Month: July 2016

Spending Time In The Forest

Plein-Air Painting, watercolour painting

This week I wanted to share with you some of my recent paintings and sketches from the forests here on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada. I find that I paint in different styles depending on the subject matter and where I am.

If I am on the road and sketching in a city with lots of people around my working style will be more about line work and simple watercolor washes. The private side of my self is saying “This is great!, I love this, but lets get this done quickly and get out of here”. When I am out in a forest or any place in nature where there are less people I tend to work in a slower more methodical way.

Producing art by its very nature is a solitary process and for me I can settle down into a longer working session with less distractions and delve deeper into the subject matter when I am out in nature.

The picture of Salal bushes in the forest at the top of this post I spent all afternoon painting. It is very easy to get lost in the moment and do this.

Douglas Fir tree on the Sunshine Coast. Watercolor
Lightining Strike on Mt. Seymour, North Vancouver, BC. Watercolor
Along The Varley Trail, Lynn Headwaters Park, North Vancouver, BC. Watercolor study.
Salal bushes on the Sunshine Coast. Watercolor painting
My out door studio.

 

Journey Around The World – Cuenca, Ecuador

Travel Sketching, Trip Around the World 2013

A Day in Cuenca                     June 21, 2013

After leaving Banos, we drove south through the Andes to Cuenca, which would be our last stop before arriving in Mancora, Peru.

Cuenca is a city of around 260,000 people that has become a very popular place to retire.  Our impression of Cuenca is that it  would be an easy place to live with plenty of cheap restaurants, beautiful colonial architecture, museums and a national park near by for hiking and exploring.

I managed to do some simple sketches while in Cuenca.  The sketches were all done in black pen and I gave them simple watercolor washes later on.  I don’t always find it easy to sketch in public but that is the nature of the beast.

Sometimes I meet local artists as a result of sketching out doors and so this can be a rewarding exchange of thoughts and experiences.  Once I settle in to the place I am sketching I tend to be too busy to notice or care about people looking over my shoulder. All of my out door sketching practice in South America would be a good  warm up for painting and drawing in India, but that is another story down the road a bit.

Pen and Watercolor sketch. Private Collection.

 

Journey Around The World – Banos. Ecuador

Travel Sketching, Trip Around the World 2013

Waterfalls and Hot Springs                         June 18, 2013

As we were leaving Tena we stopped along the way to go caving.  This was a mud filled adventure climbing up through a cave with very little light with a stream flowing through it and bats to keep us company.  We were covered in mud by the time we got back to the truck and so when we arrived at our camp site near Banos we were happy to have a warm shower.

Banos or Banos de Agua Santa (Spanish for Baths of Holy Water) is a tourist town in the mountains on the edge of the Amazon Jungle known for thermal hot springs located around town.  There are also over sixty waterfalls in the area.  We stayed here for a few days and explored the town site and hiked to Pailon del Diablo or Devil’s Cauldron which is an amazing waterfall worth visiting.

While on this trip we were looking for places that we would come back to and stay for an extended period of time.  Banos is like a tropical version of a mountain town and I would love to go back there and stay for a month or two.

Deep Frying Empanadas in Banos
Shopping at a Mercado near Banos