A Wonderful Summer With Less Art

Summer is struggling to hang on here in Quebec City and I’m grateful.  Very few leaves have dropped and the trees are still mostly green.   So we’re continuing to do our walking regime, while talking about what we’ll do when it finally does snow.

My summer has been less “sketch filled” than ever before and you know, I don’t feel bad about that.  I feel a bit guilty that I haven’t been posting here but I’ll try to catch up “real soon” because a number of things have occurred with my art over the past few weeks and it’ll be fun to share those with you.

I promised not to bore you with my stream of 4-5 minute sketches but I think sharing a few of them might give me a chance to mention what I actually have been sketching while out on our walks.  First are the people.  I’ve drawn a bunch of them, mostly as we sit, taking a break in one of the local parks.  These are typical of those efforts.  Nothing to write home about but I really like the little girl, with her large head and big hair, perched on her frail body.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don’t do portraits but who could resist sketching this guy, who sat down across from me in the park.  I did take advantage of my wife’s patience as this one took more than five minutes, but not more than ten.

If you do quick drawings in parks, you draw plants.  I did and this is one of them.  I think it’s some sort of hibiscus and I added the color while sitting at home.

Then there are the rocks.  Our parks are full of them, placed around as little statues.. or something.  I’ve documented a bunch of them.

I’ll throw this one in as my “teaching moment.”  Chantal started bring her sketchbook with her and found the 5-minute routine as frustrating as I do.  At one point we were discussing how to grab a scene quickly and so I showed her how I would grab a scene in a minute or two.  As I’ve said, I’m not good at this but then ability has never prevented artists from giving advice to someone else (grin).

Those are some examples of the sorts of things I’ve been doing while out on my daily walks.  All were done in 3×5 or 4×6, dollar store sketchbooks.  My new knee is serving me well.  It’s the best joint in my body and the others are straining to keep up.  I’m afraid getting old isn’t pretty and it’s beginning to limit my overall ability to urban sketch but as time marches on, so do I.

Again, I apologize for my lack of blogging activity and hopefully you’ll see more from me “real soon.”  Hope everyone is doing well.

4 thoughts on “A Wonderful Summer With Less Art

    • Thanks Ted. At my age it seems that one “heals” one problem, only to get another. Such is the price of growing old, which beats the alternative regardless of the aches and pains (grin).

  1. Hold on, hold on… if Chantal is sketching too, why don’t you BOTH take longer to sketch together instead of both complaining about the frustrations of sketching in a few minutes? 😉

    • Complaining? I don’t think so. First, Chantal brought her sketchbook only one time and gave up. But back to “complaining.” I wasn’t. To quote me, “My summer has been less “sketch filled” than ever before and you know, I don’t feel bad about that.”

      Does that sound like complaining? Chantal and I have had a great summer and we’ve done, pretty much, exactly what we wanted to do. But my blog is about art so long treatises about how much fun we had walking along our river, seeing hawks and skunks, and grabbing a coffee here and there wouldn’t have been appropriate. A post or two about why I wasn’t sketching, however, seems just fine. Maybe it was not, but I hasn’t complaining.

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