Acrylics

1996 – The ecological reserve called Cabo Blanco encompasses the

long peninsula in the background. A beautiful 15 mile round-trip

hike in 1988 from Moctezuma. Most of it was through jungle with

howler monkeys overhead making sure we knew we were not

welcome in their own inimitable way. We forded fresh water streams,

found hidden waterfalls and met only one other person – the

lady who sold us cola from her little tienda by the roadside.

A magical journey!

My soul can find no staircase to heaven unless it be through

earth's loveliness. (Michelangelo)

View from Playa Nicoya- Costa Rica

1996 – The mountain ranges of the Sierra Madres in

Chiapas, Mexico, seem to go on forever. The mist rising

From the valleys just as the sun is rising is likely from the

ever-burning charcoal fires the Mayans use for heating

and cooking. There can be frost on the camper when

we awaken, but by 9 a.m. the day is heating up and

we’re ready to explore.

When I think of death, I only regret that I will not be able to see this

beautiful country anymore... unless the Indians are right and my spirit

will walk here after I'm gone. (Georgia O'Keeffe in later years)

Sierra Madres

1997 – From a painting lesson given on television, the

backlighting in this scene fascinated me. Sometimes we’ve

been up early enough when camping to experience this and

there’s always the feeling that with the dawn comes a fresh

new beginning.

Painting is a companion with whom one may walk a great part of life’s journey.

(Winston Churchill)

Dawn in the Woods

1997 – I’ve tried to capture the feeling of a warm, quiet

afternoon in the country. There’s not even a breeze to

stir the leaves, but I hope you can hear the bees

working in the flowers just out of sight and the cicadas

buzzing in the bushes.

How does the Meadow flower its bloom unfold? Because the lovely

little flower is free down to its root, and in that freedom bold.

(William Wordsworth)

Down the Lane

1998 – Somehow this pine found a foothold among the rocks

and, as a reward for its resiliency and determination, has

risen above the crowd of ordinary trees in the valley.

Nothing worthwhile ever happens quickly and easily. You achieve only

as you are determined to achieve. (Robert H. Lauer)

Triumphant Pine

1998 – This little campground is about 100 Km north of

Puerto Vallarta. This painting reminds me always of

the resiliency of the human spirit. You see, in storms

the ocean will wash right over this wall and in a year

or two it will be gone, yet the owners will pick up the

residue of stone and brick and build something else.

Something different to be sure, but they will be

equally proud of it until the next big storm.

The miracle, or the power, that elevates the few is to be found in

their industry, application, and perseverance under the prompting of a

brave, determined spirit. (Mark Twain)

El Pequeño Paraiso-Lo de Marcos

1998 – Another little Mexican campground, this time about

20 Km south of Cancun. These palm-thatched palapas

provide welcome shade during the day, a gathering-

place for tourists and locals (like the iguana). Miles of

white sand beaches to walk, clear turquoise water to

swim in, the coral reef teeming with colourful fish just

offshore. Although the trees depicted here are salt

pines, the name ‘Xcalicocos’ means ‘Two palms from

one base’ in the Quiche dialect.

I have not tried to reproduce nature: I have represented it.

(Paul Cézanne)

Xcalicocos – Quintana Roo

1999 – This is a small section of the cemetery outside the

little town of La Manzanilla, about 20 Km north of

Barra de Navidad in Mexico.

The old woman has just buried her husband. While her

grandson sits patiently looking at his grandfather’s

burial site, she reflects on her memories of their

many years together.

You come into the world alone and you go out of the world alone,

yet it seems to me you are more alone while living than even going

and coming. (Emily Carr)

La Manzanilla Cemetery

1999 – Play forgotten, the child sits, mesmerized. What

does she see as she looks out at the endless ocean with

only the sound of the waves to keep her company?

Possibly she thinks nothing, she just is. She and her

environment are one.

We shall not cease from exploration / And in the end of all our

exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place

for the first time. (T. S. Eliot)

La Manzanilla Girl

1999 – Algonquin Park in northern Ontario has so many

beautiful areas that an artist has to arbitrarily pick

one or she/he would fill the whole day finding a

‘better’ scene just around the next bend. There

really are no ‘better’ scenes, just different ones and

they are all spectacular – nature has outdone herself

in this beautiful park and even the foxes agree!

There is an art to wandering. If I have a destination, a plan – an

objective – I've lost the ability to find serendipity. I am on a

quest, not a ramble. I search for the Holy Grail of particularity

and miss the chalice freely offered, filled and overflowing. (Cathy Johnston)

Algonquin Park

1999 – I really liked this picture of a Bateman painting

that I found in a brochure and decided to give it my own

interpretation. I found that once I had the colours

blended to my liking, the actual painting of the bird

and the roses just seemed to flow.

