Working Hard or Hardly Working

photo © Nicki Ault, 2016

I seem to be having a bit of a difficult time getting into a schedule at the studio, but this past week I spent some quality time there, if not quantity. Some great progress was made and I am anxious to get back and continue working on my canvas of the Kingsmere River. Hopefully this weekend. You can see my chaotic table set up with paint, brushes, palette and photo reference and little 6x6 study on the easel. The computer was there acting as a slight distraction when the WiFi was actually working (darn Facebook), but mostly adding inspiration to my work by playing a great list of music. I hold out hope that March will be my month to work hard because so far this year I feel like I have been hardly working.

Kingsmere River, P.A.N.P.

Kingsmere River

6 x 6"

oil on board

© Nicki Ault, 2016

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/nicki-ault/kingsmere-river-panp/462304

A view down the Kingsmere while hiking the trail alongside this part of the river. The relatively large sandy cliff in the distance was a great find- I immediately knew I wanted to paint it.

I admit I was initially a bit nervous about bears this far from the Waskesiu town site, but it was surprisingly busy with hikers, campers and fishermen the day we were there. No bears, no wolves... just a nutty little squirrel scampering around as we walked.

Kingsmere River

Kingsmere River

6 x 6"

oil on board

© Nicki Ault, 2015
http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/nicki-ault/kingsmere-river/40609
sold

My family and I hiked several trails in the Waskesiu area this summer. The Kingsmere River Trail was interesting for the kids to see because for part of it there is a long portage with rail tracks and little carts for canoes and small boats. The Kingsmere River Trail is not a loop, the way you walk in is the way you walk out. We turned around at Southend where there were actually several people camping... lots of canoes on the shoreline of Kingsmere Lake (where the river leads). Slightly away from the camping area was a tall structure with a platform at the top for food storage and a hinged ladder that could easily be moved to and from the platform. Seeing this made me happy that the kids wanted to get a bear bell for our hikes! There must be a name for this structure, but I don't know what it is. Anyway, we did not encounter any wildlife other than an aggressive male deer who did a fake-out lunge at our van as we passed him. It freaked us all out- I have never seen an animal do that and I was glad we weren't biking when we passed him.