I guess I knew it had to happen sooner or later. I’m just as glad it’ll be sooner. I’ll be returning to The North Country this summer. They say that once you’ve been to The North Country you never really leave. I have found that to be true. This is one of the posts you probably missed because of the email notification problems I was having. It’ll explain a lot.

As I mentioned in the above referrenced post I’ve started the paintings from last summers ride into The North Country. The first one, a 24×36 oil of the North Saskachewan River is what started this longing. I was really impressed with the vastness of the river valleys up there. It just looked like really wild country, which it is.

After that I jumped into the second largest painting I have ever done, a 41×48 oil of the falls on the Athabasca River between Saskachewan Crossing and Jasper in Alberta, Canada, titled “Hear the Roar”.

Next came a 30×40 oil of a view my wife considered her favorite. It’s is along Highway 37 also known as the Stewart Cassiar Highway, in Western British Columbia,  just north of Bell II.

The latest painting was done for my brother-in-law and his wife Donna who were on the ride. It is a 24×36 oil of the 10:45 PM sunset on a range of mountains across from us in Haines Junction, Yukon Territory.

Of course being that far North, the sun dipped below the horizon for an hour about 2:00AM but it never really got dark. This was the view we had sitting out side the washateria while doing our laundry that evening. We just  sat there in awe.

For a long time now, I’ve been mentioning the idea of paying attention to things. While this is important to me as an artist, you too can benefit. It’s sort of like the stop and smell the roses idea.  We are all easily trapped into the rush, rush, rush of everyday life. It’s a hard cycle to break but every small step in the right direction is a victory. Sometimes you just need to stop whatever you are doing and look around. Notice things, where ever it is you are, take a moment to stop and look.

I was riding the bike last Friday, as in motorcycle not bicycle for you new comers, on my way to Delta to give comments on the opening reception at the Delta Fine Arts show after having judged the entries the evening before, and I couldn’t help but notice how vibrant all the colors seemed along the way. This isn’t something new for me. As an artist, I’ve learned to pay attention to such things, but over the course of the last year or so, everything seems to be more rich and intense. Of course it was getting on in the afternoon and the return trip was near sunset and that low light sure helped but I’d have to say that in general, things just seem to be so much more…well…noticable is the word maybe. The fields and the buildings, and the landscape all reminded me of many of the small rural towns and surrounding areas I’ve ridding through. It almost all looks like it could’ve been anyway I’ve been before, and that got me to thinking.

Last summer when I rode the Harley north into the Yukon and Alaska, we all commented on how intense the light seemed. All the colors seemed to be really saturated, enough so that it caused us to pause and take notice multiple times.

Since I’ve been working on these paintings, I’ve been thinking about returning to The North Country to do some painting on location as was my original intent last year. It’s been on my mind for some time now… like maybe since I got back.  Sunday I got the map out and took a look at it again. I’ll have to see how the summer goes but I think the only thing keeping me from going at this point is the leaving. I’ll go by myself this time, on the Harley. I’ve just got somethings I didn’t get to see and do last time and the only way I can do that is to go by myself and keep my own agenda. I’ll take my motorcycle trailer for my painting supplies and camping gear and take two weeks to go back and explore and paint.

I suppose you knew this was going to happen didn’t you? Yes, so did I.