Tag Archives: urban

Bridged Again

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5.5"X7" Pen & Ink in Moleskine

As I am not finding time to paint I am determined to try to sketch more regularly. So, in an attempt to find some inspiration, I bought some new drawing pens last weekend: Faber-Castell sepia and a Copic sepia sketch pen.

I got caught again this morning. Double-bridged this time. The Carlton Street bridge is right next to Lock 2, and sometimes there is a boat waiting to enter the lock as another leaves it. When this happens they leave the bridge up until the two boats have changed places. They move very slowly, especially the one going into the lock.

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Pittsburgh

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8"X5.5" Ink & wash on paper

I went down to Pittsburgh to visit a friend on the weekend. She lives in the Green Tree district, southwest of the city. Pittsburgh is all hills and she is on one of the highest points. This is the view from the front window.

I rather like Pittsburgh, despite the fact that I was always led to believe that it was one of those places, "First prize, a night in Pittsburgh, second prize, two nights in Pittsburgh". It certainly suffered when the steel industry collapsed, but it has hung on and cleaned up and attracted some diverse, cleaner industry. It has the Carnegie Museums and some nice parks and of course it has the three rivers (Allegheny, Monongahela and the Ohio). Also, although only four hours drive, Spring seems to be about a week ahead of here. So between the torrential rainstorms, we enjoyed some mild Spring weather.
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London, Ontario

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5.5"X7" Pencil in Moleskine The boys are home this weekend and it doesn't look as if I will get any painting done. I had a busy week last week, went to Detroit and London (Ontario) for work-related events. I had a nice hotel room in the Armouries in London. This was the early-morning view from my room. Urban scenes like this are a challenge for anyone striving for accuracy. I lose track of windows very quickly. One of my favourite blogs (also a Flickr group) is urbansketchers.org It is an invitational group blog for both amateur and professional artists from every continent. All the sketches are done on the spot, no copying from photographs here. Some are loose and impressionistic, some are tight architectural renderings. Some sketchers specialize in people and movement, some in buildings and monuments. Well worth a visit.
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Gruber/Maklar Duo

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7"X5.5" Pencil in Moleskine I haven't been painting much but I do still sketch pretty regularly. It isn't quite as easy to use the scanner with my present setup so I have been rather remiss about posting these drawings. On Friday we hosted another remarkable guitar duo, from Bavaria this time. Chris Gruber and Peter Maklar are wonderful musicians and charming, funny and considerate guests, Their concert at St. Barnabas was one of my favourites so far, just beautiful music.
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Niagara Central Hobbies

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7"X5" Acrylic on board


All artists in the Region are probably familiar with this building on St. Paul Street, St. Catharines. This is almost the only source of art supplies in the whole peninsula. There is now a Michaels, a store which I find deeply depressing and prefer to ignore, and WalMart sells some basic stuff. Even NCH is not a dedicated art-supply store and their selection is limited but it is what we have. The next best thing is a trip to Currys in Hamilton.

What Niagara Central Hobbies does have is one of the best supplies of model train paraphernalia in Southern Ontario. More than Half the store is dedicated to model railroad supplies and there always seem to be at least two elderly male shop assistants for every customer. They are very knowledgeable and sometimes I wonder if they are actually volunteers.

I cheated a little with this picture. There is actually an ugly apartment building behind the store which ruined the composition so I left it out.

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Sushi

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11"X14" Oil on canvas


This is another one from the St. Catharines series, again a couple of years old. Anyone local will remember this landmark on Geneva Street, it was such a vibrant shade of emerald green. Unfortunately, last year they covered it in brown vinyl siding.



I was never quite sure that this one was finished, but here it is anyway.


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AGO Cafe

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8"X5.5" Pencil on paper

I didn't really have any time to paint today. I went to Toronto and visited the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario). They have a great collection of Canadian art thanks largely to the bequest from Ken Thomson. I think they must now own every Krieghoff on the planet and a pretty enormous collection of Lawren Harris, amongst many others.

I have mixed feelings about the new Frank Gehry addition to the building although it has received rave reviews from many. I think I will just keep my opinions to myself though as I would probably simply display my total ignorance of modern architectural form.

Rapid City Cycle

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11"X14" Oil on canvas

This one is a couple of years old. I had an ambition at one time to do a series of local landmarks but I ran out of steam. At least I started do "daily paintings' and they sapped all my energy so that I had nothing left for larger pieces.

I think the great appeal of the little paintings is that they are so much less of a commitment. When it is just a 5"X7" and only takes an hour or two I feel that it doesn't matter if the result is uninteresting or second rate. When I have wasted a whole lot of paint and time on an expensive canvas and at the end of it I feel that the subject and composition weren't worth the effort, I get very depressed.

This painting is SOLD

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