St Patricks and Scavenger Hunt (Farmers Market)

Well, being inspired by Deb's blog on St Patricks and adding another to the Scavenger Hunt, I did some watercolor sketching this weekend.  I went down to St Pat's today and set up in the parking lot with 405 roaring overhead and started painting.  I learned quite a bit about the church since I got there just after mass and a few people came by and chatted for a bit.  I'm still having a rough time with how fast you have to work in plein air sketching.  I also went down to the Farmer's Market yesterday because it's so perfect down there during the summer (which I discovered during Marc and Shari's workshop) and tried to paint the masses again with a little bit of success - again the pace is difficult for me - everyone kept moving and I wanted to tell them all to stand still - please. At any rate it really is great to get out and immerse myself in the event I'm trying to capture - it's quite rewarding but I'm sure you already knew that ;-).  I'm going to do a studio piece of St Patrick's and give it to them....it's such a beautiful church it's just too bad the thing got trapped in between all that concrete - just look at how that church downtown we painted during the workshop can breath again after having the space next to it opened up.  Anyway summer is waning, I've started to rediscover plein air work and am very glad I have all of you to share work and ideas with - that's what it's all about for me......The pic of St Patricks seems to have gotten a shadow in it somehow but you get the idea.  

Cheers, Don

Portland Workshop with Marc and Shari

I thought I would share my work with everyone and hope others will do the same - I had a great time the past 3 days with Shari, Marc and all the Urban Sketchers - quite a talented group.  Thanks to everyone for sharing and especially Linda for helping orchestrate the visit with our friends from Montreal.  I learned quite a lot, made some friends along the way and saw wonderful Portland in a completely new way. I also have a new found appreciation for the demands of plein-air work in hot weather and look forward to making art with all of you in the future. Cheers, Don