A Wave from Wailea

January 11, 2024January 11, 2024Leave a comment

Maui No Ka Oi. That mean’s ‘Maui is the Best’, and it is a beautiful place. Looking out at the Pacific Ocean from where we were staying in Wailea, towards the island of Lanai, the barren land of Kaho’olawe, the small volcanic shell of Molokini, over to West Maui which looks like it might be another island but is joined to Maui by a large fertile valley, and beyond to Moloka’i, none of it seems real. We sat and watched one sunset on New Year’s Day, and the range of colours in the domed sky around us made it feel like we were in a giant IMAX dome. Paradise on Earth. Though looking out at West Maui, which I drew above in afternoon light for my final sketch of 2024, it was hard not to think of all those who suffered in those terrible fires back in the summer, especially in the devastated historic capital of Lahaina, just on the other side of that mountain. Even though we’ve seen so much fire in California in recent years, it is hard to imagine when looking at a view like this, but hard not to think about. IT was a poignant New Years Even for Maui, though still celebrated with the fireworks out at see, as it was the last time we were here. We sat on the bluff this time overlooking the beach, watching the fireworks and worrying if it would scare the sea turtles, and I played my ukulele as 2023 sodded off and 2024 waltzed in. We were one of the last in the world to leave 2023 behind, better late than never.

I did most of my sketching in the morning before everyone was up, and in the afternoon when it was nap time, and mostly just went out to sketch the view of the Ocean. I drew in my Moleskine, and also in my little Fabriano Venezia which is lovely for little watercolour sketches, and nice drawing in portrait format for a change. The sketch above was shortly after sunrise. On the morning before, we had gone out in the outrigger canoe to explore the ocean, getting an interesting little tour by our local guides (who were actually from South Africa and Argentina), pointing out all sorts of history and story that we didn’t know about. We didn’t see any whales while we were out there, but there were plenty around, being whale season in Maui. We saw some from a long way off while we were on the beach. We didn’t (thankfully) see any sharks. We did encounter a sea turtle right up close though, swimming alongside our canoe. It was a pretty great experience, and I loved being out on the water.

I drew the sketch above after sunrise on the following day also. I wanted to focus a bit more using the paints and less of the pen. That little boat with the red triangular sail was out there every morning. This was New Year’s Eve, and later that morning I went snorkeling for the first time. I’d never done it before and was a little hesitant; I can float about well enough but am not the strongest swimmer, but my wife got me a good floaty vest so I could do my best with it. About a minute after getting under the water, a big sea turtle swam right up to me, and then passed by slowly, swimming alongside me for a little bit. It was a great experience, though I was nervous to see it at first. I grew up with tortoises, so this was special, but I kept my distance. The honu as they are called in Hawaiian is a protected marine animal. I didn’t see another, but I swam around a lot of very colourful fish in the rocks and corals. Oh dammit, I forgot to make a joke about singing ‘Christmas Corals’, I’ll do that next time.

Above is a quick sketch of Molokini, the little crescent-shaped volcanic crater – sorry, it’s a ‘caldera’ – which is super popular with snorkelers. It’s supposed to be spectacular, though it was used for target practice in World War II (Kaho’olawe itself was bombed to bits during the war and long afterwards as the US military used the island to test its weaponry, and remains unpopulated). It was quite hard to see Molokini, but I brought my binoculars with me.

The next couple of sketches from New Year’s Day were done close together as the sun was getting ready to set. I really wanted to catch the colours of the sunset going into the ocean, with the shining volcanic rocks in the foreground. I drew the one below before the one above, and you can see the change in the colour of the sky in the short space of time. It wasn’t as windy that day, but on one of the afternoons I sat out there by that tree with my ukulele playing hard into the wild Wailea winds as the ocean splashed nearby. It’s a good place to play the ukulele, so relaxing.

