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.

Early Birds

A group of my artist friends ( The Early Birds ) have been up early painting plein air.  This painting was inspired by one such morning excursion. We set up around 7 am on the banks of the Thames River near the corner of Wonderland and Riverside and painted until noon. What a wonderful way to start a day! This week we are going to paint near the Medway Creek.

A Gift: Lilies In My Garden

I did a watercolour sketch of these lilies in my garden this morning. They were a gift years ago from my mother's garden and have faithfully returned every year since. They have always intrigued me because their seeds appear to form at the base of their leaves, having nothing to do with their flowers. Mom always called them Tiger Lilies, but I think their spots make them leopards!



Newfoundland

Guest Artist Cheryl Radford at Sunset Arts

If you are in Grand Bend, stop in at our Artists' Co-op Gallery, Sunset Arts to see our new displays and our guest artist, Cheryl Radford's work.

Sketchbook: Victoria Park: New Field Sketch Box



Gate at Central and Richmond

  I met up with Cheryl to do some sketching and to test out a new set of watercolours made by Sakura, a Koi water color field sketch box. It will take some getting used to, but the advantage of the little brush which holds water (so you don't need to cart around bottles of water as well as something to contain the water while you work )was wonderful for sketching (especially now when the airboot thing on my foot makes getting around tricky enough). I am not convinced it would do for a painting on location, but for sketchbook work it was great. The whole thing fit easily into my bag so I can take it with me everywhere! The sketch above was done with the Koi watercolors and then modified with pen.

Studio Work

Since I am restricted by a cast on my foot, plein air painting has ground to a standstill. While I am able to walk well on floors and sidewalks and anything flat, level and sturdy, walking on grass, paths through the woods, fields or rocky shores are off limits. Very frustrating, since this is the time that the Gallery Painting Group paints twice a week on location.
I have been working from sketches and photos in my studio and today I finished a 30" x 20" acrylic painting of Medway Heritage Forest in Autumn. I will take it up to Sunset Arts Gallery and hang it on Monday, when I am scheduled to work.