This is an impressionistic oil painting that I created from a picture I took with my Canon Elan II on 35 mm film one summer while on holiday up in Mio Michigan. I have been going camping and canoeing up North in Mio for several years now. I get together with many of my friends and their families. Everyone has great fun. Most of us camp for three days and go canoeing down the Ausable River on Sunday.

We rented a canoe from one of two providers in the area, packed our coolers, launched our canoes, and enjoyed the great scenery and adventure that only the Ausable River can provide.

This is the canoe we used when we went down the Ausable River one warm summer day. We beached our canoes and had a shoreline lunch. I had my camera with me and went exploring for great pictures of the area. I snapped this picture while waiting for lunch to be prepared.

I have so many great memories of the good times I have had up here in Mio. I wanted to create a painting from one of the pictures that I took to remind me of those wonderful days. The weather was ideal that year and allowed me to have a near perfect deep rich blue skyline. This is the shoreline lunch picture I chose for the creation of this painting.

I ran an 8 x 10 print and decided to create a painting of this scene later that fall. This is one of my personal favorite oil paintings because it is so rich with memories of time I spent up there.