If I had $1000
Posted: February 29, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 6 CommentsFor those of you who have been following this blog for some time, you might have come to realize how important Urban Sketchers is to me. When I discovered urbansketchers.org just over four years ago, it changed my life. Since then I’ve both attended and taught at the international symposia and met people from around the world who share the same love of drawing on location as I do. Sooooo…. if I won $1000 and could donate it to the art charity of my choice, it would naturally be Urban Sketchers.
Who would you donate your $1000 to?
Here’s the thing. Craftsy.com is having a promotion in the next few weeks in honour of National Craft Month. If you register for any class during the two weeks between February 29 – March 13, using the links below, you will be entered into a draw and one student will win the opportunity to donate $1000 to the craft charity of their choice (UrbanSketchers.org perhaps?).
In honour of National Craft Month, we Urban Sketchers/Craftsy.com instructors are banding together to share this opportunity…
Ashes and smoke
Posted: February 28, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 4 CommentsLa Grande Bibliotheque. Definitely the best place to draw from in Montreal.
Does this sound good?
• A great long corridor with floor to ceiling windows and a view of the backs of the buildings on St. Denis
• Comfortable arm chairs facing the view
• Low tables for sketching gear
• Silence
• Permission to draw
• A sandwich shop on site
• No admission charge
• Metro access
We will certainly be going back there.
I wasn’t happy with the first drawing I did this morning so with under 30 minutes left before lunch, I started this one. Since the view was largely monochrome I used markers to get the tones down quickly because they cover lots of surface area in a short amount of time and dry instantly.
Friday bouquet
Posted: February 26, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 25 CommentsThe florist in my neighbourhood knows me by now. She recognizes the look I have in my eyes on these bleak and icy February days, when I come into the store looking for signs of spring. A few flowers, nothing fancy, just a bit of colour to get me through the next few months. I cut the stems too short on this bouquet and half the flowers ended up inside the vase, but no matter, I painted them anyway.
If you are looking for a drawing event this weekend, join Urban Sketchers Montreal for Sunday sketching. We are trying out a new venue this month: La Grande Bibliotheque. Meeting time is at 10 am and everyone is welcome. If you arrive late, just wander around and grab a seat near the closest person with a sketchbook.
Bare bones in Manchester
Posted: February 24, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 26 CommentsIt’s no day for car painting. Once again we have a three phase weather event in Montreal — snow, followed by freezing rain, followed by rain. It’s becoming a pattern this winter. I sketched from my window and painted with Burnt Sienna and Phthalo Blue (except for a bit of red in the car) on some 300 lb rough paper. This limited colour combo makes beautiful warm greys and browns, but it’s not one I use often because Phthalo Blue scares me. It’s very staining and can sometimes overwhelm other colours, but it works really well with Burnt Sienna.
Limited palettes are something I’ll be exploring this summer at the 7th Annual Urban Sketchers Symposium in Manchester from July 27-30. My workshop is called Bare Bones: Exploring Limited Palettes in Watercolour. I’m really thrilled to be an instructor again at the international symposium (this will be my third time teaching) because it’s always the highlight of my year. The programming was announced today and it’s so impressive. There are 26 workshops to choose from, as well as demos, lectures and activities. If you’ve never attended one of these events, I can’t emphasize enough how stimulating an event it is for urban sketchers. The details of my workshop haven’t been posted yet but I can tell you that it will be about exploring different and unusual colour combinations in your sketches.
Between 6th and 12th
Posted: February 21, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 27 CommentsSunday morning is always a favourite time to paint street scenes — before the stores open and the bustle of the day starts. I love to have the street to myself, and that section of Notre Dame in Lachine, between about 6th and 12th, is ideal because of that small town feel and the old warehouse at the end of the street that closes off the view. I don’t often use pure red in my paintings but that section of the street is lined with red lampposts, so I used a limited palette of organic vermillion, cobalt blue, burnt sienna, cerulean blue and indanthrane blue. Not so limited really, but mostly reds and blues. Painted on Arches 140 lb, cold press, 15″ x 11″. About 2 hours.
Bird island
Posted: February 19, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 19 CommentsPhotographing my paintings from my West Coast trip the other day reminded me that I had also travelled to the very easternmost point in Canada that same summer. There are still some scenes from Newfoundland that haven’t been painted, so I thought I would work on one of those today. Elliston (previously known as Bird Island because of the puffin colonies) is on the Bonavista Peninsula. I walked out to that far rock to see the puffins (on another rock hidden from view) but at the top of the rock I was on, there was the most unusual sight — dozens of single black bird wings (not puffins), separated from heads and torsos, scattered on the top of the hill. It was strangely horrifying and not something I’m likely to forget any time soon. In this scene, I painted the sky first starting with a diluted wash of Raw Sienna. I find that if I don’t add that touch of yellow, a sky composed of only greys or blues is a little bit flat. Once that warm wash is on, I used a mix of Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna for the clouds. Painted on 1/8 sheet of Arches cold press paper, 11″ x 7.5″.
Mackaye Harbor
Posted: February 17, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 54 CommentsTwo summers ago I had the chance to travel to the West Coast of both Canada and the USA. One of the places that I will never forget from that trip was Lopez Island, where I took a watercolour workshop with Tom Hoffmann. The skies on Lopez are amazing. The clouds must swirl around the San Juan Islands constantly because they often look like smudges in the sky. When I returned home that summer I painted a full sheet watercolour of the view of Mackaye Harbour, but I never got around to photographing it until today when I was shooting some other large format watercolours.