Day 2: OnWORD conference

Jon Bauer sings before the day's events begin

a session on the Sermon on the Mount

a final talk given by Mark Buchanan

 The second and final day of the OnWORD 2013 conference at Steele Heights Baptist Church...

OnWORD conference

A moment from the OnWORD Conference, put on by Taylor Seminary and hosted by Steele Heights Baptist Church. The main speaker is Mark Buchanan, who is discussing themes related to his book "Your Church Is Too Safe". The notes I scribbled are the chorus from a prayer that Jon Bauer sang, which I found quite beautiful:

"May my life be my worship
My life be my song
May I praise You my Savior
All the day long
From the sun in its rising
To the night when it falls
May my life be my worship
My life be my song"

hauling junk

This is perhaps the first time I did a sketch out of spite... although, admittedly, I'm really not sure who I was frustrated with, the truck that cut in line or me for not being more careful.

I inadvertently let a truck in ahead of me during the long, one hour vehicular line up to dump large items during a Big Bin Event put on by the city.  I scrounged around for a writing utensil and paper (I found a red ballpoint and unfurled a paper airplane I made last week for my son) from my crammed car full of large broken items... in the end, I saved the family in front of me 20 minutes of waiting time, and I got a sketch out of the experience.

students in the sun

 Students at Norquest and MacEwan, catching some last warm days of sunshine during the lunch hour on Monday and Tuesday. The temperature dipped today (Wednesday) with highs at around 10C. Frost warning is in effect tonight.

My outdoor sketching during lunch is bound to slow down soon.

Southgate Mall transit terminal

The giant brick feet sculpture at Southgate Mall transit centre.

Kaleido Family Arts Festival on 118 Avenue

having pancakes by the main stage

 Once again we were happy to have the opportunity to check out the Kaleido Family Arts Festival, the annual weekend of fun packed artsy community activities on "The Avenue". It's been a few years attending, and we usually run into a few people we know.

This year, the kids got to have some free pancakes in the sun, watch some hip hop and belly dancing, create some cards to trade with other people, fly some paper airplanes in a giant tent, interact with a few art installations, paint on a giant canvas, watch a percussionist/storyteller... 

Meanwhile I had the fortune of being able to sketch a professional artist model, which I haven't done for a good 15 years. It's very freeing to be able to draw without "getting caught" by your subject, and to be ensured of a person remaining still.

a crowd watching belly dancers

my son paints on canvas

story time at the community centre

back to school... MacEwan University

 It's back to school at MacEwan University, and there's loads of activity (and youthfulness) around this stretch of downtown again. This is my week's worth of lunchtime sketches focusing on the totemic forms of the downtown campus.

Gimli, Manitoba

A boat moored at the dock at Gimli, Manitoba, a small resort town located at the southwest shore of Lake Winnipeg.

Winnipeg, Manitoba, part 2

The Trans Canada Highway (Hwy 1) eventually becomes Portage Avenue in Winnipeg. Portage Avenue is also part of the Yellowhead, which starts in western British Columbia, runs right by our house, then across Saskatchewan, and eventually ends in downtown Winnipeg, precisely at Portgage and Main. It is perhaps analogous to Gateway Boulevard in Edmonton -- the busy, wide, commercial, vehicle-oriented thoroughfare leading into the urban core, the part of the city that gradually greets you with billboards, traffic lights, and signage after hours of driving along flat rural landscapes, leading you towards the "glorious" skyline of skyscrapers and city lights. The stretch of Portage Avenue where these three sketches were done was undergoing some heavy remediation, and although billboards advertising some of the more ubiquitous national retailers abound, the commercial establishments are still all quite local.

Winnipeg, Manitoba: part 1

I thoroughly enjoyed my first summer visit to Winnipeg, and am grateful to our thoughtful and gracious hosts.

These are sketches from (from top): the Forks Market at the Forks, mature houses in an established residential street in the Wolseley neighbourhood, and a view down trendy Osborne Street.

Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

On our recent drive across Saskatchewan all the way to Winnipeg, Manitoba, I was mesmerized by the endless beautiful agricultural landscape, more vast than what we are used to even in Alberta, and the powerful ways in which wheat production has shaped the landscape. We stopped by Regina and Saskatoon -- both charming prairie cities-- as well as a few of the smaller (yet equally endearing) towns along the way. This was the first time we drove the 1500km from Edmonton to Winnipeg, and I look forward to doing it again.

Broadway Avenue, Saskatoon

Cathedral Village, Regina

Waseca, SK

Indian Head, SK

Saskatoon, SK

off Highway 11

sunset, near Dundurn, SK