Tag: bikebarn

february blossom

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february blossom

Though this was technically done last month (it was last week; February is a short month) this is how Davis looks right now. There is pink blossom appearing on many trees, and Spring in the air. I love it when the blossom arrives, it reminds me of Springs when I was a kid. Burnt Oak may be known for graffiti, litter and the odd burnt-out car, but there are lots of trees that blossom in the Springtime, making the world look nice and pretty, if only for a short while. Davis has such trees too. This was outside the bike barn, over at the Silo, during lunchtime when the sun was out.

hovering silence from you is a giveaway

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uc davis bike barn

After last week’s sunshine, we have had thick, soupy fog in Davis this week, hovering quietly about and bringing an ethereal gloom to our usually sunny town. It’s also brought the cold back – I sat outside at lunchtime yesterday and sketched the Bike Barn, and my fingers were almost falling off. Ok, maybe an exaggeration, but it was a lot colder than on last week’s sketchcrawl.

I’ve sketched this building before several times – it just begs to be sketched – but in the fog I took notice of it’s slightly dilapidated and weather-worn feel, and realised that I should sketch it before they go and do something about that. It’s the peeling paint around the window-frames that does it for me.

I’m considering campus for the next sketchcrawl, and this would be an interesting place to finish the crawl, mostly because I’d love to see other people’s interpretations of this very sketchable building.

think about a new destination

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bikebarn

Drew the UC Davis Bike Barn building…again. Well it has one of those looks, cant help but be turned into a drawing. The way one side of the roof is longer than the other, the shadow beneath the eaves, the unsketchable army of bikes in the foreground. I still have that brown paper cut up from envelopes.

I forgot to mention: Davis is now home to the newly opened (last weekend in fact) U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame. That’s right, the actual hall of fame for bike-riders. I wonder if they have a special section for those ones who cycle up on the inside of buses as people are trying to get off, those cyclists deserve a medal, yeah. And the ones who go around texting or yapping into their cellphone with their ipod in their other ear.

Hang on, I’m starting to sound like a certain Tory politician on the eve of the election. “Last week I met a 70-year old nurse who told me he couldn’t get on the bus because all the unemployed eastern european immigrant asylum seekers were cycling around with their ipods and their mobile phones taking our jobs and claiming our benefits…” Oh, the UK General Election is only a week away now, and with ‘bigot-gate’ or whatever it’s being called, we’re already having our Joe the Plumber moment, or will if the Murdoch press has its way. I really hope the media leaves that poor pensioner alone, but have a feeling she’ll be used to the fullest extent by The Scum newspaper over the next week.

and the seasons they go round and round

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bikebarn from bainer (yet again)

I draw this scene every six months, once in winter, once in summer. Each scene looks slightly different, and for more than just the changing seasons. This more than any other Davis scene is my ‘Mont St. Victoire’. (Incidentally I’ve actually climbed Mont St. Victoire, twice) I started drawing it one lunchtime a couple of weeks back, but ran out of time; then it rained solidly for a fortnight. So yesterday we had a day of sunshine, cold cold sunshine, and I got back out to finish it off. You’ll see it again in six months or so.

Anyway, here are the other ones. I can’t help myself:

Summer 2007:

uc davis trees encore
Winter 2008:

no leaves for you

Summer 2008:
smoky and the bikebarn

Winter 2009:
lunchtime sketch by the hog barnrainy rainy day

Summer 2009:
bike barn from bainer

a change it had to come

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Hundred degree weather came back to Davis this week, after a relatively cool period for California – on the KCRA3 Weather they said it had been a ‘summerless June’. Apart from a few clouds and some rain in the mountains, it has been generally sunny and in the warm 80s. So, obviously gloves and scarf weather. You gotta love Californians. 

 bike barn from bainer

I’ve drawn this view – the Bike Barn and South Silo, as seen from Bainer Hall – several times before. I like the view, it is fun to draw and you always see it anew each time. The only things that change are the leaves on the trees and the work on the green in the foreground. Funny enough, that even changed while I was drawing. I had to spread it out over a couple of lunchtimes, and on the second lunchtime that fence had gone, and someone was mowing the lawn (after I’d drawn all that spongy long grass). Oh well! It is the front of the Hog Barn – sorry, it’s not called that any more, it’s the Hubert Heitman something or other, as they made clear at a campus design council meeting I went to there (coincidentally, fellow Davis sketcher/blogger Pica was at the same meeting, and caught me without sketchbook). Anyway it has recently been renovated and opened (and it smells so new inside) so they’re adding the finishing touches. The world sits still for no sketcher.

Here are some other versions of this scene.

uc davis trees encore no leaves for you
smoky and the bikebarn rainy rainy day

reflections of

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rainy rainy dayRAIN! Much needed. And it gave me a chance to draw a big puddle.

Oh, time to comment on the weekend’s match. Football. The Carling Cup Final. I didn’t really expect Spurs to win, but we won it last year, and you never know. So to lose it on penalties was pretty hard to bear. I didn’t see it; it was all just text updates online, early in the morning. Even so, I hid in the kitchen, unable to watch, as is normal for penalty shoot-outs. This of course means no European football for Tottenham next year. I’m so glad Redknapp decided that playing in the UEFA cup wasn’t worth it. He sacrificed it this year for the slim chance of getting in next year. He has bowed out of the UEFA Cup twice this season now, with two clubs. That’s the spirit! That’s real ambition! Well, at least we have the relegation battle to look forward to.

Meanwhile, in Davis, I am drawing puddles.

dust in the air suspended

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The death of hope and despair,
This is the death of air.
(TS Eliot)

smoky and the bikebarn

You may have heard about all the fires blazing in California right now. They’ve been burning for the past week, started by dry lightning strikes last weekend, not helped by the dryest year since who knows when. The result is that the Valley has been covered in a thick blanket of smoke for days now, and it’s pretty dangerous too. I’ve never seen anything like it – smog, really. The sunlight, as it filters through, has a distinctly orange tinge to it, the shadows are a dim twilight blue. It’s pretty horrible, and I hope it clears up soon, but the air likes to sit still in this hot Valley.

I braved it for a bit over a couple of lunchtimes, to draw the bike barn from a vantage point at bainer hall, uc davis. It’s a scene I’ve drawn a couple of times before – once last July, and then again with leafless trees on a clear January day. They are below. Today I marked the horrible smoky sky.

 uc davis trees encoreno leaves for you