2009

Today is my second day of outdoor painting workshop, for our practice we as a group decided to come to this spot to paint where the huge elm trees with their shady canopy of foliage provided us with such a pleasant shelter from the wind and sun. I painted this view on a large piece of canvas when the morning sunlight transfigured everything in sight and when the lake front was live with human activities.

Clear Lake

As a demonstration for my outdoor painting workshop, I did this painting right beside the park office building. I was attracted by the intense color and light of the early morning hours. The few tall and handsome aspen trees and elms and spruce,sanding like a sentry against the blue sky and lake was visually counterbalance by the horizontal sweep of the lake front as well as by the casting shadows of the trees. I really enjoyed the chatting with passers-by who were all so curiouse by the sight of a group of painters who painted right on location. At the end of the day each of us did a lovely painting.

Valley view on No. 10 Highway

Just past Minnidosa drivers will find this view of a valley with a church in the distance on highway No. 10 in Manitoba on their way to Riding Mountain National Park. I painted this view in the late afternoon when the sky was lit from the west by the glow of sunset.

Steeped in the late afternoon sun

Painted this view behind Visitor Center in the late afternoon when the late afternoon sunlight was pouring in from behind the wall of spruces.

Clear Lake

Went back to Clear Lake this morning and painted this familiar view of the lake on a big stretched canvas.

Jackfish Creek

Stopped at Jackfish Creek on my way back to Clear Lake and painted this view as my last painting for the day and also for my whole 7 day stay at the beautiful Riding Mountain National Park.

Meadows in bloom

After saying goodbye to Tony Bone who started to pack up an hour later I turned around and painted this view of the meadow in full bloom.

A lone camper on Lake Audy

I drove all the way to paint the view of the lake only to be disappointed by the hazy view that morning but found a lone camper on the shore of the lake, an aboriginal young fellow by the name of Tony Bone from a nearby reserve. I painted a view of him with his tent and car, cooking over a fire pit and feeding a squirrel simultaneously.

From the watching tower of Bison Range

It was a beautiful drive first down south along the spectacular stretch of highway No. 10 and then drove down the north shore road towards Lake Audy and Bison Range. The road was lined up with dense forest of trembling aspens and it was breathtakingly beautiful. As soon as I drove into Bison range all of a sudden I found myself surrounded with dozes of bison.I was never so close to a bison and the experience was so unreal. I painted a panoramic view of the range from the watching tower.

North Shore in the morning

Day 7, July 27 the last day of my stay at Clear Lake
I woke up early in the morning and was on the road soon after 7 a.m. On my way to Lake Audy I stopped at a picnic spot on the north shore of Clear Lake and painted this view when the trees were lit up by the morning sunlight.