Members of the Charleswood Art Group met at the footbridge in Assiniboine Park. I chose to arrive an hour earlier to get maximum time with the best light. Today, I had my sketchbook, watercolors and my setup for pastel.
The first place I set up was right at the start of the foot bridge looking down the flooded area along the bank. This includes the riparian forested area which the Park has devoted a lot of effort to bring back to a natural state. The light was beautiful ... there was a stream of light down the meandering path of the water. The trees were backlit with lots of nice darks to set them off. I used the angled top of the footbridge to rest my sketchbook and water container on. It was the perfect height! I found that because I was looking in that direction painting, others on the bridge stopped and took a look also and appreciated what I saw on the scene. Now ... isn't that partly what artists do but to showcase what others might otherwise miss.
After an hour at this scene, I moved to the other side of the river and spotted the row of nicely sculpted lilac shrubs. It was a small part of the whole large scene but easy to see when you use a viewfinder and take your time to decide what to paint. This time I set up my tripod and travel adaptor to do a small pastel painting; only 5 x 7. I thought I might have trouble working on such a small support but was pleasantly surprised at the amount of detail I got in the finished painting.
The day was very successful ... probably had something to do with my very relaxed state.
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| Charleswood Art Group Members out to paint |
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| Lilacs done with pastel on 5x7 Pastel Board |
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| Looking down the bank from the footbridge |
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| A watercolor sketch/notes of the scene on the left |
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