RMI

October 17, 2023October 17, 2023Leave a comment

This is the Robert Mondavi Institute (RMI) of Food and Wine Sciences at UC Davis, very close to where I work. I’ve drawn it a couple of other times, and am surprised I don’t draw it more because it is an interesting building. I stood in the middle, in the Good Life Garden surrounded by all sorts of flowers and foods, and drew the view looking east. The sky was dramatic that day; I couldn’t stand in any shade, so when the sun came out I would hide under my hat with my collars up, like a spy. Those limes in the foreground looked nice. This October is getting me down man, getting me stressed. Needed to stand in a big garden for a bit. I actually went to a meeting in that building over the summer. When I say it was in that building, it was actually mostly over Zoom, I was one of three people there in person (including the host) while everyone else were little faces on this big screen. I was taking notes, but being in person I couldn’t do that thing where you’re looking at the screen nodding as if you’re paying attention, but actually getting some other stuff done. It was pretty awkward being one of the only people actually there. That was summer though, now most of our meetings are in person again, and it’s less awkward when you’re in a room full of people. I have been the only one on Zoom though, in a meeting last year when I was in London, and if you’re the only one, generally you are a big head on the big screen instead of a small head among many others. I probably looked like Holly from Red Dwarf.

bull’n’mouth

October 16, 2023October 16, 2023Leave a comment

I went downtown on Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago; I had a big drawing to do on short notice, and had to scout out a few locations to preliminary sketch for it. Of course this was the day we finally decided to have some rain, after another seemingly endless hot spell, finally some cooling down. So while it was raining, I decided to pop into the Bull & Mouth, the pub which is formerly the location of De Vere’s Irish pub on E street. I had not been into Bull & Mouth (it might be ‘Bull’n’Mouth’, I’m not sure) since it’s opening; De Vere’s originally closed at the start of the pandemic, as so many places did, before a fresh paint job outside in the summer of 2021 followed by a slow reopening later that year; I went back in once then for dinner with my wife, and that turned out to be the last time because it closed down again shortly thereafter, this time for good. The spot has been closed ever since, until this summer when the new Bull & Mouth took over the space. I had not been in yet, so I took this opportunity to finally check it out. I was pleased to see that it still looked a lot like De Vere’s, but with a few added TV screens (thankfully not overbearing), a lot of different wall decorations, long displays of beer cans above our heads, and the wording on the long black strip above the bar now referencing something about bulls rather than what it said before. The fantastic old wooden bar was brought over from Ireland when De Vere’s first opened in 2011, I remember going in there that first week and drawing a panorama while in the middle of the busy place. On this rainy Saturday afternoon, it was not too busy but there were a few people at the bar and I took a seat and ordered a beer. The guy behind the bar recognized me, “it’s been a while!”, it certainly had, about four years since I’d been in there for a beer and a sketch (dinner with my wife in 2021 not included). It didn’t feel that different from De Vere’s. I don’t know what it’s like in the evenings (I don’t go out much in the evenings any more). I had to do a sketch of course; first I worked on my prep sketches a little for the other big drawing, I was still working out the composition of that one as it was of three Davis locations all in one (I’ll post that soon), and then decided to play with the Lamy Safari fountain pen, I had not used it for a bar interior like this. It worked well, moving quickly across the page, and I added a bit of a wash too, though it took the ink a little longer to dry I think in the slightly damper air of that rainy day. I had a couple of very nice beers, and then once the rain had stopped I went across the street for a milkshake (diet be damned) and walked home (there’s my exercise). The last day of September.

green and brown food truck at the silo

October 16, 2023October 16, 2023Leave a comment

There are more food trucks at the Silo these days now that the quarter is in full swing. I ate lunch, and stood in the shade to draw this one, which I think sold coffee and ice cream or something, I didn’t inspect it too closely despite drawing it for half an hour. I couldn’t really read what it said. Not very investigative of me I suppose, I was in a hurry, I had other things on my mind. I just liked the colours of it. I just wanted to do a quick sketch with that fountain pen, that was fun.

