Marsh on the Back Way to Big Rapids

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The countryside to the northeast of Big Rapids, Michigan, is just gorgeous. The road curves around the edge of the marsh here, and it’s a good spot to stop and admire the view. While painting today, I was listening to an interview with Ted Genoways about the environmental consequences of petroleum mining in the Canadian tar sands. Maybe it's because my head was already in the North with the painting, but I found it particularly compelling. And very scary. I highly recommend listening here, or reading his article in the December issue of Outside magazine.

Northern Swamp

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I always love passing by this little swamp on our hike through the woods out to Nordhouse Dunes. Actually, I usually miss the swamp on the way there, as we leave the trail just before it to go bashing through the woods in search of an elusive “more direct” trail, which sometimes exists and sometimes doesn’t. (Some of you will understand this only too well.) This painting is at the end of the day, on our way back, with the last of the sun coming through the trees and lighting up the grasses on the other side of the water.

Spring at the Tourne

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This is my second painting of the swamp at the Tourne. I hope to paint many more. It was a lovely spring day, and I went for a run in the surrounding woods and hills. Somehow, I got off on a side trail that skirted the very east edge of the swamp, which was interesting until it got too rocky and overgrown, and then it was annoying. I abandoned it, trusting that I’d find the main trail sooner or later, and I did, and all was well.

Little Swamp

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Michigan again—I always stop to look at this little swamp along the bike path. There’s something about the combination of water and dead trees in swamps that appeals to me. Plus, there are always critters.

Swamp at the Tourne

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I painted this last week in New Jersey. Yes, New Jersey! I’ve had my eye on this swamp for a few years now. It’s enormous. According to a woman who came hiking by, it used to be a woodland, and then beavers came along and dammed up the stream, eventually turning it into a wetland. I like it this way. So does the pileated woodpecker who was tearing chunks out of one of the dead trees.