29-30 March 2011

From Grace's Kitchen

I began this yesterday when Grace invited me to share super after our trip to Digby.  It is a two-day drawing because I noted the values yesterday but didn't fully fill in most areas until today.   I'm imagining all the buildings & trees in dark, cool colours, with the sky and pale shrub in warm yellows.

28 March 2011

Three Views of Digby Waterfront

My painting friend Holly took me to Digby to renew my car's license plate as I didn't dare drive my car and risk getting fined!  Afterward we parked down on the waterfront and I tried to put that tangled complexity onto a 9x12 page.  I started with the middle one, the moved to the bottom of the page, and finally began drawing O'Neil's fish plant behind the cannon in the park right in front of us.  This ran into the first waterfront attempt and it was time to leave: we were both starved for lunch!

See Holly's work at www.hollyeverettgallery.com.  

27 March 2011

Another Sunday Evening with the Granville Ferals

I sat diagonally across the room from where I had been, to try to get better bunching of the people.  They themselves changed their locations a few times, or got up to look over the shoulder of another musician, so my first few pages had a lot of starts and nothing to take far enough to fill the page.  At the end they were really settled and concentrating - and so was I.  The evening ended before I could carry the last one any further.  (I'm trying to pay more attention to their individual head shapes this week.)

25 March 2011

Parkers Cove Sheds from the Fish Plant

This time I forgot and painted until too late for the shadows here;  a hill to the west (left of this) with three large houses  blocked the light.  So I drew these sheds instead.  I like the poles as well as the electric masts sticking up among the roofs.

24 March 2011

Waiting for Sun to Shine

The sun was out and I drove down to the wharf to catch the shadows of the sheds which I'd admired but not been able to put in by the time I'd finished drawing the sheds themselves.  They were perfect today, but as soon as I'd backed my car in place, then sun disappeared!  I drew while waiting, then gave up and turned my attention to the shed behind me.  I'll return on a sunnier afternoon.  Thank goodness I don't need the tide to be right also!

Shed with Refrigerator Box Incorporated

This shed delights me because of its many angles and the fact that someone built the refrigerator box of a truck into it.  I love re-purposing of all kinds.  Having no sun to heat me, I got cold before filling this all in, and I'm OK with this degree of finish.

22 March 2011

Poppy Cat, twice also

I had time this morning to do another cat drawing before it was time to get my computer, this time of their orange marmalade cat Poppy.

21 March 2011

Ming Cat asleep on top of couch

My computer needed unexpected organ replacements requiring longer time in hos[ital than expected, so I stayed with friends to pick it up next morning.  They have four fine contented cats.  Ming is Siamese.  She kept shifting so I couldn't get her form at first.  Then she settled into sleep.

20 March 2011

Granville Ferals at Sunday Evening Practice

Another evening being energized by these good and friendly musicians.  I'm becoming more familiar with their individual shapes.

19 March 2011

Five Boats Left at Causeway

Six Mailboxes at End of Lane

Six Mailboxes from the Other Side

The tide was high and I stopped to draw the fleet at the causeway for what might be the last time this season.  Two of the boats are out most days now.  Then I decided to draw the mailboxes just beyond that stopping place.  I've always liked this colony of different styles.  All too soon they may be replaced by a characterless Canada Post multiple box unit.  This is a direct drawing (no preliminary pencil lines) with a Sakura Micron .5 mm black fibre tip pen.

15 March 2011

Fish Sheds at Parkers Cove

After painting at a friend's near the Fundy Shore I couldn't resist going on down to Parkers Cove, my favourite harbour and also the closest one.  The sun was setting and this as as far as I got before it was too cold to sit in my car.  Perhaps I'll go back and lay in the shadows I liked so much and didn't think to note down first thing.  That is part of the coming of spring:  remembering how different it is to work outdoors in the sun; the light is always moving.

14 March 2011

Duck-box from India

This wooden duck, about 3" long, holds my erasers, one of which is beside it.  (I cut them up so I don't lose as much and so I can have one wherever I am.)  My daughter brought it from India some years ago.  It an ornate pattern which I did not try to record; too much like work.

I became immersed in the shadows of its highly patterned form plus its own form-revealing yet flat shadow; amazed at how much the form is revealed in its flat shadow on a flat surface. 

