Queen Fresh Market

Sketching from a parking lot

 This perfect little grocery at the top of my street has super produce and other necessary ingredients, which inspires healthy appetites and good cooking. Morning light makes the sign and the oranges glow, so I screwed up my courage and went out to make a sketch. Using the photo I was able to isolate those wonderful blacks on the iPad. The underpainting will be cool- a mixture of burnt umber and Prussian blue, which will dry fast.

Cropped and sketched from photo

Amazing how three dimensional it is already, just wiping out underpainting!

A nice sketch, but the perspective on the awning needed correction.

Carleton Variety

 The photo is poor, really. Taken through the car windshield and wet snowfall at dusk, it has a certain atmospheric quality I want to mimic, somehow. The lights seem switched on to over-glow and the colours are grainy and warm. 

Winter paintings I admire use soft neutral colour to get the low light areas. John Kasyn, for example, who often shows the unflattering back  side of the house on an overcast day. A certain charm is there, in the airing of the dirty laundry and the daily mundane.

Preliminary Sketches

First Washes

Colour development

Walking West

 Daily walks during COVID-19 been a mainstay for my daughter and I to stay sane while social isolating. Walking west in the late afternoon to avoid the heat of the long August days we make friends with cats and neighbours. With the sun though in the sky the dappled sunlight on the road stretched towards us and I asked her to take this picture for me.

Recently I was at Harbour front with urban sketchers (2 others) and was inspired by David Chen and his approach to  watercolours. We talked about the struggle with overdrawing and the need for spontaneity. I’m looking for a method that will serve me and be enjoyable while I’m painting. I also like the urban watercolour landscapes by Alvaro Castagnet. Here is the start with light hues and washes on a card.

The Harbour front drawings were an opportunity to experiment with my homemade black walnut ink.