Mayson’s Tender Brought the Maritime Tradition to Canada’s North West

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The group Mason’s Tender, a maritime group from New Brunswick, Were at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel to perform each evening. The band members are, Bryon Chase on lead guitar, Gabriel Caissie on bass and Chris Daigle on Drums. All of the band members are of mixed French and English background. They
performs a mix of East Coast traditional, roots, folk and country based
songs forged from a shared passion of place. This sketch was done in the main bar area on the ground floor near the back of the hotel. I decided to sketch from a second floor balcony looking down. It turned out that I was right next to the main spot light that ended up illuminating the band. Terry ordered a drink and sat at the base of the stairway.

For the second set, we sat together in the cushy leather seats sipping custom mixed drinks. I had a drink similar to a Mojito but with a fresh twist. The traditional Irish tunes had me wanting to dance a jig but no one was on the dance floor in this ritzy upper crust hotel. After a few drinks, Terry and I wandered the halls. We wandered across a party where Queen Elizabeth was residing and greeting guests. Terry didn’t notice the queen but when I pointed her out, Terry wanted to walk up and shake the queen’s hand. We walked down a line of mounties in red coats and one finally stopped us a few yards short of the queen and asked if he could help us. That is never a good sign. Ive always found that people who offer help actually are offering the opposite. He told us that this was a private party and that we would have to leave. I’m sure the queen was actually an actress as were the mounties.

A hike around Lake Louise

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Lake Louise in the Candaian Rockies is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. From our hotel, the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, (111 Lake Louise Dr, Lake Louise, AB T0L 1E0, Canada) Terry and I hiked around the lake on the western shore. The trail only gets to the far end of the lake before it ends. On the first hike, I stopped half way out to do this sketch looking back at our Chateau. Terry pushed on until the trail ended.

On a second hike, I walked with her to the end of the trail. On the cliffs at that end of the lake, rock climbers were scaling the pure vertical face of the rock. Although there were safety ropes and spotters below, it still seems pretty daring to trust the person below to keep you from falling to your death should you slip. The walking trail ended at a large glacial stream which must be fed by the large glacier up in the mountain pass. When we returned from the hike, I noticed a large class of students sitting on the terrace of the chateau doing watercolors of the lake. I glanced over a few shoulders and resisted the temptation to ask, “Are you an artist?” It was time for an afternoon tea and a nap.

Mounties on Parade for Canada Day in Jasper

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As luck would have it, Terry and I were in Jasper, Canada for Canada day. Were were warned by out hotel that parking would be hellish downtown and that we should use the shuttle bus for a price. We ignored their warnings and found a parking spot easily. We had breakfast at a nice downtown deli and then I headed to the town park where the parade was going to start. People were already setting up their lawn chairs on the sidewalk to be sure they had a prime spot to watch the parade. I got to overheard plenty of town gossip from the locals. There is plenty of drama even in a mountain town paradise. One woman’s sister is married to a convict in prison. The family warned the girl, but love is blind. I found a shady spot across the street and watched the mounties line up in formation for the parade. There was a flag waving ceremony in Centennial Park which the mounties were a part of.

The Canadian flag was everywhere. People had dozens of hand held flags and some people had Canadian flag temporary tattoos on their faces at least I hope they were temporary. Flags functioned as capes and cloaks. By the time the parade officially started, my sketch was finished. I texted Terry and walked back towards the deli where we had breakfast. She was there seated at an outdoor table with red and white helium balloons tied to her chair. It was a typical small town parade with floats advertising local businesses and groups of children marching with their martial arts group of a high school band. Their was plenty of candy thrown into the crowd which sent kids running into the street to collect their loot.

The big draw that evening was the fireworks. It gets dark very late in the Canadian Rockies so it was still light when the first rockets lit the sky at 11:15pm. Terry and I got hot dogs from a vendor and sat with the crowd on a grassy hillside overlooking the soccer field where the mortars were set up. A fenced in area on a baseball diamond housed the beer garden where a crowd sipped beers while watching the fireworks. It was a great display with a thunderous grand finale. Afterwards Terry and I hoped to find an open store but the town was silent. All the celebrating had stopped and the streets were quit except for a few rowdy teens,  although I bet we could have found a crowd in a local bar.

On the drive back to the hotel, we looked for moose or elk wading in the moonlit streams but didn’t find any. Back at the hotel we ordered root beer floats as a treat before we went to bed since we had forgotten to eat dinner.

