A Day at the Beach

Summer just isn't summer if you don't spend a day at the beach. I had wanted to get to the beach for some time now and finally this past Monday, it seemed to be the perfect day to go. I had two sketching ideas in mind; the obvious kind of sketching you would do on a beach and canola fields. I love the bright chartreuse green of canola fields.

Our first stop was Whytewold, where I was hoping to sketch the dock that's so beautiful with it's spindly supports.  Unfortunately, the water was high enough to cover a lot of the supports. Also, you can see that they have brought in chunks of rock to try and preserve the shore but they aren't at all natural looking. Also, there is no place to park right at this spot. Cottagers would hate me but I would rather see no one allowed to live directly on water and leave it open for everyone to enjoy the view.

After Whytewold, Winnipeg Beach was next on the itinerary. There weren't a lot of people on the beach but what caught my eye was the water tower which is on the south end of the beach. When sitting on the benches, the water tower was not in view so I plunked myself down on the sand and did a watercolor sketch of the tower. I really liked this view with it's strong diagonals of the beach and boardwalk set against the horizontals of the trees and their shadows and the narrow spit of land on the left.

Being almost close to lunch time, we headed for Gimli where we enjoyed fantastic battered pickerel and French fries ... just delicious. Following lunch, we set up our lawn chairs in the shade next to the beach where I had a view of people doing what people do at the beach. It's always hard to sketch people. The easiest ones to sketch are the ones that are sitting or lying down rather than standing. Sketching was followed by a little walk aound town to see what was new and to stop in the must stop spots like Tergeson's.

About 3:30pm, we left Gimli and as we started down the highway, it occurred to me that I hadn't been out on Willow Island for years and years. Bill had never been so I took us down the narrow peninsula known as Willow Island. It was just starting to spit a bit but I did stop and take some photos. I liked the marsh area on the south side of Willow Island where people docked their boats. This was the most inspiring material I gathered on this little trip and resulted in a pastel painting of the scene which I show below in a nearly finished state. On Willow Island, again I was struck by the difficulty in getting to the shore on the north side as it was built up with cottage/home after home lined along the shore.

As we continued home down number 9 highway, I'm still on the lookout for a chance to get in those canola fields. When I was almost to Petersfield, there it was ... the perfect canola field, fringed with lovely Manitoba ditches full of a variety of grasses and weeds full of colors and textures. From the car, I did a quick watercolor sketch. This will probably be done up in oil on the same size board.

A very successful and enjoyable painting expedition!

Willow Island Marsh done in pastel on black

Sketching a the beach at Gimli

Canola fields near Petersfield