it was a sunny january day…

January 23, 2011January 23, 20116 Comments

Yesterday’s “Let’s Draw Davis” Sketchcrawl in Davis was quite an event! We had glorious weather, warm and sunny, and an amazing turnout – I met lots of new sketchers, plus some familiar faces, it was a great sketchcrawl. There were at least twenty-five of us, maybe more. We were even joined by Aggie TV, who filmed us sketching and interviewed me about our sketchcrawls, and that this was part of the 30th worldwide sketchcrawl happening in cities across the planet. We were also joined by ‘Walking Bob’ Schultz, who wrote a piece about us in Davis Life magazine on Friday. You can see that article on DavisLifeMagazine.com. Pretty cool!

We all met at the E Street Plaza at 11, and sketched about the square in clusters, sketching in different styles and sketchbooks. Above are actually three separate sketches which I drew attached to each other. In the middle, the sketcher with the orange hat is Cynthia Sterling, who drove over from Napa. After a while, some of us stopped and went for lunch at a Thai restaurant in Mansion Square, just off E St. I sketched a few fellow sketchers below…

More to come!

for there is in london all that life can afford

January 20, 2011January 20, 20115 Comments

While back in London I was fortunate enough to sketch at the house of Dr. Samuel Johnson, in Gough Square (off Fleet Street). The doctor himself wasn’t home, having died a couple of centuries ago or so, but the very nice curator Stephanie gave me a cup of tea and a tour of the house. I love this area and all its history and Johnson’s House is a jewel. He was the archetypal Londoner (well, he was from Staffordshire) from whom we get many famous quiz-night quotations, his most well-known being that one about being tired of London (let’s not forget he said it before the invention of the Northern Line). Beyond his famous dictionary and his appearance in Blackadder as Robbie Coltrane, many people don’t actually know much about him. I certainly learned a lot more about Johnson, and he was a very interesting man, and quite ahead of his time. I enjoyed being brought back into the eighteenth century learning the stories behind regular household objects. For example, his very thin chair (sketched above) – Dr Johnson was a pretty portly man, but apparently he would sit on it backwards and lean his arms on the back while watching cock fights down at his local pub (as you did).

i sketched this - johnson's cat hodges with the house in the background - a couple of years ago

That’s the dictionary up there on the left, first edition print. Not the original manuscript, but still pretty cool to be in the vicinity of this famous (if Scot-mocking) book, so I had to sketch that too.

If you happen to be in London, head down to the Fleet Street area, and visit Dr Johnson’s House in Gough Square. You’ll really like it. and then, go and explore the narrow lanes and old pubs of the area. As Johnson himself said, “Sir, if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts.” And he was right an’ all.

Website of Dr. Johnson’s House

sketching rita

January 20, 20112 Comments

So here are the sketches I did at last week’s Friday ArtAbout, during Rita Hosking’s performance at Armadillo in Davis. I was amazed at her music, it reminded me how much I love country/folk music. She is a singer-songwriter from northern California, who lives in Davis. She plays all over, though, and in fact toured the UK last summer. After a very busy week, I found it really relaxing listening to her and her band, Cousin Jack, while sketching (and as you know I’m trying to practise sketching musicians, as I’ve always found it tricky). People were coming up to watch me sketch as well, and because some of the younger audience couldn’t see what I was sketching, I sat on the floor. From that angle I was able to sketch looking up at the fiddler, Andy (see below).

Check out Rita’s website and Facebook page. Her music’s great!

By the way, my prints are still on display at Armadillo Music for the next few weeks, so pop down and have a look at them.

you read me like an open book

January 17, 2011January 17, 201117 Comments

Friday was fun!

