Downtown Sketcher

Downtown Sketcher I sketch and colour energetic architectural and urban scenes.
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Six hours. That’s all it takes.The same rocks you walked between at low tide are now surrounded by fifteen metres of wat...
09/24/2026

Six hours. That’s all it takes.

The same rocks you walked between at low tide are now surrounded by fifteen metres of water. The flowerpots haven’t moved, the Bay of Fundy just swallowed the ocean floor and turned the whole place into a kayaking playground.

We did the tide out stop on our way back from PEI. If we’d timed it right we could have done both in the same day. Next time…

On our way back from PEI we made a detour to Hopewell Rocks. So glad we did! There is something completely disorienting ...
09/22/2026

On our way back from PEI we made a detour to Hopewell Rocks. So glad we did!
There is something completely disorienting about walking on the ocean floor. The Bay of Fundy pulls back up to 16 meters twice a day and just hands it to you, the same seabed that will be under water by late afternoon. You walk between the flowerpot formations in flip-flops, neck craned, trying to make sense of the scale of it all.

We timed it right, so worth the stop, mud between the toes and all.

Three years ago, when Downtown Sketcher was just getting started, I joined the Halifax Urban Sketchers for a couple of S...
09/13/2026

Three years ago, when Downtown Sketcher was just getting started, I joined the Halifax Urban Sketchers for a couple of Sunday morning outings. Fineliners out, no plan, just a group of people who loved this city enough to sit down and draw it. That feeling never left me.

There is something special about sitting on a Halifax street corner with strangers who become friends the moment the sketchbooks come out. Beginner or pro, everyone is welcome. And somehow the city looks a little different when you’re seeing it through a dozen pairs of eyes.

When we were at the POPCAN last month I popped over to see what the group had been sketching that day. It was like running into old friends.

If you’ve ever wanted to sketch but didn’t know where to start, or just wanted to be around people who genuinely get it follow this group and join them for a session. Every Sunday, rain or shine, somewhere in Halifax.

Thank you Natalie and the whole crew. You were part of where this all began, and Halifax is so lucky to have you. Can’t wait to join you again soon.

Halifax Urban Sketchers

Cape Breton has been through something significant this past week. The flooding across the island has been devastating, ...
09/10/2026

Cape Breton has been through something significant this past week. The flooding across the island has been devastating, and our thoughts are with every community and family affected.

Chéticamp is one of those places that stays with you — the harbour, the Acadian colours, the mountains rising behind it. This sketch is a small reminder of how extraordinary this island is, and how much it’s worth standing behind right now.

There’s a moment at the end of the Skyline Trail when the boardwalk runs out, the cliff drops away, and the Gulf of St. ...
09/06/2026

There’s a moment at the end of the Skyline Trail when the boardwalk runs out, the cliff drops away, and the Gulf of St. Lawrence fills the whole horizon. Nobody is ever in a hurry to leave.

The 9-kilometre loop starts in the forest just off the Cabot Trail and opens up onto coastal headlands that feel almost unreasonably good. Walk it at golden hour if you can.

Cape Breton does this. It finds you mid-sentence and just holds you there.

Sketch two of the Cape Breton collection.

So much history here. France built Louisbourg in the early 1700s as a fortified fishing port and military stronghold on ...
09/01/2026

So much history here. France built Louisbourg in the early 1700s as a fortified fishing port and military stronghold on Cape Breton’s Atlantic coast. Britain besieged it twice and then demolished it. Parks Canada spent decades putting it back together, stone by stone, using the original blueprints.

Today it’s the largest reconstructed 18th-century French colonial town in North America, and one of those places that genuinely stops you mid-sentence.

This sketch looks at it from above — the rooflines, the fortress walls, the harbour gate, and the Atlantic beyond. The kind of view that makes the history feel real.

Some buildings carry more than history. They carry the community that refused to give up.St. Mary’s Church in Indian Riv...
08/23/2026

Some buildings carry more than history. They carry the community that refused to give up.

St. Mary’s Church in Indian River, PEI is the third church on this site. The first two didn’t make it, fire and lightning saw to that. The third time, the entire community showed up. A local sawmill processed the wood for free. A farmer donated the largest tree on his land. The iconic spire you see today grew from that tree.

This was a commission, and the kind of subject that stops you mid sketch.

Link in bio to book yours. 2026 is full. 2027 slots are open.

The Northumberland Fisheries Museum lighthouse has been keeping watch over Pictou Wharf for over a century. Red cap, whi...
08/19/2026

The Northumberland Fisheries Museum lighthouse has been keeping watch over Pictou Wharf for over a century. Red cap, white walls, harbour at its feet – it’s the kind of scene that makes you slow down without quite knowing why.

That’s Pictou. It has a way of doing that.

Three sketches, one town, and a collection that’s just getting started.

Some streets stop you mid-step. The corner of Water and Coleraine in downtown Pictou is one of them.Victorian brick, col...
08/16/2026

Some streets stop you mid-step. The corner of Water and Coleraine in downtown Pictou is one of them.

Victorian brick, colourful facades, wide open sky – it’s the kind of streetscape that reminds you just how much character a small Nova Scotia town can carry. The Scotsman Inn has been anchoring this corner for well over a century, and it still looks like it means business.

Sketch two of the Pictou collection.



Every commission has a story behind it.This one was a newly renovated house – loved, looked after, and then sold when li...
08/09/2026

Every commission has a story behind it.

This one was a newly renovated house – loved, looked after, and then sold when life took the owners out of province. The sketch was the thing they took with them.

That’s what keeps this work interesting. People don’t just commission a building – they commission a moment, a chapter, something worth holding onto when the address changes.

Thank you to everyone who booked a commission this year. The slots are full, but 2027 is open and booking now. Link in bio.

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Toronto, ON

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Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 4pm

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