Birches
Oil on Canvas Panel
5 x 10 inches
2006
Haliburton, Ontario
The Haliburton area of Ontario is an incredibly beautiful place. There are so many lakes that there is rarely a mile separating one from another. The roads that run through twist and turn through the hills where one magnificent view is met by the next.
By Christmas most of all the lakes are completely frozen over and are brilliant flat plains of white, but this year for the first time in memory the lakes were all open. It was odd to see someone boating on Christmas day.
On this day I wandered not far from our cabin. We were on holiday and I wanted to spend time with my family and if I took off painting for too long I would miss out. So I searched the shore nearby for subjects and found a stand of birches.
Birches are so unlike all other trees by the quality of their bark. It is more like paper and can be brilliantly white. I liked how it caught the light against the backdrop of the deep blue lake and formed an almost abstract composition.
The next day winter kicked in and the lake quickly froze over.
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