Labour Day Weekend



5.5"X3.5" Watercolour in Moleskine

I spent the long weekend in the traditional way, hanging out with friends at "the cottage". Not my cottage, but that of an old friend. Sunday was already starting to feel like Fall but I went for a swim anyway. I took my Moleskine and little watercolour set down to the lake with me and sketched this while I dried off enough to cycle back up the hill.
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Band Shell

7″X5″ Graphite on paper

Many years ago, I worked in a photographic processing lab. I would see thousands of pictures every day, family occasions and vacations as well as portraits and scenic shots. It was amazing how many of the latter were almost identical. A particular place on the Trans-Canada Highway where the sun goes down behind a certain mountain at certain times of year creating a tailor made “photo op” would sometimes show up several times a day. I would see some of them so many times that I almost felt I had been there. This band shell which sits on the edge of Lake Ontario, almost at the mouth of the Niagara River, is such a familiar sight as to be a cliché. I have drawn and painted it myself several times. So today, when I have so little time and even less energy, it was an easy way out.

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Heron ACEO

3.5″X2.5″ Linocut print

Yes I know it looks more like a canada goose than a heron, but you try cutting out a heron less than an inch high. This is actually slightly larger than the original, well I guess it depends on your screen resolution, it is on mine.

I started playing around with relief printing about a year ago but then the daily painting took over my life and I haven’t found much time recently. It is great fun and I do want to do more. I actually had an ambition to do some ‘reductive’ prints but that would really take some planning! I have made nine of these and I may try adding watercolour to some of them.

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