Weekend Top 6 Picks for November 8th and 9th

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Saturday November 8, 2014

9am to 3pm Free. Orlando Elks Vintage Faire. Elk Lodge 1079 12 N Primrose Drive Orlando FL. Vintage Faire and Flea Market meeting at the Elks Club parking lot on the 3rd Saturday of the month.
Antiques, Collectibles, Retro, Re-purposed, and Funky.

10am to 6pm. $65 Shibori and Indigo Scarf Dyeing Workshop.  Misty Forest, N Hyer Ave, Orlando, FL. Come make beautiful hand dyed silk scarves! Perfect for holiday gifts! Shibori, an ancient Japanese textile tradition dating back to the 8th Century, is a process of dyeing cloth through resist methods to create unique patterns and texture. In this workshop students will learn a variety of resist processes such as pole wrapping, clamping, stitching, folding, and binding to create exciting and unique wearable works of art. We will experiment with color and pattern using Procion MX fiber reactive cold water dyes and learn how to prepare a traditional Indigo dye vat. Students will also have the opportunity to try image transfer techniques and Thoix discharging (controlled bleaching) to create modern designs. Each student will make a few handkerchief samples and complete 2 silk scarves and 1 cotton gauze scarf. No experience necessary. Coffee, tea, and vegan treats will be provided in the morning. Please bring a bag lunch.

3pm to 8pm Free. Frankie’s BIG FUN Market. Centering at 659 Bryn Mawr,/ Edgewater Drive College Park, Orlando, Florida. Every second Saturday. Spotlighting all of Orlando’s local scene! An all out sidewalk party, that will be stretched and inclusive of any and all businesses that are located up and down beautiful Edgewater drive. Participating businesses are encouraged to co partner with creatives, host the entertainment in their location, or present creative entertainment in any way that “fits” with their business. This is the main goal. to “match creatives with the businesses that are already there.

Sunday November 9, 2014

Noon to 5pm. Free, but get a beer. Sunday’s with Smiling Dan. The Falcon Bar and Gallery, 819 East Washington Street, Orlando, FL. Plenty of music to liven up your Sunday.

1pm to 3pm Free. Yoga.  Lake Eola Park, 195 N Rosalind Ave, Orlando, FL. Weekly on the east side of the park on the grassy knoll.

9pm to 11pm Free. Comedy Open Mic. Austin’s Coffee, 929 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL. Free comedy show! Come out & laugh, or give it a try yourself.

Relaxing by a glacial stream

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Terry and I stopped at a narrow valley in the Canadian Rockies which had a trail leading to the cliff edge of another glacier. The parking lot was right beside a meandering glacial stream. This became the resting spot for tourists before the hike and after. I hiked with Terry up to a rocky overlook that gave a sweeping view of the whole valley.

A warning sign marked the trail from this halfway point toward the glacier wall. It warned that if the glacier calved, that hikers could drown or be crushed by building sized chunks of ice. Terry wanted to push forward on the unmaintained trail but I turned back to sketch at the stream. One woman was carving her initials on a rock using a smaller rock as her writing tool. I don’t understand this basic human need to scar a gorgeous landscape to prove that you had been there. I suppose I’m doing the same thing by sketching. I need to leave a mark. Stones probably last longer than paper, so maybe I picked the wrong medium to work with.

We had drinks in the car, so I grabbed one and hiked back to the first overlook. I got a bit nervous when I finished my sketch and Terry hadn’t returned. Of course if the glacier had calved, I would have noticed the immense surge of water down the valley. Of course she didn’t know where I had set up to sketch, so I hiked back to the car. When she returned, we had lunch in the car and then pushed off to the next sight.

“There’s Johnny!”

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I went to Johnny’s Fillin’ Station (2631 South Ferncreek Avenue Orlando Fl) because I heard a band would be performing. I went to the bar right after work and the place was packed. There was a pool table in the corner and dark wood paneling on the walls. The star spangled sign on the front of the building proclaimed that this is where you get Orlando’s Best Burger. I found a small table facing the bar and ordered a beer and a burger. By the time the burger arrived, I was well into the sketch. I’d take a bite, wash it down and then push the plate aside to work on the sketch. It was a long leisurely meal and it was a darn good burger.

The waitress stopped back a few times since I was taking longer to eat than most costumers.  When she saw the sketch, she proclaimed “There’s Johnny!” She then pulled over other staff to see the sketch. When I was ready to leave, the band started setting up their equipment. I was already satiated, so I headed back home.

Art Therapy heals at Nemours.

