Rushing Into Winter

We were having some wonderful late summer weather this year but when Quebec decides to head toward winter it does so in rapid fashion.  It seems that even the trees have a hard time keeping up as they try their best to turn bright colors and then lose their leaves.

The year change of seasons has put me into near-frantic mode.  I’m trying to build up my bad leg, having lost much of the muscle mass of my right leg.  That means walking all the time, or at least as much as I can.  Often I do two walks a day and this eats a lot of time but once the snow starts falling, long walks will be out of the question.

At the same time I’m in ‘it’s almost winter’ mode with my sketching.  Happens every year as I realize there are only so many days when I can sketch outdoors.  Honestly, this part of frantic is coming to an end as it’s becoming too cool for this ex-Arizona boy to be outside sitting on a stool.  Museum season will begin soon.

Because of this I’ve been neglecting the blog a bit.  Some of the neglect is because I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting rather than sketching for display.  My garbage can is well-fed, though.  I’ll probably talk about some of that stuff as we drop into winter.  My apologies.

Chantal made a pie the other day and I decided I should paint it.  This was one of those wacky experiments as I’m not much of a watercolorist.  I’d like to be but mostly I just color in the spaces of my ink sketches.  I was happy with my pie experiment though.  The pie was good too.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), DeAtramentis Document Black, Wing Sung 3009

9 thoughts on “Rushing Into Winter

  1. Pie looks great Larry!
    I know what you mean about needing to walk and the time it takes… it’s the same for me. I always have good intentions but many times I’m too tired after my trek to paint. I do have to rethink my routine for winter. But have enjoyed this glorious autumn here in the Northeast. Here’s to a good winter walking/painting season for you!

    • I’ve always walked a lot, but mostly to get to a sketching location. Now I’m more in a forced march mode, viewing it as physio therapy and, well, it hurts 🙂 But I’m finally getting enough muscle mass that I can climb stairs, which is a major break through. The nice weather over the past few weeks has helped a lot.

  2. At my age I would probably not do much walking, but my dog requires a decent walk a couple of times a day. Fortunately, he’s a small dog, so he’s okay with short walks suited to my limited stamina. And the looks yummy!

  3. I can almost taste that crust! Great watercolor texture.

    As far as walking in bad weather… while we don’t have snow, walking in cold and rain can be unpleasant. I’ve taken to using a walking exercise video. It comes in 1, 2, 3 mile increments. There is a YouTube version:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njeZ29umqVE&list=WL&index=34&t=0s

    I can keep an eye on it while playing on my iPad and actually watch something else on TV…cuts down the boredom.

    Hope to see some of your experiments.

    • Glad you like my pie. It’s a different kind of art for me but I really enjoyed doing it. Hope to do more like this to fill the winter.

      As for the walking exercise video, I’d go mad listening to that. Doing it would be worse It’s also not long enough. I’m walking a couple hours a day and really need to push it because I’m in muscle-building mode. It’s helping too – a lot. I’m able to climb stairs again, though that’s still a struggle but my leg is starting to look like a leg again instead of a stick

  4. You did a remarkably good job of subtle shading and highlights on the pie… when I saw the thumbnail in my blog reader, it looked almost photographic because the values are spot on. As for weather, I sympathize. It’s about to go bad here, too.

    • Seems I sent a reply to you that was supposed to go to Kate so I’ll try again.

      Glad you liked my pie. This is definitely a new approach for me and definitely not something to be done from a tripod stool perch. But it is giving me a better handle on watercolors and tone in general. Just takes a long time.

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