I got to absorb Ontario’s lakes and the Canadian shield in the Tobermory area, Pinery, Killbear, Presquile Provincial parks through my son’s eyes.

Kilbear Provincial Park surprised me with the pink colored granite of the Canadian Shield and the “Group of Seven”pines perched up on top, reminding me of Killarney. It has mixed hardwood and softwood forests and lots of wildlife. Every morning we were greeted by at least one deer on our campsite.

The park provides habitat for the threatened eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake, Ontario’s only venomous snake. In fact there were many ”Please Brake for Snakes” signs along the park’s roadways.

Bruce Peninsula Provincial park, in the heart of a World Biosphere Reserve, is a place of global significance. The rare limestone barrens and massive, rugged cliffs, inhabited by thousand year old cedar trees, overhang the crystal clear waters of Georgian Bay.

Pinary Provincial Park is home to the unique habitat of freshwater coastal dunes which we had to climb over to reach the shores of Lake Huron. The park also protects almost 50% of the remaining Oak Savanna in the world.

Presqu’ile Provincial Park or literally “almost island” was named by Samuel De Champlain on his second expedition. The park area, or tombolo, was formed when a limestone island was connected to the mainland by a sand spit.

The park’s location on Lake Ontario makes it a perfect stop over for migrating birds along the Michigan Flyway.

What a trip! I have to admit I hesitated when I got offered the opportunity to go to the Canadian Arctic with
Adventure Canada this fall. I knew my two and half year old son travelled well, but I wasn’t sure how he would handle the closed quarters of a ship for almost two weeks. Then there was the question of how much I would get out of the trip; watching him while trying to absorb this new landscape and culture.

He did amazingly. I on the other hand found a lot of new inspiration in the new to me moody landscape of Baffin Island and Greenland, the many lectures on board of the Ocean Nova and encouters with various artists like
Andrew Qappik and Mattiusi Iyaituk, musician J P Hoe, as well as many local stone carvers, printmakers and tapestry artists, giving me new appreciation for Inuit art and the land that inspires its creation.

The trip started with a flight from Toronto to Kangerlussuaq in Greenland, down the beautiful 168 km long Söndre Strömfjord, which is one of the longest fjords in the world, Evighedsfjorden towards Kangaamiut and the world’s smallest capital Nuuk.

Leaving the coast of Greenland the 1400 mile journey continued across Davis Strait towards Nunavut and along Canada’s largest: Baffin Island’s south coast, crossing over to Douglas Harbour in Nunavik in Quebec and ending in Iqaluit

Throughout the journey I experienced many firsts;  the rolling waves sometimes swaying the ship quite violently, the northern lights, polar bears, caribou, hikes through the fall covered tundra brimming with blueberries, scrambles up and down the arctic coast with my son on my back, a birthday zodiac ride through Savage Islands amongst icebergs, colorful coastal towns of Pangnirtung, Kimmirut, misty sunrises, Inuksuk in Mallikjuaq Territorial Park and Inuit archeological site covered with bones and antlers in Kinngait (Cape Dorset).

Exploring Kinngait  and Mallikjuaq Territorial Park with John Houston

I have been coming to Newfoundland since 2001 when there was an artist residency in Pouch Cove, run by James Baird whom I was introduced to by artist friends Dan Hughes and Richard Stipl. There was a great studio space in an old restaurant building right on a rock overlooking crashing waves and the foggy coast. It is now James’ home. You could watch the thin band of light appear over the horizon at sunrise around 4:30, then go back to sleep, then wake up to whales spouting water a few hours later right in front of that same window.

When the residency closed down I continued to return to Pouch Cove, painting at an old schoolhouse which he had also converted to studios and later at a small cottage a few minutes away, which once used to be a cod liver oil factory, and now stands alone at the start of the Bruce Trail. The window view inspired me to do a number of live sketches of the ocean which later rturned into studio paintings

This year I had an opportunity to share my love for this province with my son and my father as well as exhibit a body of work titled Ode to the Sea in st.John’s, based on the bond I developed with the Atlantic Ocean.