13 March 2011

The Granville Ferals practicing

The Granville Ferals are a group of musicians who play at various community functions.  They gather every Sunday evening to practice.  I thought they were named after all the feral cats which were trapped, neutered, and released in our neighbourhood.  I looked up feral, thinking it meant wild, and discovered it means deadly!  These people are far from deadly!

Now that the clocks have changed again I can stay up late enough to draw in the evening and came home refreshed and invigorated by their lively music.    I did 9 altogether and had a progressively  easier time as I got familiar with them and their instruments.  The big guy in the foreground of #3 really is huge; he probably stands well above 6'6".  He doesn't play; just stopped in to listen.

12 March 2011

St George Street, Annapolis Royal

I've always liked this view of the church steeple peering above the inn, antique store, and houses as I walked on Saint George Street.  Since I had time to stop and draw between other things, I did.  But rain came and I could no longer see through the windshield, so this is an unfinished drawing.  I don't know when I'll get back there to draw again, so here it is; well begun is half done?

11 March 2011

Mama Cleo Nursing

Finished Feeding

Full-bellied and Starting to Wrestle

Practicing Attack Skills

Playing with Cleo's Tail

 

The kittens are now so quick-moving that I can hardly record anything, even a gesture.  They dart about so rapidly that my eyes can hardly follow them!  Drawing chickens is easy compared to rambunctious kittens.  As two have found homes and might be gone before I next get back,  I drew as much as I could last night. 

10 March 2011

Waiting for the Dryers  

 

 

 

Folding Laundry

RvL Waiting - twice

 

 

Waiting at Tangles for my Haircut

I took my non-driving friend to Digby when I went for a haircut.  She did her laundry and I drew people waiting and while I was waiting.  The many-armed woman at the top was fiddling with some sort of hand-held device, trying to see its screen better.  It isn't often I get to places where I can practice drawing people, and there have been two this week.  Lucky me.

8 March, evening

 

Arts Tuesday audience listening to Mark T playing

Mark T on sax at Arts Tuesday

 

(Upper right one looks most like him.)

A couple of quickies done in 4 1/2 x 7" sketchbook I try to keep on hand for times like this.

8 March 2011

 

House on Curve at Victoria Beach

         House at Curve, with thumbnail sketch                                            Thumbnail, enlarged
            (That pale curve in the water is a tide rip.)
 
Today I needed to get out and celebrate a sunny spring day.  Louise and  I drove down to Victoria Beach, where I saw this house.  I like houses on downhill curves as well as houses silhouetted against the sea; two for one here!  First I drew too small and so fitted in the whole 9 yards.  Next I tried to get the size I'd first aimed for, not so successfully.  Then I drew a thumbnail to remind myself what it was I'd been aiming for - probably should have begun here!          

Now the tide was high so I went to the causeway a drew another boat portrait:

 

Da Fighters Three out of Grand Manan

Drawn from down on the road itself, now that the snow is all gone there.

The home port of a boat is not necessarily what is written on her stern.  That indicates where she was registered, which might be where she was built rather than where she is now.  It is expensive to re-register a boat's home port, so the boat may move but not her home port label.

                       

6 MARCH 2011

At the Causeway, on canvas

 

Today was warm, overcast, and high tide; a fine day to paint at the causeway.  I hadn't counted on the March wind roaring upriver!  I struggled to open my door:  no way could I set my up easel, let alone put a canvas on it, so I worked in my car.  I also had to photo the drawing in my car as I was eager to get some paint down before the tide or weather changed.  Hence the distortion and uneven lighting.

5 March 2011

Waiting at WalMart in MaryLou's Truck 

Saturday I rode to Digby for a girls' day with MaryLou and Grace.  I stayed the truck and drew while they went in to WalMart.  It was too early for many people to have arrived, so I enjoyed drawing the poles.  Then two vehicles parked across the aisle from us and I drew them.  I used  a brown Pentel .05 pen in the 5x8" sketchbook I keep in my handbag.

3 March 2011

My Wonderful Willy-wobbly $12 Drawing Table

I set out to draw only my table, to celebrate that I'd finally cleared it off after weeks of letting it hold stuff until I dealt with it, however I fell into drawing and couldn't stop till I came to the edges of the page.   It was also intended to be a simple ink drawing; it's ordinary .7mm pencil.