I saw a YouTube video about how Canada has Spring, Summer, Winter and a period of time where yuo can’t predict from one hour to the next what will happen. And so it goes in Quebec times two.`

We should be starting our rainy period that most people would call spring but it’s snowing right now and my brain is deciding whether that means another tour with the snowblower or will rain melt everything. Given our temps right now, it could go either way.

I haven’t been chomping at the bit to go sketching, maybe because of the weather but maybe because I’ve just found other things worth doing. I blame COVID for this, or credit it. But I am getting things ready for sketching… and painting. I’m putting together a separate backpack to support gouache and oil painting en plein air this year. Weather has to improve, even in Quebec.

In the meantime, I followed the old advice of “all you need is a pencil to sketch.” I was meeting a guy for coffee and making some notes as I waited for him to arrive. A girl walked up to order coffee and she was wearing really baggy pants that caught my eye. I flipped the page of my notebook and drew her. I dug in my pockets for some other pointy device and came up with a highlighter pen and added a background to provide some spice. It won’t bump Mona Lisa off her throne but it felt good to draw something.