Who is watching the fire? Why you, of course.

This is a work in progress on a break right now. May need birds in the sky, and/or perhaps a squirrel.
The chair may benefit from more weathering.

No wine glass though. That's been done, and done.

Otherwise a perfect day. Nice temperature and no mosquitoes.

This fun, simple still life was drawn completely from imagination. My objective was to combine different tools to complete the job. This one includes graphite pencil, permanent ink using a uni-ball pen (fine), two shades of India ink dilutions, my new Lamy Safari fine nib fountain pen, and a touch of watercolour.

The Lamy pen was recommended by Marc Taro Holmes in his blog on urbansketchers.org. It is a fine instrument and the blue cartridge it came with allowed the ink to interact with the India ink washes. I also used a cartridge with permanent ink.

The bit of watercolour was from my Lukas kit which I bought several years ago while learning the basics of watercolour from Donna Cameron, a superb painter from Prince Edward County.

Mike's French Fries in Trenton, Ontario.

Amazing fries and poutine.

Guitar man.

I've been getting more interested in sketching recently. Great fun.

Visit urbansketchers.org if you would like to learn more and give it a try.

The original image was taken on a trip that we took to Greece, our favourite place outside of Canada. The wall was originally blue, of course. It is a pharmacy.

My photos are a bit awry, but these vertical paintings are of some of my favourite subjects. They complement each other and would look beautiful framed. Iconic Canadian scenes.

These are two very different styles of sketching. The first image, which is of Myres Pier dock on the Bay of Quinte, incorporates some india ink wash and just a bit of watercolour. This lets the viewers mind fill in the details, perhaps from a memory of a calm, warm summer day.

The second sketch incorporates much more detail and use of both india ink and watercolour. The image is of a chiropractor's office in Pickering, Ontario beside the Swiss Chalet (very nice and helpful staff). The stonework in this old building is fantastic. This buiding is a ghost of what Pickering used to be like, before the onset of modern times.

This oil painting is of part of a very old barn located at Potter's Creek, Quinte Conservation, near the intersection of Highway 2 and Wallbridge-Loyalist Road.

I donated it to Hospice Quinte.