Drawing at the Museum

Stork (detail), gouache and graphite in Moleskine

I spent an entire day at the ROM this week. The only problem was my compulsive (and futile) attempt to see everything before I settled into drawing. The result is far fewer sketches than I'd hoped to produce. In the end, I drew mainly in the dinosaur and natural history areas. The ROM has a truly wonderful exhibition of birds in flight. I could spend a whole day in that room alone. I'm already hatching plans to do just that.

Magpies, graphite in Moleskine

Ostrich, graphite in Moleskine

Tern and Stork, graphite and gouache in Moleskine

Triceratops horridus, graphite in Moleskine

Mosasaur, graphite in Moleskine

Whitefish

Whitefish, gutted and scaled, oil on canvas board, 8" x 8"

This whitefish, from Lake Huron, was the "rich fish" for our own version of bouillabaisse. It always feels a little different to buy the whole fish and have to confront the elegance of the complete animal --before cleaning, scaling, and chopping it up for the pot.

Happy New(ish) Year

Persimmons and Rambutans, oil on linen stretched over panel, 11" x 14"

This painting appeared, slightly cropped, on my Christmas card this year. Like last year, (that entry here), I was tempted to document the almost outrageous abundance and variety of food at this time of year. Here, in a medium sized city, in the dark and cold midwinter, I can walk downtown and return home with almost any fruit or vegetable I can name. So much for the seasonal and local mantra I find so easy to adopt in the summer. I'm not complaining--five months of root vegetables and increasingly soft apples is not a past I want to return to, but I wonder how long it can all last. I wish us all continued abundance (you choose the form) in the New Year.