Sunset on the St. Louis…
If hangovers could talk!
During the wild energy boom of the late 1970s, the Summit Hotel, the Cafe Dello Sport and the St. Louis were notorious oilpatch watering holes. Of them, only the St. Louis survives, and it looks a lot better now…
I attempted to capture this icon at dusk: still enough light to see, but with the neon lights on. The renovated precinct is lovely from the new library, and the whole area now has a bit of a buzz. Definitely an improvement…
Really looking forward to the upcoming library trip with USkC! Every window has a view!
Old Dominion Bridge and Iron Building. Version 2…
I really liked this place, so did another version with more colour, and a bit more detail. I think it captures the grey morning and fresh snow/slush better.
Delete my first version from your brain!
South Africa
Hello Everyone
South Africa is a lovely country to visit, especially as they don’t have any of this white stuff on the ground. I only completed 2 longer sketches, as we were on the move quite a bit. But……
…I purchased an accordion sketchbook, and did a 20 – 30 minute sketch each day, without fail. I used colored felt tip pens, a different color for each sketch. I have included some of my favorites. For some sketches, I used two pages.
Old Dominion Bridge Building
Great location! Thanks for setting it up. Ramsay has really scrubbed up over the last few years…
I’m still trying to do “fast and loose”. It isn’t working yet, but might,
given a few years practice. I sketched this outside in about 3 min, then painted it in Rosso’s. It wasn’t until we left that I realized I had forgotten the windows. I’m still too timid with the colours, that dried way lighter than I wanted. Looks more like Italy than Calgary. Oh well… next time!
Peter Clapham Sheppard
I thought that some of our Urban Sketchers would find this article from last weekend’s Globe and Mail interesting…
Peter Clapham Sheppard was an urban painter who was eclipsed by the Group of Seven in his day, when the movement towards the natural was highly popular. He died in relative obscurity. However, as society has become urbanized, his urban paintings are increasing in popularity and value…
As a side note, I often walked down Elizabeth Street as a student, and still do from time to time when visiting Toronto. By memory, some of the pictured buildings are still there.
Wallace Residence
On Sat. Nov. 1 I went to the Wallace Residence, a building recently designated a City-Wide Historic Resource by the Calgary Heritage Authority. This house is located in Bowness, and was once part of ‘Bowness Estates’ an upscale community designed by John Hextall in 1911. All by myself, I was only brave enough to do a very quick sketch in front of the house; but I took some photos and finished my pages at home.
From the ground
I went for a street view of the Sunalta station. Less wind at ground level, but always looking up with some tricky angles. I also used a larger sketchbook to try to capture extra details, 8-1/2 by 11 inches laid flat for 17 x 11 inches. I did the pencil sketch on site, and inked the lines and added washes at home. I added the train afterwards from a photo I took on site.
