There is a cafe in Goldbar that I always mean to go to but have never gotten around to it, until today. The Blues Java Bar (or Blue Java Bar - both signs are displayed outside) is a funky little coffee house that kind of reminds me of Cheers. You know. The bar where everyone knows your name. Only this isn't a bar and the regulars are retired folk from the neighbourhood. Or at least, that was the kind of crowd (if 5 people is a crowd) on a sunny, sleepy, Monday afternoon. The ambience is kind of African, hippie, homey, rural kitchen. Totally relaxed. My kind of place.
0 Comments
I came across these tonight in the midst of a project I've just begun - indexing the contents of my sketchbooks. I've only got three sketchbooks partially done but what fun it is to look at work I've forgotten. Or to finally locate a sketch I've looked for but which was buried somewhere, I just don't know where. Hence, part of the purpose of the project! But just look at these! They were made from the passenger seat of the car last summer on our return trip from north Ontario. I'm stunned by the delicacy, the quiet airiness. If anyone else had drawn them, I would say they are exquisite. Okay. They are exquisite. Enough of false modesty. I've been making drive-by drawings for a few years now. They've changed. I no longer attempt to capture the image as I see it. I can't at 110 kilometers an hour. The image is gone by the time I've decided to draw it. Instead, my eye takes a picture. Really, like a camera. In just a few seconds, I've memorized the essential bits, internalized the essence of the scene. And from there, I improvise. There is enough similarity in the landscape for a few miles, that I simply steal a rock from here, a tree from there, a cattail from another ditch, to complete the idea. These little sketches then, are responses to the environment we whiz through so quickly. They are visual haikus. Made in Strathmore Visual Journal Drawing sketchbook with Pigma Micron pens. The sky was an incomparable Alberta blue today. The temperature hovered around 8 degrees. It was warm and lovely. A perfect day for a walk. So I wandered downtown, which is really up since I live in the river valley and downtown is up a pretty steep hill, if you choose to go that way, which I didn't. My walk took me along the river path. Right next to the walk bridge that takes you south to the Muttart Conservatory are two benches that face the southeast bend in the river. I sat down and sketched the half-frozen river and the long shadows of the trees. Funny though. I didn't notice until I scanned it that the footprints in the snow look suspiciously like a line of flat fish. sigh.
I stopped at Starbucks for a latte before heading home a couple of hours later. The only available seat was on a stool facing out the window towards the old CIBC building on 100 St. And so, I sketched that too. I use a Pigma Micron .05 black pen. When I got home, I couldn't find my paint box so I coloured the sketches with water soluble coloured pencils. |
Welcome to my occasional posts
My name is Yvonne Rezek. This is a blog about what my hands are up to. Mostly sketches and drawings, some of my pottery, maybe even some knitting.
|