Sketching At Caleshes Quebec

Posted on June 27, 2015 by Larry Marshall

While the mayor of New York wants to eliminate the horse-drawn carriages from Central Park, Quebec embraces them. They are part of our tourist trade and are responsible for relieving tourists from around the world of their money. They also provide an ambiance that is pretty darn special.

I was excited to learn that one of the members of Le Collectif had arranged for us to get a couple hours to sketch at Caleches Quebec and their stable area. It was more than a bit cool the morning we met and I wished I’d worn a jacket, but it didn’t dampen my spirits. There were ten or more of us, sitting in the paddock area, trying to draw the horses who were wandering around in the pasture. I’d drawn a horse statue before but never horses. I definitely need more practice.

Stillman & Birn Gamma, Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Poor horses. Every one of them looked better than I depicted them. Here’s a couple more partial sketches.

Practice, practice, practice. Before leaving I decided that I should capture something of the place so I walked out to the entrance and drew the view as you enter the area. It was a wonderful day but please, don’t tell the horses how poorly I drew them. I hang out with these guys all summer as we both march around the old city, me sketching and them making tourists happy.

Stillman & Birn Gamma, Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Today I Sketched A Toilet

Posted on June 23, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Several of us went sketching at Parc des Braves in Quebec City. I love this park. Aside from its towering monument at the entrance, this park is nothing more than grass, picnic benches and a lot of trees. Still, I love it because it’s so quiet.

A very busy street runs in front of the park but when you enter, the first thing you have to do is descend below street level. From there the park slopes away from the head end of the park. This micro-geography causes the park to be devoid of any city sounds, leaving one to enjoy the tranquility of the park.

When it comes to sketching subjects, the logical choice is the large monument tower that commemorates fallen soldiers but I just wasn’t in the mood for that. Instead I decided to draw the toilet. Doesn’t everyone draw toilets? Urban sketchers do – don’t they? Anyways, here is the Parc des Brave toilet.

Stillman & Birn Gamma (10x7), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Gamma (10×7), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Sitting In The Park – Looking Up

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Larry Marshall

I’ve noticed that since I’ve started sketching that I look up a lot. In doing so I’ve realized how much we miss as we go through a daily routine. But rooftops have lots to offer, as do features on multi-story buildings. In large part, we pass by, never seeing any of it.

So it goes if you sit in the little garden/park in the St. Roch area of downtown Quebec City. The flowers are great. The artificial waterfall is great. Even the people sitting and walking around are great. The constant stream of buses and cars that pass by the park are great. You can draw all day without looking up. But if you do, you see this:

Stillman & Birn Gamma (10×7), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

The Steeples Call To Me

Posted on June 21, 2015 by Larry Marshall

I was out walking and making my way down rue Marie de l’Incarnation in Quebec City and I came upon this church. Like so many others in Quebec City, and there’s one on every street corner it seems, this one seems abandoned in large part. While it’s depicted on Google maps, there is no name attached to it. But I couldn’t resist sitting down and doing a sketch of the steeple and the adjacent facade.

Stllman & Birn Gamma (10x7), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Stllman & Birn Gamma (10×7), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Picnic Sketching At Berthier

Posted on June 19, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Sunday was a perfect day for a picnic and in Quebec, when it’s a perfect day for a picnic, you go on a picnic because those days are, well, they just don’t happen very often.

So, in Beverly Hillibilly fashion, “[insert banjo music here] we loaded up the truck and we moved to Berthier…Berthier-Sur-Mer that is.” The town of Berthier sits on the southern coast of the beginnings of what is called the Gulf of St. Lawrence. To the west is Quebec City and the beginnings of the St. Lawrence Seaway and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean.

Our specific destination, though was the marina and park area of Berthier-Sur-Mer. This is a lovely place, with lots of benches for sitting, a small restaurant and lots of sailboat traffic because of the marina. On nice summer days one can sit on the quay, enjoy the ambiance of waves washing onto the rocks below and get the ‘out of the city’ atmosphere that we picnikers appreciate.

And it was a sunny, relatively (for Quebec) warm day. The problem, however, was the wind, whipping in from the gulf, causing Berthier-Sur-Mer to be very cold. We walked around a bit and decided that the only logical course of action was to get some coffee so we headed for the restaurant. We got the coffee and found an outdoor table that put our backs to the downwind side of the building.

Out of the wind, it was quite nice and so I decided to sketch what was before me, which was the entrance to the marina and the breakwall that jutted out from the restaurant. I didn’t spend too much time on it but it was fun to do.

But we’d come for a picnic and the three of us were getting hungry. What to do, what to do. I went to the car to get the picnic basket while the family foraged for a place where we could sit out of the wind. We were both successful in our tasks.

I include this tiny quick-sketch as representative of several that I did that day, between bites of cheese, baguette and fruit. In spite of the wind we had a great day and towards the end of it I decided to draw this pile of leaves from a hawthorne tree/bush.