Last day, first day

It’s the last day of October and definitely cold enough for it to be the first day of car sketching season. In fact, we had the first snowfall of the season yesterday. This morning the lawns were covered in frost and the cars had to be scraped. Winter is coming.

That means it’s time to paint my favourite tree in all its autumn glory. I love it best when some of the leaves have already fallen, exposing the perfectly domed skeleton of the tree. When I draw it, I always think I’ll be able to fit the whole tree on the page, but I often underestimate how much of an explosion of yellow it is, and it always bleeds off the edges of my sketchbook. And if you’re wondering about colour, this year I used lots of New Gamboge mixed with some Burnt Sienna and a spot of Hooker’s Green for the foliage.

Village Green

It’s just about time to sketch my favourite neighbourhood tree, but in the meantime, here are a few autumn scenes I sketched in Bar Harbor, Maine. Last week the town was still fairly crowded with tourists spilling out of the giant cruise ships that stop there as a part of an “autumn in New England” itinerary. The sidewalks in town are so crowded that it would be impossible to set up a sketching stool or easel. Fortunately there’s a Village Green with a covered bandstand, a great selection of trees and wonderful views of storefronts. Of course, having just returned from Maine, I can’t help but feel saddened by what is going on there this week.

Announcing a new online course: A French Village Scene

The ideas for my online classes often come from places I travel to, so if you’ve seen my recent sketches from France, you won’t be surprised that my newest course is inspired by some scenes from my trip there this September. I first fell in love with France after graduating from university when I saved up all my pennies to take my first overseas art workshop in Avignon. Since then I’ve visited Paris many times, explored Strasbourg, Lyon and many villages in Provence, but this was the first time I had a chance to see a bit of Normandy and Brittany. It’s fun to share a bit of that trip in A French Village Scene: Sketching in Ink and Watercolour.

This is an online video course that you can watch on your own time, as often as you wish. And as always, there’s special savings during launch week. The regular course price is $35 USD or $47 CDN, but for this week I’ve discounted it to $30 USD and $42 CDN, until Sunday October 29 at midnight ET. And there’s no coupon necessary at checkout. Have a look at the course here.

This week in Acadia National Park

Autumn must certainly be the best time to paint in Acadia National Park, and this week is definitely the peak for fall colours. My group of students were ready to sketch pretty much everything so we hopped around all over the place to capture as much as we could of the natural beauty.

One of our first stops in the park was Jordan Pond. If you’ve been there, you know this is also home to Jordan Pond House, famous for its popovers, which, as we found out, are not available for takeout! We spent a morning there, sketching in pencil, and painted back at the studio — as we did most days — because of the cold. We will definitely have to plan more time at this spot next time so we can reserve a spot at the restaurant and try those famous popovers.

My favourite painting spot of the week was Northeast Harbor where a backdrop of trees frames the fishing boats. This section of the park reminded me very much of Vancouver’s Coal Harbour where I painted boats and the mountains in the distance.

We also ventured down to Sand Beach to sketch the rocks and surf. The waves weren’t as wild as last week after the storm but that made it easier to paint (and teach!) on the beach since my washes didn’t float off the page like they did last week.

In between the departure of one group and the arrival of another tonight, I had a little break so we took a road trip around the Schoodic peninsula — a section of Acadia Park a bit east of Mt. Desert Island. It’s a little more remote, definitely less crowded, and definitely worth the trip. I painted the rocks at Schoodic Point. Thanks to all of you who wrote to recommend that we visit this area. Much appreciated!! And thanks to my wonderful group of sketchers who were up for any type of visual challenge I threw at them, and toughed out the rain and cold with no complaints. It was such a fun week in the park.

Sand Beach

It’s my first visit to Acadia National Park in Maine. Wow, what a spectacular place! My MISA workshops here start tomorrow so I’ve spent a few days driving through the park, scouting out painting locations. Sand Beach was high on my list so I headed back there today with my sketchbook.

The surf today was even more dramatic, after the remnants of Hurricane Philippe passed through here last evening. I don’t think I’ve ever tried to paint water that was a wild as this. And when I was part way through my sketch, a fine mist starting falling so I had to pack up my gear before the whole sketch washed away. I dried the paper using the hand dryer in the restroom, and I have to admit, I don’t dislike the texture that I was left with from that mist. I don’t ever sprinkle salt on my paintings but in this case, it worked. In the warmth of my room I added a few spots of white for the crashing waves.

A few more from France

I’m slowly getting around to scanning all my work from France but it’s a long process. For example, my sketch of the old mill in Vernon is quite large (24″ x 9″) and has to be scanned in three passes and stitched together in Photoshop. Thank goodness there’s software that makes the process easy for me!

I’m not really sure what made this mill so much fun to draw. It’s a bit of an oddity, right? A sagging timbered building hanging up there on the remnants of a bridge. You have to smile when you see the scene with all the pigeons on the steeply sloped roof. We sketched this on a very sunny but very cold day in August, with a chilly wind blowing up from the Seine, but despite the cold the whole group of students stayed to finish their drawings.

Here’s another one of a typical Normandy-style building — a tiled roof, a yellow stucco building covered in vines and a tiny balcony that looks out over the property. So much fun to draw something with this many details.

Hotel Baudy

Here’s another view of the garden at Hotel Baudy in Giverny, this one sketched on location last month. There were so many things that I could have chosen when I was there — yesterday’s green door, the little turquoise cafe tables and chairs, a rusty bicycle , but I was drawn to these stairs which lead up to the one remaining workshop space on the property.

If you don’t know much about this historic property, look it up. It was once the gathering spot for both French and American Impressionists. It’s no longer a hotel, but if you eat at the restaurant, you can tour the garden which is a welcome oasis from the crowds at Monet’s house and garden, and a bit of a hidden treasure.

I think it’s probably more colourful in May or June when the wisteria and roses are blooming. We had a full display of goldenrod and some tired geraniums but I’m not complaining. It was a delight to imagine that Cezanne, Sisley, Renoir, Rodin, Cassatt or Sargent may have taken this path up to the workshop space at the top of the steps.

This green door

I always return home from a trip with tons of photos and plenty of good intentions — to eventually turn a few of them into watercolours. But then I get busy and move on to the next thing, and the photos (thousands of them by now) just sit on my computer.

Sometimes, though, there are exceptions, like this green door that I couldn’t wait to paint. I saw this in the garden at Restaurant Baudy, in Giverny. There was no time to paint it on location last month, but I loved the colour of the door and the faded yellow and pink stucco wall, so I did a quick watercolour of it this week.

At various times during our afternoon in the garden, there were cooks and serving staff who went in and out of that door, sometimes hanging around long enough to smoke a cigarette or make a call. There was even a man taking a cat for a walk around the yard, leading it by a long wire that looked like a clothesline. Wouldn’t that have made a good sketch?