Niagara Central Hobbies

7"X5" Acrylic on board

All artists in the Region are probably familiar with this building on St. Paul Street, St. Catharines. This is almost the only source of art supplies in the whole peninsula. There is now a Michaels, a store which I find deeply depressing and prefer to ignore, and WalMart sells some basic stuff. Even NCH is not a dedicated art-supply store and their selection is limited but it is what we have. The next best thing is a trip to Currys in Hamilton.

What Niagara Central Hobbies does have is one of the best supplies of model train paraphernalia in Southern Ontario. More than Half the store is dedicated to model railroad supplies and there always seem to be at least two elderly male shop assistants for every customer. They are very knowledgeable and sometimes I wonder if they are actually volunteers.

I cheated a little with this picture. There is actually an ugly apartment building behind the store which ruined the composition so I left it out.

Steph

3.5"X5.5" Pencil in moleskine

Steph was another vendor at the craft show last weekend, she sells "Accessories for the cute, dark and wonderfully strange!"

More Craft Show

8"X5.5" pen on paper

More sketching from this past weekend

Erin

7"X5.5" Pencil in Moleskine

This is our fearless leader. Erin did all the hard work of organizing this weekend's show. I think it should be counted a success, even though it wasn't really for me. It was the first show for this particular group and it always takes a while for these things to get noticed.

I have had a busy weekend and I may not get to do any painting, also I have a commission which I really must start working on, so my postings may be a little thin for a while. I will continue to sketch and post these from time to time as well as some archival material. I think it is time to reevaluate for the new year and decide how I want to move forward.

Artisan Market

8"X5" Pen on paper

Day 2 at the artisan market was no better than day 1 for me. It was a learning experience and if I ever do anything like that again I will be sure to take some more inexpensive items, get some greeting cards printed perhaps. There was some interest in my local scenes, but not enough to encourage anyone to reach into their wallets.

Having spent most of the morning yesterday doing quick sketches of my fellow vendors (more to come) I decided in the afternoon to paint the stall across from me. They weren't selling any more than I was so I thought it would be a good bet that it would remain unchanged for a while. When I was about half way through the owner decided that the reason they weren't selling anything was because of the poor display and she completely rearranged the whole thing!

Knitter

7"X5.5" Pencil on Moleskine

I spent the day at a craft show, the first I have ever taken part in. I am not sure whether it is the right venue for me, but a fun experience anyway. It is showcasing the local chapter of Etsy sellers, mostly jewellers. This lady was selling all sorts of handmade baby clothes and sat knitting all day.

I spent most of the day sketching my fellow sellers so you may see some more over the next few days.

Cello Study

11"X16" Oil on panel

I am going to have to rename this blog if I don't pull my socks up. My postings have been far from Daily for the past few months. I did well for the first year and really did post something every day, but this year has been tough. I am hoping that after Christmas, once I have got a few things out of the way, I will improve.

Here again is an older painting. I always enjoyed drawing and painting my boys as they practised. They don't play much any more, maybe they will get back to it one day.

Squirrel

5"X7" Acrylic on board

I admit to being rather fond of squirrels, even though I know they are just bushy-tailed tree-rats. Ours must be among the fattest in the city. They raid our compost for moldy bread, it doesn't seem to do them any harm but I am not sure that I would recognize a squirrel with ergot poisoning. It probably just makes them squirrelier than usual.

Sushi

11"X14" Oil on canvas

This is another one from the St. Catharines series, again a couple of years old. Anyone local will remember this landmark on Geneva Street, it was such a vibrant shade of emerald green. Unfortunately, last year they covered it in brown vinyl siding.

I was never quite sure that this one was finished, but here it is anyway.

Another Morning on the Canal

7"X5" Acrylic on board

I never seem to have my camera with me on the best days, when the air is so still that the water is like a mirror. This one wasn't bad, there was no sun but the reflections were good.

Fall Colour 8

5"X7" Acrylic on board

Well we are nearly done with Fall. The reference photo was taken a couple of weeks ago but there are still leaves on some of the trees.

There is a big maple on the corner by our house that still has about 95% of its leaves, some of them are still green. It is always one of the last to drop and one reason why we end up doing much of our raking in the Spring. Last year the weather got really crummy before we could get any raking done. At least the boys have filled 25 bags already this year, we will probably fill as many again, one of the disadvantages of living on one of the leafiest corners in Canada.

Wine & Cheese

All 3.5"X5.5" Pencil in Moleskine

I haven't posted for a couple of days but I do have a good excuse. On Monday night we hosted a house concert with brilliant guitarist Laura Young who was visiting from Barcelona where she lives. I managed to sketch a few pictures as I was sitting at the back, but I really had to be quiet as you could hear a pin drop in that setting. We had about 25 people, so it was intimate but very well received and I think a great success. As you can imagine we weren't up to cooking much beforehand (I would have had to clean the kitchen again), so we mostly feasted on the wine and cheese we had provided for the post show reception.

Last night I went to a silent auction and performance in aid of Carousel Players, a local professional theatre company who specialize in taking theatre to schools all over the region and occasionally tour further afield. It was great fun, they did a reading of Danny, King of the Basement by David Craig which I hadn't seen before and enjoyed enormously. It was funny and touching and extremely well presented. I didn't really have time to eat before I went so I filled up on, guess what? Wine & cheese. The wine was courtesy of local winery Marynissen and very good.