Calgary Urban Sketchers

This is the Alexandra Centre in Inglewood, drawn on Feb 16 but only coloured with watercolour washes a few days ago. I struggled a lot with the colour of the shadows, and scrubbed off at least two versions before getting this cool gray on. On the right hand side, you can see where the “waterproof” ink was starting to give up as I scrubbed off the previous wash. The day was cloudy with a lot of snow falling, so the shadows were pretty weak.

 

Now that everything I own, including 98% of my art materials, stuffed and sealed into boxes and taken into storage by the moving company, I have to get my sketching fix using my IPad Pro. Fortunately, my favourite (and only) grandson struck a suitable and lengthy enough pensive pose as he worked on a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. Just long enough for a quick sketch before he tired of the tedium and moved on to other pursuits.

What better way to seek refuge from the bitter cold we’ve experienced the last several months, than at a garden centre. Golden Acre was kind enough to host us last Saturday, and although I couldn’t attend, lots of other sketchers did! As one of them put it, the warmth of the sun thru the greenhouse roof, the smell of dirt, and palette of various greens and vibrant flowers made you forget you were in Calgary. So hopefully it’s a nice option to keep in mind in case spring is delayed in arriving!

Hi  Calgary Urban Sketchers,

The new public library has a wall dedicated to the “Calgary Story” and they would be quite happy to display our sketches of buildings and scenes of the city. The wall space is on the third floor. This would be nice publicity for us personally and for urban sketching in in our city.

Here is a photo of a current exhibit of photographs. The pieces are suspended from a bar on wires so there are no wall mounting hooks required.

This is wall available for us.

I recently had a request for copies of my Hong Kong sketches. Staple print services will scan your sketchbook and make pretty good prints. I was reluctant to rip the pages out of my sketchbook and this allowed me to keep the sketchbook intact..

In the two photos below Staples printed the sketches on foam board with a glossy finish. One is 8 1/2″ x 11″ and the other 11″x17″. Scanning, printing and foam board mounting on the larger size was under $10.00.

 

The exhibition display wall is available in either July or August of this year so there is time to organize your submission. I shall issue a reminder in early June.

Keep Sketching!!!!

Rod

 

We’re trying out a new format for our sketching schedule, where we’ll post a full list of planned events in advance so that people can pick what works for them. Some of the events will be subject to change due to inclement weather and or pending permissions/coordination with venues, but we’ll try to keep to these dates set so that people can firm up their calendars. Check back closer to the dates for any updates!

Saturday, March 9 (10am-12pm) – Golden Acre Home & Garden, 620 Goddard Ave NE

Friday, March 15 (5:30-7:30pm) – Bowness Park Lagoon, ​8900 48 Ave NW; weather-dependent; sketching skaters on the lagoon by the fire.

Sunday, March  24 (10-11:30am) – Amato Gelato, 2104 Kensington Rd NW

Thursday, April 4 (5pm-7pm) – Glenbow Museum, 130 9 Ave SE; free admission for their “first Thursday” promotion; dry media only. Meet in the lobby at 5pm to practice 20min sketches as a group throughout the museum, otherwise we will meet back at the bottom of the stairs at 7pm.

Saturday, April 13 (10am-12pm) – To be confirmed (Suncor Energy Centre, 150 6 Ave SW)

Tuesday, April 23 (5:30-7:30pm) – To be confirmed (Courthouse Park/Harley Hotchkiss Gardens; meet at either Watermark Tower or the 8th Avenue Place +15)

Think about it. Where can you go, and in a matter of two hours, sketch beautiful Dior gowns, aboriginal artifacts, WWI biplanes, cowboys and their paraphernalia, and West African cultural treasures? The Glenbow Museum, that’s where. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to link up with my Urban Sketch group for one of the last times at such an amazing place. I will miss these gatherings above all else. And since my paints, markers, pencils etc. Are on their way to BC, I will leave a b/w sketch as one of my last offerings. I was taken by this plane, The Curtiss Jenny, which has a history worth exploring. It was the first American plane used in war and one of the earlier models was used in an attempt to capture the infamous Ponch Villa. It failed miserably.

I will see you again, my friends.

The longer I live the more behinder I get! Its been a while since I have posted sketches.

When I came back in November the new library had just opened and our first sketchcrawl was eye-popping. We returned many more times and it became a default go to place. I had to make one visit without a sketchbook just to look at the books! I tried to capture some of the interaction between the people and the architecture.

This is one of my favourite sketches. Sketchers in a sketch. the cat was there only in my imagination.

Last Friday evening we were permitted dry media only in the designated heritage building of Knox United Church. This sketch was done from the upper floor balcony and the woodwork of the trusses and rafters was impressive! I had sketched the church from across the street just before Christmas so seeing it on the inside was a great opportunity.

Happy Sketching!!!

Rod