Archives for August 2016

We’re home from our week in Portland but I still have a couple of sketches to share. We spent last Thursday morning at the Portland Head Lighthouse. It is situated in a beautiful park with lots of walking trails and an excellent small museum. It was glorious weather and I had a chance to sketch the lighthouse from both sides. There were other sketchers there as well. This is a much loved and much sketched landmark and it was a pleasure to take part in a long tradition.

We have been travelling this week, to a favourite city and a new one. On the way we stopped in a book store for maps and I happened on How to Sketch People by Matt Pagett for such a sale price that I could not resist. And it is a perfect find to begin a trip where I hoped to push myself to sketch more. On the first pages he states his view of sketching: A sketch, as opposed to a drawing, its close cousin, can be characterized by a rapid yet considered execution, an instinctive response to a subject, a certain roughness, life caught on the fly.  And on the next page: …the moment I stop to look and think about what I see, it always comes with a mixture of surprise and relief. All the inner brain workings now relate to the outer world, and within that newly created space is some kind of harmony. It seemed a kind of permission and encouragement for my rough and wonky sketches. An invitation to harmony.

Se here they are. The first a 5 pm sketch in Montpelier VT after a long day of driving. The sun was still lovely on the Unitarian Church. Monteplier has so many wonderful buildings. I hope to catch more on the way home.

These photos are taken with my phone, so not the best. From Montpelier we made our way to Portland. I fell in love with the Custom House in the old port. Its stately towers can be seen from the water and from much of the city. The view from the front…

The back…

And a quick sketch from a bench on the street while practising capturing people walking by…

And a double page sketch of the wharf behind the fish store and a couple of sketches made while eating a lobster roll. The lobster disappeared too quickly to sketch!

Here is a new coated cotton tote in the Raanu pattern–a series of bright stripes in red, yellow, green and black. This is one of my favourite Markmekko prints because it looks great in all four seasons and, of course, the coated cotton wipes clean with a damp cloth.

This tote has a black leather base and wide leather carry handles with a 12 inch drop. It closes with a durable metal zipper with a leather pull tab. Inside it is lined in dark denim with an orange waxed canvas double zippered pocket and a large canvas pocket with birdbrain graphics. The tote measures 17″ wide, 14″ tall and the base is 5″ deep. This is a great bag to carry all you need for work or for the weekend.

Here are a few small mats I’ve been working on inspired by my summer on our lake. The terrain is rugged with rocks in beautiful colours–it is the Pre-Cambrian shield after all– and tenacious pines bending out over the water. These pieces combine wool strips left over from other projects, as well as  yarn and fleece.  It’s a great joy to sit on the verandah, listen to the water lapping, the loons calling and hook the views around me.