I can't conceive of anything being more varied and rich and

handsome than the planet Earth. And its crowning beauty is the

natural world. I want to soak it up, to understand it as well as I

can, and to absorb it. And then I'd like to put it together and

express it in my paintings. This is the way I want to dedicate my

work. (Robert Bateman)

Blending In

2000 – Winter is coming. The stream slowly meanders

under the autumn-leafed trees In the distance, the mist

tells of the cooling temperature and soon all will be

under a blanket of snow and ice, so the deer come to

the open water while they can.

See also Remembering, By The Stream in ‘Our Stories’.

In the beginning you must subject yourself to the influence of nature.

You must be able to walk firmly on the ground before you start walking

on a tightrope. (Henri Matisse)

Woodland Stream

2001 – Living on the Narrows between Lakes Simcoe and

Couchiching, we have a wonderful view of the boats

passing from one lake to the other. We’ve even seen one

from San Francisco.

Memory is history recorded in our brain, memory is a painter; it paints

pictures of the past and of the day. (Grandma Moses)

Our Boathouse

2002 – The rhythm of the surf on our favourite beach in

Mexico has a hypnotic effect. The analytical mind relaxes

and allows the imagination full rein – suddenly,

something different emerges.

Watching a huge wave break, I recalled a painting by

Jim Warren and decided to try my hand at it.

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure,

to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer

meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting,

for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. (Alan Cohen)

Visions From The Sea

2002 – This painting evolved from a very old, very dark black

and white photograph. In a way, it’s a metaphor for

life. Things have to happen in order for life to go on

(the men are pragmatically doing their job) but we

don’t want to know about them and hypocritically hide

our eyes, even though we know we will benefit from

them later.

My paintings are not intended to alter the history of twentieth-

century art or change the political climate of our times. I’m simply a

story-teller. (Carolyn Hoyle)

Preparation for Thanksgiving

2002 – While the waves express a rhythmic cadence, the seagulls

wheel and dip as they play over the ocean and celebrate the joy of life.

A seagull is an unlimited idea of freedom, and image of the Great Gull, and your whole

body, from wingtip to wingtip, is nothing more than your thought itself. 

(Richard Bach - Jonathon Livingston Seagull)

Freedom

2003 – Sitting on a rock on the beach, waiting for the sunset,

listening to the gently breaking waves shuffle the small

pebbles underneath is a great way of bringing peace to

the soul. It is at times like these that I am glad to be

a small part of all that is.

Men seek out retreats for themselves in the country, by the seaside,

on the mountains... But all this is unphilosophical to the last degree...

when thou canst at a moment’s notice retire into thyself. (Marcus Aurelius)

Land’s End

2003 – Many years ago, our family had a cottage on Snake

Island in Lake Simcoe and the sunsets really were this

vibrant! I have used artistic license and added some land

and rocks across the lake to make more of a definition

between sky and water. And yes, from time to time a heron

did come to sit on the dock to enjoy the end of the day.

I cannot attain the intensity that is unfolded before my senses. I

have not the magnificent richness of colouring that animates nature. (Cezanne)

Island Sunset

2005 – Depicting Nature’s creatures is a still a fairly new

experience for me. I found this somewhat daunting as I

began, but by the time the painting was finished, the bear

and I had become friends and I could sense his hesitancy

to trust his full weight to the next ice flow.

That water is really cold, you know.

There's something to be said for getting into the "feeling zone."  This is where

you experience the solidity and the weight of the rock.  You sort of get inside

the part of the work you are working on.  Rock or feather, sky or water, tree

or idea-of-tree, there's a form to be felt.  (Robert Genn)

Stranded

2010 – We saw this area while visiting the high-

desert Navaho Tribal Park on our trip west in 1991.

These towering structures are the remains of an

ancient seabed after millennia of terra-sculpting by

wind and rain. The ‘mittens’ are very familiar to fans

of the old west cowboy movies.

Near here we stopped for lunch at a Navaho fry bread

restaurant (cloth walls and roof with a dirt floor) and

the bread was delicious, topped with fresh honey.

The painter wanders and loiters contentedly from place to place,

always on the lookout for some brilliant butterfly of a picture that

can be caught and carried safely home. (Winston Churchill)

Monument Valley

2012 – Many mornings we are blessed with beautiful

sunrises.If we rise early enough, we can watch the colours

change minute by minute until the ‘instigator’ of all this

vibrancy, the sun, actually appears.

One can see why the ancients worshipped the sun as

the giver of life.

Today a new sun rises for me; everything lives, everything is

animated, everything seems to speak to me of my passion,

everything invites me to cherish it. (Anne de Lenclos)

Sunrise on the Narrows

Keith and Marnie Elliott’s “REMEDY” Site

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