Hanging out in New Westminster in the Sunshine

I had my car over in New Westminster getting some work done and it all took a little longer than expected. The good news is that I had hours to draw and paint in the sunshine. I started in the superb Westminster Pier Park facing the Fraser River. As tugboats moved log booms, the sky train made that distinctive high whizzing sound on the bridge above me. I decided to use the open length of my sketch book to try to capture the feeling of height. You have to glue the two parts together in your mind. It still amazes me that my eyes can see mountains under a bridge when my brain expects them to soar up into the sky. My mantra holds; See it. Sketch it. Yup, trust your eyes.

Top and bottom of the Skytrain bridge.

This was an odd scene of a boat filled with tires and floats, behind a chain link fence at the end of a huge empty parking lot. I did not quite capture the fence and it looks a bit like the blue banner is water. Never mind. I remember the scene and was drawn to the bright red roof with the bridge and mountains behind.

Nice colours and composition but confusing
scene. The blue is a banner in front of a fence.

 I spent part of the day in thrift shops, looking for costumes for the high school cabaret. I lucked out with these flapper shoes and sketched them as I drank a huge, strawberry milk, bubble tea. The people in the booth behind me joked with the waiter in Mandarin. The girls at the table in front of me chatted in Korean and ordered in flawless English. People's linguistic abilities are wonderful.

Flapper Shoes

Bowling and Hiking in England

Susan's Bowling Shoe

On one cold and blustery day, we got the crew together to go bowling. We had an extra body so I volunteered to watch and grabbed the moment to sketch my bowling shoe.

On another bright day, we walked a triangular route from Snowshill to Stanton, on to Stanway and back to Snowshill. The Cotswolds were covered with snow. The valleys were over the ankles in mud. The views were lovely. As we waited for others to catch up, I did a quick scene with my reservoir brush and travel paints. As I stood there, the paint turned to slush on my paper and palette. A hilarious first for me. The colour of the painting is as muddy so to mark the event, I put my muddy boot on the lower right side of the page. When I opened my sketchbook later, I could smell manure. Scratch and sniff painting!

More of England - Nanny and Grandad's House

The weather was freezing while we were in England, so if I wanted to try to paint and sketch everyday, I had to choose some inside subjects. Joan has lots of precious things around her house that the girls have loved over the year including frogs on the bathroom counter and lots of  teddy bears. I sat at the dining room table in the evenings.

Frog Figurines from the Windowsill

Artist Teddy

My Grandma's Tea Cup Feels Like England

Trip to England

View from Chris and Phil's window.

  On this day, poor Erica had food poisoning so she and I stayed behind while the others went to a bird sanctuary. I took the opportunity to draw and paint  the views from Chris and Phil's childhood bedroom window. It was a freezing blustery day and the birds were being blown about the sky.

Continuation of the same

This was the other side of the same spread.

The shed in the neighbours yard.
Don and Joan's neighbours have the hugest bunnies in their yard!

Images from Rip the Coast , 2012

Shells on Flores
The texture is real sand that blew into my painting and palette.

Sailboat off Clarke Island, Broken Group

Our wonderful 3 person tent sleeps 4 shorties.
First night out, Port Renfrew, Rip the Coast Tour, 2012

View up to the mezzanine, Tofino.
There was a real stripped bark trunk as pillar.

The Fellowship

The Fellowship (not the Mothership)

This is a quick watercolour sketch of one of our kayaks from our trip to the Broken Group Islands off the west coast of Vancouver Island. It was  painted during the lunch break where I scagged my hand on oyster shells and we left the beloved huchie behind on the beach. I loved these sturdy and stable kayaks. Janice and I paddled the Mothership. Chris and Kyle paddled the Fellowship. Perhaps is should have been called the Fish 'n Ship.

Sources of Inspiration

It has been almost a year since my last post. I have been so busy with my sketchbooks (and other life distractions) that I have totally ignored this blog. A new computer plus my luddite inability to get the scanner working has not helped. But there is a backlog of work ready to be scanned. Stay tuned.

In the mean time, here is a great source of journalling and drawing inspiration.

Sustainably Creative by Michael Nobbs.
He has a list of 20 Wonderful Drawing Blogs

.....but don't get so busy surfing inspirational blogs that you neglect the heart of the matter - drawing.