Urban Sketchers Winnipeg: Fort Whyte

The plan was for the Charleswood Group of sketchers to meet at 10:00am at Fort Whyte. Angela and I were going to meet earlier with our usual oil painting gear. We decided to postpone the plein-air oil painting until tomorrow in hopes of better weather. I made the last minute decision to head out to Fort Whyte with my smaller sketching/watercolor bag just in case some Charleswood members showed up. At the very least, I could get a cup of coffee.

I was only at the center for a few minutes when Ginette found me. I was very happy to find her and together we walked outside the center to find a spot to sketch. The woman at the desk said it was OK to just go outside without paying if we weren't hitting the trails. We walked down to the area where the sailboats are docked. Two women were there and when we told them what we were going to do, they offered us a couple of lawnchairs. Mine had a cup holder which meant I had room for my takeout coffee.

This morning was going to be about learning to sketch boats. In our part of the world we don't often get the opportunity to draw boats and they are very challenging to draw! We weren't there for too long before a group of high school students from Vincent Massey came for an outing in the sailboats. This was great as it gave us some additional sketching opportunities. We were very comfortable in our "matching" bluejean jackets and weren't bothered by the warming and cooling of the air as the sun couldn't make its mind up whether to stay in or out. This was a lot of fun this morning and the lessons learned today are: Don't always wait for "fair weather" to paint and Just pick a spot and you will always find lots to paint. This was a good day and thankyou to Ginette for coming out and keeping me company.