And below, my last sketch in Maui by the ocean, another morning looking out at West Maui, a palm tree, well-trimmed vacation resort grass, and a big rock that has a sign on it telling us it had been deposited there on the bluff from the ocean by a huge wave a few decades ago. Call my bluff indeed. I have a bunch of other Maui sketches I couldn’t help drawing from our trip ‘upcountry’, I will post those soon. It was a lovely trip to Maui. The cocktails were a bit expensive, but we got to enjoy them from an infinity pool looking out at the sea. The food was good, although I tried a local ‘Molokai potato and banana curry’ which I thought might be good but was actually gross, here’s your expensive check. The seafood was delicious though, and our dinner and Mai Tais at Monkeypod were incredible. It’s these views though, this is what you come here for. Maui No Ka Oi.

sacramento to kahului (and back)

January 9, 2024January 9, 2024Leave a comment

We flew over the Pacific to the Hawaiian island of Maui just after Christmas, for our festive tropical new year break. That was amazing. We did have to get up super early in the morning to get to the airport and catch our 7am plane, which we did (though Sacramento airport was very busy), and had dramatic skies as the sun was coming up. We flew on a Boeing 737-Max-8, blissfully unaware of the problems that the Max-9 would have a week later when part of one came off shortly after take-off. Yeah let’s not think about that scary situation. As Superman says, flying is still the safest way to travel. Easy for him to say. Still the view was beautiful. I always have to do a bit of drawing when I fly, it helps me relax. Looking out of the window I tried to capture the colours and textures of the sky in my little Fabriano Venezia book.

It’s nearly six hours from Sacramento to Kahului, the main airport on Maui. Maui is a beautiful place, though it has suffered a lot in 2023 with devastating fires, namely the terrifying disaster than befell the historic capital Lahaina. I sketched there in 2019, when we visited on New Year’s Eve. While the buildings were destroyed, the historic Banyan Tree has survived, albeit terribly damaged. We were going to stay in Wailea, where we stayed on that previous trip, on the south-western part of Maui. We flew out with Southwest, and on the way we were able to watch the Tottenham game against Brighton & Hove Albion. Should win that right? We lost 4-2, and we were 4-0 down when we landed, so there was a little bit more Norf London Language than usual on this flight. (We made up for it by beating Bournemouth a few days later, but seriously, we were ravaged by injuries and suspensions).

I have a few Maui sketches to post, I wasn’t going to do a lot of sketching what with being in the ocean and the pool and playing my ukulele by the sea, but you know I can’t help myself. I’ll post those later. Below is the sketch from the flight home, this was the flight on the 737-Max-8 (I can’t remember what the plane was going out there, it wasn’t a Max-8 or 9), and they have a handy little tray that pops down where you can clamp in your phone or iPad to watch things on there, a very handy feature. It would still get sucked out if the window fell off though. I don’t think I watched much, a couple of episodes of ‘Marvel’s What If’, mostly just listened to podcasts and sketched, this time in that brown fountain pen. Buy the time we got home it was raining hard in the Sacramento valley, and a lot colder than the mid-80s of Maui. Happy New Year!

skipper bob

January 7, 2024Leave a comment

This is the ‘Skipper Bob’ tiki mug that I got for my wife for Christmas; it definitely needed sketching. It’s the ‘De Nile’ themed one from Tikiland Trading Co, and in the theme of the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. We went to a big tiki exhibition at Napa Museum back in September, which was a fascinating history of the classic tiki bars of northern California, especially during the boom of that theme in the 1950s. One of the historic old places in San Francisco was ‘Tiki Bob’s’, which no longer exists although the original pillar with this Tiki Bob face still stands outside the original location near Union Square. The ‘Tiki Bob’ style of mug which originated there has been popular since, so it was good to find one to add to her tiki themed shelf. I don’t think we’ll make the drink that goes with this (too many ingredients, we aren’t really home bar people with all the stuff) but it’s fun to have, and reminiscent of a bit of San Francisco history.

