Stop and start people

I arrived early for an appointment in town, so I had a bit of time to draw. From my car I had a good view of the intersection of two busy streets. At 9 a.m. people were on their way to work, stopping at the traffic lights for ten seconds or so, and then crossing.

From where I was sitting, it would have been much easier to choose a static scene of some buildings that I could see in the distance. But I can draw buildings any time. I chose to draw the stop and start people at the corner, even though I only had a few seconds to draw each one before they moved on. What I miss the most during this pandemic is drawing scenes of city life. Any city. What about you? What would you draw if you could more around a little more freely?

First snow

Snow fell overnight. I rushed out this morning to sketch it before it melted, as first snowfalls tend to do. It’s always a bit strange when there are still leaves on the trees, but it was a dynamic contrast for the tractor.

I’m looking forward to winter painting, as I do every year. The car studio is all set up, and even though my feet tend to freeze by the end of the session, I’m always much happier to a paint from life than from a photo.

If you’re interested in seeing how other people sketch from their cars, have a look at this article from the very talented Dutch sketcher Anne Rose Oosterbaan. It features examples of work by some of my favourite sketchers including Bob Callahan, Jens Hubner, Virginia Hein and A. Rmyth.

Hot sauce

If you like hot sauce, you already know this. One bottle is good but having five or six is even better. Habanero for one dish, harissa for another, sriracha for Asian recipes, and then a good all-purpose one for everything else. And have a jalapeño on hand just in case you need more heat.

I painted the excess of hot sauce bottles using gouache, on a block of watercolour paper. It seems that many artists who paint in gouache use boards or blocks to paint on because of the harder surface. The process I use is similar to painting in watercolour — starting with big shapes and working towards smaller ones. And with transparent objects, it’s so much fun to add the shiny highlights using white straight from the tube.

Wet-in-wet leaves

After watching a CSPWC online demo by watercolour painter Linda Kemp the other evening, I was inspired to try her technique of painting wet-in-wet. I’ve painted on saturated paper many times, but her technique is slightly different from how I do it, in that she doesn’t remove the surface water, and she uses fresh paint almost straight from the tube. She doesn’t do a pencil drawing either, and instead takes direction from the shapes in her reference image.

I collected some leaves the other day while on a walk, and spread them out on my studio table. I’ve also been experimenting with some Baohong watercolour paper, so I wet both sides of a quarter sheet and tried to follow Linda’s method, using a limited palette or Hansa Yellow Deep, Burnt Sienna, Alizarin Crimson and Ultramarine Blue. Having no pencil lines on the page is quite liberating. I encourage you to watch the demo here and give it a try. One of the unexpected benefits of this pandemic is that there are so many online opportunities to learn from other painters — people from all over the world who you might never have the chance to meet at a workshop. I’m trying to take advantage of as many of these as possible.

Starting today you can also have a look at the CSPWC first ever online Open Water 2020 exhibition. I’m very honoured that my painting William Ottawa (below) was selected for the show.

Local spinach

I don’t know about you, but I’m spending more and more time on Zoom these days. And it seems like it’s going to be like that for some time to come. When the Zoom event requires listening but no active participation or watching, I often draw or paint at the same time. I’ve noticed that many sketcher friends do the same. Today I had just unpacked a delivery from Lufa Farms, and the local spinach was still on my counter. I painted it using lots of Ultramarine Blue and Hansa Yellow Deep, with a little Alizarin thrown in for the shadows.

October wheelbarrow

The wheelbarrow is back in its spot, under the oak tree, so you know I am ready for winter. I sketched it today with gouache on a block of watercolour paper. It made quite a good backdrop for the trumpet vine that has yet to lose its leaves.