a little little chef

October 15, 2023Leave a comment

This little chef is found by a path on the North Davis Greenbelt, next to a very well-kept garden with lots of interesting features (that I am always a bit too nervous to sketch; it is a bit ‘as seen on TV’ and I am scared of the person who creates it coming out and chasing me away) but I could not help to sketch this little chef. He is very little, and maybe a bit more plump than I have drawn him (which I did with the Lamy Safari fountain pen with carbon platinum ink). I never knew any chefs that look like this, though I did know a fairly rotund cook once (I think called Ron? It was a long time ago when I was a very young waiter), lovely chap. I was a waiter when I was a teenager, going on many catering jobs with my mum in places all over north and west London, usually synagogues, often people’s houses, the odd conference centre, one time I even did a catering job at the Houses of Parliament, serving tea and sandwiches to some people at a Jewish Single’s party hosted by an MP. One time I even served tea and wine at the Israeli Embassy. Wow, this was a long time ago, the mid-90s. The little chef does remind me of the 90s though, specifically the ‘Little Chef’, the restaurant chain much loved by motorists around the country. I maybe ate in one once? We didn’t stop in them very often, the occasional service station on the way up north maybe, but I do remember going to the ‘Happy Eater’ when I was a kid, and throwing up violently right after eating some of their alleged food. If you are from Britain and remember the Happy Eater, it was another restaurant you’d find off the motorway but its logo was of someone putting their fingers down their throat, I kid you not. The clue was there all along. It reminds me of a similar chain restaurant in France, ‘Flunch’, named for the sound you make when vomiting into a bucket. However the Little Chef was a notch above these places, from what I understand. Actually everything I know about the Little Chef comes pretty much exclusively from my correspondence with a friend of mine (Jacki) who worked at one in the mid-90s somewhere in the Cambridge area, we would write to each other a lot back then, proper letters on paper like in the old days (before emailing, decades before social media), and she would tell me all about everyone who worked there, the people that would come in, everything. Except about the food, come to think of it, I presumed it was good because she wouldn’t tell me about anyone being violently sick, as I had been in the Happy Eater that time. I think it was a good place to work. I enjoyed reading all those letters, and would write back with my own stories about working in the Asda Coffee Shop, or serving triangle sandwiches to Ronnie Corbett at a gallery (which I did once, and he was utterly fantastic). So when I see this little chef as I’m on my walks or runs on the Greenbelt, I do think of those tales about the Little Chef back then.