christmas eve in front of the telly

January 4, 2024Leave a comment

We all have our holiday routines. For us, Christmas Eve has become our family day. Since on Christmas Day we will typically get up and go over to Santa Rosa for the day with my wife’s family, where we will eat crab for dinner, it’s Christmas Eve where it’s just us and we will have the traditional turkey and roast potatoes dinner, with ‘picky bits’ during the day. We will spend the day watching all our favourite Christmas shows and movies, though we always spend the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas watching all the old faves. Home Alone is the classic, though we always save Muppets Christmas Carol (my personal favourite Christmas movie and Michael Caine’s best role). A Christmas Story is great (and the new sequel that came out last year was surprisingly very good fun). Love Actually is the cheese but we love it; it always reminds us of the London that existed when we left it, and we saw that at the cinema in Muswell Hill when we lived on Hornsey Lane. We even watched Die Hard this year, which I’d not actually seen since the early 90s, because it used to be on tv a lot as a generic action film before people realized it was set at Christmas so we have to argue if it’s a Christmas movie (I think you can say it definitely is, I don’t buy people saying it’s their favourite one, but each to their own); it was fun and I realized the big blond hulking terrorist who wanted to avenge his brother’s death reminded us a lot of Erling Haaland at the end of that Spurs-Man City game. We love Iron Man 3, a total Christmas action movie. We also watched the Creature Comforts Christmas this year, which I’d not seen before, and we always watch the Christmas episodes of the Simpsons, and the festive Father Ted Christmas special, the one with the Golden Cleric Award (“and now we move on to liars…”). This Christmas Eve, we started by putting on a bunch of Christmas episodes of Friends, followed by the other favourite, Charlie Brown’s Christmas. It always reminds me of when we took our son to see a kids stage production of it in Folsom when he was about three or four, in some tiny little venue, very simply produced yet amazing and memorable. Then it was time for the Blackadder’s Christmas Carol, which we know word for word and absolutely love, especially the bit where Beadle’s portly lads sing “piggy-wiggy-wiggy-wiggy-woo” which I used to sing to my son when he was a baby. Then it’s time for The Snowman, a proper gentle piece of festive animation; this was one from my own childhood, I was about six or so when it came out and remember watching it on TV, and being excited that the kid had red hair like me. Then it’s time for The Muppets Christmas Carol. I have it on an old DVD so it’s the full version, and I love how straight Caine plays it. It’s pretty close to my other favourite version, Scrooge (with Albert Finney), which I haven’t watched in a while. There are so many versions; I never really liked Scrooged, and don’t get me started on that TV version that Ross Kemp did, but nothing beats the Muppets. This year we followed that with a film that will always feel like Christmas to us, The Force Awakens. It does have snow in it, but it’s because it came out right before Christmas that it feels right, and we loved that one. Actually that year was the last one where we spent Christmas in London; hard to believe we’ve not spent Christmas with my London family in so long, I do really miss them at Christmas. By this time we’re already getting ready for dinner, and so there might be a bit of music or maybe a nap, but after dinner is done and the last bit of wrapping gets underway, it’s always time for It’s A Wonderful Life, which is a Christmas classic without really being that much of a Christmas movie itself, just that bit at the end. I love it though. There are other films that come on Christmas Day when we visit family (Gremlins played this year, and Elf usually comes on) but this is pretty much our usual tradition, just spending the whole day at home, and it’s a fun one. I hope you all had a lovely time this year. It’s already 2024 now and slowly back to work, but we did get a lovely tropical holiday in for New Years; sketches coming soon. Happy New Year!

shipwrecked and pizza

December 27, 2023December 27, 20232 Comments

There is a new tiki bar in Davis. Well it’s been open a few months now, but we’ve not yet been. My wife is a big fan of tiki bars, we recently went to an interesting exhibition in Napa of all the classic tiki bars of northern California, and I got her a Skipper Bob tiki mug for Christmas; we saw that at the museum, from a famous old place in San Francisco that’s no longer there. This new place in Davis is called ‘Shipwrecked’ and is pirate themed, so it’s right up my alley. In the window display there are even big Lego pirates, again its like they’re aiming it at me specifically. If one of the pirates wears a Tottenham shirt I’ll know for sure. But alas we’ve not had a chance to go there yet. Still, just before Christmas I was down at G Street and I decided I needed to sketch the bar from the outside, so I could sketch those Lego pirates. I really wanted to make sure I got the whole scene. This is in the old location of Woodstock’s Pizza; Woodstocks’ (which I’ve drawn before) has not moved far, it’s now at the end of the block on G Street, in the former location of that Thai place, KetMoRee. Shipwrecked is actually in one half of the old Woodstock’s, and as you might be able to tell the other half is still empty, and still has half of the old sign above it. Now I know you’re thinking, “oh right, that’s the real reason you sketched it, because it says ‘Cocks Pizza’, very funny, what are you twelve”, but as I’ve said many times, my job as an urban sketcher is to record places as they change, and compare the changes over many years, because in a few months it may look different again. Sketch the place you live, watch it evolve over time, document your town’s progress. It’s got absolutely nothing at all with the fact it says ‘Cocks Pizza’ above it, that’s just a coincidence. Funny thing though, ‘Woodstock’s’ doesn’t actually have two ‘C’s in it. The font of that first ‘C’ is different to the other letters. Someone actually made the effort of finding another ‘C’, going up there and placing it in front the the word ‘ocks’. And to that I must say, I’ve never been prouder of Davis. I’m being serious there, that is first class. It’s the human ingenuity at work, if that had been left as ‘Ocks Pizza’ people would have maybe sniggered, haha it’d be funny if that said ‘Cocks Pizza’ but not done anything about it, other than take a picture and draw a C on before posting to Facegram or whatever and pretending someone else did it. On campus there is this food place called ‘Cooks’ and I sometimes wish someone would do the right thing and turn that into ‘Cocks’, but you can’t can you, we live in a respectable society, intelligent responsible grown-ups don’t think of such things. But here, someone had to go and find the ‘C’ in a shop or online, get up on a ladder, install it correctly and safely. I’m all for it. So being the good urban sketcher, recorder of the changing town, I had to document it, not because I have a childish sense of humour. But maybe, maybe Cocks Pizza is a real place and this will be opening up in that empty store? I mean in Sacramento there is a place called ‘Willies Burgers’, after all, and we’ve all heard of ‘Dick’s Sporting Goods’. I’ve even been to Nob Hill in San Francisco. There is a ‘Big Dicks Pizzeria’ in Nevada too, but that’s about as far as my Googling of places with ‘dicks’, ‘cocks and ‘willies’ went. Anyway as the last two-page spread of this sketchbook I thought this was a good scene to draw, and I’m really looking forward to going to the tiki bar and seeing all the fun pirate stuff. I’m glad the old Woodstock’s building wasn’t demolished though, as I’m not sure what they would erect in its place.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, folks.

