Biru to ringo (Beer and an apple)

I've been studying Japanese in my spare time, as well as painting, so decided to combine these two interests in my journal, using watercolour, felt pen and coloured pencils.

Echinacea

Yes, It's a Gas Station. Really.

This was a gas station, built in Philadelphia (Walnut x 40th Streets) around 1918. The pumps were located in a colonnade around this circular buildling. The Atlantic Refining Company later merged with Richfield, and became known as ARCO.

Well, I haven't blogged for a while ... I've been busy (work and stuff). But fortunately, I have found some time to draw and paint. Also I am designing a website on architecture, primarily art deco and mid-century modern in Ottawa (I'll probably put photos of favourite buildings I've seen on vacation, too) ... hopefully that will be up and running this month.

A Montréal Washroom

Montreal built several public washrooms back in the 1930s. They closed some time ago. This one is in Cabot Square (Ste-Catherine x Atwater) and is currently used as a flower shop, though I painted it as it looked originally. At the left is the Cabot Square entrance to the Atwater Métro Station. Once again, I took some artistic license, this time with the background. In reality, there would be Alexis Nihon Plaza and the former Montréal Forum (now a multiplex cinema).

An Albany School

I took a lot of photos of Public School 1 in Albany's South End. I was so intrigued by its Moorish arch. I will probably do some more paintings using it as my model. PS 1 isn't red; I used artistic licence.

A Braille Birthday Card

My friends Luise and Peter, in Montréal, just turned 50 and treated ten friends to a super birthday dinner at Restaurant Mavi.

Usually I paint a card for such an occasion, but I wanted to do something different as Peter is blind. I got the idea of "writing" Braille using those multi-coloured candy dots that I remembered from when I was a kid. They came on a long strip of paper, like adding machine paper, and you bought it by the inch.

I didn't know if this candy is still made, but there is a candy store nearby on trendy Elgin Street (upscale, nothing like the neighbourhood candy stores of the '50s and '60, except it sells retro-style candy). Sure enough, they had the candy dots. No longer by the inch, of course, it comes in a sealed packet of about 12 inches for $1.50.

I got the translation for "Happy Birthday" from a Braille tranlsation website and cut the candy paper to match. It was esp easy because the sheets have three dots per line and Braille letters are based on a three dot line. I did have to squish the letters for the word "birthday" to get them to fit in 8-1/2", but it was pretty obvious from the context.

I didn't have a good glue handy, however, so I used scotch tape. I took one quick photo before leaving for Montréal and only afterwards discovered that the photo was too dark and the tape photographed with a glare. The card itself looked fine, though, in real life.

And I highly recommend Restaurant Mavi. It's a small restaurant on a side street, 5192 Gatineau, Montreal, specialising in terrific Portuguese grilled chicken accompanied by equally terrific french fries and salad, all in generous servings. The décor's not much, but that gives it a sort of off-the-beaten-track charm, and the service was exceptionally pleasant.

Patterson's Creek

Went painting Monday evening at Patterson's Creek with Susan and Martha and sketched the O'Connor Street Bridge. Didn't do much outdoor painting last summer, but was at Patterson's Creek in July of 06 and sketched the Driveway Bridge.