Sketching

A Journey Around The World, Painting and Sketching

Travel Sketching, Trip Around the World 2013

The Start, Day 1, Leaving Home                                   May 15, 2013

Three years ago my wife Lyn and I did a trip around the world. As a way to do justice to an eight month back packing adventure and to clarify the story of our journey I am going to post paintings and sketch’s starting from the beginning of our journey back in Squamish, BC, Canada.

Lyn and I had been planning this great adventure for some time and so when we sold our house in Squamish we had a big garage sale and put the remainder of our belongings into storage.  With that done, we loaded up the car with camping gear with the plan of driving across the United States to Boston as the first leg of our trip.

Here is the story of our trip in sketch’s and paintings.  Driving down the Sea to Sky highway from Whistler on our way to Vancouver, BC. we spotted a mother black bear and her cubs.  We thought this was a great omen of things to come and a great way to leave our mountain home.

Follow us a we go back through a trip that took us to 96 cities and 15 countries on our eight month journey.

The Yin and Yang of Painting Portraits

Portrait Sketches

 

Pencil and watercolour sketch
Old Man of the Mountains, Pencil and watercolour sketch
Sherpa, Nepal, Pencil and watercolour sketch
Nepalese Woman #1, Pencil and watercolour sketch
Nepalese Woman #3, Pencil and watercolour sketch
Pencil and watercolour sketch

Most of the time I am painting landscapes from Canada and my travels.  The last couple of  weeks I have been focusing on watercolour portrait sketches as a way to practice accuracy.  I find doing these sketch book studies a lot of fun and at the same time challenging.  I think for the style of art that I do that drawing is foundational and always will be.  I believe it is really important to develop the spatial drawing skills that just comes from practice and close observation.

The Yin and Yang of painting portraits is for me a way of describing the relationship between accuracy to form and detail and at the same time keeping the pictures loose and allowing for the organic nature of watercolour.  I have heard it said of painting portraits that  “the soul is in the details”.  With that in mind I usually put more detail into the face and specifically the eyes.  While I am working carefully on the details of the face I am at the same time putting in loose washes in other parts of the picture.  It is a challenge to be loose and accurate at the same time. At the end of the day I am making a piece of art and so I am hoping to convey a little of the spirit of the person.

A Fresh Approach To My Watercolour Painting

Travel Sketching

When I am painting outdoors and time is limited, I will often sketch and paint in a different style than I would if I was in my studio.  The style that I use in my sketch books is often pen and ink with watercolour washes or pencil drawings with watercolour washes.  Its all fun either way and to approach a piece of paper as if it doesn’t matter about the outcome of the art work is liberating.

I think that the field sketches done while I am traveling are a big part of what I do and so I recently created a new gallery on my web site called “Travel Sketches” under the Painting Galleries section.  Not all of these sketches were created on location in some distant land but were recreated in the studio in this “lighter style”.  I have included a few examples from a trip to Nepal where my wife and I were hiking the Annapurna Circuit.  The picture at the top of this post is an example of one my studio paintings.

Yaks near Manang, 11 in. x 15 in.
Leaving Upper Pisang, 11 in. x 15 in.
Kathmandu, 9.75 in. x 13.5 in.
Nepalese woman in a temple doorway, Kathmandu, Nepal, Watercolour and Pencil sketch, Available for sale.

The Paddle And The Paintbrush

Uncategorized

The title of my blog “The Paddle And The Paintbrush” is a reference to the adventure
spirit that was instilled in me from a young age.  Along with painting in watercolour, I spent many summers working as a white water rafting guide in Western Canada. The picture above shows me guiding in Bow Canyon, on the Bow River in Alberta.

It’s been a few years since I hung up my paddle as it relates to river guiding but the spirit of adventure, exploring and travel lives on.  My watercolour paintings and sketches are often scenes of Canadian wilderness, however I also love to paint my travel experiences and adventures world wide.  What I hope to share with people is the beauty I see along the way with a special emphasis on Canada.

I grew up with a fascination and respect for a group of Canadian painters called the Group of Seven.  They painted  Canada in a style that show cased Canada as a rugged land of lakes, rivers, mountains and forest.  This is a big part of what Canada still is and I would like to be a part of that tradition of painting this great land.

The idea behind my blog is to share with you my journey of painting in watercolour.  When I couple this idea with my love of travel, hiking and fascinating places, I feel their is no end to this adventure.  I would like to think that there is value in sharing thoughts and experiences and so I welcome your comments.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sketching at Lake McArthur, Yoho National Park,BC


Sketching at Lake McArthur, Yoho National Park,BC