Ready For The Shedding

"Ready For The Shedding"

12" x 12"  Oil on canvas with 1 1/2" painted sides

#20027618

I really liked these bulrushes and the fluffy seeds looked like they were barely hanging on. Bulrushes are hardy and seem to grow in the most unlikely places. My photo reference was taken last fall as I walked along the road near our place in Sicamous, B.C.

End of holiday sketches - Surrey, UK

We ended our holiday with a half a day and evening in Surrey, UK with our friends Lucy, Barbara and Peter. They took us for dinner at the Weir Pub then we walked along the channel. These are some of the views on the walk. Barbara and Lucy drove us to the airport for our flight back to Canada the next morning after enjoying a night as their guests. What a wonderful holiday and my sketch book will conjure up all those wonderful moments and memories long after the holiday is done.

Holiday sketches in Port de Soller, Spain (5)

 We have now said goodbye to our friends and moved to another stunning floor of a house overlooking the Port de Soller. The views are stunning as we are up on a hill. Surprisingly enough it only takes us 10 minutes to walk down to the bay.

We loved exploring the bays and near by towns by car and foot.

This is the beautiful view from our decks, in fact there were 3 decks, 1 with deck chairs another with a table and 2 chairs and the third with a table and chairs that we enjoyed our meals.

This was the end of our Spain holiday, Flew to London England. One last sketch book entry to add of Surrey, UK.

Holiday sketches in Spain (4)

This page in my sketch book was of our day after Shelly and Art moved on to other adventures in Portugal. With a cow dairy allergy, meals are usually not sophisticated but this was my favourite meal of the trip. Memorable enough to draw it out!

 Maps, tickets and other memorable tidbits also get glued in. For these sketches I used both sides of my book.

Holiday Sketches while biking in Spain (#3)

 

I loved and drank a lot of beer on this holiday. It was so great the locals have beer or wine with EVERY meal. I did not quite do that but especially enjoyed the beer on our bike stops. These are labels Bruce pulled off for me...seems he has a talent or is it the challenge?

These two pages are a compilation of some of the things I enjoyed while riding in the countryside. Wild poppies and flowers growing in between the rock walls "Wild [poppies on the edge of raodways and fields dancing in the sunlit breeze. Poppies waved and bobbed as we happily passed on our bikes." 

Holiday Sketches in Pollenca, Spain

More photos of my sketch book during our Spain cycling holiday with 3 other couples. Some days it was just notes or writing and other days it was more art than writing.

This sketch is across 2 pages of the house that we rented. It was perfect for the 8 of us.

I left this matted water colour ink & water colour painting as a thank you to the owners with a card everyone signed.

Holiday Sketches - Palma de Mallorca, Spain (1)

We flew from Gatwick Airport to Palma de Mallorca Spain to meet up with our friends to begin a pedal biking holiday. We met up with Shelly and Art and walked over the town enjoying a supper of tapas and great beer at an outdoor restaurant. The next day we walked all over and ran into Laurianne and Chris before heading to meet Christine and Bruce at the bus depot to head to our rented house in Port de Pollenca, a beautiful 4 bedroom home (Casa Vieja) for the 8 of us.

I kept a travel diary with sketches of things that I enjoyed or was intrigued with as a reminder of the trip when I get home. I also kept a small journal with me to record any live people sketches on my travels.

Holiday memories in sketch book - UK

My husband Gord and I flew to London and were greeted by our friends Lucy and Barbara. We enjoyed a fabulous day in Brighton and enjoyed the seaside. Barbara had a bag of 2 pence pieces so we ran around playing the 2 p machines on the Brighton wharf. Lucy and I scoured machines for dropped 2p coins so our playing lasted a lot longer (so much fun). We were gifted with British things we love - English Ale, Harry Potter earrings (to go with my socks), beer opener, and Percy pigs candy. The next day we took a bus to Kingston Upon Thames with Barbara and Lucy and thoroughly enjoyed shopping at Primark (everyone came home with something), lunch on an outdoor deck by the Thames, back to their house for tapas in their garden, dinner inside and back to our hotel (whew those days flew by). This is the first page of my journal, crowded and busy as our time there was.

This is a drawing I did in one continuous ink line on the flight over. Even the writing was one continuous line. Much easier to look at people's feet not their heads (so they don't keep turning to look at who is looking at them!). A great way to pass time.

100 Sketches in 100 Days #60, 61, 62, 63, 66, 67, 68, 69

#61 Seat 13C and #62 Seat 14F These sketches were all done on a WestJet flight from London, UK to Calgary, Canada  A great opportunity and time passer.  Sitting one seat behind allowed me a partial view without making eye contact.

#63 Seat 13K

#66

#67 WestJet flight attendant (had to be quick as she was doing a service and was continually moving).

#68 Seat 13C This one was fun as he was sleeping I felt like I had time to get a good look so I used both sides of the book (2 pages) and drew large.

#69 Seat 13K

100 sketches in 100 days #53, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59

 #53 and #54 Porto Pollenca, Spain on the beach. These are part of my 100 day challenge, sketching people in an urban environment without being (hopefully) noticed. A new game of "Eye spy".

 #55 and #56 Fornalutx, Spain cerveza stop
#56 was enjoying ice cream and oblivious to anything else (perfect for me).

 #57 in a restaurant

#58 and #59 in the Palma, Spain Airport

100 sketches in 100 days #49, 50, 51, 54

These are more of my sketches in the 100 day challenge. I am trying to sketch people in urban settings. So far sketching on the plane although shaky, space restricted and subject restricted has allowed me the most time.

100 sketches in 100 days #46, 47, 48

Elizabeth, Georgie and I are doing a challenge called "100 in 100 days" and you design what the hundred is. For me it is to do 100 sketches of live people in urban settings. With travelling I had the opportunity to do a lot of sketching in airports and on flights. My sketch book is small - 6 1/4" x 4" so it looks like I am writing not drawing. The tough part is you can't look at anyone to long or they look back at you.

This one was tough as she sat across from me in the airport. So hard to not look straight at her.

Some are quick sketches and then they move or get up as this fellow did. For some of these that I did not feel I got very far, I haven't counted in my 100.

Almost sketch hostages when they are in their seat on an airplane. The one on the left was sitting one row ahead, the other a couple rows ahead.