when the world is shite

October 13, 2023October 13, 20231 Comment

It’s Friday the 13th today. I mean, it feels like it’s Friday the 13th every day, except Fridays are usually good. Look, the world is feeling pretty shite right now isn’t it, it’s hard to deal with the news everywhere, it’s hard enough to deal with daily life going back and forth. I’m not even glued to the news, and try to limit social media for the weight it places on you mentally, but the world keeps happening. I try to deal with it by putting a pen on a piece of paper and looking at something while moving the pen around and making a pattern that looks like the thing I’m looking at, and I find that relaxing, and sometimes when it turns out well I feel like I’ve achieved something positive. A small achievement every day can make a difference, even if it’s a small difference. I wasn’t in a great mood last Saturday for whatever reason, and though I did get out for a first decent run in a while (my leg’s been hurting, limiting my running) I pretty much stayed inside, watched the football (Spurs won again and hey, we are top of the league! That’s definitely not shite), watched the Rugby World Cup (I’ve been getting really into that) and then decided that I really needed to get out for a bit in the late afternoon to do a sketch and pick up some Octoberfest beer. It was still really hot, mid-90s, and not massively comfortable sketching weather. I got a cold drink at Newsbeat and went down to 2nd Street, stood outside El Patio Mexican restaurant, and drew the Hunt Boyer Dresbach Mansion on the corner of 2nd and E, one of the really old historic buildings of Davis. Or Davisville, as the town – not yet a city – was known then. Actually it’s the Dresbach Hunt Boyer Mansion. In my sketchbook I’ve written Hunt Dresbach Boyer which is totally wrong, but I’m getting forgetful. I wasn’t having a great week. The Dresbach was William Dresbach, the first postmaster for Davis, and it was apparently he who shortened the name from Davisville to Davis, probably envelopes were really small then. I’ve always found it a bit hard to draw, partly because that tree is always in the way. I didn’t go over and look at the City’s official seal which is right outside, and was recently raised above the ground, I should sketch it some time. When I say seal, it’s a huge round bronze plaque, not an aquatic mammal, or a singer from the early 90s. There were a lot of people around, it was late afternoon/early evening on a Saturday, and a couple of different people did say “Come on you Spurs!” and “Nice shirt! Tatten-ham!” to me as they passed, I was in my navy shirt from 17-18. Well we are top of the league now (don’t know if I mentioned that). That violinist who annoyed me that time was over the crossroads, but there was also a pianist playing in the little plaza by the mansion making some nicer music to fill the air. Still I mostly listened to podcasts about history, football, the Beatles, I don’t remember which now. I ended up feeling a bit too hot and sticky, and not really in the mood to soak up the downtown atmosphere, so I ended up stopping after all the penwork was done. I got a couple of Lego minifigures from the Avid Reader, some Hofbrauhaus beer from the Davis Beer Shoppe, and cycled home to finish the painting. At least I did a nice drawing. When the world is a big horrible ball of rubbishness, look for the good bits, and focus on them. Not everything’s shite.

wyatt deck (again)

October 12, 2023Leave a comment

This is Wyatt Deck, UC Davis. You may remember it from such recent drawings I did as that one of Wyatt Deck, and that other one of Wyatt Deck. I decided it needed a third sketch for some reason, and I stood in the shade next to the old Wyatt Pavilion, possibly the oldest building on campus, and drew it from this angle. I had gone over there because it was Friday lunchtime, and on Friday lunchtimes there are folk musicians that gather with their folk instruments and play folk music. I thought about drawing them, then I got a bit shy about sketching folk and thought, folk that. So I stood well away and didn’t draw any musicians (who may not have thought it was very flattering anyway). I did listen in on what they were playing for a bit (there were quite a few Beatles songs in there, which I approved of), and I thought that maybe on some other day I might bring my own instrument along to play some stuff, but if I’m shy drawing people then I’m definitely a bit shy playing music with people. So I stand off on my own as usual with my sketchbook drawing things I’ve drawn before, and that’s fine. The world is stressful, so play music, do drawings, write stories, do the good stuff.

walker

October 11, 2023October 10, 2023Leave a comment

And back again to Walker Hall, the Graduate center, you’ll remember that I drew its whole redevelopment over the course of several years until it finally opened in late 2021, with a more official grand opening in 2022, when many of my sketches were put on display in there to show the changes from the old Walker Hall to the new Graduate Center. It was a very busy day, the first day of Fall classes, and there were crowds of students standing by the roundabout near the Silo cheering the buses and cyclists, apparently this is a tradition on the first day of classes, one that I had never noticed before in the previous 17 years. I needed to get a sketch out, so I stopped here at the familiar place, and drew it as it currently looks. Nearby, a young student squealed suddenly, I thought perhaps they had been run over by a bike, but it turned out they were just excited about something on their phone and wanted to make a loud excited sound. Then a few minutes later, another young student made a loud yelping sound. What is going on with these young folk I thought, is this a new thing? It turned out the second person had been stung by a wasp or a yellowjacket or something, and that looked pretty painful. Stung on the first day of classes, things can only get better. I sketched up to a certain point, suddenly very aware of any flying insect in my vicinity, and decided to call it a lunchtime.

