We had the chance to visit Halifax, Nova Scotia and St. John’s, Newfoundland as we traveled up the coast preparing for our transatlantic crossing. In Halifax, though I had intended to sketch, I spent most my time at its Art Museum, enjoying their collection of Inuit Art. The second floor had some gems. I find the art of Indigenous peoples resonates very well with the Modern Contemporary impulse – but it’s often better, more authentic. The Museum also had some precious early 20th century watercolors by an artist named Henry M. Rosenberg. Ah… He was new to me, now on my radar.

Luckily the sun shone well enough when we pulled into St. John’s so I was able to get a brief sketch down at each of the cliffside locations we visited before we had to return to town. (Both pieces were completed later as we headed out to sea.) The Signal Hill piece is perhaps the more effective of the two as it emphasizes a really strong composition. I like the treatment of the sky and the sea – cause that’s how they felt that day. I also feel relatively successful at holding back the white of the paper for those white blossoms on the waving seagrass in the foreground. It was a very windy day!

The second piece comes from Cape Spear. It is a remote location about 30 minutes drive from St. John’s. It was, so we were told, the easternmost point of land on the North American continent(!). It felt like it. While I was drawing, again just concentrating on getting down a composition for later completion, I heard one of our companions cry out “whales”. I turned my neck to spot a few baby whales breaching in the bay near to us. Thrilling! Otherwise, the two (geometric) buildings on the soft undulating hillside initially attracted me. Later, including the large foreground rock and steps along the winding pathway helped to establish distance. I used some latex masking fluid to hold back the light on some of those foreground elements. It worked out OK. With every watercolor I learn more and more about masking, wet-in-wet, and wet-on-dry.

If you are interested in either of these pieces please shoot me an email.