There and back

I love drawing people in airports. Mostly they sit still for long periods of time as they wait for their flights, so they are easy targets. Airports are also a good place to observe what people do while waiting. The majority are on their phones. A few still read good old-fashioned books. And if a patient sketcher gets lucky, they may even find someone who is curled up, asleep, on a bench or the floor.

Even if I have checked bags, my art tools are with me on the plane. I don’t want to lose expensive brushes or my favourite palettes, so they are always in my carry-on bag. If they are small enough, my sketchbooks are with me too. I have no excuses for not being able to draw while I wait for my flight.

I love sketching people using the simplest of tools — a good old pencil and a sketchbook with some smooth paper. When I went back and forth to Regina last week, I used a Strathmore Mixed Media book with vellum paper. I love how the pencil glides over the surface.

The more you practice, the looser the line will be. Here are a few tips for people drawing:

• If you are self-conscious, start with people who are seated far away because it’s less likely they will see you observing them.
• Don’t worry if you draw a line you are not happy with. Just keep going. I don’t erase.
• What is the first line I make? I usually start with the curve of the shoulders. That makes it easier to get the head in the right spot and at the right angle.
• As you feel more confident, draw people standing in line. Eventually they will move, but this forces you to get the gesture down quickly.
• Figure out your weak points and work on making them better. For me, it’s getting the ears in the right place when I am drawing a profile. They are always too far forward.

Cathedral Village

It’s been a busy summer so far and it seems like I’ve been packing and unpacking way too much the past month. My most recent trip was to Regina, Saskatchewan where it was a great honour to teach a few plein air workshops at the CSPWC symposium.

It was my first time in Regina so I arrived a few days early to check out my workshop location in Cathedral Village. It’s a vibrant neighbourhood near the downtown core, and the main streets are lined with small shops and restaurants, and lots of great views down lanes and alleys. I painted this one as a practice before my teaching started.

We painted from different viewpoints along 13th Avenue, and on our second day we focused on sketching an interesting row of 1912 houses, each painted a different colour. I loved the repeating triangles of the gabled roofs, and I was particularly happy to be able to include a pedestrian wearing a Roughriders shirt, since it seems that there are some serious football fans in Saskatchewan.

The majority of participants were from Saskatchewan, with a sprinkling of people from other provinces and a few from south of the border too. It really was a pleasure to meet everyone, and although it ended up raining on the day we were supposed to get outside the city, I was able to take a short drive out to Wascana Trails to see the prairie landscapes and the vast fields of canola in bloom. What a sight! I hope to get back there to paint those vistas another time. A big thanks to all the volunteers who made this such a great event.

My kinda town

Almonte, Ontario is my kinda town. It’s small. There’s plenty of parking. And best of all, every second store is a vintage store and I love poking around in vintage stores.

I spent a few days there last week with a great group of artists from the Kanata Art Club. On my scouting trip before the workshop, I had identified lots of storefronts and a great old post office (with a clocktower and a gabled roof) that I wanted to tackle with the group, but of the three central streets in the town, two were undergoing road work, and the noise and dust from the construction made it difficult to sit in any location for a long time. We managed to draw Baker Bob’s and one of the many overflowing flower baskets, but on day two the noise was just too much for all of us.

We retreated to a side street where it was quieter, to draw a typical small town urban scene. I think I chose this curve in the road because it reminded me of a similar scene I draw often in Pointe Claire.

I loved Almonte so much I plan to return so I can spend more time sketching there AND scavenging in the vintage shops. Click here to see the treasure that I brought home this time.

All the dogs

Last weekend we visited friends in the country. For two days, there were three dogs vying for our attention, and on the last day, we even had a fourth dog in the group to shake things up a bit.

I was determined to draw all of the dogs at some point over the weekend. Alice was first, because I know her so well, especially in her usual sleeping pose. Little Maya was second. She’s the senior in the group and is often curled up on the sofa. Also easy. The other two were more difficult to draw. Cleo is a very young and energetic dog so she doesn’t stay still much, especially since all these strange dogs were invading her territory. I could only manage a little scribble of her head before she scampered off. Juni was the last dog to arrive and also the most difficult to draw. I started first with the drawing on the right when she was sprawled out on the floor, but one of the other dogs started barking which disturbed her so I couldn’t add in her squat, muscular body. Her head in this drawing does not make sense without the rest of her body, so I drew her again, this time while she rested in someone’s arms. French Bulldogs are not easy to draw but I think the proportions are more accurate the second time around.

