Saturday, August 9, 2025
it's all about the light
Saturday, August 2, 2025
when its hot and humid
the heat arrived last week - blistering temperatures, the hot heatthe humidity followed forthwithuncomfortable doesn't begin to describe it so to soothe myself, I browsed photos taken in the depths of winterthis one, of the Klondike river boat, is a favouriteit was taken last November during a wild snowstorm that descended on the city in a moment and created havoc within a couple more
a few years before that I took the image below... a section of one side of the Klondike, before the latest restoration began, the boards beautifully distressedthe boats were constructed of narrow strips of wood, painted white, a simplicity in design I have always been drawn to
a long time ago I had a thought to some day take that design sensibility, long, narrow and white, to make a book
seems some day may have arrived...
having made up my mind to get started on it, I quickly decided on the paper I want to use (Hahnemühle Agave Watercolour paper (my favourite) and then thought about what this book might look like
long, narrow pages, white, a nod to the boards
at the moment I'm leaning toward a measurement of 3 1/2" x 9"
for imagery I decided to turn to the river for inspiration
favourite images of the water and some with the shore were printed
a rummage through some older work yielded strips of white linen that had been coated with gesso and then painted with watercolour - something interesting in that combination
before I tackle the actual book I'm going to work on a number of sample pages, beginning with what I know and then seeing what comes of that...
for now its a place to begin
these are now glued down, the "page" pressing under weight
I then wondered what cutting a long narrow opening into a page might look like, with the imagery of the next page showing through
I dithered on the size of said opening and then decided to just cut one and figure it out from there
so far so good
the first trial "window" is 1" x 6 1/2"
I like it but proportions are tricky things so I might try something slightly less than 1" on the next sample - or maybe cut a few with a variety of measurements and have a play
laid on an image of shore trees against the sky, I liked what I was seeing, so much so that it is now cut and mounted behind
Saturday, July 26, 2025
when something takes hold
Saturday, July 19, 2025
thoughts of a wandering mind
Saturday, July 12, 2025
caught in the ice...
Saturday, July 5, 2025
leading the way
Saturday, June 28, 2025
doing and learning
Saturday, June 21, 2025
where to begin...
next was to print contact sheets of the images to start with… some to add as reference images to my sketchbook, others to use in collage.
Thursday, June 12, 2025
collecting...
Saturday, June 7, 2025
the ways...
a walk along the river last week led me to the ways...
the place where the paddle wheelers were winched on shore to dry dock for the winter months, and the place where they were released back to the river
the place where the new boats were launched, and where the decommissioned ones were brought ashore for the last time
the way of things
"the ways" is a term I have always, always loved
in ship-building terms its the "launching"
so much meaning packed into two simple words