An Urban-sketchers meet-up near Vancouver city hall turned into an event for the Society for the Promotion of Purple Houses, when Sigrid pointed me to the 100 block of West 10th St. It's a complete block of classic old Vancouver houses, beautifully restored, and all in lively colours. I sat under one of the immense shade trees to paint a couple of beauties. One of the many side benefits of urban-sketching is the soundscape - often fragments of passing conversations in many languages, sometimes music, industrial goings-on, too frequently roaring traffic. But here I got to listen to a full-blown telephone "discussion" between a young man and his girlfriend. He was on the upper balcony of one of the houses, and was kind enough to have her on speaker-phone, so we got her side of the story too. It was civil, but tense, and I'd say long-term prospects are bleak. A couple who stopped to talk to me and listen in on the conversation agreed. The SPPH notes that this was not happening in the purple house, because only good things happen in purple houses.
The actual meet-up was at city hall, which I've ridden by many times, but never actually seen - the building, or the large and lovely park beside it. I got back there right at the end and did a quick 10 minute scribble-and-splash of the stylish building.
