Nine minutes of procrastination

My graduating students are preparing their final graphic design portfolios and I am sitting in the cafeteria, editing the texts that goes with each piece in the portfolio. It’s a wonderful yet time-consuming and tedious process. This is what I do when I need a break from reading. Each one is a three-minute contour drawing.

Sunrise and Sixth Avenue

This week I had a bit of time to paint but not much time to write, so I am posting two paintings together. Sixth Avenue and St. Louis was painted in Lachine this morning. It’s a spot I sketch at often because I love the rhythm of the poles and wires on this bit of road. This is an older section of Lachine that I find fascinating because of the combination of small residential and commercial buildings, parking lots, depanneurs and bars. The architecture is nondescript which makes the jumble of light and dark shapes all the more interesting for me.

Sunrise is a quick sketch for a larger watercolour I hope to paint soon. It’s the view I see of my street in the early morning when I take my dog out. I tried to capture the sleepy winter houses— details barely visible — and the winter trees set against the orange sky. I think this could be interesting as a larger painting, but I really wanted to work out the values and the colours first.