Missing The North

Distant View

 Circumstances were such that I have been unable to travel "north" this autumn. To alleviate my sadness about this, I have been going through photographs from previous painting trips. I decided to do some sketches with pen, brush and ink.
Distant View was done directly with a brush and ink with no preliminary drawing. The sliver of lake in the distance is a sight that always makes me happy and hopeful.

Tumbling Water

For Tumbling Water I did a preliminary pen sketch and then completed it with brush work. It is based on a photo taken near Sault St. Marie.

Reflections

Reflections was done directly with brush and ink. The photo for this is one I used to make a watercolour painting several years ago. I find the line of the tree tops very appealing and will likely paint this again sometime.

Doing these sketches has helped me to remember wonderful painting trips to the north with good friends, to be greatful for those opportunities and to look forward to future painting trips.

Landon Library: watercolour, pen and ink

I've been walking through Wortley Village with my friend Cheryl Radford, sketching and taking photographs and looking for inspiration. Along with my friends, Len Hughes and Amelia Husnik, Cheryl and I will be having a show of Wortley based art in November of 2013. It may seem a long way off , but time has a way of flying past so quickly these days, that it seemed like a good idea to start looking for ideas.The piece above was done in the studio and is based on one of the photos I took. I drew the scene and then washed it with several layers of watercolour and finished it with pen and ink.

The second sketch was done on location, around 5:30, sitting on the steps at the front door of one of the churches in Wortley Village. It's a sketch of a house on Elmwood Ave. The view of the house was partially obstructed by trees, but I enjoyed sketching it anyway. This time I used watersoluble ink and water.

St. Patrick's Cathedral

View from Clarence Street side of Victoria Park

A Gallery Painting Group paint out took place this morning. I knew that it was going to be very hot so I decided not to lug my painting gear and instead work in my sketchbook with my Lamy Safari pen and watersoluble ink. There are some problems with perspective here which need to be worked on, but I think once they have been sorted this should be the beginning of an interesting painting. I am attending a perspective workshop on Friday and Saturday and I'll bring this along for suggestions.

Architectural Details Blackfriars Estate Condominiums

 This heritage home in a parklike setting along the Thames River was the location for two Gallery Painting Group paint outs this past week. These studies of a couple of the architectural details which caught my eye were done in pen and watersoluable ink, so I could go back in with a wet brush to soften some areas.
The home was originally built in the Italianate style by a man named Kent and later became owned by the Catholic Church and was used by the Bishop and named Blackfriars. The Catholic diocese sold the building a few years ago and it has now been converted into large condos, preserving the original architecture. The gardens are lovely and have statues, terraces, pathways,ponds and fountains. These paint outs will certainly be my inspiration for some paintings in the near future.

Pen at Play

Woods

Northern Shore

Lost In Venice

This is the first piece I have completed since returning from Italy. It is a pen and ink drawing of several buildings in Venice, most of which I have repeated in different sizes to give the impression of being wonderfully lost, as my husband and I were several times. We saw the same buildings over and over from different distances. The lion statue was something we both loved and we passed it several times as we meandered, lost, through the fabulous city of Venice.

Urban Sketching: Wellington Street

Today I met my friend Cheryl to do some "urban sketching". We went to Victoria Park and decided to sketch this house on Wellington Street. After several days of painting plein air, it was a delightful change to work in pen in my sketchbook....less paraphernalia to cart, no colours to consider, just black and white. My original plan was to apply watercolour to the sketch but  I decided just to leave well enough alone. Definitely a couple of problems with this sketch, but overall I am OK with it. Cheryl and I agreed that the next time Urban Sketchers holds a symposium in the States or here in Canada, we would like to attend.

Sketching Buildings

I have been meeting with my friend, Cheryl Radford, once a week for a few months in order to try to improve my sketching skills, particularly sketching buildings,  in preparation for an upcoming trip to Italy where most of what I will be seeing (and painting) is architecture. Cheryl does beautiful architectural sketches, so her work is certainly an inspiration! Today we met at Starbucks on Richmond Street and then walked down until we found something promising to sketch. I worked first in graphite and then in ink to produce the sketch above. Hopefully we will continue to meet and sketch so that by the time we are in Italy buildings won't be so difficult for me.