Lotus flower

There is something otherworldly about the flowers and the seed cups of the lotus. I hadn’t realized just how incredible these are until I saw masses of them in the Japanese area of the Montreal Botanical Gardens. Those giant flowers hover above the saucer-like leaves, twisting and turning in the wind. And I wasn’t alone in my amazement because each person walking by stopped to gawk and snap photos.

I have recently updated the Summer Workshops section of my site. You can now see photos and sketches from Montreal, Paris and Portland all on one page. There’s even a link to the wonderful video that Michel Colson made of the Paris workshop. Now that the summer workshop season is almost over, it is fantastic to look back at everyone I met, see all the work that they produced and pause to think how far this blog project has taken me since October 2011. Feel free to have a look…

Pagoda

When a friend invited me to paint today at the Montreal Botanical Gardens, I jumped at the chance. I hadn’t visited there in I don’t know how long and if it wasn’t on the other end of the city I would certainly be spending some serious time there. This was done in the Chinese Garden, but we also spent time in the equally stunning Japanese Garden. This makes up for our not being able to paint in Portland’s Lan Su Chinese Garden. For some reason they thought we might take up too much space with all our gear but it’s one of the highlights of Portland and I regret that I never made it there on my own.

Hotel de Ville

The town of Ste. Anne de Bellevue was undergoing road construction for most of this past spring. The main street is finally open and I was able to sit facing city hall and watch people go in and out. I did this sketch twice because my aim today was to get a good value sketch with very clear lights, midtones and darks. The first sketch was more muddled, had too many details in it and the washes were murky. I don’t often get to do this but it’s great to have the time to clarify the patterns.

Oscar in the sun

I promised myself when I returned from the Urban Sketchers symposium that I would keep up my people drawing. This contour drawing was done in my Laloran sketchbook. It’s the first time that I tried a wash on the paper and it takes the paint beautifully. Plus it’s the perfect size to keep in my bag for quick people sketches.

Simon Benson House

I love finding out interesting tidbits about something I’m sketching. The Simon Benson House, built around 1900, was originally situated on 11th and Clay but in 2000 it was restored and moved to the University of Portland campus. I only sketched the portico but the rest of the building is very ornate so you can imagine what moving it might have been like. I found a few photos on Flickr of the whole house on a flatbed truck…

Foliage in the front

Now that our Portland workshop is almost over I can say that Marc and I really gave the participants some challenging situations to deal with (windy corners, record-breaking heat, complex buildings, locations with no bathrooms!) and they rose to the challenge. Some amazing sketches were produced in these three days and I hope they will be posted on Flickr for all to see.
Today the whole group painted together on the South Park blocks and it was a day for both of us to circulate and help people with individual questions/problems they had. My first demonstration was dealing with lacy foliage in front of a dark building. I painted the large shape of the light green trees first and then added the dark walkway behind it.

Portland farmer’s market

I want to move to Portland, Oregon so I can go to the farmer’s market on Saturdays. If I didn’t have to cross the Canada/US border I could easily fill up my suitcase with the local bounty. But it wasn’t easy to paint this scene with the constant stream of shoppers and the big university building in the background. Students in the workshop did some amazing paintings of this complex scene but there was a visible sigh of relief in the afternoon when they drew the Simon Benson House. No people, no motion, just lots of Victorian detailing.

First Presbyterian

Today I discovered that when it’s a hot day in Portland it’s only really hot for about two hours in the afternoon. The location I chose this morning for my demo must have been in a wind tunnel because my brave group of students froze in our shady corner while they watched me paint. It was only when we moved to our afternoon location at the First Presbyterian church that everyone thawed out. Below is my demo and a photo of the group. I’m not quite sure if they all look so happy because they learned something or because we were finally in a sunny spot.

Georgia Grocery

In preparation for the workshop that Marc Holmes and I are giving this weekend in Portland, I spent the day checking out all the places that we’ve selected for our demos. As you can imagine, it’s a little difficult picking places in a city you’ve never been to, using Google street view. I give all the credit to Marc for the excellent research he did, mostly while I was in Paris. This sketch is from the place where I am going to do my first demo tomorrow. And coincidently the big brick building is where the group will be gathering for dinner shortly.

Delayed

Storms in Toronto have caused a chain reaction of late flights across Canada. I missed my flight to Portland and while waiting for a later flight I’m taking advantage of the west coast backdrop of mountains in Vancouver — something we never see in Montreal. Also trying out a beautiful little Laloran sketchbook we were given in Santo Domingo. It’s gorgeous to draw in this handmade book.