All That Jazz

We spent the evening of July 4th with friends at the Montreal jazz festival. It was a beautiful summer evening, before the oppressive heat of last week, and perfect for listening to happy outdoor music. As the sun set we heard "Lost Fingers," a popular Montreal group, at the main stage, and then went to sit on the lawn at the blues stage to hear a very good British guitarist and his band. I did this sketch of the first concert while there was still light in the sky, and added the color later when I was back home.

Below is the original sketch. I liked the spontaneity of the original drawing and tried to keep as much of it as I could when working over it with the watercolors. The color does adds some of the excitement of actually being in a big crowd like this. In a fast, small watercolor on non-watercolor paper, you don't have much control at all, and it's hard to convey the luminosity of the lights and the big video monitors that showed closeups of the performers. It would be hard even in oils! But I really enjoyed doing this sketch, as well as being in such a lively place, and hope that shows in the result.

Comments

[Vivian]

You capture the luminosity of our long summer twilights well in this. Félicitations!

[Jan]

The color really brings it to life. Great sketch.

[Hattie]

I almost always go to the Vancouver Folk Festival and will miss it this year. I enjoy those long twilight evenings in July up north, and the sunset at Jerico Park is always wonderful.
Love your drawing.

[laurie]

i like the painting!
montreal has more festivals than any town i've been in.

[zuleme]

I really admire your work. You could make a wonderful book about life in Montreal.

[Beth]

Thank you! (And you're right, Laurie, this is definitely the City of Festivals. I think it's an antidote to winter.)

[magnolia]

There we are, just now, at the summer jazz concert with you.

[Peter]

What a perfect way to pass the time before the action starts onstage! If you tuck the drawings away in a pocket or purse, you don't even have to worry that something would happen to the sketchbook.

[Anne Gibert]

It's a beautiful sketch, and it glows with the color. It just looks like having fun!

[Anne Gibert]

Lovely drawings. You are absolutely right, plants have wonderful forms. I grow them, tend them, pick them, cherish them. I don't draw them often, but I should think more about doing that.

[Kim]

I love it, Beth. The color makes this one for me, even though I love looking at the detail in the original. And I love seeing Laurie here!