My latest setup for gouache, which I find very useful, is the little porcelain mini-palette from Etchr. As you can see on their website, the 19-well tray is intended for watercolour and the 7-well tray is a mixing area. But I use the larger wells for gouache, and I’ve discovered that if I stack and store both trays in the little metal tin they come in (with gouache on the bottom), the gouache stays wet for weeks. That’s really economical because I used to squeeze out gouache on a butcher tray and would end up discarding a lot of it when it dried out. Now I just use the butcher tray for mixing. I suppose you could use also fill the 19 wells with watercolour and then have a really useful little portable kit with both gouache and watercolour! NB: Etchr sent this palette to me before I did my recent demo, but I am not an affiliate so I make no $$ by promoting this. I just find it really practical and I love the way the porcelain tray feels in my hand.

Studio travel

This time last year I visited Oaxaca, Mexico for the first time, and I fell in love with the culture, the food, and the beauty of the place. We took a day trip to the nearby archeological site of Monte Alban. I was supposed to be teaching there this November, but you know what happened to that. I miss travel so much, but today my paints and brushes went on a journey with me back to the breathtaking vista from that high plateau. This will have to do for now, right???

Rocks and replays

This year I’m determined to paint outside as long as possible, so I stood in my nearby woods this morning to sketch these big old rocks. You may have seen these before in my watercolours, but they’re usually covered in snow, and yes, that is coming soon enough.

Painting outdoors this morning was challenging. It was probably about 6C, which means that the paint doesn’t dry very quickly, if at all, so you have to get used to soft edges. And if you want to paint texture, like I did on the rocks, the paint needs to be quite thick. But if that’s what it takes, I’m fine with that. There’s a bit of snow in the forecast for this coming week, which means my days standing outside are numbered, but I’m dressing warmly and appreciating working en plein air.

I’m excited this year to be on the education committee of the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour. Our group has been holding a series of free demos and workshops this month on Zoom. They’ve all been sold out, but if you missed them live, the first two demos with Poppy Balser and Bill Rogers are up on YouTube and will be there for the next month or so. They’re definitely worth watching!

Also on YouTube, you can find a replay of the live gouache demo I did with Etchr last evening. If you’re interested in learning more about painting with gouache, I’ll be painting hot peppers in a mini-workshop with them in a couple of weeks. The workshop seems to be filling up quickly, but if you want more info, here’s the link.

Live gouache demo

Want to learn more about gouache? This Friday October 23, I’m excited (ok, a bit nervous too) to do a free live demo on YouTube hosted by Etchr. I’ll be painting something similar to the paint tubes below. My gouache tubes will be set up on my table in front of me, and I’ll be painting them using… gouache! I’ll demonstrate how to play with highlights and shadows and since the session is moderated by Maria from Etchr, you’ll also be able to ask any questions you have on the topic.

If you want to paint along, have your paints, brushes, and paper ready for the session. And in case you don’t have any paint tubes, you can also find the reference photo here.

Here is the schedule for different time zones:

4:00 pm LA Time Friday (October 23rd)
7:00 pm NY Time Friday (October 23rd)
12:00 am London Time Saturday (October 24th)
7:00 am Singapore Time Saturday (October 24th)
10:00 am Melbourne Time Saturday (October 24th)

Hope to see you there, or at least answer your questions in the chat!!

Announcing a new online class “Sketching Boats: Simple Solutions for a Complex Scene”

If you follow this blog you’ve seen many sketches of the sailboats at my favourite spot in Pointe Claire Village. I painted there many times this summer. I love that crazy, jumbled view of sailboats with their masts swaying in the wind, but I’ve spent many hours struggling with how to make sense of that scene. And thinking about past successes and failures sketching this gave me an idea for a new course. Sketching Boats: Simple Solutions for a Complex Scene is about just that: finding ways to simplify that tangle of sail covers, masts, ropes, rails and hulls, AND giving you a logical sketching process that you can apply to any complex scene.

In this course I’m excited to share all the steps I use on location, like analyzing the composition first, doing a little value sketch, and then painting from big shapes to smaller ones.

For a preview of Sketching Boats: Simple Solutions for a Complex Scene, have a look at the trailer.