September update - Sketch the Junction and Bare Naked Ladies

September was already a busy month and now there a various things to be done regarding Dad's passing: apartment, car, bank etc etc. But I still have lots of enjoyable thing on my plate as well.

On the day that Dad died, I was in Toronto with Christine, participating in "Sketch the Junction". She had invited me to do this with her and it sounded like fun and a bit out of my comfort zone.

Christine had been Executive Director of the Junction BIA so already knew what corner she wanted to position herself at. Many of the sketchers (there were 38 of us) where part of the "Urban Sketchers Toronto" and they would just plonk down on a curb or a bench but we had camp chairs, a folding table and a rolling bag to carry our stuff.

I didn't know what I would feel like doing so I took pencils, charcoal, pen and watercolours.

Chris started with this building

and opted for magic markers.

She then moved on to a pencil sketch of the Heintzman  Place, a condo building built where the Heintzman Piano factory was.

I liked the contrast of it with the old building on the opposite corner to us.

I went with pen and watercolour Only the second time I had used that medium.

 It was a lot of fun with people stopping to chat and seeing other artists at work. My piece took me over 4 hours (I couldn't believe the time when I finally stood up but my hips believed it). Aside from posting progress on social media (Chris took care of that) we had to deliver the sketches to Articulations, the art store and organizer, by 5 pm, where they would be adjudicated. Looking at the others as we all hurried to the store, there were some amazing paintings and sketches. They will be on display, at the store until early October, when we can pick them up.

We got the phone call about Dad as we were dropping them off and immediately drove down to Fort Erie.

The following week, Rick and I had tickets to see the Bare Naked Ladies at the Burning Kiln Winery. A concert that had been rescheduled from last November.

We parked, for free, in the vineyard and then stood in line for about 20 minutes to get our bags etc checked (for food and beverages)

Lots of people already there but as we made our way in front of the stage to get to the other side we spotted enough room for 2 chairs, in the 3rd row!

Doesn't get much better than that.

It was a lovely evening but cooled down as the sun went down.

The warm up band was High Flyer, lead singer the son of the headliners lead singer.

I didn't see, but could still hear, most of their set as I was in line up for a hot dog and battered mushrooms.

 Unfortunately none of the videos that I took worked but needless to say, it was a great concert. Lots of energy, interaction with the crowd, old songs and some that were just about to be released on a new album. They played for about an hour and a half and then came back for an encore. It didn't take long to get out of the parking and we headed home. I thoroughly enjoyed it and will look to see who is playing there next year, it was such a great venue.