Lazy hazy crazy days of summer

 

 

Is this a clown wagon, come to pick us up and sweep us off to summer camp?  No such luck.  It's colourful all right, but it's a moving van come to take my good neighbours' stuff away, ready for the new chapter in their lives.  And mine.  So be it.

 

Summer camp will be a welcome break, and if there's any chance that you think this is just one of my personal quirks, there's a long cultural history here.  Take a read as you keep yourself hydrated.

 

Of course, water is serious business any time of year.  Here in Vancouver, surrounded by water habitats of all kinds, school kids learn about the once abundant salmon streams.  Many of these run under our streets, but thanks to ongoing efforts, some are now being "daylighted". 

 

My game plan for summer camp began to evolve with my late May excursion to Capilano Suspension Bridge  – plenty of water there, and once-rich salmon spawning grounds as the altitude drops and the river nears the sea.  Whether or not it's busy with tourists, this canyon and its forest edges fascinate me – recalling old days of mountainside treks.

 

I found a new fascination, too, on my recent trip – the weathered metal (copper?) cleats that work in tandem with spiffy new hardware to hold wooden stairs and decks in place.

 

By the time I returned back home that day, I'd decided on some basics for Summer Camp 2025:-- (1) Hydration was my background setting.  I'd follow the water to as many settings as I had time for.  (2) My first piece would recall an earlier People's Choice – "Partial Eclipse" which was assembled around a gorgeous piece of rusted metal.

 

And I just happened to have another rusty foundling, about 8" long, waiting for suitable companions – of which I have many,

 

At first, I thought I'd create a kind of tower as a base, using two wonderful cardboard packing pieces.

 

Nah…  Just one of these would be plenty, and I laid it flat to receive a glue job.

Here's a partial close-up in final format.

 

As a grand finale, I held an exclusive private viewing, outdoors at 8 a.m. one cool summer morning.

 

Here it is – "Rough and Tumble (Hydration Series)" copyright 2025.

 

Okay.  So I'll be checking out other hydration locations this summer, and we'll see what comes of my expeditions.  But we don't really need Summer Camp to do dotty things, do we?  It's safe to say, we now have lift-off.

 

 

 

Off-leash dog parks as training grounds for ----?

 

Training grounds for Summer Camp, maybe?  That was the plan for June 2025 – the "East Side Storeys" series was brought to conclusion in May, and then we'd head for the annual interval heralded by "No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks…"  

 

But plans have often gone astray this year.  Certainly, the plans of my very close neighbours have been a jolt for me.   You can see here how close we are!

 

After my fairly successful painting of their old cat Linus, I decided to press on and try to paint their beloved pug dog Bugsy.  The promised photos from the couple's spokesman didn't materialize so I used my own.  Here's the most ambitious –  From a few years back, my camera had been allowed to capture only the dog, not the "Dad" holding him with another neighbour's pug.

 

As a Plan B back-up, I worked in parallel from a second photo.

But only the head, in a smaller square format.

 

Off-leash parks don't always operate on smooth terrain – and by golly, that gallant little Bugsy could not have offered more challenges in his closely packed folds, his fur texture, and the subtle near-monotones of his white-cream-tawny fur.  And there are off-leash rules, too – meant to be broken, like the old painter's rule to "never use black"?  Okay.  I didn't.  I used Payne's Grey with a bit of raw umber for the darks.

 

But long before that, I wrestled with all those folds in two early sketch layouts.

 

 

Okay – first one, first.  That's the one I really wanted to get right.  Here's an early lay-in when I still thought I could do something with the background image:

 

No good. I had to somehow keep the information that the dog was being held, but I simplified it for the final version - "Handful of Bugsy," copyright 2025.: 

 

And here's the final version of the smaller square portrait, "Bugsy - Best in Show" copyright 2025:

 

The two together seemed to make a pleasant Father's Day surprise when I delivered them this morning.

 

And NOW:  Summer camp is just around the corner.  No, you don't need to bring a mask.  No, it won't take place in Venice.  And no, we won't be reprising the Commedia dell'Arte – except for some unstructured high jinx.  But be there or be square – that's what summer camps and off-leash parks are all about!