Sunday Morning at my Village

USM's sketchcrawl was moved to June 30, but I went out anyways. Took my bike and left home before 8 AM. Surprisingly, I met quite a lot of people at this unspeakable hour on Sunday morning. Joggers of all ages, older people walking in pairs, fellow bicyclists, dog employees - excuse me - owners with little baggies in their hands, construction workers - apparently nobody sleeps on Rive Sud.

In the town where I grew up people used to say that if it's foggy in the morning, there will be no rain during the day. Well, we'll see. Right now it's so muggy, my glasses went all foggy the moment I stopped the bike. It takes forever for watercolors to dry. Hence - the classic Chinese paintings' effects.

I made this sketch, standing on the shoulder of a bike path. The only person who noticed my presence was a very jolly middle age Asian man, who was moving huge tree stumps on a wheelbarrow right across my line of sight. When I finished, he came by to take a look at the picture and expressed his admiration for my speedy work. He had the time to relocate only two stumps while I painted all this. I took it as a compliment.

At the tiny pier on the tiny river Saint-Jacques a group of young people were getting ready for a kayak tour. As I took it from their leader's speech - for the first time in their lives. Everybody was very enthusiastic and laughed a lot. I barely had time to catch the picturesque group on the paper, when they picked up the boats and went off. I was finishing coloring the background, listening for their laugh and excited screams coming from behind the river bend.