Storm Clouds

Title: Storm Clouds ~ 8x10 acrylic on canvas board.

As a fishing guide I spend a lot of time on the water and have experienced a lot of stormy weather. I can remember a storm when I was on a fishing trip on Lake Superior. We were in a canoe fishing for speckeled (brook) trout on a small inland lake and not very far from shore. The wind picked up and storm clouds started moving very fast in our direction. We picked up our lines and paddled very quickly to shore turned the canoe over and crawled under it. The storm only lasted for ten minutes or so...(a summer storm) but gave us quite a thrill! This painting is my memory of the sky and water!

Listen to Don's music here at http://www.doncharbonneau.com

Good Friday 2009/ Canoes and Portage Days

Title: Canoes and Portage Days (Red Canoe Series) 8x10 acrylic on canvas board/ created on Good Friday 2009 with poem.

Canoes and Portage Memories

Floating silently on this river
Dreaming of days yet to come
With gentle persuasion this current
takes me to places
I have no memory of
Only this beauty is familiar
And I want to remember


This river has bends and
Small bays that sometimes
Hold this fragile craft

and keep it from moving
for what seems like an eternity
And then suddenly
The wind picks up
And moves this canoe
Along
To continue on it’s journey
Of dreams

Birch trees clinging to
Rocky shores
Seem brave
And unafraid of a future
That has no tomorrow
Existing in an endless day
In this natural world
Filled with only a moment
To be cherished forever

There’s a waterfall up ahead
Another portage is waiting
Carrying my precious and fragile craft
On this trail

I remember
A portage I took in another
Time
And pause to reflect and understand
That this is the life

I have chosen.

Don Charbonneau Good Friday /2009

http://www.doncharbonneau.com/ for Don's music

puchase this painting by contacting doncharbonneau@sympatico.ca

Lake Superior Coastline

Title: " Somewhere on the Coastline" 8x10'' acrylic on canvas

There are many places on the Lake Superior coastline that celebrate it's beauty. This is a scene I painted from memory this past winter...somewhere on the coastline.

Superior Wind (from Songs from the Coastline/Safe Harbour)

There’s a wind blowing on shore tonight
Waves will be rolling high by the morn
Superior wind blowing in
Mishepezhieu I can see your form
I guess I’ll be staying here for awhile

I’ve been here nine days and you're still blowing strong
It’s cold on this island
But it’s warm in my heart
There’s a magic on this water
There’s a spirit on this air
Superior wind blowing in
Mishepezhieu I can see your form
I guess I’ll be staying for awhile
I don’t mind staying for awhile

With my eyes closed I can still see your stars
Silver birch you're glowing in my mind
There’s a power in this stone
There’s a power in these trees
Superior wind blowing in my soul
Mishepezhieu I can see your form
I guess I’ll be staying for awhile
Don’t mind staying for awhile
I guess I’ll be staying for my life.



Listen to the song Superior Wind here at http://www.doncharbonneau.com/

Purchase this painting by contacting doncharbonneau@sympatico.ca

Lighthouse Lake Superior and The Mystic Isle

Title (1): Lighthouse Lake Superior 5x7''acrylic on wood panel

Title (2): The Mystic Isle 5x7" acrylic on wood panel

I painted these two small acrylics from an photograph I found in the Lake Superior Magazine.( The photo was an add and made no reference to the location.) In the photograph the sail boat is actually sailing past the lighthouse on a channel leading out to Lake Superior. I think if I owned a boat like this I would be tempted to name it the "Mystic Isle".

Michipicoten Island on Lake Superior has been referred to the "Mystic Isle" or the Floating Island. There is a lookout situated on the Sandy Beach road (6 miles East of Wawa) where on some days you can barely see this huge island which is situated about 50 miles offshore...but on some days the island is looming in the distance and seems only miles away. A few members of the Canadian artists Group of Seven painted in this area in the early to mid 1900's . I've written some songs about their travels and inspiration to this part of Lake Superior.