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I went to the dedication ceremony at Nemours Children’s Cinic for the art therapy program. Jill Mundry addressed the crowd gathered for the dedication. Creative
volunteers share their passion and bring smiles to children and
families.Creativity of any kind, doing arts and crafts,
listening to music, or writing a story, helps kids explore and identify
feelings, deal with emotions, and even get better, faster. In fact, it’s been well documented that creative therapy can help:

  • improve cognitive skills
  • express feelings
  • increase awareness of others/self
  • enhance emotional and physical well being
  • improve self-satisfaction
  • manage pain
  • improve speech and language skills

Nemours is fortunate to have
a lively creative arts program that include dedicated volunteers and
local artists lead the kids in painting, drawing, and other fun
activities in the waiting areas.

 Located just south of downtown Orlando, (1717 S. Orange Ave., Suite 100 Orlando, FL), Nemours Children’s Clinic, is a kid-friendly outpatient pediatric clinic providing specialized pediatric care for families in Central Florida.  Their pediatric teams work together with your child’s pediatrician or family care provider,  to achieve the very best outcome for your child.

One of their most important partnerships is with you — because they believe in family-centered care. That means they value your input and welcome your questions so that, together, we can help your child grow up healthy.

They offer Central Florida’s only nationally-accredited Cystic Fibrosis Center
state-of-the-art Sleep Center studies a full spectrum of pediatric sleep disorders
weight management consultation programs for kids ages three to 16. Nemours provides
a commitment to family-centered car.

Sketchy Broads offered fun sketching options for Orlando artists.

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Sketchy Broads are two models, Jenny Coyle and Lindsay Boswell, who love to come up with quirky costumes and pose for artists and photographers. The prices for an evening of sketching were, $10 for anyone who wishes to take reference photos. $7 for the full 2.5 hours of sketching (30 minutes of short poses and 2 hours of long poses) and $5 for just the long poses.

This particular evening the event was at Stardust Video and Coffee,  (1842 Winter Park Rd, Orlando, FL). They always have quality lighting using photographers umbrellas. Personally I prefer a single spotlight to get strong shadows but I tend to focus on only one sketch while everyone else is doing the short poses.

The group had been meeting at Austin’s Coffee (929 W Fairbanks Ave, Winter Park, FL) but I do believe that the modeling sessions haven’t happened lately. Austin’s is a crowded spot to hold the events. I suspect that the turn out at these events might not have been enough to keep the event happening. I also know that Jenny was planning to start work on a film project and certainly once production began on that there would be no time left over for modeling. The last event I notice on Facebook was on December 5th of 2013.

Why continue to juggle social media?

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Kandra Ferguson, Sarah Porter and Menachem Kniespeck furthered the discussion on social media. I’m beginning to realize that I have only skimmed the surface in using social media to share my work with a wider audience. I only started using instagram two days ago but people have been using that interface as a way to share work for years. I’ve only just begun to use hashtags this week as well. After hearing so many people talk about how useful hashtags are, I’m finally taking the time to add them. Researching hashtags and using them to find people with similar interests is something I need to get better at.

I spoke with Caroline Moore and she wrote an article on Linked in that generated a huge spike in readers. Although I am signed up on linked in, I’ve never understood it’s potential. With social media, I feel like I’m always expected to juggle multiple balls while more balls keep getting thrown in. The second this all becomes work rather than play, then I’ll have to cut back.  In the mean time I continue to listen and learn at a glacial speed.

Independent Bar is a cornerstone of the downtown Orlando scene.

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Independent Bar is a multi-leveled nightclub with state-of-the-art
sound and lights. They feature three bars, each with its own unique style;
two dance floors, offering separate genres of music; and cafe´ style
sidewalk seating, allowing customers to mingle with the ebb and flow
of downtown Orlando. It is located on the corner of Washington and Orange, (70 N. Orange Ave

Orlando, FL).

I arrived on a typical weeknight. The bar was full as was the dance floor. My friends danced while I sketched. Landmines and interplanetary orbs hing from the ceiling. The place got more packed as I sketched. A few people grew suspicious of me standing quietly sketching but they were fine once they saw what I was up to. I imagine the art on display must be permanent since it was hung so high.

With the sketch done, I watched people on the dance floor for a while, but I wasn’t tempted to dance myself. I imagined my art supply bag would be a problem to keep track of. For Dina Peterson and the others this was the first stop for the evening. They planned to crawl between a number of the clubs up Orange Avenue. I depend on others to introduce me to Orlando’s nigh life which offers so many sketching opportunities. I decided I had enough excitement for the night and I went home.