Colours of the season

I’m more than half way finished the next in the series, the peculiar red and green shale that Howley describes from the north end of Change Islands Tickle.  When I was there sketching and photographing I was struck by the colours, two separate pieces of red and green rock side by side on the water’s edge.  As I’m painting and looking back at photographs I see the many variations of red and green in these rocks, ranging from yellow to a deep dark red, a bright orange and an almost lime green.  Is this what Howely describes as peculiar?  I feel I am revealing the secrets of this peculiar structure. 

In one of his miscellaneous note books that I found at the Provincial Archives I was delighted to find this handwritten recipe for ginger cake. 

Soft Ginger Cake

2 eggs

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup molasses

½ cup melted butter

2 cups flour

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp soda in 1 cup of boiling water (add this last)

Whether James P. baked this himself or not I cannot guess; but to quote him from page 66 of the book Reminiscences of Forty years of Exploration in and about Newfoundland:

"... I can assure all who contemplate a life in the woods that a knowledge of cooking is a very important one to acquire."

Merry Christmas to all!

Long Point, Port au Port Peninsula, July, 2011

I thought I would write about one of the journeys I made in 2011 to look for Howley's rocks.  He spent some time on the Port au Port and St. George's Bay area in 1874 "studying out the complicated geological structure of that region". 

For years I was interested in going to Long Point, just looking at the needle like feature on the 1:50 000 topo map enticed me to go out to the very tip just to see…I'm glad Howley was there too, it's an easy place to follow in someone's footsteps!

There’s a dirt road beyond Black Duck Brook out to a place called Blue Beach.  It’s a summer fishing community, lots of cabins and trailers, piled on top of one another.  Beyond Blue Beach there’s a flat trail that follows the shore through coastal meadows or you can amble along the shore for a while until the limestone ledges crop out.  There’s an electric light house at the end of the trail then you can climb down to the rock and stroll out to the tip. 

I kept going as far as I could to the point where the water started flowing over the rocks.  

Standing there at the tip as far as I could go I felt I was at the end of the earth, the  broad Gulf of St. Lawrence on one side and the imposing Lewis Hills on the other. 

Howley in his memoirs remarks “As previously stated, the natural rock sculpture of the limestone rock is in many places very striking. This is caused by the wearing away, through atmospheric influence, of the more yielding portions of the strata, leaving the harder parts intact."

I’ve decided to post one of the finished paintings.  

This is a painting of a section of the limestone ledges along the eastern side of Long Point. It's 30 inches x 30 inches, acrylic on canvas.  I was really intrigued by the different shapes and subtle changes in colour of each of the layers, (pinks and yellows show up here and there) and especially the dark insides of the cracks (if that's the right word). The more I looked the more I saw.  There seemed like a whole other world going on in these sections. 

Howley states "Fossils of the Lower Silurian age are abundant and well preserved in most of the rocks of Port a Port...At the extreme end of the Long Point facing the open gulf the limestone ledges are filled with ancient corals, sponges and such like fossils and some of the surfaces exhibit the trails of some animals, probably trilobites, which left deep tortuous grooves in the mud, crossing and recrossing each other many times."  

So there was a whole other world going on in these rocks or at least the remains of one that existed some 420 million years ago.

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I was having trouble finding my way around this blog but I know now a few things.  If anyone would like to make a comment, click on "no comment" and then there will be a text box to make a comment, then below that is a drop down box and choose Name/Url. Hopefully that will work!

Report of Progress

On October 15, 1870, Howley sailed into Brigus Harbour and noticed a pinkish red limestone on both sides of the harbour.  After landing he walked out to the north head to study the rocks and he created a cross-section.  He continued working on the cross-section on October 16…

October 16, 2013, I walked out to the north head to look for the same cross-section.  His sketch in his 1870 field book showed layers of red sandstone, a thin bed of red limestone, a layer of red shale, another larger bed of limestone, a bed of red and green shale and a layer of blue limestone which formed the “sea wall”, the cliff edge so to speak.

There is now a lighthouse at the head, sitting on this big lump of shale and limestone, the layers are tilted, facing westward.  I didn’t have much difficulty identifying the shale and the limestones, they were sitting alongside one another but I’ll have to confirm that with those in the know.  According to his journal, the thin bed of red limestone he describes is only 3 inches wide and I didn’t see that at all. 

The trail was pretty rugged, up and down over huge outcrops but it was a beautiful day and the peacefulness of the place was well worth the stiff legs.

Still on the subject of Howley, his name was put forward to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada as a person that should have national recognition in Canadian history.  Gerald Penney, a local archaeologist and Derek Wilton, a geologist, put Howley’s name forward in 2012. I heard last week that the nomination is being considered.  After studying Howley’s journals I was struck by the fact that this man who left so much information about the province and contributed to the establishment of the Newfoundland Museum was practically unknown. Hopefully he will be given the status he deserves.

Here are some pictures from my day out.

30 x 50

Finally have my new canvas and now ready to start painting.  I've been busy starting other work for a group show in January at the First Space Gallery and the images for the blank cards are at the printers for proofing.  This Sunday, September 29,  I will be reading passages from some of Howley's journals at Marlene Creates' Boreal Poetry Garden. She is having an "open mic" afternoon to commemorate 100 Thousand Poets For Change. http://www.100tpc.org/.  It's just a 5 minute spot, not too much pressure!  The garden is a nice venue for some of Howley's writings. Here's a pic of the blank canvas.

Between canvases

I am between canvases right now for the Howley project.  Just waiting for Cansel to get a 30 x 50 ready for me.  I would usually have one ready but I was undecided about the next painting in the series.  Anyway, I couldn't get it out of my head so it's going to be the 2nd of the Change Islands survey; the red and green shale.  I now have two weeks to work on two other smaller paintings and the blank cards and also do preliminary sketches for the big one.  Lot's on the plate!

Just a test.

Just testing something, no updates yet!

The Howley project - the short version

James P. Howley was a prominent geologist in the late 1800’s.  He spent many years traversing the province, looking for coal, assisting with the railway survey, surveying land and looking for economic minerals. I was captivated by his colourful stories of exploration and his love of the Newfoundland wilderness.

I studied all his hand-written field books, journals and official geological reports and found myself wanting to follow in his footsteps and find the amazing rock formations that he described so beautifully.  So I did!  Since 2011 I have found several sites that I visited (thanks to a grant from the NLAC), on the same date that Howley was there.

Last year I took a nine-month deferred salary leave from my full-time job at the Queen Elizabeth II Library to begin work on the project; to date I have five large paintings completed.

I still don’t know why I am so drawn to this man and his work, perhaps it’s his love of adventure or the enthusiasm he had for work in the field.  He was a fine writer, detailing every aspect of his journeys and I felt at times that I was right there along with him, in the canoe paddling in the Bay D’Est waters or trudging along the shores of St. Mary’s Bay or steaming along the western Newfoundland coast and looking at the vermillion layers of rock of Cape Anguille.

Below are some images from my journeys.

Out from under the rock

This is my first post.  I usually like to keep myself under a rock but it is time to crawl out.  Comments or criticisms welcome!  I am currently working on a body of artwork that I call the Howley project, this has been ongoing for a number of years and I will post more about it later.  I am also in the process of creating a set of 4 blank cards that I hope to have available for sale in the Fall.  I will post images later as well.