Beach Paradise

Missing two legs...

An excellent kick-off to the camping season, we spent four days on the beach on the west coast of Vancouver Island. Near the longest day of the year, we basked in long hours of daylight and almost perfect weather. 

Mountain Inspired

Birthday Painting for Me by Janice

Birthday Painting for Janice

My friend, Janice, and I have started a birthday card tradition. Every year we exchange cards of one of our original paintings. This year the theme seems to have been our shared mountain adventures at the Hytte.

Simple Sliver Drawings

I was waiting for my car to be serviced in New Westminster. There is an excellent coffee shop just down the road from the garage. It has high stools at a counter right up at the front window so I can sit and draw the street theatre as it unfolds. There was a narrow sliver view of a tree all backlit in vibrant green. And right in front of me was a construction site. A woman was putting bollards together out of the back of a truck then dragging them around in moving traffic. All of this was the front drop to the parade of people and ongoing interactions in the coffee shop itself; the slightly unhinged guy wheeling his earthly possessions, asking for cinnamon and all the while making everyone smile at his antics;  the  business man and his business coach/therapist speaking in business bubbles about building a courier business. It was all topped off by the non-stop cheery banter of the baristas, all polished and professional but somehow sincere too. Just another day in normal-ville.

A Day On Bikes

#1 Fail so #2 Try Again

We spent the first day of June, riding along the bike paths of waterfront Vancouver: Granville Island to the base of UBC, then back around to Yaletown. We were reminded of just how far you can get on a bike. It was glorious. We stopped at various points along the way to eat, sketch, study and take in Vancouverites enjoying their city. 

Chris practices Chinese.

Bike at a weird angle.

Symbols of the Kids Fest. 

The Kitchen Project - Sort Of

Pen and watercolour on scrap photocopy paper.

As part of the Sketch Book Skool online course I took recently, Tommy Kane did a meticulous drawing of his kitchen. He literally spent 4 or 5 hours sketching, cross hatching, painting and coloured penciling a view of his kitchen. Then he challenged the students to do the same. He argued that, even if you do not normally work slowly and meticulously, the practice even 2 or 3 times per year will have beneficial effects on anyone's art.

I have been meaning to do this exercise but have not made time to really commit. As I sat during a recent violin lesson, I decided to try a view of Claude's kitchen. All I had was the back of a photocopied ferry itinerary form a recent trip to Galiano so I used what was at hand. You can see the print coming through and when I tried to add some colour, it was clear that would be a mess. Generally, I'm not much of a cross hatching fan. It is far too detailed and time consuming for my sensibility. But having done this quick little version on the spot, I thought I should revisit Tommy's lesson, belly up to the kitchen counter and give it a shot on decent paper.

Animals from Real Life - Maplewood Farm

These renderings of ducks, sheep and goats are not nearly as "successful" as some of the other drawings I have done. But somehow they are so much more evocative and poignant than paintings done from random photos found online. It is a very personal thing. I can picture the ducks floating around the mucky pond at Maplewood Farm, as legions of tiny children passed behind my bench and quacked their greetings at the green headed mallards. Or the feeling of a tiny goat, nibbling at my bag through the fence as I stood drawing his brothers and sisters, is still fresh in my mind as I look at the crude pen drawings  of ears, horns and heads. Artists I admire say it all the time. Nothing beats the plein air experience.

Shallow Rooster

I drew this rooster from a photo I found on the internet. It is a perfectly fine painting in watercolour, pen and coloured pencil. But somehow the whole thing is lacking soul. I did not even take the photo so I have no connection to this perky rooster. I had no memorable experience as I drew. I have no idea what the context of the photo was. This was a fine practice exercise, but I have more feeling about the work I have done in situ, even if the final "result" was "worse". I think I  need to get over to Maplewood Farm tomorrow and find some chickens in the flesh.