o canada

Daisy shot this photo in an underpass on our way to a ferry in St. John, New Brunswick, as
we made a brisk loop in down east Canada to visit friends and family in early August.

Even on vacation, my radar was fixed on whales. I sketched this on the 3 hour trip across the Bay of Fundy.

I drew from a large poster of whales, awaiting a talk about the Fundy aquarium ecozone, in which humpbacks are the most common whale species. Brian, from the New Brunswick Museum, gave an informative talk, and passed around several samples of baleen, the brushy teeth-like parts that line a humpback’s mouth.

We had hopes of spotting whales, but alas, did not. Back inside again, the cabin was filled with sleepy passengers lulled by the ocean. I drew this dreaming lady.

Once we landed in Digby, Nova Scotia, we headed up the picturesque French coast, past churches and lighthouses, coves and pastures. We landed at Nicole d’Entremont’s, a part-time Peaks Islander whose ancestors founded the village of Pubnico. I did a quick sketch of her while she told stories.

She gave us a grand tour of the area, beginning with birthplaces of great great great grandfathers and then the startlingly modern Pubnico Point Wind Farm. We’d seen the turbines from a distance, but

standing beneath their immensity brought a certain elation.

 

From there, we headed to Hogan turf, over in Young’s Cove, where my great great grandfather, William Roland Hogan, was born in 1839. My cousins Peg and Tom are now the stewards of the cabin build by my grandfather Roland Bell Hogan in 1934. Good news: now there is electricity and running water inside. Outside, torrents of rain cascaded down Hogan Brook.

 

The day’s weather had kept us mostly inside, perfect for sketching Peg and Tom’s gentle dog, Max.

 

As we journeyed home on a big ferry and then another small one, I felt deep satisfaction in touching the family legacy of place, with wonder and gratitude.

Daisy and I immediately busied ourselves with participating in the Fifth Maine’s annual Art on the Porch. Any coincidence this was her newest piece?