3.5"X5.5" Moleskine sketchesTwo different lunchtimes in (more-or-less) the same location. Looking out onto Lake Ontario towards Toronto, about a mile from the mouth of the Niagara River.
6"X4" Watercolour on paper
Another plein-air sketch from a previous autumn up at Achray. I may have mentioned before that Grand Lake is where Tom Thomson painted the Jack Pine. He served as a fire-warden there in the 1916.
6"X4" Watercolour on paper
We are supposed to be going up to Achray this weekend. We may regret it as the forecast is for cold and wet but it has become something of a family tradition to go there for Thanksgiving.
If we make it I hope to do lots of painting. This is an image from a previous Fall visit, painted in the pouring rain.
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.
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.