Canadian Rockies-Grizzlies

Happy New Year!

Another page turns, another year passes. The other night I was with friends on New Years and someone asked, "What are your resolutions for the New Year"?  I had just  come home a few hours earlier after travelling for 6 hours from one of our lodges, so I had some time to think about the New Year and my resolutions. My reply back was, "Be Nicer, be Kinder, to family, self, friends...to people I do not know". That is my resolution, to make a difference in this world of ours. The image here is of a family of grizzlies that my family and I saw in June, 2012. My goal is to be kinder to their world, and hopefully I won't see them again because they are playing in the alpine, far from our eyes and ears and living their lives.

Enjoy the journey.

Bob Krysak

Jan. 2, 2013

Mt. Rundle Together-Canadian Rockies

I am fortunate to live in a small mountain town, where every day you walk down the street and see friends and stop to chat. As I walk or drive thru town I always see other people I do not know, over and over again. You do not know them, but they are familiar,  you nod, smile, and think how happy they look. There is a person who I have seen in my town the past few years who is always smiling, always happy, She is a caregiver, and on any given day she will have a variety of different kids in tow, laughing, giggling, on to the next adventure. She also works as a server in a local restaurant. I recently heard she has Cancer. She has not told many of her friends, thats just the way she is I've been told. But some of her friends have learned the doctors have told her she can not work with kids and can not work as a server....her immune system is very weak because of chemo. Her friends have organized a fund raiser for her to pay the bills, and I decided to create this painting for her cause.

Mt. Rundle Together

Watercolour on Canvas

24" x 36"

$500
SOLD

Mt. Assiniboine-Second Layer-Canadian Rockies

I have been having discussions with different people about life today and life in the time of Michelangelo, Davinci, Picasso and all of the amazing artists of those times. Someone said to me "They had exactly the same hours in a day as we do, the same amount of time". I agreed with this, but also disagreed. Today we do have the same hours in the day as the Masters, but not the same time. They did not have to deal with 80 emails a day at work and 20 at home. They did not have to text, answer cell phones etc. I guess I don't have to deal with it all if I decide not to.

They also did not have the iPad, where you can take a picture and then bring it into your studio and use it as your study image.
This photo was taken in my studio, showing my paints, the second layer of a painting and my iPad with my study image.
The challenge today is to use technology wisely, to be creative.......but to also keep creating.
As always, I am enjoying the journey.
Bob Krysak

Mt. Assiniboine Sepia-Canadian Rockies

As the days are getting colder and Winter approaches I find more time to spend in my studio. Lately I have been working with watercolour paints on canvas. You first prep the canvas with a white gesso coating that allows the paint to settle on the canvas. After a few coats the canvas is ready to be painted. It is more challenging than traditional paper as the paint initially does not sink in so you have to plan your washes and level of colour in an area carefully. I love the challenge, as well as experimenting with larger surfaces with different shapes.

Mt. Assiniboine Sepia was painted with a mixture of sepia and ultramarine blue.

12" x 36"

$350

Canadian Rockies-Mt. Assiniboine

In early July my son and I were invited to Mt. Assiniboine  Lodge for a few days of hiking and adventure. In some areas we were walking on a meter of snow, and there was still ice on the lake. One afternoon a squall blew in over the peaks and it snowed for around an hour. An interesting start to summer. This painting was created just after the storm began to ease off.

Assiniboine Storm
Sepia
11.5 x 8 inches $100

Canadian Rockies

I'm back.
It's been 10 months since I last put a post on this blog. I've been on a personal journey, trying to find myself and my place in this space we call life.
In the past year I have had a few events that have rocked my soul, forced me to look at who I am, what I do, what I want to create. We are all on a journey, and mine is telling me that I love to create, to paint, to be.

This journey has taken me this past year to Maui, Mt. Assiniboine, Tofino, the Bugaboos and many other places. In the next few months I will share my journey with you thru photography and painting. From my own photos I will recreate the same image in pencil, pen and water-colour.
I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I have.
Bob Krysak

Canadian Rockies-Lynx Track

It was a beautiful Fall day in the Rockies today. My family and I were hiking up Marble Canyon in Kootenay Park, there was a bite in the air and the sky was that soft blue with the sun beaming in at a lower angle. We were hiking up thru the 2003 Kootenay burn, where thousands of trees were torched, their black, shiny remains towering above us.

We stopped by a mountain stream to have a snack and enjoy our surroundings. My son and nephew walked up the stream not far from where I was sitting, marvelling in the new ice that was forming at the waters edge. At the same time they both saw animal tracks in the ice, and asked me to come look at them. My partner in life also saw the tracks and thought they were cat like. As I got up from the log I was sitting on and moved towards the stream I stopped.........there below me, glistening in the sun atop a rock, was a paw print. After looking at it for a few moments I took a picture, and when we got home I compared the picture I took to an image in Ben Gadd's mountain journal. We had surprised a Lynx, a member of the cat family, who had probably stopped to get a drink out of the stream.

We are so fortunate to be a part of this environment and share it with so many creatures. As we were walking back down the valley heading home I stopped to reflect on where we were and what we had seen. As I looked up the mountain slopes I saw two mountain goats perched on a ridge high above the valley.

In a few months we will be skiing up this valley and it will be great to experience all the adventure the mountains bring to our world.