Goose, Moose... What's the Difference?

Okay so I posted this picture of my brother today on face book and informed the world he was goose hunting.

I also e-mailed a copy of it to him figuring he would be thrilled to see himself immortalized in oil pastels.

If he was he didn't say.

He rather curtly informed me that is a moose hunting rifle he is holding.

Jeesh, goose, moose.  

He's lucky I knew it was a gun.


Anyway the picture is called "A James Bay Morning".


My brother taught school in Moose Factory for 25 years and married a local girl - my most wonderful sister-in-law!

The Swampy Cree hunt moose and always have.  

And they also hunt goose.  I know this for a fact ... but I digress.

The point I'm trying to make is that this is not sport hunting, it is hunting for food and is part of the traditional lifestyle of the people who live around James Bay.

So a picture that could so easily give viewers an ominous feeling has a quiet watchful sense about it.


Unless you happen to be a moose that is.

The hardy Canucklebrain

I've been working much smaller recently - 12" x 12".

"What You Don't See"

"Adam and Eve Leaving the Garden of Eden"

Short post I guess but I do have one important statement to make.

it's fricken cold here.

But being a hardy Canucklebrain, I am going to Niagara Falls today to see the ice!!!

My country is winter.

Oh wait, did somebody already say that?  

Stay warm folks and keep yer snow shovels handy cause it ain't over yet.

Love the One You're With

Now that I've passed a birthday that puts me closer to 70 than 60 I'm starting to look back over my life.  

If there has been one lesson that I'd say I've been put here to learn it is how to look in the mirror and be comfortable/companionable with the person looking back.

The Universe Unfolding ... is a picture with a pattern, the route I thought my life would take.  My life is connected to the outside world of family, friends, lovers etc. and everything flows as it should.

'First Steps' shows the first break in the pattern.  There's a blip in the middle on the right but I managed to pull myself together and the flow of life resumes at the bottom right.

"You Gotta Leave With the One You Came With" shows a complete break with the flow of "normal" life.  But I still am looking for outside validation of my 'self', i.e., the end and the beginning are still easy to find.

But this is a current self-portrait.

I've turned inwards for validation.  The ends of the ropes that represent my journey are no longer searching for love in all the wrong places.  They've found each other.

There's no Alpha or Omega.
There's just me.

And I'm okay.

The Universe Unfolding ...

I've been hooked on the abstract lately.

This one, called "The Universe Unfolding ..." is totally gorgeous.  It begs to hang in a neutral coloured room where it can be the only object of admiration. 

This one, called Snowstorm", uses more conventional colours and the movement is smoother.  But it is so rich and sensual I think it belongs in a bedroom.

But only if your universe is unfolding as romantically as it should!

:)

Portrait of Meghan

It amazes me how so many young women fill up the space they've been allotted.

They fill it up physically, psychically, emotionally, spiritually.

They know they have the right to be here, to be seen and to be heard.

And that, my friends, is a wonderful thing.