shields

October 10, 2023October 9, 2023Leave a comment

Now everyone is back on campus, it’s busy, etc and so on. I miss the summer, all that quiet. In a weird way I miss the pandemic times, when everyone was at home, and campus was eerie and quiet, I would still need to come in fairly regularly so I felt a bit like a guardian, keeping the torches lit until the return of All The People, if that day would ever come again. Actually mostly I was drawing maps of our building, with little diagrams in shared spaces to show that people would be at least six feet apart. The ‘worksite plan’. I had to do a lot of that, but I liked making colourful maps anyway. It was great to finally get people back on campus back then. I’m not saying I prefer it quiet, I do like the bustle of an active campus and having lots of people about our department, but I do appreciate those quiet moments. Here’s one place for some nice quiet, the Shields Library. It’s a massive library, one that I regrettably don’t visit as much as I used to. The first few years I was here I’d often check out books, mostly related to medieval language, but then I just stopped. I’m no longer studying in academia; for a while, before we moved out here, that was my life, long days and evenings in the library researching as best I could (did I really have to read every published article that referenced medieval alliterative poetry? I didn’t really know what I was doing, did I). I liked the quiet, the smell of the books, the space for ideas. One idea I had was ‘move to America’, so I did. I didn’t know what to do with myself when we first arrived in Davis in that November in 2005. Some days I wouldn’t really leave the apartment until late afternoon, and the only place I knew I’d feel at home was this place, Shields Library. I’d be here until it was time to get the bus home for dinner, writing emails home and updating my blog (this was before we got working internet at home), exploring the halls and picking up a pile of books about things like Chaucer or Anglo-Norman language to sit and look through, taking notes that would end up nowhere. I was glad when I finally got a job, but I’d still come here on my lunchtimes to get my head back in shape, before I really started sketching on all my lunches. All these years later, I am still needing that break to get my head back together, and usually that involves a sketchbook more than a book about Caedmon’s Hymn. I enjoyed drawing this. In fact it was sketched one day before my 18th anniversary of moving to the US. I always feel a bit funny around that time, always remember how I felt in those days, a mixture of excited and confused, and in desperate need of Weetabix.

Veihmeyer

October 9, 2023October 8, 2023Leave a comment

One from early September on campus, before everyone was really back. This is Veihmeyer Hall on California and Hutchison. One of them days when I really needed to sketch. Been a lot of those lately; sketching helps with the old stress levels. this past week, the first week of October, felt like it was about three weeks long. On Thursday I even made a reference to a meeting that had happened on Monday as having happened ‘last week’. I was glad for the week to be over, but there’s always another one coming along. As long as I keep taking time to do some drawing in my of time, I am ok. I always track my drawings per year; this week I reached the same amount of drawing done this year as in all of 2022, which is impressive, and there are still almost three months left. Need to keep it up. Also need to do some different things, try a few different angles, some different pens (I’ve just purchased some more fountain pens of different size nibs). Or just draw whatever, because doing any drawing is better than doing none.

pence art auction 2023

October 8, 2023Leave a comment

Late September, I went to the Pence Gallery’s annual art Auction party, which is always a nice event with food and drink and music. They don’t have the exciting Live Auction any more as it’s all online, but the Pence director Natalie Nelson did give an announcement when the online bidding is about to close, and it’s fun seeing everyone check their phones to see if their bid has been outbid, or if their art has sold. I had to sketch of course, so I grabbed a beer and some Dos Coyotes food and stood out on the courtyard, with the evening getting darker, and sketched the lived band, I think they were called According to Bazooka. I always like sketching to music, it helps to have some rhythm to draw along to. I had to squint my eyes to see in the gloam, especially to draw the drummer who was mostly behind the woman in front. I was sat at a table with some of them afterwards and showed them my sketchbook, I think they liked it. Thought I am not sure, as I did overhear the man singer telling someone else about it saying that it wasn’t very flattering, but maybe it was about something completely different. Below is my quick sketch of Natalie thanking everyone who made the event a success, and giving the five minute warning that the auction was about to close. I drew that one quickly with the fountain pen.

Here are my two pieces that were in the event, ‘Deacon Brodie’s Tavern’ and ‘Bar Italia’. And both sold! I was very pleased to hear that, I was quite happy with both those drawings. And then I cycled home and watched the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.