Untitled. Oil, conté & graphite on Mylar 20″x24″. (These paintings always look so much better in real life, I think.)
A winged thing that is tied to water. Inspired from bits and pieces from the river shoreline, things now lying around the studio.
A studio view with most of the mess unseen.
(The other painting was posted previously here.)
© Karen McRae, 2013
Sliver-thin layers and double exposures. From the series Surface, Submerge.
© Karen McRae, 2013
I suppose this image doesn’t seem to have much to do with the rest of this post but it is woven in with a fine thread…
In the past few months I have been very fortunate to be included in a couple of wonderful publications and I thought I would mention this as a way of perhaps introducing these magazines to anyone that might be interested.
The first is a gorgeous publication from the Netherlands called “Flow Magazine” and they included this blog(!) in an article all about nature blogs. (*Although the article is in Dutch, Flow Mag has recently started issuing international copies of their magazine in English. Also, I recommend checking out some of those other nature bloggers listed if you have the time.)
You can find a copy of that article here: Flow Magazine ‘Groene Bloggers’
I am honoured, also, to have art from my ‘Surface, Submerge’ series included in the latest print issue of Art & Science Journal along with some other very accomplished artists.
You can find that article here: Surface, Submerge
As well as print issues, Art & Science Journal has a very beautiful and interesting blog.
Many thanks to both of these publications for the recognition, and for allowing me to ‘reprint’ these articles [*copyright of these articles remains with each publication]. I hope you get a chance to check them out – click on the images below to be brought to their home pages.
Last night I walked down to the river to watch the sun slip away – some evenings are flawless and you need to be out in them.
I was drawn to the gently swaying wildflowers (hoary alyssum, bertéroa blanc) backlit against the waning reflected light. Each of these photographs was made using in-camera double exposures and very little editing. This is what the camera saw. The images seemed to work better as double exposures, to carry more weight even though in a sense they are ‘lighter’, less literal. There are times when I think ‘abstracting’ a particular subject may express it more fully. Like the sense of a lovely summer evening sitting on damp grass and fading into the night.
How the river looked, doubly exposed. If you look carefully (click to enlarge) you will see a tiny sailboat near the horizon.
© Karen McRae, 2013
“If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water.”
― Loren Eiseley
Above and below: Seedheads covered in ice from freezing rain – the patterns develop as the ice starts to melt away and break up into smaller pieces.
Frost flowers develop when it is very cold and the air is quite moist. The ones pictured here formed on thin ice at the edge of the river near open water, on a night when the temperature dipped to -25C.
Above: A tiny branch with phantom ‘leaves’ on a cold winter morning.
Below: A small frost formation on a window. 
The Ottawa River shifting through the seasons.
I sometimes find it difficult to shift my visual thinking/creativity away from the winter landscape in the spring. For me it holds a bit of magic like no other season. The key to these transformations is water. From raindrops to snowflakes, to ice and frost, is there anything with more imagination than water?
The landscape is mostly shades of brown now with small bits of green trying to emerge through the damp earth. The river has lost its ice. Most of the photographs here have been posted on these pages before, some even from the previous winter, so I guess this is a bit of a recap (or an ice cap), but together they attempt to illustrate, and to let go of, the season that has just passed.
Also, on Monday April 22nd it will be Earth Day! In 2013 the focus is on climate change and how it is impacting people, creatures and environments the world over. You can learn more (and participate) by going to the Earth Day website. It is our collective voices and actions that make changes.
What are your plans for Earth Day?
© Karen McRae, 2013
A little extra winter here the past few days but I don’t think the remainder of ice on the river can last too much longer. The coming days look to be shifting into real spring.
The footprints made by a black bear who has been walking near the river were quite distinguishable in the fresh snow. It’s not too often a bear would be wandering in this area so close to the city but there are corridors of greenspace and waterways that are well used by wildlife. It’s one of things that makes this city so interesting.
© Karen McRae, 2013
Marbled meltwater.
© Karen McRae, 2013
This image is made from 2 photographs. One being a surface reflection of flowing water, and the other, remains of a seagull.
The seagull caught my eye because as it was lying in the water at the river’s edge, the wings were moving with the rhythmic lapping of the water, as though somehow, there was still a touch of life.
© Karen McRae, 2013
The ephemeral beauty of open water and very cold temperatures.
Water vapour rising and coating the nearby flora in thick frost.
Even the ice, struggling to form at the fringes, finds the air so cold it has coaxed downy feathers to grow on its surface for keeping warm.
Of course, there are more interesting and scientific explanations…here and here…
© Karen McRae, 2013
The water is restless in this part of the river. It pushes on all winter.
The ice tries to stretch over the surface like a cold blanket, but it cannot. The water persuades it to break apart, to keep moving.
The ice talks to the river with deep groans and quiet thuds. It rocks gently, waiting. An indolent heartbeat.
The river finds a crack, heaves a deep breath, and replies.
The river’s edge in -25c.
© Karen McRae, 2013
draw and shoot 