Friday, June 30, 2006

stuff, thingies and such

Pics click to enlarge.

Eric C. Keast at Saatchi Gallery.CO.UK
A new gallery of mine at another online gallery site


Update to large canvas; Krustayn versus Mecha-Sasquatch. Bingorage studio; Broken Vulture Art, Fort Frances, Northwestern Ontario.
Update to large canvas; Krustayn versus Mecha-Sasquatch. Bingorage studio; Broken Vulture Art, Fort Frances, Northwestern Ontario.

---------------------------------

My father and I went out on Rainy Lake for a couple days fishing and a night of camping. The weather was beautiful, the blueberries are ripening early and cowboy coffee is the best stuff, evar. The fish put in cameo appearances and some were eaten with a pub-style batter. Yum.

Dad fishing and sunburning.
Dad fishing and sunburning.


I had one serious adrenaline injection on the trip.
After dinner, I threw a minnow on a tiny jig and dangled it under a small bobber, about an inch and a quarter cross.
The lake was like glass and the bobber was sensitive enough to show ripples from the motion of the minnow below.
After one cast, the bobber drifted near shore. I noticed that the bobber wasn't showing any ripples, so I figured that the minnow flew off when it hit the water.
So I started reeling it in.
Whammm!!!!
A Northern Pike broke the water, taking the whole bobber in its mouth, then dove straight down. After a couple short lunges, it spit the bobber out and took off.

That was the best fish of the whole trip and it was probably under two pounds heavy.The bobber had been pulled down to the jig and the line was frayed by the short battle.

Bobber pike sketch.
Bobber pike sketch.


On the way to finding a camping spot, Dad and I found a pictograph site on a south facing panel. There is a large moose in the whitish mineral precipitation at the upper left associated with a circular design (see sketch below).
Much of the panel consists of a deep red "wash" over entire portions of the rock face. There are also many finger drags and handprints.

CrowRock Pictograph, on Rainy Lake.

detail
CrowRock Pictograph, on Rainy Lake.

These paintings are found all over the Canadian Shield/Boreal Forest from Quebec, through Northern Ontario, Minnesota and Manitoba. Probably in Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, as well. The pigment is made from a heated iron ore oxide known as red ochre, thought to have been mixed with bird eggs, fish oil and other organic binders.

CrowRock pictograph sketch, on Rainy Lake.


Our camp
Our camp

Sunrise, burning the fog off Rainy Lake.
Sunrise, burning the fog off Rainy Lake.

I can only hope that you get out camping in such beautiful surroundings yourselves. It's my privilege to live so close to these places and I have to do it more often.





2 comments:

Jade L Blackwater said...

Wow - that is too cool! Thanks for sharing the pictographs!

Hoka-shay-honaqut said...

There are plenty of them in the area.

I hope to get out and do a serious photo-trip
up the Turtle River-White Otter Lake system
sometime. THAT, will be a major posting.