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.

Opus Outdoor Challenge

I had a wonderful day, my first of this season plein painting (outdoors, on location) during an annual painting challenge put on by Opus Art Stores. My sister Shannon and I signed up, were given an 8"x10" canvas board and a map of the large painting area. There were over 300 registrants. After a season of indoor studio painting it was very different to have all these distractions - Shannon and I conversing, people having a look at what we were doing and the beautiful scene of Okanagan Lake with so many vistas to choose from. I painted in oil and Shannon painted abstracts in water colour. There were a lot of artists around so it was fun to check on their progress as well. I painted 2 views then we moved out of the lake wind and I started painting a couple on a bench. They left soon after I started and were replaced by others. The painting has one lady's shorts and a different one's shirt etc. We ran out of time so I did not get it finished but was able to get an idea of their body positioning.
What I did miss was a picture of Shannon and I together!

Painting #1 with Kelowna Bridge in the background

Painting #2 with sailboats in the enjoying the wind

Painting #3 unfinished but captured body positioning

In The Still Of The Fog

"In The Still Of The Fog"
20" x 16" Oil on canvas
#20029418

Boats of all kinds intrigue me. This scene was so still and calm in the hazy fog. I loved how the boat and masts were old and worn but the fishing buoys looked so lively in the reflective water. I struggled with how to make the fine lines of the ropes and the hazy fog behind without defining everything. This was a perfect one to learn with in Doug's class.

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