some of them fell into heaven

December 24, 2023December 25, 2023Leave a comment

I made an ornament this year with Shane MacGowan on it. My way of honoring him this year, after he died at the end of last month. Christmas Day would have been his 66th birthday. He lived a life alright, and there are a lot of people who didn’t make it that far. His funeral was quite the party. I just finished listening to the audiobook of his biography, written just a couple of years ago. I’ll for sure be thinking of him and his songs this year. Happy Christmas.

December Day in D Street Davis

December 24, 2023December 24, 2023Leave a comment

As the long busy Fall quarter drew to a close, meetings were cancelled, tasks put off to the new year, everybody was just knackered. It was like the staff of the whole campus really needed a break more than ever. This past week we were still working, most people remotely, but things were definitely finally winding down. I took an early lunch one day and went downtown, and grabbed a sketch on D Street looking out at The Wardrobe. As I write it’s practically Christmas Eve already; still a couple of big presents to wrap, and all the shopping for all the family and friends back in London is long done; I know I don’t really need to, but it’s my way of staying connected with ‘back home’, letting them know I miss them all and still think of them. Christmas is the time to get soppy isn’t it. Now Christmas Eve, the whole day we like to spend at home watching all the old classics we always watch, playing a bit of music, making a big roast dinner, finishing off with It’s A Wonderful Life. It is, when you think about it. It can be a shit world, but life is good. I could probably do with eating a few fewer Christmas choccies and mince pies, but I’ll leave that to the new year when I start getting fit again. Also, the sketchbook is nearly done. A couple of pages left! I’m looking forward to carrying a slightly lighter sketchbook about with me in 2024.

old sac at christmas

December 23, 2023September 26, 2024Leave a comment

Still in Old Sacramento last Saturday, I went and stood by the big Christmas Tree on Front Street, where people were gathering for photos, and there were different singers nearby filling the street with a range of sounds. I’m often reminded that I don’t always appreciate the qualities of street performers, this was one of those moments. It was a busy Saturday in the festive season, there were the classic cars riding around, people handing out flyers, musicians, all sorts of people out and about. Then there’s me, standing there with my sketchbook trying to draw it all, soaking it all in like one of those people that goes out and watches the world go by. I suppose I do. I leaned against a barrel, but my legs were like, mate can we go and sit down now?

So I decided to go and find a pub and sit down with a beer. Then I saw this old cart and decided to stand a bit longer, and draw that. I also popped into a shop full of every possible type of novelty sock known to man. I love a novelty sock, but even I was overwhelmed. There are all types of cheesy shops down here in old Sac, and I’m all for it. These days, just having physical shops of any description with interesting things in them is a bonus. One of the reasons I decided against going to San Francisco is because the Lego store downtown has closed, and I always loved going there. I don’t want to have be driven out to some far-flung mall to visit the Lego store. It was accessible and on the way back to the Amtrak bus, so I’d always go in and look around at all the stuff I didn’t need. Now we just shop online, and I’m a big offender, it’s so easy. That said I always make a point to spend quite a bit of money in the downtown shops in Davis at Christmas time, we still have some lovely little independent shops.