Daisies

Alice and I spent a bit of time in the front yard today. She ate flies and I sketched the daisies that have just opened. The daisies are blooming in front of a purple smokebush, and I usually use a combination of Alizarin Crimson and some sort of green to create that darkish red. Today I used Hooker’s Green, which is already on my palette, but I also squeezed out two little blobs of paint to try for the daisy foliage: Terre Verte (which is very granulating) and Olive Green. I thought they worked well together to create a very natural tone for the leaves and stems.

Motif Number 1

I’ve been sketching on my own in Cape Ann, MA, for many years, but it’s always been a dream of mine to share this wonderful area with students. Last week my dream came true. Thanks to Jess at Slow River Studio, I was able to sit on T-Wharf and paint this iconic scene with not one but two very talented groups of sketchers!

On the first day that we went out it was overcast and blustery, but somehow we didn’t notice the cold. We were too busy trying to figure out what red to use to paint Motif Number One. (Alizarin Crimson and Burnt Sienna was my mix, in case you are wondering.) At high tide, a fishing boat was docked in front of Bradley’s Wharf, likely dropping off some fish at Roy Moore Lobster Co. Some of us were able to quickly add it to our sketches.

I love seeing all the Motif sketches together. There’s a reason they call this “the most painted building in America”. It’s so much fun to draw.

The second group of sketchers had a sunnier (and warmer) day on the wharf, and we got to paint some shadows on the building.

Everyone’s interpretation is a little bit different but there’s no mystery as to what the focus is in each of these! Thanks to everyone who was there with me last week. It was an unforgettable two days on T-Wharf.

Cripple Cove and Rockport harbor

It’s been quite hazy and foggy in Gloucester but luckily the rain has held off and I’ve been able to get lot of painting and sketching done. I stood on a floating dock at Cripple Cove Landing this afternoon and was able to do two quarter sheet watercolours. (I think my photos are a little dark but it was a mostly overcast day.) The water was quite calm but the floating dock moves quite a bit and after a while I realized I was feeling kind of queasy from the motion. The first painting was a view of the boats in the Gloucester harbor.

For the second painting, I turned my easel slightly to the left to capture the docks, the lobster traps and the assorted pails and buoys on the dock.

I also returned to my favourite spot in Rockport, and again, did two sketches from the same spot. Not much has changed since our last visit. The lobster boats came in and out of the harbour as I painted, and Motif #1 is as iconic as ever, reliably marking the opening from the bay to the inner harbor.

Low tide at Rocky Neck

It feels great to get back to Cape Ann. I haven’t been to this part of Massachusetts since before the pandemic. In a few days I’ll be teaching a workshop with Slow River Studio in Topsfield, but I’ve arrived a few days early to paint, and visit a few of my favourite spots in Rockport and Gloucester. I’ve really missed seeing the lobster boats and the views of this coast, but I’ve also missed the sound of the fog horn, the smell of sea air and the crying of the gulls.

We’re staying on Rocky Neck for the first time. As you enter this little community, there’s a parking lot with a spectacular view looking across the bay at Gloucester. There’s also a bench and a great view of a dock which is at its best at low tide when you can see all the exposed dark pilings. It’s a complex scene but I tried to unify it by using a series of warm and cool neutrals and adding touches of colour at the end. Painted on a 1/4 sheet of Arches Rough paper.

American Watercolor Society online show

What an honour to have my painting “The Wash at Dusk” selected for the American Watercolour Society Associate Members Online Exhibition. Many thanks to juror Tim Gaydos. The show is on until August 20th. I guess this is a week for sending you to YouTube because that’s where you can see the exhibition. Have a look at all the wonderful paintings here.

Plein Air Sketchbook Flip Through

There was such a great response to yesterday’s sketchbook flip through (thanks so everyone who commented!) that I just posted another one on YouTube. This is the companion book that I take with me on my travels, so it has journeyed from Montreal to Spain to Greece and back again, and in the cold of winter it was completed in Tucson, Arizona. Same size book at yesterday but this one is landscape format so I can do panoramas like the one of the Acropolis in Athens (below). You’ll see the full sketch in the video.