Charleswood Art Group members met at the Forks today. Rain was predicted for sometime during the day but the morning was absolutely perfect. There was sun, just a hint of breeze and no bugs to speak of. The Forks is such a popular meeting place in Winnipeg for both locals and tourists. It has a lot to offer ... shopping, dining, access to the river, people, etc.; a great place to sketch!
A few of us started down by the water where there were several families of Canada Geese happily feeding on what was being offered by tourists. It was fascinating to watch these birds for awhile. Something I hadn't observed before was the gosling's behaviour when there was a problem ie one of the adults chasing another adult away. As soon as the commotion started, the goslings all ducked under just like synchronized swimmers for seconds and then all bobbed up together again. It must be a defense mechanism to protect themselves when there's trouble. It is really difficult to paint geese. Of interest to me is the lovely flexible bend they put in their necks and of course that's what's always moving. It seemed to work best when I quickly put down the top line running from their tail, up over their body following up their neck to the end of their beak. If I could get that down as in "contour drawing", it was relatively easy to put the underside of their body in. We started to notice commonalities in their bodies that you could use when they moved and you had to rely on what you knew about them. We noticed that the goslings seemed to have the bony, lanky shoulders like teenage boys so this shape was distinctive and therefore memorable.
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| Ruth's sketches |
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| Ink and white pencil on Strathmore toned paper |
Following our geese sketching, we went inside for a bite to eat and then took a stroll through the Punch Gallery for some inspiration. Following our gallery tour, the remaining people headed home which left Susan and I to continue painting and sketching. We sketched outside until it started to rain and then sketched people indoors in the food court area. It was a good day of sketching.
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| Peter chose to sketch the downtown view |
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| An abstracted, loose interpretation of the Forks canopy |
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| The water taxi docked - LAMY pen and ink on toned paper |
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| Fill up the page with Food Court sketches |
Hi, does this group still exist? Looking for an urban sketching group in Wpg.
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