Emergency Road Trip

This summer has become one for the record books in terms of how little sketching I’ve been able to do.  The lousy weather was bad enough but being rushed to the hospital with heart problems really put a damper on my sketching just when we started getting some good sketching days.  Happy as a clam following recovery from that, though, I was starting to get out sketching until…

My daughter is still in Ottawa and she decided to fall down a bunch of stairs.  It could have been worse, but she badly sprained her ankle and was suddenly on crutches.  To put this in context, she’s in Ottawa alone and needs to walk 20-25 min each way to work every day.  To make matters worse, her timing was unfortunate because she had arranged to take the bus to Montreal to pick up the keys for her new apartment.  And so she called mom and dad.

The result was that we dropped everything and drove five hours to Ottawa and the next morning we drove to Montreal and back (another four hours).  Back in Ottawa, we spent the night and the next day we drove back to Quebec City (another five hours).  What a weekend.  I’m old; I was exhausted.

So…not much sketching time that weekend, but we did sit in a park or about an hour and once we got Jodie sitting and her leg propped up I did some quick sketching.

Certainly not the best scene ever but this is what I could see over the trees.  It was nice to scratch out this sketch in a Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10).

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), Platinum 3776, diluted DeAtramentis Document Black

I then go out a small Stillman & Birn Epsilon (3×5) book, looked around and quickly drew these two apartment buildings on the other side of the Rideau River from where I was sitting.

I took a short break and took a walk along the river.  The Rideau River has bike/pedestrian paths on both sides of the river and it was nice to get out and do some walking.  When I got back I drew this little scene, again, viewed across the Rideau River.

6 thoughts on “Emergency Road Trip

  1. Happy to hear everything worked out … eventually !

    Your sketching is really taking on a life of it’s own, great stuff.

    • I suppose it is. I struggle with the reality if I give up my slow and deliberate approach that I move quickly towards sloppy. I’m hoping that, with some practice I can move sloppy towards painterly (grin). — Larry

  2. Wow! I can really relate to this. Between cataract surgeries for my husband, plastic surgery on my leg, big fall in bathroom injuring wrist, hand an most particularly the thumb with x-rays showing arthritis developing, I have only three or four very small sketches to show for my spring and summer. Good for you for what you did accomplish!!!!!!

    • I find it tough being old. I too have arthritis, mostly in my hands, and it’s limiting what I can do – good days and bad. On the other hand, I’m not convinced that the alternative to getting older appeals to me very much (grin). — Larry

  3. Ouch! Nice you were back in good shape and could help your daughter.

    Happy sketching going forward!

    • The next few weeks is going to mean a lot of driving and a lot of helping as we’ve got to help our daughter move and set up the new apartment. I am hoping to get some sketching done and hoping my current experiments with sketching quickly will help me fit more of it into the schedule. — Larry

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