The trek for this painting covered two kilometres, along a cornfield, through a cattail marsh, alder thicket, cattail marsh, across a beaver canal, through a black cherry & alder forest, and into the centre of the Mer Bleu Bog, protected by an arm of the sandy Dolman Ridge, east of Ottawa. We arrived at one of several small round ponds, sky mirrors in the bog mat, dark, and immeasurably deep. Opened by practice bombs during World War II, they have never entirely closed in.
Nearby Sphagnum hummocks are 20 or 30 cm above bog level, very bushy & shaded with Leatherleaf,which is now in bloom with strings of little white bells hangining from the tips of branches. Dwarfed Tamaracks are leafing out with tufts of tender, misty-green needles. The sphagnum is long and soft and green/gold/green, with spears of Maianthemum poking through it, some with tiny knot of white flower buds begining. Last year's cranberries are large, tender and juicy. The squelching bog mat seems to be trying to suck the soles off my old sneakers, and the bog heaves gently like the belly of a breathing beast. I avoid breaking brittle clusters of red-lipped Pitcher Plants and rue the boggy churning of each of my steps.
The Art of
Aleta Karstad
Mer Bleu Bog
"Mer Bleu" (old bomb crater in Mer Bleu Bog, east of Ottawa, Ontario - 10 May 2001) 8x10, oil on cedar shingle
bckcdb@istar.ca