Friday, November 9, 2007

A new open comment social group

Acrylic paint is a fine art medium which was introduced and first retailed in North America during the 20th Century. It was heralded as a non-toxic, light-resistant substitute for oil paints or as a watercolour substitut, possessing waterproof characteristic on drying. The earliest adopters, including Rod Mackay, were frustrated by the fact that its unique characteristics went largely unrecognized.

Many oil painters experimenting with the new medium criticized it for having unstable pigments and
defying subtle brushwork since it dried very rapidly. The confirmed watercolours who tried it usually railled at this same defect, and hated its tendency to darken rather than lighten upon drying. Many of these problems have been overcome in the past five decades since acrylics were introduced but the reputations of youth are a long time sloughing away!

The vibrant colours allowed by a plastic medium were especially suitable to the need of abstract expressionists who put them to good use in New York City. The Mexican muralists also found them attractive because of their non-toxic nature, resistance to sunlight and intensities of colour matching their country. In point of fact, the traditional media of oil and watercolour are better suited to the muted landscapes of Europe than those of North and South America. Any careful observer our our skies note that they can be naturally intense and best represented by this modern medium.

Interestingly, acrylics were imported from America into England and it was the Brits who first chafed at the fact that acrylics were seen as country cousins of oils and watercolours. "The National Acrylic Painters' Association evolved from the concept that acrylic paint is still largely unrecognized in its own right. Oil and watercolor paints started from the same premise, with the origin and the history of each giving them distinct characteristics and goals, as well as their own organizations and societies."

Ken Hodgson founded that group in 1985. Adrian Henri, an acclaimed international painter and poet, served as president from 1986 until 1991 and was succeeded by the present President, painter, writer and broadcaster, Alwyn Crawshaw. That particular socity spawned the International Acrylic Painters' Association, which is based in the United States. At that, there have not been many gains in the direction of anything resembling the "Royal Societies" organized on behalf of watercolourists and oil painters in times, which now seems far from the present realities of the art world.

Acrylic manufactures must have a growing market if one believes their propaganda. Winsor& Newton says that its use has "steadily increased" and that they now produce colours "specifically designed for acrylic painting." We suspect that acrylics remain under utilized EBay Canada is currently offering a lot of paintings for auction and these. Their statistics show that the medium is a little in advance of the watercolour but the oil painting medium is still king by a ratio of about 10:1. That was about the ratio for the painters in Domtar Agenda Show in Montreal and Toronto back in 1987. Twenty years ago, Rod had very little company in that horde of oil affectionados.

Art Educator David Pyle has this to say: "Early acrylics weren't without their problems. There were justifiable concerns with stabiliyty and color change. But, thanks to some very dedicated and skilled chemists in labs across the world, those issues have been all but eliminated. Modern acrylics offer great stability and clarity, and can be used with confidence that they're going to be around for the long haul."

Comment here or visit one of the links at right

Thursday, November 8, 2007

A new social group

Acrylics Forever

The first commercial water-based acrylic paints suitable for fine art was trademarked Liquitex. The author of this site has used these paints since their introduction in the mid 1950's. They are fast-drying, water-soluble but permanent and insoluble after drying. Although the first acrylics were manufactured in Germany in 1902 they were first marketed and made popular by North American artists.

Rod was trained in the use of watercolours and oil paints but only one of his teachers made the transition to acrylics, and that was not while he was an art student. As a result he was largely self-taught with a bit of help from a text by someone named Woody Russell and the propaganda sheets issued by acrylic paint companies.

In this past half century Rod has invented some techniques for their use, which can be seen by clicking a link to his website seen at right. On the other hand, he still has a lot to learn, and would appreciate any input on this new forum. You are invited to visit and leave comments, particularly those aimed at forwarding the work of painter's in acrylic. What works for you?

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Seen just prior to the big storm.

Today there are still 700 homes without power and 230 linemen still at work including volunteers from New Brunswick, Quebec and Maine.

As we understand it these are all in rural areas where the greatest damage occurred. In one case it has been mentioned that it required five truckloads of men to clear downed trees from the lines of a single Nova Scotia power client. It has, again, been promised that full services will be restored by the end of the day.

I'm going out to look at the waterfront again. Last night same a minor storm hit Lunenburg.

The wind and the frost

Failed to destroy these plants which are located right at the waters edge in Lunenburg.

That does not mean

that some folks did not experience a harrowing night on the water. Here on the Railway Wharf we see the remains of one of the Lady Janet's stern lines. That yellow one is pretty thick.

For a better overview of damage throughout Nova Scotia, go to this blog-site: Awesome still and video images. websitehttp://hurricane-noel-nova-scotia-damage.blogspot.com/2007_11_06_archive.html

Things worked out better this time

as opposed to the situation with Huirricane Juan because a lot of small boats were pulled from the water and stationsed, like these, well up on the shore.

Fisheries Musem Fence

lost to the storm. It was pretty substantial and not a solid surface.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Some folk treated Post Tropical Storm Noel

as a non-event. Depends where you were and what you saw. Ruth and I would not have wanted one km/hr more wind than Lunenburg got and Rod saw signs of damage at the tide line!

People at Queensland (near Halifax) awoke to this view of their former beach and highway. At Beach Meadows, Queens County, a trout fish farm was destroyed to the tune of $1 million dollars. Lobster fisherman were very concerned that their livelihood may have been affected. Peter Duffy of the Chronicle Herald reported the storm as "a bit of a letdown..." until iit started tearing siding from his home.

