Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Portland Sunday Morning: A park & a bakery

I don't get back to my old city as often as I used to. But I've been attending monthly Saturday French workshops at my old school, The Language Exchange. 
I still like to get up early to go sketching. Above, from my car, a Sunday morning sketch at Bug Light Park, South Portland. There are oil storage tanks behind this park, as SP is a pretty industrial city, but it has preserved some great shore front space for the public. 
Bug Light has lots of outdoor benches, but downtown does not. So next time I'm in Portland, I will try sketching from my parked car, before the meters kick in. This time, I found an indoor bench at Standard Baking Co., where I ate my raisin roll & watched a steady stream of customers.

Such animated comings & goings, interchanges & transactions! As in French boulangeries, which are the inspiration for this bakery, everything is created daily, right there, in the wee hours of the morning. Standard delivers to restaurants & cafés each day, but buying these pretty & fragrant works of art directly, along with morning coffee, is a fresh & energetic way to start the day! 

5 comments:

  1. Even your gulls have so much personality..love the couple/family in the bakery..did you learn to sketch/draw with movement or was this natural for you..it seems totally innate!

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    1. Dear Nana, Your comment gives me something to think about as I continue drawing. Yes, I love drawing by feeling the movement & gesture, & it IS my natural tendency. But it was only released with the methods of Nicolaides in The Natural Way to Draw, 1st published in 1941!. I was fortunate that my high school art teacher used this way to teach drawing. It is great for the kinesthetic learners...But I find that other methods such as more formal uses of perspective are also good to integrate into the process. The Natural Way to Draw is best used with a group than as a self study with just the book, in my opinion...Maybe I should do a whole post about this, eh? As always, thank you for your comment, and I love how you explore so many creative avenues, M!

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  2. I know how much fun you had!!

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  3. Sounds like a fun outing. P.S. I kept reading Bug Light as "Bud Light"--and I don't even drink beer!

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