Simply Drawing show and sale, June 30 2017

Big show and sale of life drawings and paintings - Sandrine Pelissier's studio, 125 Garden Avenue, North Vancouver.  Friday June 30, 2017, 5-8 pm.  There will be lots of great art on the walls, and many drawings - cheap!  A preview:

Trump voters were right

I was drawing with the UrbanSketchers today, sitting on the stairs of the Vancouver Convention Centre under the broad overhang - because it was the only shady place - drawing the Marine Building.  A group of Americans came by, stopped, and one of them stood right in front of me.  His extraordinarily wide bum blocked my entire view.  I waited patiently, waited some more, and then finally his wife said "Dear, I think you're in this man's way".  And 'Dear' said "I'll stand wherever I want.  It's a free country.  Oh, wait, it's Canada, it's not a free country. Hi-yuck, hi-yuck, hi-yuck."  The only thing I had to defend my country was a paint brush.  I was thinking "Cadmium red, straight to the heart."  Of course, I'm Canadian, so I didn't do anything, and eventually they left.  As one co-sketcher commiserated: "Trump-voters."

But then it gets embarrassing (not for me).  Five minutes later, a security guard comes up to me and orders me to leave.  He says "It won't look good to our visitors having you sit there."  Was he talking about my looks?  I was wearing my best shirt, my standard-issue Mountain Equipment Co-op pants, even a hat to make my hair respectable.  And I couldn't have been too scary-looking, because I'd already talked to 5 other groups of tourists, been photographed with my drawing, let them flip through my sketchbooks, given directions to a couple, even explained to one what the "ugly sculpture" was (the Olympic torch).  But the bigger point is, I'm not in anyone's way, it's public space, and - not to be all Trump-voter'ish about it or anything - it was paid for with my tax money (well, partly).  In the last couple years, I've drawn in a gritty South American capital surrounded by police complimenting me, painted military monuments and barracks in Cuba chatting to friendly soldiers, and sketched the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Grand Central Station - places where they take security pretty seriously.  In Vancouver, I've had security guards kick me out of public spaces because I was drawing a train station, a concrete storage yard, a grain elevator, a movie theatre, a laundromat and now a heritage building.  Come on, people, get some perspective, and stop making those Trumpers look smart!

Otherwise, great day for sketching.

Dr. Sketchy's cat

Rhianna Conda modeled at Dr. Sketchy's on Sunday.  Ms. Conda was a lovely version of Catwoman.  And if you have ever wondered what Catwoman wears under her cat suit - Hello Kitty pasties.  (I was sitting a long way back, so I was unable to document that with a close-up.)

Last of the snow?

It was a fairly epic snow year on the local mountains (as I'm sure the ski areas said many times).  Nothing like when the old-timers were kids, of course, but nothing is.  The summer sun is finally starting to win, and the snow line was just below our Hollyburn cabin last weekend.  But the peak is still covered in deep snow, and the skiing is awesome (to again quote the ski areas).  It was colder drawing the last patches of snow in the Marr Creek valley than it was on the peak - cold air was pouring down the gully, even as the sun warmed the top of the slope.  The peak was bright, sunny and warm, with views in all directions including the ocean to the west.  Hoverflies were staking out their minute territories on the peak, waiting for that hopeful day when the last four or five meters of snow melt.

Down below, the world is full flower.  At Maplewood, the purple lupines are competing with the yellow buttercups to see who can be more complementary.  And at home, the hawthorn is briefly hiding its deadly thorns with a huge mass of little white flowers.