Seeing The World Through My Art

Daily Sketches, watercolour pencils

Blog 9



I started my daily art strongly with a visit to the Ottawa Little Theatre on September 1 to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. You can find a good summary of the book on Wikipedia.

A grey wall was the backdrop for the play and didn’t offer anything interesting to draw. However, the simple setup came alive when images were projected onto the wall to suggest the different locations. It was fascinating but not inspiring to draw. Most scenes were also too dark to spread enough light to my sketchbook.

Drawing in the dark at the Ottawa Little Theatre

 

Three days later, I received an unexpected and unwilling opportunity to draw when our dog got probably bitten by a coyote and needed stitches. We waited eight hours until 5 AM  to take him home with us again. My pencil and sketchbook were the only tools I had left to entertain me after my phone battery died in the late evening hours. Shadow needed our attention as he was shaking and curled up against me so that I captured only his foot while he was distracted by another dog. A Golden who came after midnight was too nervous and moved around so much that I drew an image putting several poses together. While Shadow was under anesthesia, I turned to drawing a plant which didn’t move and was an easy subject.

Sketches from a night at the Animal Hospital

 

The following day, my friend Janis Fulton and I set up our display for the Arteast Studio Tour. While the weather didn’t cooperate for plein air painting on our property, we painted a still life of zinnias. I also went back to my daily drawings for the next few days.

In addition, I went painting en plein air with friends at the Humanics Institute Sculpture Park in Cumberland and twice at Park du Moulin in Rockland. The first time, I captured a sunset after a picnic with my husband and dog. The following day, I met a friend to enjoy the beautiful scenery on a warm and sunny day. After many years of cold and stormy weather on our meeting dates, we finally got lucky.

For the past ten days, we had visitors from Germany. We spent a week at the cottage, and I managed to create the two sketches below.

 

I wish you a creative autumn and look forward to more plein air outings. I will post my upcoming blog on October 25, 2024. Check out my needle-felting workshop schedule for ways to bring more creativity to your life.