I headed to Fanny Ann’s Saloon. I don’t remember the last time I came in here, maybe a decade ago? I know that I last sketched inside here in December 2009, if you can believe it. It’s got a lot of old stuff to draw, yet I’ve not sketched it since. I sat at the bar and got a beer, and started to add a bit more detail to the cart sketch, before realizing that my inside up-close eyesight is getting worse (I went to the optometrist this week and have ordered some very expensive glasses to help with that). So I thought, let’s just sketch the bar anyway, and see what comes out. I was being picked up my wife to head back to Davis soon so I had a short amount of time to observe a large amount of detail, in quite a busy bar area, and I think I did alright. If I had sat further back and had another hour or so (and a couple more beers) I might have done a more detailed and colourful wider scene. The bar staff were friendly. My legs were happy to be seated for a bit, and sketching with a beer definitely helped me unwind. More than that, I am nearly done with the current sketchbook, which I had been hoping to complete by Christmas. I needed a day out drawing, I got one, and I was able to be home in good time for a curry.

engines of old sacramento

December 23, 2023December 25, 2023Leave a comment

Last Saturday I was feeling bored of Davis, but not motivated enough to go down to San Francisco for a day of sketching. Then I remembered that it might be interesting to go to old Sacramento and look at the trains. I hadn’t been to the Railroad Museum in a long time (not since my son was very young). I took the train there from Davis; I didn’t actually go to the Museum itself, because there were engines enough outside to sketch, and it was a bright sunny December day. Families were gathering in their pyjamas to ride the Polar Express, the annual holiday fun train ride that recreates the film/book. We rode it a couple of times years ago, that feels like a long time ago now. Anyway, I found a bit of shade and decided to draw the big red engine with ‘Santa Fe’ on the front that is parked permanently out in the open, with a big Christmas tree next to it (presumably less permanent). I love this engine. It reminds me of Chuggington, the kids TV show engine. We had this board game when my son was a kid called ‘Chuggington: Ride the Rails’. I coloured it all there. It was a good sketch to start the day, though already my legs were telling me I’d need to sit down occasionally on this sketching day. Still I wanted to draw more trains.

I went over to the front of the train that hosts the Polar Express. I know there’s an old steam train that runs through here, or at least used to, but it looks like they use this Western Pacific engine to pull the Polar Express carriages now. I could see they were getting ready to board everyone, so I drew as quickly as I could, but it pulled away before I could draw many details, only outlines, so this was a finish off later job. It’s another ‘Chuggington’ style engine, but with more of a Chelsea 1995 away kit paint job. Nearby there was a voice on a loudspeaker announcing fish and chip orders that were ready. That sounded good; I had that for lunch. I only ate half of it though, it was a little bit gross, and was making me feel a bit Tom and Dick. I threw it in the bin and went to sketch the big old steam engine that was now parked up on the rails. I liked the little spots of colour provided by the trees. I drew the whole outline and a bunch of the shapes and details with a mix of pen and pencil before the sun was getting in my eyes a bit, and my legs were asking for a break, so I said ‘I’ve done enough’ and went somewhere else, finishing off the remaining details later. I do love a steam engine, and a nice bit of machinery.

Here are a couple of quick sketches from the train going into Sacramento from Davis, in my little Fabriano sketchbook.

going for gold

December 22, 2023December 20, 2023Leave a comment

The golden autumn keeps on giving. I drew this over a couple of days, starting on my way home from the sketchcrawl, I was heading up B St and passing the Lutheran Church, and I always loved this big old tree, having sketched it at least one other time. It was a huge ball of yellow-orange, like the tree was putting on its festive clothes for the holidays. In other places the trees might already be bare by now but not here, early December is when the leaves are brightest. I remember that from my very first December here. That was a long time ago – 2005. We’re getting ready to celebrate another Californian Christmas. I di miss London at this time of year though, especially when the social media keeps showing me pictures of twinkling lights in Piccadilly and festive windows on Long Acre, but if we were in London squeezed onto a packed tube with other dripping wet grumbling Londoners we’d be wishing we were in California looking at all the bright leaves in the sunshine, I guess.