August 7, 2026 – petescully

And so on to October 2025, sketches in and around Davis. I might have already posted this particular drawing already of the Newman Catholic Center on 5th Street; it was blue but had just been painted a cream colour. Another one of those trees that I like.

This was a house being built on B Street and 7th, it’s probably finished by now. I like these in-progress construction sketches because they will never look this way again. I also liked the colours, red, gold, green, the colours of my dreams, or maybe that was a song.

There’s another from A Street, the corner of 2nd, I didn’t colour it in but this is very ‘start of October’. You’ll have to take my word for it. I like A Street, it’s that liminal space between the Campus and the City, the two worlds of Davis.

Another one from Old North Davis, corner of 6th and B, this is a nice old house. I don;t think it’s in John Lofland’s excellent book on the area, which I do consult a lot. I did learn not too long ago though that John Lofland had sadly passed away, which was sad news; I had never met him, but I really like his book about Old North Davis and the histories of many of the buildings around there. Thank you for the book, and rest in peace. Anyway I drew this while heading home one day and finished it off and coloured it in at home. It always reminds me of the Davis Turkey Trot which usually starts on this very block. I did the 10k again last November, and made the probably foolish decision to try the Half Marathon this year. I may regret that!

This is that place on D Street which was the ‘Secret Spot’ for a while, but is now something else. I drew it when it was pink, it has been other colours. I sketched a lot in early October. I sketched a lot in 2025 in general.

This is the Davis Farmers Market, sketched at one of our monthly ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ sketchcrawls. We have held a lot of sketching events there, there’s always a lot to draw. Here are a couple of sketchers, Suma CM who I have met at several Symposia over the years but never met in California (where she also lives), she was visiting Davis that day. Marlene Lee is also here, she co-organizes Let’s Draw Davis with me. I keep talking about making our group an official Urban Sketchers chapter, join the club proper, but never get around to it.

This is Community Park, near where I live, and it’s the view looking up towards the toilets. On the left is the dog park. I’ve spent a lot of time in this park over the years, with all the soccer coaching and parenting, the Davis World Cup, other big local events, or just passing through on the way home. I appreciate all the parks we have in Davis. It is good to live somewhere with so many parks and green spaces, that isn’t just focused on cars and long long roads that only cars can really use. It’s Community Park because it is really used by the community, and the local library is here, Davis High School is on one side and North Davis Elementary on the other, with Rainbow City playground and the Davis Arts Center up in the other corner. Yeah, a lot of my life and my family’s life has been spent in and around this park alright. I’ve also done a lot of running events passing through here. Yeah I love this park.

This is First Street Real Estate on, well it;s on 1st Street. I like the shape of the building, it’s good to draw. I like triangles and a tree in front, that;s what it all boils down to, if I was an AI which I’m not (let’s make that clear right now) then just a tree with two branches and a triangle behind it, that’s basically most of my drawings. Like the rhythm of a joke, it’s the way you tell ’em. Years ago, I held an art show here, they very kindly hosted me for one of the monthly 2nd Friday Art About events here in Davis. It was one of my favourite ones I have done (also the last, I don’t really do those shows much) and a lot of people came, talked about sketching, sold some prints, and the people hosting were really nice as well.

Ok this will do for the October Davis sketches; I did others, but those were part of the First Year Aggie Connections group that I led during Fall and I’ll post those separately. I also have a bunch from our trip to Oregon. This one though was just before Halloween and Dia de los Muertos, in fact this was specifically for “Dia de los Muertos for Pets”, it’s a little book box and pet treat box, there are dog bowls beneath it, and so on my early evening walk up on the North Davis Greenbelt I stopped and drew it. It was a warm evening. Anyway I had been there about 15 minutes, there were a lot of walkers and cyclists about, when one lady on a bike approached ringing a bell. I was at the side of the path close to the box, not in the way, but she was turning and I think didn’t want to go around the back of me, but bank the corner. At least that’s what I gathered when she got off of her bike and deliberately walked in front of me making me move backwards into the path, grumbling that I am in her way. I said I wasn’t in the way, I was at the side of the path and the ten or so other cyclists had no problem passing by. “You are standing in the middle of the path!” she yelled. “Well I am now, because you just made me move, but I wasn’t.” I had been standing right next to the pet box, as is obvious from the drawing. She went off still complaining that I was in her way and that she had to get off of her bike. It was quite bizarre. As a sketcher I always try not to block any paths, and be considerate of those passing around me. People just having a bad day I guess. I went back to my spot and finished the sketch. Anyway, that was October in Davis. There will be a couple more October posts, then I’ll do all the others, or I might take a break and post the Symposium sketches, and then get back to 2025-2026.

