My Heart's in the Highlands Wherever I Go

Black and Tan, Highland Cows, oil on panel, 11" x 14" © Shannon Reynolds 2016

I was thrilled to find a beautiful small fold (rather than herd, apparently) of Highland cattle at our hotel in Baie St. Paul in the Charlevoix region of Quebec when we stopped there for a couple of days en route to Nova Scotia.  Bred for the harsh climate, rugged landscape, and wily predators of the Scottish Highlands, this breed looks the part completely with their impressive horns (even on the cows), shaggy double coats, and sturdy legs.  I was able to observe and sketch them right from the balcony of my room.  The only drawback was the high railing which partly obscured my view.  If I went again, I'd request a lower floor. 

Sketches of Highland Cattle, watercolour and gouache in Moleskine sketchbook 

Over a couple of days of observation, we could see the hierarchy in action.  The beautiful black cow was the matriarch of the fold, and the mother of the one young calf (who seemed to outrank one of the other cows by association).  She was the first to run to the farmer in the mornings for the special feed and often stood atop the hay manger as if to claim it for herself.  Besides cows, the hotel had chickens, a sow with piglets, sheep, and ducks and a beautiful produce garden.  It's a bucolic place with sweeping vistas to the St. Lawrence and luxurious rooms...and a fantastic place to draw.

Cow in the manger at Hotel Le Germain in Baie St. Paul 

Sketching the highland cattle from my balcony

On a day like this,

Fallen leaves, watercolour in sketchbook

even with the sun streaming through scarlet leaves out my window, the studio seems oppressive.  So out went box of paints, sketchbook, and me.

Fallen leaves, watercolour sketch, detail

Gouache portrait sketch

A quick portrait sketch of model, Bill, in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook from last night's life drawing session with Fabio at the Cambridge Centre for the Arts.

Bill, profile, gouache in watercolour sketchbook 5" x 8"

Sketchbook and palette

The egg-run

About once a week I drive to a gorgeous family farm to pick up eggs and greens and various items of seasonal bounty they offer at their farm store.  It's a bucolic place and always makes me feel fortunate to live in an area where the mixed family farm is still flourishing.

The last time I was there this dog and cat were having a standoff.  The dog seemed to want to play, but the cat was having none of it.
 

Life Drawings and a Pigeon

A couple of weeks ago, just before I succumbed to the flu, I drew a life model named Lyon, who wore a startling necklace of human molars (his own it turns out)  and who is a descendent of the notable, fierce, pre-confederation Canadian politician William Lyon Mackenzie. I forgot my chalk, which is a shame because he had great Scottish colouring.

Lyon, gesture drawing, charcoal on layout paper

Lyon, vine charcoal on gessoed paper

And a life drawing from the Autumn sessions

male model, vine charcoal on gessoed paper

 And a sketchbook pigeon for good measure.

Parc Monceau Pigeon, charcoal in sketchbook

Drawing at the Royal Winter Fair 2012

Ice Pigeon: just one of the gorgeous impractical creatures in the poultry show--a pigeon with feathered feet. I saw this one being judged and having #1 marked on her tag.

Last week I packed up a lean sketching kit: sketchbook, watercolour and graphite pencils, and a brush pen, and spent the day sketching at the Royal.  I planned my visit for one of the two days featuring the poultry show which is my favourite event at the fair.  All those lovely birds, captive and at eye level, make perfect drawing subjects!  Of course, the rest of the fair is great too and one day isn't nearly enough time to see and draw it all. Once again there were many fellow sketchers (even the high school kids are now taking advantage of this opportunity). 

Brown Swiss dairy cow

This sweet-faced calf was bellowing for her stable mates who were off being groomed somewhere.
Her complacent expression belies her agitation. I drew anyway.

Piglets!

Beltsville Small White male turkey

This grotesque, but magnificent turkey was strutting constantly and "gobble, gobbling" to the screaming delight of the taunting hoardes of school children.

Nestling pigeons

African Brown Goose "old male" category

Call Ducks

The call ducks are unflappable despite the cacophony all around them.

Toulouse Grey geese

The bonus: this year there were many Ontario cheese makers at the fair selling their goods at less than retail price.  I came home with an armful of cheeses from Monforte, the Upper Canada Cheese Company, and Woolwich dairy--partly offsetting the price of my admission.

