Old Sketches (5)

St-Jean-Port-Joli, Québec. This town is best known for its wooden sculptures, arts and crafts. However, what I most remember is the delicious meal at La Boustifaille. This sketch of the town church was made while still savouring a crustade aux pommes.

Old Sketches (4)

When I was a child, I accompanied my grandparents to many funerals. I didn't like the funeral homes, which always seemed dark, crowded and oppressing. However, I liked the religious ceremonies, in which most people seemed to find some peace and consolation. At the cemeteries I used to read names and dates on the tombstones and my imagination would make a ghost-like image of the person as I thought he or she might have been in life. 

This is a sketch of the church and the graveyard after a funeral at Les Cèdres, a town 30 minutes west of Montréal.  August 2007.

Old Sketches (3)

A peek at Wood Street from Barat Road. I began to draw the house closest to my parking spot, but the owner noticed and I just couldn't keep sketching under his zealous surveillance, so I just turned the page and fixed the lateral mirror. 

Old Sketches (2)

The windmill was sketched at St-Zotique beach, a popular destination to beat the summer heat some 40 minutes west of Montreal, close to the Ontario border.

This series of old sketches were all made in pencil on a small sketchbook (10x15 cm/4"x6") I got as a Christmas present. I was able to haul it everywhere which was essential to take up a drawing-everywhere habit.

Houses on Avenue Sainte-Croix (final)

I have finished the sketch. Yesterday, a meeting was cancelled and I drove right to the spot to complete it. Drawing in the car is great when the cold wind is blowing and the only place to sit down is actually a parking lot, but I look forward to plain air sketching in the following weeks!

Old sketches (1)

In an earlier post I mentioned how much I used to enjoy sketching in the car. This is the first I made while parking on Barat Road. It was in the middle of winter, 2006. 

Houses on Avenue Sainte-Croix (2)

 I did't make it past day 5 of the Thing-a-Day Blog: it was difficult to find the time to scan and blog about my day 28 days in a row. Nevertheless, I'm committed to finish this sketch of Avenue Sainte-Croix houses. Here's step 2  (at this pace, by the time I finish the snow would have melted completely and the trees would have leaves!).