Daily Sketch

On my daily walks with my yellow labrador retriever Lexie, we pass by a LOT of windows where pets are staring out at the passersbys on the sidewalk, but there is no sadder face in Centretown than this beautiful Burmese mountain dog who watches us walk by most mornings. I had to snap a quick photo and sketch it over morning coffee.

"Behind Bars"
My art journal - ink and watercolour

Trees and Forests

I have always loved trees. I love urban trees and have often thought about sketching some of the awesome urban trees I walk by daily in Centretown, Ottawa. Look at these two beautifully symmetrical trees framing the driveway to a Nepean St.construction site!

Entrance to Nepean construction site
My art journal: water colour and ink

Photo reference

As a hiker, canoeist and artist, there is something wonderful about being surrounded by trees. There are no words.

The Germans came up with the word "waldeinsamkeit" that is untranslatable into english. “Wald” meaning forest, and “Einsamkeit” meaning loneliness or solitude. 

(Source: "11 Untranslatable Words")

In my youth there was an incredible oak tree in Cooksville (now Mississauga) that was a gathering place for me and my friends. It sat in the middle of a farmer's field and had huge branches so large that you could climb the tree and comfortably lie down on them without fear of falling.

I loved sketching trees. Below is a page (now thirty years old) from my 1986 sketchbook where I was trying to practice silhouettes of conifer trees.

My sketches of conifer silhouettes from my 1986 sketchbook
(on flickr)

1973 Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting

I love the way John Carlson directs the artist to paint trees: "You will learn to paint trees only by understanding them, their growth, their nature, their movement - and realizing that they are conscious living things....To the artist, the forest is an asylum of peace and dancing shadows."

John F. Carlson
(The black and white reproductions of
Carlson's trees in his book do them no justice)

Ottawa's Dominion Arboretum

The Friends of the Central Experimental Farm (FCEF)  in Ottawa will be offering a wonderful  Guided Tree Tour on Sunday July 19 and I signed up. ( If you are interested, the tour is free and open to the public, but you must register in advance at info@friendsofthefarm.ca or call 613-230-3276.)

Tour leaders Owen Clarkin and Roman Popadiouk will lead the group through the Arboretum and discuss the kinds of trees which can be found growing in Ottawa. Techniques for identifying trees at the genus level (e.g. oak vs. maple) and species level (e.g. Bur Oak vs. Swamp White Oak) will be explained using the trees encountered on the tour as examples.

Below, Sunday's tour leader Owen Clarkin was recorded giving a talk at the Grace Centre in Sydenham on April 12th, 2014. His talk was entitled: "Trees Worth Knowing in Eastern Ontario."

Ottawa Artist - Aleta Karstad

This tree talk video introduced me to Ottawa artist Aleta Karstad. Owen Clarkin commissioned a painting of the ancient Rock Elm (his preoccupation) in Merrickville (oil, 36 x 24 in.) by Aleta Karsta.

The Ottawa Society of Botanical Artists featured Aleta's painting progression on their blog:  http://ottawabotanicalart.blogspot.ca/2014/04/painting-tree-ancient-rock-elm-in.html

Rock Elm commissioned by Owen Clarkin
Oil (36 x 24 in.) by Aleta Karstad

I learned that after Aleta studied for three years at Central Tech in Toronto, she then studied with Doris McCarthy (whom I had written about before). Oh, how I would love to hear more about that!

Tree Sketches

Sketch of oldest live oak tree in Mobile, Alabama
My art journal: water colour and ink

Ottawa Tree Links:

• Owen Clarkin - Trees Worth Knowing in Eastern Ontario (video)
• Tree Ottawa Champions
• Ecology Ottawa - Tree posts
• Loving Trees Clare Walker Leslie's Guide to Sketching Trees

November Comes

"Lexie Walk"
Art Journal sketch (graphite & water colour)
Artist: Cindi Moynahan-Foreman ©

"November comes 

 And November goes, 

 With the last red berries 

 And the first white snows. 

 With night coming early, 

 And dawn coming late, 

 And ice in the bucket 

 And frost by the gate. 

 The fires burn 

 And the kettles sing, 

 And earth sinks to rest 

 Until next spring." 

 Elizabeth Coatsworth

Art Journal Pages

"Mums"
Mixed media - art journal page
Artist Cindi Moynahan-Foreman

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I marvelled at how the plants on my patio were still flowering and flourishing this late into September and I wondered how much longer they would last? I also read a book that encouraged artists to create mandalas and described how Carl Jung would paint a mandala every day to reconcile aspects of his own life and psyche.

Both of these inspired my art journal page: I used a mandala printout with a labyrinth in the centre and added gesso and acrylic paint to add the plants in the foreground. This art journal entry was done while the Thanksgiving turkey was cooking in the oven.

Ottawa Valley Road Trip

The art journal page below was inspired by a three-hour road trip where the intention was to take in the beautiful fall colours in the Ottawa Valley.

We found signs to an estate sale on Sixth line (March Township) and we drove the long beautiful driveway to the estate that sat on a hill overlooking the Ottawa River.

Next door to the estate sale stood an abandoned church and cemetery. I later researched the location and discovered that this was St. Mary's Church and Cemetery (N45.439722, W75.953056) erected in 1828 by Hamnett Kirkes Pinhey.

St Mary's Church and Cemetery
March Township, Ottawa

The church can be seen on the left

To someone like me who loves genealogy and history, stumbling accidentally on this place was a true delight. (I have added some interesting links below).

I wanted to capture the estate using a loose water colour and ink painting in my art journal. I wondered what it must have been like to wake every day to such a magnificent view of the river.

We did not purchase anything at the estate sale.

As I looked through the items for sale at the estate sale I thought 'wouldn't it be great if the person who lived there was an artist and kept an art journal and painted in it every day'.

Perhaps (s)he did.

"March Township"
Water colour and ink - art journal page
Artist Cindi Moynahan-Foreman

Pinhey's Horaceville 

Some Links

• Horaceville, Ottawa, Ontario
• Pinhey's Point Foundation
• Sail Quest: Pinhey Point
• Pinhey: Bytown or Bust

Harold's Point

"Harold's Point"
14 x 10
Artist: Cindi Moynahan-Foreman ©
Water colour on Arches cold pressed
(100% cotton/140 lb)

I loved sitting in this location in the morning sun. 

The water colour that I completed here was most unsatisfactory so 

I turned the paper over and painted this scene from the photograph.
(The photograph can be seen here.)

Plein Air Practice #2

Water colour: "Mazinaw Rock"
Artist: Cindi Moynahan-Foreman

Mazinaw rock water colour study done in one hour. (5x4 on 140 lbs / 300 gsm cold pressed Winsor & Newton paper)