At West Berlin a resident said "This is worse than Juan for sure." That community found its wharves and shore buildings littered with seaweed. "We came down and all got discouraged and went home."

The Empty Berth

The "Lady Janet" and the "Spanish Gypsy" were both absent from the berth where they were exposed to Post Tropical Storm Noel a few nights back. The absence of the former is of interest since we have never seen her under power since moving to a place directly above her more than a year ago. The "Picton Castle" is still in place but aswarm with crew this afternoon. An examination of the Railway Wharf revealed frayed mooring lines still in place on the wharf.

Locally, the "Lunenburg Progress Enterprise" took note of three downed trees in Hillcrest Cemetery, at Tannery Row, Green Street and Prince Street, but entirely missed the power outage in town during the middle of the night. They did note outages in neighbouring communities, but their reporters seemed to have slept more soundly than we did, and they gave little press to the effects on the marine community. A radio interview, the day after the storm, seems to have been missed: It recounted the unpleasant night spent by a ship owner trying to hold his craft in the wind for several long hours.

As late as yesterday afternoon

Clouds continued to lower in Lunenburg and to the north east it continued to blow and rain.

This morning we are told that there are still 7,000 homes without power and Windsor High School is still in the dark. At the height of things, there were many, many more cancellations and no school, particularly to the east and northeast of this place. A portion of the road was washed away at Queensland and shoulders were eliminated at Peggy's Cove, Lawrencetwon and Musquodobit. Pointr Pleasant Park in Halifax was not decoimated as it was when Juan struck (70% of trees downed) but this time 200 additional trees were uprooted.

Officially, winds at Lunenburg reached a mere 109 kilometres/hour, but the storm surge had waves breaking over local wharves along their entire lengths. There was a power outage and several large trees were felled. Like Saint John and Woodstock, New Brunswick, Lunenburg maintains its own local electric power lines and repair facilities and these folk seem to have been ready.. Today there is no sign of a wood chip anywhere and the streets are certainly clean of debris

Monday, November 5, 2007

Our closest neighbour's Hallowe'en Lanterns

survived this storm because they were on the north side of the house.

While some inland residents were disappointed in Noels performance "On the coast, the storm was "more dramatic than Juan." - The Daily News. Halifax.

We concur. At Indian Harbour about 4:30 am a resident noted that the wind was "so fierce it tore stairways off properties." Carole MacInnis also noted that "We definitely had higher water, so it was really quite frightening. Eben Fry, a resident of this same community said that "It looks like the ocean picked up the road and moved it a few feet." The highest gust recorded at Metro was 135 kn/hr.

At Queensland an entire beach was swept out to sea and at Dartmouth an elderly couple lost their trailer roof to the high winds. At Peggy's Cove an intoxicated man had to be rescued by the RCMP after venturing too near the surf. At the time surf was breaking as inland over the restaurant parking lot (which is far back from the coast). In the morning another adventurer had to be rescued when he fell on the rocks.

Post Tropical Storm Noel, November 5

Dawn: The first day the temperature dipped below zero overnight. That is not snow on the golf course or the buildings but hoar frost. If you don't know what that is, congratulations. You are blessed.

AS for Noel: the hurricane blacked out 170,000 Nova Scotian homes. There were only 43,000 places affected in New England. Fifty thousand of these were in Halifax. Local electricians were backed by volunteers from Quebec and Maine and it is expected the lights will be on everywhere by late Tuesday. The QE II Hospital was forced to operate on backup generators and stoplights were extinguished at four places within Metro. It took 100 fire service volunteers to clear downed trees and branches in Halifax.

Mike Sutton of Halifax had his BMW damaged by Hurricane Juan and got some new dents and scratches when the same tree downloaded on his car in this storm. "It's a nice little neighbourhood except for that the trees that keep falling."

Sunday, November 4, 2007

High Noon

Same place, November 4, 2007. One half hour later: intense bright sunshine.

Still have not been out of the house to look at Nova Scotia, but suspect there must be some damage.

By 9 am the weather was beginning to clear

in spite of weather advisories to the contrary the weather did improve. The "Lady Janet" survived as did the "Spanish Lady", but we did see a number of trucks congregating at the wharf last night.

The power went off at 4 am when a transformer ended its life in spectacular fashion to the north of our place. Understand that it was restored four hours later, but we were asleep at the time.

Still a lot of wind at this point in time. We have not been out to assess the damage. As it is Sunday, the Canadian news gathering services are largely inactive.

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, ca. 4 am

Looking out the back window from our "Lunenburg Bump". Things got violent starting about 9 pm, November 3.

The digital camera eye is not as acute as the human eye. We understand that New Englanders were disappointed with the effects of post tropical storm Noel, but it screamed in over Nova Scotia with gusts to 160 km/hr (hurricane force winds). Should have taken some video, but, not having slept, settled for this single grab shot from the second storey. In our province our old house shook, rattled and rolled and the mattress acted like a water bed although it consists of coiled springs.

Spray hitting the Railway Wharf climbed to 90 feet, judged by the hgeight of that ship, and the "Spanish Lady" which was within the Picton Castle enclosure was bobbing like a cork. We were amazed to find her still afloat in the morning. The Picton Castles timbers were bending in the breeze.