I was visiting my friend in Hamilton last week and we spent a day sketching in Guelph. I tried to capture the train station but ended up being much happier with this little sketch of a flower shop. Below is the McQuesten House in Hamilton. This house, a block from City Hall in the busy centre core, is an oasis. It is beautifully preserved and has a quiet garden behind its walls–much as it would have been in the mid 19th century–and open to the public to enjoy. I remember when it was bought by the city in the late 1960’s. It had been in the McQuesten family since it was built in 1850 and a grandmother of a friend of mine had been in ‘service’ there when she came to Canada from Scotland in 1912. Thursday was a perfect day and I wandered through the garden, and then settled at the front of the house and did this sketch with my book and paints on the limestone wall which was a perfect height.
Thank you for all your wonderful “etchings”. I just spent an enjoyable hour or so engaging in an interactive tour of Whitehern Hall (the McQuesten house). The museum curators have done a fabulous job of creating a virtual tour of the heritage house. What a wonderful place owned for its entirety by one family who left its contents for all of us to see. Thanks to you, I’ve had a most entertaining afternoon.
We stayed in Hamilton in Nov. 2012 to attend my niece’s wedding. How did we miss the wonderful Whitehern? My great-great grandfather, Robert Reginald Whale, painted some Hamilton landscapes that must have at some point been in the McQuesten house. Now his works are in the National Gallery and ROM, etc.
Thank you for launching such an enjoyable quest. I love reading your blog entries and hope you are well and happy.
Do you sell your sketch’s?