Conservatory
Posted: August 16, 2012 Filed under: Uncategorized 18 Comments »Today the students in my final workshop of the summer learned the best urban sketching lesson. When you sketch outside you have to be prepared for surprises. I have lots of experience with that (trucks parking in front of me, rain on location in Paris, irate bus drivers) so I am used to the unexpected and have learned to adapt. In fact I like those events because I can usually turn them into a story.
During my second demo of the day, in front of the conservatory in Westmount Park, everyone was gathered around watching me paint when the irrigation system went off around us (observant sketchers that we are, none of us had noticed the nozzles hidden in the grass!). We all got soaked, some of the paintings got a bit wet and everyone turned to me and said “This is a story for your blog!”.
Here are some of the students, hard at work, before the sprinklers went off. I usually try to get a group photo in at the end of they day but after we moved everything away from the nozzles, a second (hidden) set went off and that kind of ended things for the day. The group shot will have to be tomorrow.
I have to apologize… I’m laughing out loud at your misfortunes. I hope you have a better day (and are more observant) tomorrow.
Thanks for laughing at the misfortune of others Ross.
I guess you failed to notice my apology. : )
Your conservatory : WOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks Louise!
I love your painting of the conservatory. Great light and shadows as usual. It is a complex building to paint. Must have been a challenge for some.
Thanks Valerie. It was a complex building to paint but some students picked details from it and others did simpler subjects like just a pot of flowers.
Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these courageous artists from the swift completion ……
Now they all have a good story.
They do Don! Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow so we may be inside the conservatory. There’s probably some automatic system in there too!!
Shari,
My story is that my class was sketching a Gas Works Park and had to move from our site for about 20 minutes for a wedding!
That was a short wedding!
Aiee! What a story! Great glass painting though!
It was a bit of a crazy scene with everyone screaming and running to grab their stuff. And painting the glass is not easy. Tomorrow we are going to do it from the inside looking out.
All your works are so beautyiful…I admire you so much…I love sketcing and painting but I’m not very good cause I’m 14 years old……congrtulations..I also have a blog with my paintinga
Thanks for writing to me Kostadinos. I started painting when I was about your age. I think it’s great that you have a blog too. Keep sketching!!
I wouldn’t miss your blog Shari. So many adventures! We would have welcomed those sprinklers at the Portland workshop in the 102 degrees heat. Great values and color on the conservatory painting.
We would have loved a bit of a sprinkling in Portland! It’s great to hear from you. And great to see the workshop paintings on your blog.
It was a great day! I decided to go back to my sketch and add the foliage when I got home. I thinks it frames the building well.