Carol Berry Art

Real summer rolled in with a heat wave, so I was glad to sit in the shade and sketch the dock at my sailing club.

I pushed myself to sneak in a sketch of a flowerpot this past weekend. It’s a mystery to me why I focused on such an organic subject when I prefer structured objects, but I guess I was up for a challenge, I love bringing order to chaos.

This past weekend, as a member of the Don Valley Art Club, I met with fellow DVAC plein air artists to paint at Toronto’s Edwards Gardens. I admit that I didn’t have to roam very far to find a colourful setting, the park is wonderful and certainly deserves a second visit, when perhaps I will try for a less busy view. It was great, getting out and interacting with the public – a nice change from sitting at my desk all week.

Sitting in the shade

Balsam Lake Provincial Park is the annual destination for a group of friends I am glad to call mine. We have multiple campsites and share meals and good laughs. Sunday was the perfect day for the beach, it was hot enough that you really wanted to go for a swim in the lake. The beach was packed with fellow campers, but despite this fact, I didn’t take the time to sketch any people. This was my first time using my new soft covered Stillman & Birn Alpha series sketch book, and was a real lesson in how different the paper was from painting on Arches.

This was also my first time using one of my latest sketching setups. It is held together with little bits of sticky gel non-slip Pads (sold to hold phones to car dashboards).

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