Mystic Isle (Song Fragment)

..."Blue skies

waves are rolling high ...
I’m on solid ground all around
I’m on solid ground all around
Going back there some day wait and see
To that island on this inland sea

Blue skies

waves are rolling high...
No trace I leave on my passage through time
In my fragile craft to my destiny
On my journey to this mystic isle
Going back there some day wait and see
To that island on this inland sea"...

Listen to this song on my website http://www.doncharbonneau.com/

Purchase these paintings by contacting doncharbonneau@sympatico.ca

Yellow Birch

Title: Yellow Birch 8x10" acrylic on canvas.



Song Fragment / The Luckiest Man Alive

..."I’m running late on this river again
Big old moon shining bright
Feels like I’m the luckiest man alive.
Silver birch on that other shore
all lit up like candles in row
lighting my way home.
I swear by God there’s been many a night
Where I’ve just reached up and touched a star
and brought it back to her world.
One of these days I’ll just keep going north
I’ll stay on this water till I reach
The land I’ve been dreaming of..."

Hear this song on Don's website http://www.doncharbonneau.com/

Changing Landscape

Title: Twin Birches / Whitefish Lake 12x16" acrylic on canvas.


Changing Landscape/Poem Story Fragment

It's going on ten years now since the summer of the big wind. I was out on Manitowick Lake with a fishing party when the sky turned an eerie colour of purple, pink and black.

The brisk south west wind that was blowing just died right off...something just didn't feel right.

Everything went absolutely quiet and it felt like something big and terrible was coming. I'm glad I listened to my instinct and got off the lake that afternoon.

Less than fifteen minutes after reaching camp a hurricane force wind came to visit and forever changed the landscape...ripping out trees that had been around for well over a hundred years.

I had a couple of new guests to take out fishing the next day. Once out on the lake every thing seemed normal compared to the chaos being experienced back at camp. Over sixty mature Jack pine and Black Spruce trees had fallen on the property. Fortunately, all the cabins had been saved except for one boat which had a huge 100 year old Black Spruce fall in it's lap.

Power had been knocked out and would remain so for three or four more days creating an atmosphere of old time camping at the lodge.

Heading north up the lake about seven miles from camp I looked for a familiar land mark that I normally used as a reference point for new guest. This was a good hole for early morning fishing. I couldn't believe my eyes...the two huge twin silver birch trees that looked like a big white "V" that had stood forever it seems...were blown over and laying with their crowns drowned in the waters of Whitefish Lake.

My soul's landscape is now forever change

I know they are gone

But yet, I always look in their direction

and see those trees in my mind's eye

forever etched in my memory where they live.

I don't stop and show this fishing hole anymore

It makes me sad.

I still mourn the loss of my two friends

I'm sure the pickerel still feed there.

Shikwanka River

Title: Shikwanka River / 8x10 Acrylic on canvas board.

The Shikwanka River is part of the Whitefish and Manitowick lake system . I guide on this river starting in the early spring and well into late summer. This river empties into the Michipicoten River system which flows into Lake Superior.
The location on this painting is one of my favourite spots to fish for post spawn walleyes in late May and early June. I painted this landscape using only a small palette knife.(I did use a small brush for the red canoe!)

Shikwanka River (Storyand Poem Fragment)

I'm up here early for this time of year
the pickerel are just coming off the spawning beds.
Slowly making their way down river
resting and feeding on minnows.
Another cycle completed
Another cycle just beginning.

There are still traces of snow on the north banks
sheltered (shaded) by mature Jack pine and Black Spruce.
Memories of winter cling to these young days of May
but not for much longer.

I came upon a young bull moose
swimming across the river this morning
he was heading for Sand Creek.
I approached him and shut off my motor.
I listened to his breathing and gently spoke to him
assuring him I meant no harm.
I watched him climb the bank
and instead of disappearing in the bush
he shook off water and turned to look at me
He seemed intent on listening to what I was saying.
Another memory.