Take a hike

A portion of every weekly class seems to be spent catching up on what we all did during the time we were apart and a few weeks ago was no exception when one of my students told me about a trip she took to the Vancouver Aquarium.  A fantastic place but she was mesmerized by a person who was busy sketching while observing the tanks and she asked if we could do that too.

Well I can't take the kids to the Vancouver Aquarium for an hour and a half class, but one of the benefits of living by Lynn Valley Canyon is that I can take them on a spectacular hike two blocks from my studio!!

So I told her that the next nice day when we had class, we would go outside and do some Plein Air drawing.

Of course in Vancouver that could take six months of waiting! 

But lo and behold, this Tuesday night was beautiful!  And so I grabbed a couple of sketch books, some graphite, charcoal vine, and a very happy child who couldn't wait to give this new drawing experience a try.

We never made it to the trails.

We made it as far as half a block and realized we only had a half hour left in class!

I figure when the student says, "It doesn't feel like we've been gone for an hour", things have been quite fun in her book.

Things are really fun when she questions if you really know how to tell time because there is absolutely no way in God's green earth an hour has already gone by.

Where did the time go?

Well it started right outside my front door.

A lone orange poppy that I have no idea how it even got into my garden!

I had her warm up with the ever torturous blind contour drawing but she didn't seem to mind.  I had her label her sketches so we can go back and pursue some of her observations in a painting in an upcoming class.

She made it about six more steps until she happened upon the scraggiest of daisy plants I have ever seen in existence. But she saw beauty in it.   She spent some time looking at a tight bud, which was interesting when you really took the time to study it and I couldn't help but sense how Georgia O'Keeffe must of felt when sitting in her garden drawing and why she felt such a passion for making sure the rest of the world saw the beauty is such small things we don't take the time to admire. 

I probably could of made a better choice in regards to wearing white jeans while sitting in the garden dirt drawing and taking in the beauty, but that's a story for another day....

She then spent some time drawing a daisy in bloom and made some new discoveries when she really took the time to look at it.  Like the fact that each petal has three distinct grooves in it and that instead of coming to a point, it actually dips down in the middle.  We also discussed the symmetry of the center and while doing so got quite a treat when a small insect came to collect nectar and display it's very long tongue in all it's glory!

At this point, an hour was gone and she was questioning just how well I really was able to read my watch so we took off down a small heavily wooded trail that connects two streets a few doors down from my studio.  

We barely made it off the street when a flock of Chickadee's literally almost smacked right into us.  They congregated low in the shrubs near us, complaining quite loudly that we had disturbed whatever it was they had been doing prior to our arrival.  It was a great experience for this student to try to draw something that was moving constantly.  She got about 30 seconds before they all flew away in a huff looking for a place without giant two-legged creatures carrying sketchbooks.

So then we stopped to channel our best Emily Carr and sketch one of the giant old cedars lining the path.  We got right underneath it and worked on an unexpected perspective.  She worked on using line to create the textures she saw in the trunk and the branches overhead.  This was a very quick sketch because she by then realized I did in fact know how to tell time and our class was coming to an end quicker than we would have liked.

For something a little different, I had her place a fern leaf under the paper and do a rubbing so she could take it back and draw it at a later date.  She thought that was pretty cool, but she thought what happened next when she turned the page was even better!

What a great surprise!  Won't this be interesting for her to explore in water color later?  She was thrilled when she realized what had happen while taking the rubbing.

And then it was time to turn around and head back and we were both struck with the beauty of the path in the late afternoon sun so spent a moment to quickly put it on paper.  Directly in our line of vision was a large tree branch (Forest Trail is labeled in it).  We actually had to duck back under it to go home.  I think this is going to make a beautiful painting one day when she goes back through these sketches to flush them out.  I love the ghost print on top left by the charcoal when she closed the book too!

We headed back but she couldn't resist one more stop on the way.  The street drain of all things!

But I too thought the line pattern on it was quite lovely and am glad to see that she can find beauty in all sorts of mundane things we usually take for granted.  It will be interesting to see where she goes with this work and it was a great experience for her.   It was a great lesson in slowing down and really spending time looking at all the small details we are surrounded by in our daily lives. 

And of course, I came home with my arms loaded with more things than I started out with on our journey because as I have mentioned before, I'm a hoarder!

Sadly it was obvious a bird had met it's demise on the wooded trail as there was a large gathering of feathers.  Feathers I collected because I know they will be great for reference in the future!  Along with a interesting piece of bark and a few pinecones that I figure will make an appearance in a still life for the kids to draw at a later date.

This will not be the last time I tell a student to take a hike when they come to the studio.  And we just might make it the two blocks to Lynn Valley Canyon next time too!