CalgarySketch

106-3158 – Goodbye Calgary

Image | | Art-Chap-Enjoin

Here is my last sketch in Canada – and the first sketch in a new Sketchbook (still using Umae hot press paper). I missed sketching the day before this as we were too busy with shopping, visiting the Esker Gallery and packing. With a midday flight it was an easy start to the day, but WestJet still insist that each bag weighs 23k or less, despite us having far less weight overall…so again we were those unfortunate people you see frantically repackaging in front of the check-in desk! That grey blob on the plane, splashed onto my painting from another sketch!

Sat-14-Jun-2025

105-3149 – Galleria trees, downtown Calgary

Image | | Art-Chap-Enjoin

This day started with lazy morning followed by trip into town for a 3 hour tip-based waking tour of downtown (our guide was Daniel of Toonie Tours). The tour took in Stephen Avenue, Plus 15 (a network of elevated, weather-protected walkways), the beautiful central library, the Bow Building (and the giant wire mesh head sculpture in front of it), the ‘Family of Man’ sculpture, the King Eddy Hotel etc. We then had dinner some friends at Goro and Gun – lovely vegan ramen soup! The tree sculptures I sketched (along Stephen Avenue) were designed by the Cohos Evamy Partners architects and are supposed to mitigate wind gusts in the area.

Fri-6-Jun-2025

105-3148 – Heritage park

Image | | Art-Chap-Enjoin

On our second day in Calgary we took a longer bus ride to go to Heritage Park (described as “one of Canada’s Largest Living History Museums”). The place was swamped by teenagers benefitting the School Safety Patrol Appreciation Day Picnic (there were 4,000 kids there!), but thankfully we mostly avoided them. Most interesting to us were the original houses (from the 1860s to the 1950s) that had been dismantled and rebuilt on site along with furniture and the everyday stuff of the period …these really showed how people lived. There was an indigenous people’s part too but that could have been a lot larger and with more information. I sketched this (the Shonts Grain Elevator built in 1909) from the spot where we sat and ate our lunch.

Fri-6-Jun-2025

105-3147 – Calgary Zoo

Image | | Art-Chap-Enjoin

Here is my first sketch from our trip to Canada. On our first full day we made an easy trip (taking the bus and then the CT train from Franklin Station) to the zoo. It was huge and fascinating, and while I appreciate the role a zoo has (these days) in conservation, for me, a trip to a zoo is always tainted by the sadness of seeing animals in captivity. There were also many sculptures by @washedashoreart of waste plastic (my sketch is not of one of these), a reminder (along with the many “endangered” signs outside so many of the animals enclosures) of how fragile nature is and how we are either destroying it or putting it in prisons for display.

Wed-4-Jun-2025