This is a great Victorian era building on Front Street in Toronto. When it was built it was the first street up from the port of Toronto. Now, due to infilling, there are about 6 blocks to the water’s edge.
Reliable Fish and Chips
This Queen Street East Fish and Chips joint closed a week after I sketched it. It was a favorite Leslieville spot for families and lunchtime gatherings for decades. I like that it wasn’t yuppified. We used to call it “un-Reliable Fish and Chips” because its hours were a little unpredictable.
Toronto City Hall
I was trying to sketch this iconic building from a different angle. I chose a kids battered hockey skates as my focal point.
Mercury Cafe
A Leslieville favorite, I first visited this cafe after it had moved a couple of blocks and it didn’t have a sign up. I remember that they told me that this sign was “temporary”. It was more than 10 years ago.
My workspace
Watercolour, microliner and pencil crayon sketch of my art workspace and office. My worktable is a stainless steel table top placed on mismatched file cabinets. I warped the perspective to show my trusty 1893 treadle sewing machine, very useful for mixed media art. The space doubles as a workspace for my web design/communications business.
Sketching a hibiscus
I did this drawing as a part of a Domestika course led by Lapin in Barcelona. He had turned his usual interest in urban sketching to botanicals during the pandemic lockdown.
Allan Gardens
This greenhouse is in a park a few blocks from my home in Toronto. It opened for a few weeks to the public and then Omicron closed it down again. I had sketched a few of the plants in December, but it wasn’t open on this day in January.