In 2015 I read an article about house-sitting, and I thought this would be a good way to travel, keep it affordable (important for an artist) and have a base where I could maintain work in Ottawa. I signed up for a website, set up a profile and began looking at listings for potential sits. Many revolve around the holidays, which didn’t interest me: getting away from Ottawa in the colder months did.

House-sits are all different, often requiring looking after animals. Eventually an opportunity came up to house-sit in southern Spain. I connected with the home-owners and eventually we met on Skype, and set up a house-sit for November while they are in Malaysia. In this case, my ward is the house, 2 cats inside, and at least two dozen feral cats outside. By the time we’d agreed to everything and worked out flights and details it was June 2016. 

Please note all prints ordered after October 24 will be delivered by December 13th due to being away working in Spain through November.

More details on this working holiday to come. 

I have recently launched a Patreon campaign for my urban sketching projects. Patreon is a website that allows artists to generate a sustainable income with support from their fans, who become patrons. In my case, patrons get access to work in progress, plus possibilities of art postcards, prints or originals mailed to you, and more. My goals with this campaign include increasing my output of artwork and undertaking urban sketching missions beyond Ottawa. For the cost of a cup of coffee a month, you could become a patron of the arts! 

The abandoned Prince of Wales bridge is being slightly more aggressively fenced off by the City in an attempt to prevent trespassing. It is currently used by many people as a rogue pedestrian bridge, despite the lack of proper footpath or handrails. This is a sketch of the bridge drawn on Labour Day, where I saw hundreds of people using the bridge over an afternoon.

In June of 2015 I contacted fellow Ottawa illustrator Mawt Trood, asking if he would be interested in doing an outdoor sketching project revolving around exploring alleyways in Ottawa. I did not know Mawt personally at this point, but I knew of his work and many friends in the arts community knew him or had worked with him. I was also intrigued by him as he had the same fascination as I do with neighbourhood storefronts (or “Mom & Pop Shops” as he called them). He had been tirelessly working on illustrations which included corner stores, cafes and places of personal importance. His work also emphasized those forgotten details that make up a space: wires, poles, street signs. The “negative space” of a city as he called it.