I exhibited some of my sketchbooks and prints at Armadillo Music in Davis as part of the 2nd Friday ArtAbout event. Having just come back from London, and being in the middle of a massive amount of work, I didn’t have much time to prepare for it but decided that what I really wanted was to show people the sketchbooks, and have a few Davis-centric sketches blown up into prints. As always with me, deciding which to show took forever, but I settled on a few select images, and chose Moleskines #4, #5 and #7 (the current one), along with the Davis accordion moleskine, the fire hydrants sketchbook and the ‘How To Save the World’ sketchbook as well.

The event was highlighted by an hour of live music from the incredible Rita Hosking and her band. Rita is a Davis-based country-folk singer-songwriter, who recently won best country album at the independent music awards, and it wasn’t hard to see why – her music was utterly beautiful, reminded me of why I like country music, and after what had been an incredibly busy and stressful week, standing there sketching and listening to that music made me feel totally relaxed. I’m honoured to have been on the same bill.

My artist reception was straight afterwards. A lot of people came for that, a surprising amount, many of whom I knew, plus some who had seen me on Urban Sketchers, plus some who were passing by. I had leaflets ready talking about ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ (sketchcrawl on Saturday!!) and Urban Sketchers, plus many of my new Moo cards (some of them are of Pele). I talked, and talked, in fact donkeys in Davis no longer have hind legs, I talked so much. I hope some of it made sense. It was great though, to enthuse about urban sketching and micron pens and what not. I enjoyed showing kids my waterbrush and letting people watch me sketch. I met some great people, and hopefully got a few people interested in drawing Davis (again, sketchcrawl on Saturday folks!).

Many thanks to Melanie at Downtown Davis Art About and to Josh and co at Armadillo Music for arranging this event. And to my wonderful wife Angela for your support (and for taking these photos), and my son Luke for saying “daddy! that’s what you drawed!” every time we pass a fire hydrant. And thanks to everyone who came along, I really appreciate it. Cheers!

my dark passengers

January 12, 201113 Comments

Now I have started Moleskine #7 (or the third trilogy, perhaps) I thought I’d show you the first six. They’ve travelled everywhere with me, and are fun to look at and chart my development as a sketcher.

You can see the contents of each in the following Flickr sets:

Moleskine 1 (June-Oct 2007)

Moleskine 2 (Nov 2007-July 2008)

Moleskine 3 (July 2008-Feb 2009)

Moleskine 4 (Feb-Oct 2009)

Moleskine 5 (Nov 2009-June 2010)

Moleskine 6 (July-Dec 2010)

beneath whose chilly softness

January 11, 2011January 11, 20111 Comment

As soon as I had finished sketching in the snow to close out Moleskine #6, I went inside and opened Moleskine #7, got myself a cup of tea and some Quality Street, stood by an extra warm radiator and looked out of the window. I sketched the other side of the street where I grew up, from my old bedroom window. After freezing my fingers off outside, this was an excellent way to spend the rest of the afternoon, while my son napped.

see me at the record shop

January 9, 2011January 24, 20184 Comments

Here’s an exciting piece of news: next Friday, January 14, I will be exhibiting some of my sketchbooks (including the fire hydrants book and the Davis accordion moleskine) and prints of my work, as well as giving a live sketching demo, as part of the monthly Davis 2nd Friday ArtAbout event. It will be at Armadillo Music, a small independent record store on F St (near 2nd St). This should be a lot of fun! The artist reception will be between 7-9pm, preceded by live music from 6-7 by a surprise special guest (I don’t know who it is!). I’ll have a selection of prints up in the store for about a month, available to buy, mostly Davis urban sketches.

This is Armadillo Music on F St, in case you’re wondering. I sketched it today (in the cold).

Here’s the flier for the ArtAbout event (pdf). So, if you are in Davis next Friday evening, please pop down to Armadillo and say hi!

let’s sketchcrawl davis!

January 8, 20111 Comment

Saturday January 22 is the 30th Worldwide Sketchcrawl, in which sketchers in cities around the globe will take to the streets and sketch away, as we do. Here in Davis, we’ll be doing the same, so why not join us? We’ll meet at 11:00 by the clock fountain on the E St Plaza (between 2nd and 3rd Sts, opposite Chipotle) and sketch about the downtown until around 3:30pm, when we’ll meet up at the clock fountain again (or in Peet’s Coffee across the road if it’s too cold) to look at each other’s sketchbooks.