Alright, alright, alright. Time to catch up, before I start posting all the sketches from the Toulouse Symposium. I am not even halfway through scanning them all yet anyway. As mentioned in this post from June, I have a long list to get through, so let’s get cracking. I might keep the storytelling to a minimum, just look at the sketches and imagine what I was thinking about when I drew them. Let’s take a look at my Davis sketches from last Fall… Above, the opening page of a new sketchbook, and it’s that building on the corner of A Street (that’s “A” Street, not “a street”, I may have made that distinction before but it’s worth repeating) and 1st Street, which used to be a frat house, and at this moment in time it was painted yellow and the name ‘James A Kidd Foundation for the Arts’ was written above the door, for some reason, because shortly afterwards and to this day it is not written there any more. I don;t know what the building is going to be but I see people coming in and out, I don;t really need to pay too much attention to it. I like the shape of the tree in front. This is one of those ‘Fall quarter is about to begin, let’s start ramping things up’ sketches, and it was a busy Fall for me, no doubt. Busy is good, I like busy, but I appreciate the quieter Summer times as well.

Now here is a frat house, or maybe a sorority house, I don;t actually pay that much attention. For someone who prides himself on paying attention to the city and drawing all the changes over the years, being a real ‘interested’ sort of person, I do actually skip over details about what places are for or how things work. I do not, for example, have any idea how fire hydrants actually work, yet if you search for fire hydrants and sketches you’ll probably find me right up there on the lists. Or at least, until AI took over the world. I really like that Jaguar parked there. This was drawn on C Street, next to Central Park, while a Crafts fair was going on. I was talking for a little bit with one of the artists whose stall was nearby, I think they recognised me. I do like September sketches though, there is this ‘late Summer, not quite Fall’ air to them, it’s still hot, it reminds me of the first September I spent in Davis a year after arriving in America. Wow, September 2025, I just remembered, that was 20 years after I moved here. That’s a big deal. I love California, it’s a good place to have spent the majority of my adult years, the grown-up bits of my adult years.

Here’s another one from that week, drawn in the portrait-format sketchbook. This is the Belfry on A Street, I have drawn this building loads of times over the years, it’s an interesting shape and good to sketch.

The corner of 3rd and D, another one I have drawn loads before. Why do I keep sketching these buildings over and over? In case something changes. Something usually does, and then I have a record of it in my sketchbook. It’s like my purpose is to document the world. Maybe I should do a book. I’ve been saying it for years but never get around to it, a book of Davis sketches. I think people would buy it. I probably have a sketch for every day of the year in Davis, like one literally done on each calendar date. You definitely feel the different times of the year here. People say we don’t really have ‘seasons’ like other places do, it;s just summer and then a bit cooler, but it’s not true, the times of the year here are very distinctive, it;s just that summer is very long and very hot.

This was drawn at the Pence Gallery’s annual Art Auction, I sold a couple of pieces there last September. That’s Natalie, the director, speaking to the people at the gala event, and there is one of the musicians. I didn’t draw a lot that evening, just had a glass of wine, some food, looked at all the lovely art, and went home. This in fact was the day I celebrated 20 years in the USA. I thought it was the 26th but it was the 27th. I think a lot about that day.

Another tree in front of another house, this time on 4th Street, that’s Cooper House I believe, but I really like that tree. Maybe I should give a workshop on drawing trees. I have decided I want to be able to identify trees by looking at them, I even bought a box of flashcards with different trees and their leaves on them so I could learn them. Again it’s that thing where I love to draw things but lack that extra detail of knowing what they actually are or anything about them. Like, my mind says, “you’ve draw it haven’t you, that’s enough information for now, draw something else”. I feel like it was like that in Toulouse as well, I looked up the street names later, and am still figuring out the names of the buildings I sketched. Anyway I like these trees that get a kind of orange colour on their bark, it looks good.

Finally, from the same day but sketched after work when I went downtown before heading home, this is at the corner of 1st and E Streets, I like this little house and the way that path leads up to the door. I think it’s a dentists or a realtors, I really don’t know (see what I mean, it’s not like I don’t care what things are, I just like sketching). Next up: October 2025…

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petescully

postcards of the hanging

Day: August 7, 2026

October 2025 in Davis California

September 2025, Davis California