While my daughter was visiting we were at Parc Cartier-Brebeuf, a park near my house. It’s on the St. Charles River and was the spot where Cartier overwintered during one of his trips to what is now Quebec City.
While Chantal and Jodie talked, I did this sketch of the information center of the park.
Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), Platinum 3776
I’ve long thought that I should do a series of sketches of Quebec City doors. We have many stately, carved or otherwise detailed doors and a set of detailed sketches of them would be nice. This is one of those doors, though this was done rather quickly as I leaned against a wall on a windy day. It is the entrance to the Tetu estate home, an 1800s home in the old city.
Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5×8.5), Esterbrook J9550
Quebec City is in the midst of a major infrastructure improvement program that includes replacing our sidewalks, curbs, some of the water and sewer lines, and ultimately, repaving our street. Right now, though, it’s a mess.
We live, from 6:30AM until 5:30 with a near constant beep..beep…beep as big machines and trucks back up, and lots of general construction noise, but the activity does provide sketching opportunities. Sadly, I haven’t take advantage of it because staying indoors or leaving is the only way to buffer against the noise driving me nuts.
When the workers go home, however, they do leave their toys behind and so I sat on my front porch and drew this large water truck whose job is to spray down the street to keep the dust down. Not the most esthetically pleasing sketch but I had fun doing it.
Stillman & Birn Alpha softcover (5.5×8.5)
I suspect that Quebec City has more church towers per capita than most place on Earth so a sketcher has many to draw, but none of them comes close to the this amazing structure. It reminds me of structures that the Legos folks come up with when trying to show off the complexity they can produce with colored blocks This church is for sale, by the way, if you need a spacious art studio with some flare.
Anyways, on a sunny, but very windy day, I drew it, having a ball in spite of the wind and having to chase my hat on a couple occasions. Hope you like it too.
Stillman & Birn Alpha (6×9) softcover, Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Brown
Part 1 here. Part 2 here. Part 3 here.
We’d agreed to meet at a park near Karen’s hotel. There’s a large statue of Joan of Arc that she wanted to sketch. Sadly, this was Karen’s last day here and only the morning at that, but with smiles on our faces, we embraced the morning.
Smiles broadened as our mystery sketcher, who turned out to be Alex Gouelky, from Winter Park, Florida arrived. He’s only been sketching for a year but he gets to do it with Thomas Throspecken in a place with no snow so I consider him a lucky guy. We talked a bit about sketching swapped sketchbooks and then sat down to sketch.
Both Karen and Alex drew Joan. I’d drawn her a couple times and decided this would be an opportunity to draw Karen instead. Because it was a simple drawing, I had time to do a small sketch of one of the lamp posts that surround the garden. Have I mentioned lately how much I love to draw lamp posts (grin)?
Karen lamented the loss of Joan’s sword to her “zooming” but her color more than made up for it. I think Joan would be happy.
It’s always fun to draw someone who is sketching because you know they’re not going anywhere for a while. Karen was typical in that regard.
Stillman & Birn Alpha (3×5), Esterbrook J9550
I hated to see Karen go. She was heading towards Tadoussac to do some whale-watching and camping. I was heading home where I had put off replacing a set of stairs. I was certain that she would be having more fun. Thanks, Karen, for such a inspiring few days. And thanks to USK for letting her find me.