Sketchcrawls are fun ways to get out and look at your cities in a new way, and meet other people who like going round drawing stuff. And I love drawing stuff!

If you need any more info, please send me a message, or go to:

All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on! Oh and maybe a scarf. Let’s draw Davis!

snow is falling, all around us…

January 7, 2011Leave a comment

This is Norwich Walk, the street where I grew up. On this very block in fact; my old bedroom window is on the third house from the right. I’ve never seen so much snow in London, as fell on my recent trip. It was on the Saturday morning a week before Christmas, and despite a little fall of snow the day before, we decided to take the short trip to Colindale to visit the RAF Museum. I wanted to draw old planes. In Burnt Oak, carol singers stood outside the station singing Christmas songs as snow fluttered down like a picturesque postcard (without the picturesque of course; it was Burnt Oak tube station, not one of London’s nicer spots). Then our bus stopped due to ice on the road, and we got out and walked across the estate. As we did, an absolutely massive amount of snow pounded down upon us. We were walking snowmen by the time we finally snowy pillar box reached the musuem, which had just decided (wisely) to close. The buses then stopped, as did the tube, and cars were quickly becoming buried beneath feet of snow. Thankfully my dad managed to dig his car out and came to rescue us, though the roads were treacherous, and we had to crawl along. Snow was coming down in ice cubes. I wouldn’t have been surprised to see those little paper umbrellas too. We got home, and warmed up, and then I went straight back outside with my little sketching stool to fill the last page of moleskine sketchbook #6 and freeze my fingers off. The snow had just stopped falling, and I had to capture this before it all vanished (little did I know it wouldn’t vanish for another week and a half).

Passing locals must have thought I was a nutter (those that have known me all my life knew it for a fact…). I quickly sketched the pillar box I’d drawn two days before, and then drew the street panorama. I gave up halfway through, my fingers freezing off, but then decided to soldier on, finish the block, and I’m glad I did. My micron pen didn’t give up so neither would I. Thankfully snow isn’t hard to draw. I added the paint when I got home.

So this is the last page of this sketchbook, which was started on a very hot day in southern Oregon on the fourth of July, and finished in freezing cold London in December. I did a good bit of travelling in this book, and you can see the whole journey on my flickr site: Moleskine #6

here be dragons

January 6, 2011January 6, 20112 Comments

The City of London – the square mile, the original city founded by the Romans as Londinium Augusta and re-established a few centuries later by Alfred the Great’s Saxons, the separate city governed by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation of London with its own police force, local laws and customs, and pubs which never open at weekends – is a realm guarded by magical beings. Of course it is. The silver heraldic dragons (often erroneously called – as I did above – ‘griffins’, because as you know silver hybrids save you money on the congestion charge) which stand at the major entrances to the City serve to remind us of this ancient boundary. The Queen for example cannot cross this boundary without invitation from the Lord Mayor. Pretty annoying for her when she has to take the tube from Westminster to Tower Hill. “Oh bugger, one has forgawten to bring one’s invitation with one, one will have to get orf the tube at Temple and walk along the South Bank instead.” Sorry guv, it’s the rules, yer majesty.

The dragon holds the shield of the City, which is the cross of St. George (which I’m sure would offend dragons these days) and a little red dagger, which is widely believed to represent the dagger that was used to stab Wat Tyler at Smithfield, ending the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381, but may just as well represent the sword of St.Paul, patron saint of London. Or it could represent the London media’s obsession with knife crime.

I sketched this after a nice afternoon with the family in London, when I was on my way to see the house of Dr. Johnson. A nice festive dusting of snow had just fallen, and everything looked pleasant. Next day a massive blizzard came.