Newfoundland continues to be an everlasting inspiration to me as a painter and despite so many beautiful places I have been which could easily rival it continues to be my favourite place to spend summer and fall months.

Mrs. Muhmood, the principal greeted me recognizing me from years back, and showed me the new building which now houses the art department… not the single art classroom I remember.

The sand covered square I used to walk to school over is now a park which my father designed. The city is a lot greener and the sea front area developed to the point of non recognition but the ochre colors of the sand storms remain distinct, the ocean salty and warm and the Mullah’s call to prayer every four hours still echo through the city bringing me back to my fond childhood years in the Middle East.

My favorite time to go is at Christmas when I really feel like I am returning to my roots amongst the family that I still have in Poland. One of my favorite places to visit is the cemetery, very much a Polish tradition and part of everyday life.
Two of my grandparents are buried in Krakow and two in Bochnia, and part of the Christmas visit is to light candles and lay flowers on the family graves like ever other Pole.

Cuba was the first destination really that was more of a vacation than a painting inspiration. Still, I found the architecture in Old Havana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site right in line with my interest in old doors and door series I started in Nepal.

It was my last “alone” trip for a long time, as I was 7 months pregnant. Contemplating how I would be able to keep traveling in the future with my son, I enjoyed this “transitional” time in a new place, which I found to be very family oriented and the people to be extremely respectful to pregnant women.

I spent most of the summer in northern BC and Yukon, going between Atlin, BC , Whitehorse for check ups, for this was the summer I was pregnant.

The landscape was breathtaking, especially of Kluane National Park in september with yellow ochre dominating the landscape. I painted a lot of plein air paintings under the influence of Domink Modlinski, which was a first for me, and so also quite challenging. I wanted to paint bigger and to produce studio paintings I set up a mosquito tent behind the cabin where I could have an outdoor fume free studio. It worked quite well and was the first that I was able to paint the subject matter of my immediate surroundings on a large scale. I subsequently brought back with me a whole body of work based on the expansive vistas of fall colors.

I explored the shore of Alaska in the summer of 2008; a two week trip on a motor boat, with two other artists. We started in Juneau and travelled to through various inlets and bays, eventually out along the south coast of Alaska stopping in small communities along the way, mostly to gas up and shower from time to time.

Being on a wildlife photographer’s boat we spent a lot of time seeking out various animals in the moody misty landscape. We  watched and listened to the unbelievably beautiful music of humpback whales while bubble feeding, off the bow of the boat at Couverdan Island. We followed them along their feeding path, at one point moving the boat just in time to witness their surfacing right in the wake of our boat, about 5 meters away. I could literally see the baleen in their open mouths.

In Taylor Bay I experienced a sea otter’s day from an inflatable boat. In Freshwater bay I spotted two grizzlies salmon fishing in the mouth of a river. Later on we got way too close for comfort to a grizzly with her cub and watched her weaning. In fact one spot we landed on was covered with bear footprints and bear scat, lots of it everywhere!

From Usuaia, the capital city of Tierra del Fuego Province (Argentina), commonly regarded as the southernmost city in the world, I saw glaciers in Beagle channel so blue they too seemed hard to believe. I trekked on Perito Moreno Glacier, one of the very few still advancing glaciers. I arrived in El Chalten, in Chile with my friend Dawn with our tent ready to camp just as almost a meter of snow covered the ground. We still hiked up to Mount Fitz Roy and just as we reached it’s foot the clouds momentarily revealed it’s which quickly disappeared again.

Each one quite different and stunning; Jacques-Cartier with its winding rivers,  Grands-Jardins with its colorful expanses of burnt forest, Hautes-Gorges vistas from high up elevations and winds that almost blew me off the mountain, Saquenay with its gorgeous fjord. I did a number of small vista paintings based on this trip, in preparation for a larger format, along with a whole body of fall paintings which I exhibited at Canada House Gallery in 2008.