Paint a monument challenge

In September, I entered the “Paint a storefront challenge” organized by James Gurney (see the post here). This month, Gurney organized a “Paint a monument challenge” so I took my easel and my watercolours outside despite the cold and the wind.

The statue I sketched for the challenge is called “The Secret” by an artist called John McKinnon. I chose this one because it is a statue I see almost every day going to the playground with my 2-year old son, he likes it a lot and he was excited to see it painted in my sketchbook. To make the challenge even more fun, I put together a short video (1’40”, below) documenting the process. I used a custom set of watercolours in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook (8.25″x5″) and added a touch of gouache at the end to suggest a few leaves.

As the results were published today, I was very proud to see that my sketch received an honorable mention from James Gurney. I win a “Department of art” embroidered patch and a free instructional video by James Gurney so I can keep improving my painting skills 🙂

Congratulations to all the winners and everybody else who submitted beautiful art to the challenge! You can see all the entries on the Facebook page of the challenge.