Plein Air Painting in Charlevoix with Alan J. T. Bain

Alan & Audrey Bain were totally enthralled with their painting trip to Charlevoix this summer. The weather cooperated, which is a big plus for plein air painters,(Alan and Audrey are both plein air painters) and the scenery was spectacular. In the passage below, Alan recounts highlights of their trip and provides a few photos from the trip as well for your enjoyment. (Don't forget to click on photos to enlarge.)

Audrey and I just returned from a 20 day trip to Charlevoix area. We took the good weather with us! Amid local complaints of the worst summer season they have ever had, we had only one afternoon of rain! Friendly people, excellent camping, a chance to revive my stumbling French, and an incredible variety of scenery.








First days at St. Simeon, painting on St. Lawrence shoreline. I did three sketches here, beautiful spot! Then we moved in to Ste. Simeon itself, painted view along the river. Also Baie des Roches, a beautiful area, just turn in circles and paint new paintings! Tide in and tide out, constant change.

Moving west, Cap St. Fidele has an interesting rocky shoreline and a pretty creek at the top of the bay. Pte. Aux Persil is a well known spot, tourists all over! Church and mance are the focal point. The old dock was attractive, I painted it from the adjacent boat launch.

Parc National des Haute Gorges. We visited here but couldn’t go in because we had our dog Brandy with us. So we explored a few bush roads in the vicinity and discovered some absolutely spectacular long views. Northern Charlevoix at its best! We parked at the top of a hill and painted, with what seemed like most of Charlevoix spread out in front of us!

La Malbaie is famous for its long view coastline. We explored the road between La Malbaie and Les Eboulements, back and forth, up and down country roads. 100’s of photographs! We visited the museum in La Malbaie. Their feature was an exhibition of nature painters, Bruno Cote among them, with gorgeous paintings. Not to be missed if you are travelling through!

Baie St. Catherine was our furthest east. I painted a lovely old barn. The owner of the property had Audrey and I set out our paintings and he called out his family to have a look! We shook hands all around, and left the best of friends!

My conclusion? We would go back at the next opportunity! Fall should be spectacular! The people are friendly, helpful and always inviting to painters.

Alan J.T. Bain is an accomplished watercolorist,and elected member of Canadian
Society of Painters in Watercolour(CSPWC) and Canadian Society of Artists (SCA). Alan served as CSPWC Director for Eastern Ontario and President of OWS. His paintings have enjoyed international acceptance and can be found in private and corporate collections across Canada, United States, Scotland, and South Africa.

Recent watercolours by Alan Bain are featured at Tay River Gallery in Perth this fall. A mixed selection of paintings featuring boreal forests and pastoral settings with barns demonstrate his adept brushwork and wonderful use of colour. (See our previous blog post for photo of Alan's work).

Alan has a busy fall schedule. 4 paintings are also featured in Algonquin Visitors' Centre until October 30. On Oct. 25,26 Alan & Audrey will also be showing paintings at Rockland, in the show "Coloris sur la Baie". Oct. 30,31 and Nov.1, Alan will be participating in a paint-out at Adventure lodge, and doing a demonstration in watercolour. Alan and Audrey live near the picturesque St. Lawrence Seaway in Eastern Ontario.