Bob McKnight & Boats

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My love affair with Bob, which lasted through the summer and into the fall,  went far beyond our common interest in sailboats.  We shared a love of bikes, all boats, family and friends, and he even tolerated living with Rose (and I)  for a few months.  (Bob loves to pretend he doesn't like dogs).  We read Farley Mowat's Boat That Wouldn't Float out-loud to one another for a week, and during this time Bob spoke to me, almost exclusively, in Newfie dialect (Come topsides and sees whats I'm doin'!!) he'd shout from the upstairs of his lovely (built by Bob) home.  He cooked pizza from scratch, rolling the dough out and adding the most bazzare toppings you could imagine, resulting in a mouth-watering feast of Italian (his grandparents) inspired cuisine. He shopped for and cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for twelve, with two turkeys and enough vegetables to feed all of the Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower. He used an electric paint mixer to mash the potatoes. The list goes on. Bob loves to drive his vintage 1969 Porsche, which usually means several hours on his back under the car adjusting something, usually the brakes, before he can get behind the wheel.  He rides a classic BMW 650 Boxer motorcycle in the summer to work , looking like a helmeted version of a very sexy Steve McQueen.  Even though our tryst was short-lived, the impact of Bob's powerful and passionate personality will never leave me.  His is a unique spirit.. full of fun, quick to forgive, incredibly generous to friends and family, hard-working (he said that if he worked any harder he'd throw up),  crazy and super athletic (rides a longboard most places in the city. He's 63. Can you bloody believe it??) and he's very, very loving.  He is, above all, a conundrum, mostly to himself.  A wild-spirited, soulful and wise 'young' man, who lives life DAILY to the fullest.  I will miss his presence in my life... 

Dynamic Transformation: Butterflies & Moths

Just about finished....maybe Saturday.

I've had to take an x-acto knife and cut out areas that don't work, and repaint them.. then wait for them to dry and reintegrate them with the work.  Constantly balancing and rebalancing the composition as I go along... always following the direction of the wood's grain.  There is a natural aesthetic in the grain that is harmonious and dynamic, which has it's own ebb and flow.

Dynamic Transformation: Butterflies and Moths

New Painting Evolving Everyday

Dynamic Transition: Butterfly & Moth
acrylic on panel  36" X 19'

I'm working on this.... and the transition not only includes butterflies and moths, but painting itself.  I've changed this everyday, and it will go on morphing until it looks finished. Someone interviewing Jackson Pollock once asked him, "How do you know when a painting is finished?".  He sat thinking for a moment and replied, "How do you know when you're finished making love?"

                                    Dog Agility Competition : Kimberley B.C.

Merle-Coated Border Collie

In the fall of 2013, while staying with Margie on Muskrat Ranch, I ventured out with her god-daughter, Lisa, an exceptionally talented dog-trainer, to an agility competition a few kms. north of Kimberley, B.C.  It was interesting to witness the enthusiasm of all sorts of breeds, from collies to doberman pinschers,  performing at a high level of athleticism and obedience.  It's a colorful event, and like any sport involving speed and agility, it becomes a photographers paradise. Even an amateur like me. 

Bearded Collie

Ever-Enthusiastic Chocolate Lab

Tri-Colored Border Collie

I'm all excited about the dogsled race in the Yukon that begins today.. 1,600 kms from Whitehorse to    Fairbanks, Alaska.  That is the distance from Vancouver to Revelstoke (600 kms.),  back to  Vancouver (600 kms), then Vancouver to Kamloops (400 kms.)  Each team has maximum of 14 dogs to begin, and may end up with 6 or 8 dogs at the finish line, the others succumbing to exhaustion, sickness or injury.  Vets are posted along the way to ensure the well-being of the teams.  I had a wee taste of dog-sledding last year on Muskrat Ranch, in the East Kootenays, when Margie left me for the month of February to look after her ranch while she went biking in Cuba.

Muskrat Ranch, Ta Ta Creek

 Every morning I hitched the dogs (3) up to the kick sled and we went for a tour.  It was beyond belief exciting.  Tess is the lead dog, 4 years old and smart as a whip.  Rosie is a good puller, and Amy will pull if necessary, but would rather run along beside (she's 10).  I usually went to a neighbor's place and picked up Quiz, a merle coated border collie, and a really good puller.  When you yell 'go', you had better be hanging on tight and with one foot on a runner, because they are going to go from 0 to top speed in no time flat.  I got left behind the first time I tried it. And it took me a while to get the drift of how to negotiate curves in the trail.  I had to slow the dogs down ('Slow!') and then lean into the corner without flipping over.  The dogs love to pull.

Tess (lying down, lead dog, ) Amy (left) and Rose (behind Tess)

Tess on left.. very powerful runner

Rose and Tess with kick sled

I want to get a kick sled and figure out how to train Rose.   But I better not get ahead of myself.  I need to find a sled first - under $250.

Feeding the mules, Emily & Georgia.  It got down to -25 C. 

Handsome Georgia

Sledding on Lake Windermere, Invermere B.C.

John Zehnder trained Caleb to pull his kick sled.  

On a glorious sunny morning about a month ago I walked with my friend, Susan, around Killarney Lake on Bowen Island.  I took these photos with my i-phone.

I'm painting a panel based on one of the photos... but the surface as I progress has become lumpy with the built up pigment and suspension medium, and I need to either sand it back down to an even finish, losing a lot of the color, or build it up to an even surface, requiring more patience and technique than I may be capable of.

 It's a delicate skein of nothingness...fog, sky, light and reflection,  but there it is.  Hard to replicate.. and I'm wondering if I shouldn't just have the photo enlarged and present it as is.