Red chard

At this time of year I start longing for something from the garden. Something that isn’t wrapped in plastic and that still has a little bit of dirt on it or perhaps a bug hidden in the leaves. Growing season in Montreal is still a long way off but the chard in the grocery store was close enough for me.

The colour of snow

Of all the snowfalls that we have had this winter — and we have had quite a few — this latest one was the most beautiful. It was heavy but not wet and it didn’t melt right away like some spring snow does. And for some reason the colour of the snow is different. I know it’s not really different — it’s just the same white stuff that fell last week or last month — but I think the light is changing and making the colours softer. On really cold mid-winter days the snow shadows are sharp and cold but this week they are softer and grayer.

The first day of spring

Yesterday I had so much fun doing a negative painting with no pencil lines that I repeated the exercise today. Just turned the branches upside down. Painting the spaces between things requires patient observation and a good amount of wash on the brush. I started in the middle of the sheet and did a light wash of the parts of the fence that I could see between the branches. Then I added the dark bits of evergreen under the snow. By that time the fence was dry so I added the darker parts of the fence. The last step was the lacework of branches that tied it all together.

The last day of winter

I don’t often go back to old blog posts but it occurred to me tonight that sometime last March we were having a heat wave in Montreal. I wasn’t quite sure when it was so I went back in my posts to last year at this time. I was hanging laundry outside on the clothesline on March 20, 2012, but I guess I’ll be using the clothes dryer tomorrow.

No turning back

When I work with ink and wash, especially with simple subjects like this, I want to make sure I don’t over “ink” the drawing. In other words, I want a bit of structure but not a lot of shading, crosshatching, etc. I think in this sketch I probably should have left out the ink lines on the cut lemon — they just seem a little harsh. But that’s what happens when you go straight to ink. There’s no turning back.

Wheelbarrow number six

I could be wrong. I may have painted this wheelbarrow more than six times but each time I look at it there is something different that catches my eye. I have painted it in fresh snow, dappled summer shade, I have drawn it in pencil and I have even looked out of my second story window to see it from above. I never get tired of drawing it. Today the dripping snow made it look like the rusty tray itself was melting.

Between the doors

Taking to the streets with my sketchbook has brought me many wonderful surprises — meeting new people, discovering parts of Montreal that I didn’t know existed, connecting with other artists — that have changed my life in the past year. But I wasn’t expecting that it would bring new career options. One of the new opportunities that has come about because of sketching is that I’m in the process of illustrating a children’s book. The author of the story watched me drawing in the market last fall and approached me with the idea.

I wasn’t sure I would be able to do this kind of project but the illustrations are coming along fine. I can’t post any work in progress, but hopefully when the book is published I will be able to show some of the illustrations on the blog. One thing that I can tell you is that the book is full of illustrated details from the streets of Montreal, hence my interest in sketching bricks and doorways today. I hope to use lots of bits and pieces from the last year of drawings in the book.

Clouds

Winter skies are often bright blue or solid grey. As spring approaches the big cumulus clouds start rolling in and the cloudscapes become more interesting. I could probably paint clouds for days on end and be very happy.