Thursday, June 21, 2007

Acrylic Painting of Poet/Musician Alan Cooper

"I live most of the year in Alma, New Brunswick, Canada, a small fishing village on the Bay of Fundy. I run Owl's Head Press, a poetry publishing house from my 120 year old homestead. I've been a full-time poet for 28 years, and have published 12 books. I was a member of the blues trio Isaac, Blewett and Cooper for a number of years and am now working solo. In 1990 I published a book of poems by the well-known American poet, Robert Bly. I've been married to Laurie Armstrong for 24 years, and we have a 21 year old daughter, Katie."

Have a look at his blogs!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Extinction!

This is when the dinosaurs went down and some think that that (or these) meteorite impacts may have been responsible. The full story on all this is found on my regular web pages which can be accessed by clicking the web address near my photo. After that on the homepage go to Lunenburg Pages and then click "Geology".

No commercial intent in any of this but I do like to create maps and paintings as an escape from the easel. I have fourteen years experience doing this kind of thing but, to date, its been a huge losing proposition. Enjoy!

My map of the Cretaceous in the North East

NB, New Brunswick; NS. Nova Scotia; ME, Maine, NF, Newfoundland 1. The Gulf of Maine then dry land; 2. The Gulf of St. Lawrence, ditto; 3. The Manicougan Crater, which one scientist thinks was involved in the first opening of the Bay of Fundy. At this time drainage out of New England and Maritime Canada was northeastward to the ocean by way of the ancient St. Lawrence River. Areas then land but now covered by water are dark green. Red dots indicate regions where there have been some major dinosaur fossil finds.

The Cretaceous World at the K-T Event

This is this mornings fun with Photoshop CS. The big meteorite which wiped out most life of earth at the junction between Triassic and Cretaceous time may have come apart on the way down. There is a suggestion that the parts may have landed sequentially 1. in the Siberian area creating massive basalt flows; 2. in the Bay of Fundy leading to massive block faulting all through the area and finally 3. in Mexico with fatal results for many of the species then on earth.

North American Bumps

This map shows a few of them. The best meteorite crater is at Chicxlub (1). Almost as weel known is the 65 kilometer defacement of the planet at Manicougan (2) which landed a little earlier. Finally we have indicated the Scotian Shelf Meteorite which was less impressive in terms of size but left a pretty big scar on the continental shelf south of Lunenburg (3). Probably fewer people have heard that a crash in the Bay of Fundy near Small Point, Maine has been hypothesized (red circle). This one has minor evidence baking it aty this time.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Bluenose II takes on the Pride of Baltimore

Sailing Shedule: She's back from the eastern seaboard of the United States in time for the July 4 Celebration (our Canadian equivalent is July 1; in border towns the celebration lasts all four days). She will be having an Open Deck and selling cruises out of Lunenburg until July 11. Then its off to eastern Canadian ports returning here between Jul 30 and August 2. Again, at home August 26-29; September 7 until the 12th and finally September 10 until winter lay-up.

Lunenburg would be a flatland

Here is the whaleback which I see from my studio window. Today's landscape is based on an ancient peneplain which is essentially featureless. The aesthetically pleasing rounded hills were moulded by glaciers during the past 100,000 years. For more about them have a look at my new Lunenburg pages. Seventy new ones this month. Click the connection at the right just above my picture? Comments and corrections always welcomed!