You never forget great teachers or mentors like Bob Cripps.
I may have portrayed him somewhat grumpy in this sketch, but Bob Cripps was anything but a kind considerate gentleman.
Pilot in the war, sailor and architect in the years that followed, Bob was someone to whom I looked up to for his quiet wisdom and the way he saw the world. However, even though usually cheerful, he could be quietly grumpy when asked to sit for a portrait.
In the background I added one of his rustic cottages that once sat on the rocky shores of Little Dunk’s Bay on the tip of the Bruce Peninsula just around the shore from Tobermory. He would kindly let us use it at a time when renting a cottage would have been a bit out of our young family’s budget. Sadly both cottages no longer stand; now replaced by something big, new and modern, and to me, fully out of place.
I wish I had sketched far more of my mentors like Bob. By drawing them, you really touch.
Below are small watercolours he gave me when he was confined to a seniors residence near the end of his life. To me they are a lovely window into the intelligence and whimsy of his beautiful mind.
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