Hot Ticket IFOA

Junot Diaz, Michael Chabon, and Siri Agrell at the IFOA

Last Friday night I was in an enthusiastic audience along with literary stars Michael Ondaatje and Linda Spalding to hear Junot Diaz and Michael Chabon in conversation with Siri Agrell about their new books (ostensibly, although the conversation veered all around them rather than delving into them):  This is How you Lose Her (Diaz), and Telegraph Avenue (Chabon), at the International Festival of Authors in Toronto. It was a sold out event.  Junot Diaz is compelling on stage--never still, always gesticulating.  He must be a riveting professor at MIT.   I sketched while I listened, but never really caught Chabon's likeness. Diaz and Agrell are better.

Junot Diaz not keeping still

In my defense, the lighting was pretty low.  Good practice for losing my inhibitions about drawing in public, though.

Siri Agrell at the podium

Blue Jay

Young Blue Jay, charcoal and chalk in sketchbook

The Backyard Menagerie

I've been slightly hobbled by a kneecap injury and the studio is a long climb, so I've been staging my own Rear Window scenario and drawing the characters that appear in my view.  So many birds.  Such beautiful plumage.  Such antics.  No murders yet, but suspects abound.

Mourning Dove

Cardinals on the feeder

White-throated Sparrow and puffed-up Mourning Dove

White-throated Sparrow on clay pot

More soon.

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

Royal Winter Fair

I attended the Royal Winter Fair yesterday. It was my first solo visit to the fair, and my first with sketchbook in hand. I had a fantastic day drawing and was surprized to see so many fellow sketchers. I spent a while talking to two of them: a young woman studying fine art at U of T, and a young man studying animation at Sheridan. The fair is a fantastic place for drawing. I'd love to try to make it back for one more day of sketching before it closes. I'm posting a selection of drawings from my visit (mostly domestic fowl it turns out, and one g.p.).

Modena gazzi pigeon--a very proud looking bird

Old German Owl pigeon--a pretty little bird with an alert eye,

Elegant but slightly absurd Jacobin pigeons, like stylish ladies hiding behind high fur collars.


A white fantail pigeon who kept peeking at me from behind its extravagant tail while I drew

Leghorn cockerel and tiny, pretty Call ducks--pure white with small orange bills.

A classic Leghorn cockerel, white with a magnificent red comb and lethal looking stare, not to mention a very impressive crowing voice

A glossy black Australorp, with beautiful fluid lines and iridescent green sheen. The prize-winning hen had laid a pale brown egg in her cage.

And, an Abyssinian Guinea Pig, (drawn for someone who knows who she is)

Sketching at the Zoo

Last week I went sketching at the Toronto Zoo.

Peacocks roam freely around the zoo

Malayan tigers--postures and attitudes so much like my own cat

declared a distinct subspecies only in 2004

The lions are distant in their outdoor habitat, but utterly magnificent
(the hippo didn't stay around long enough for me to draw)

African elephants

Last year when I agreed to participate in an episode of Star Portraits (currently airing on Bravo! in Canada--click here for details), I was forced to confront something that I knew, but hadn't really acknowledged: I am utterly uncomfortable drawing or painting in front of an audience. I love to draw from life and I participate in weekly life drawing sessions, but in that setting most artists are too intent on their own work to take much notice of their peers. I realize that it's very seldom that any eyes but my own see my work in progress. I've moved from the very public work environment of art school, to the semi-privacy of a shared studio, to the complete solitude of my own studio space. I've become used to working unobserved. I'm certainly more productive and less distracted in my own studio, but the luxury of my own space has made me a little more insular in my work habits than I ever intended. I'll never abandon my studio practice--I love my time alone at the easel--but I miss that feeling of tense engagement I get when I work in public. In the studio, I can let my attention wander. Out in the world, I need to concentrate differently. So I've resolved to draw, and eventually paint, more often in public spaces.

The zoo was a perfect place to begin. The animals don't object to being closely observed; their forms and attitudes are unfamiliar enough that I can't make any assumptions while I draw; and I get an innoculation against my spectator anxiety with every new surge of school children swarming around me to see the zoo exhibits. Plus, the flâneur in me loves to be solo in a crowd--lingering wherever I want, observing everything, and being at no one's whim but my own. I'm planning another zoo visit in November.