what d’you want, a medal?

September 28, 2023September 27, 2023Leave a comment

This has been the summer when I got right back into running, and I did lot of it. In the period from the start of August to the end, I went from running 2 mile average to 3 mile average and cut almost two seconds off my mile, nearly getting up to the pace that I was running back in 2020 when I was disrupted by all the wildfire smoke. I’ve had periods of running since and run a few races (getting my best time in the Turkey Trot back in Nov 2021) but the past year has seen a bit more weight gain than I’d like and not enough running, largely compounded by getting some horrible plantar-fasciitis in my foot which took a long time to get over. Anyway, I ran the Davis Labor Day Run on September 4th, a different route than I’m used to, and there were a lot of people involved this year. I missed the same race last year due to those issues with my foot (it was also one of the hottest days of the year), but this year I can say that I absolutely caned it, and got my personal best 5k race time of 26:53 (my previous best was 27) though I did feel I could have done better, having had some pretty good training times that week (usually my race pace is a bit faster, motivated by other runners). I started immediately pushing for the next race. However, a couple of weeks ago I felt a bit of a pain in my right leg that I’ve not wanted to make worse, so I’ve given running a bit of a temporary forced rest until that gets better. It does pound the old legs you know, and I probably overdid it in August. I have good running shoes, but I might want to upgrade again. The Turkey Trot is in November, a week before Thanksgiving, and I want to get in good shape for that, get this leg better, lose some more belly, and try to beat my time. Anyway, I got another nice finisher’s medal, and had the usual celebratory breakfast at Black Bear Diner.

Pete Labor Day Run 2023

Kobe Mini Mart

September 27, 2023September 26, 2023Leave a comment

I was downtown, early September, and I decided to draw the Kobe Mini Mart, a small Japanese store on E Street. It’s a cool little store that has nice pens, as well as lots of different Japanese foods and other goodies. It’s right next to the pub formerly known as De Vere’s. I stood across the street to sketch, outside Nick the Greek, and got bumped into more than once by people coming round the corner not looking where they were going. I stood as out of the way as possible, but still. There was a car parked in front of the store for a bit, but thankfully it moved and I drew that part of the street quickly, hoping that it wasn’t replaced by some really tall vehicle. That’s always a worry with urban sketching, tall vehicles. That said, the sidewalk is pretty high on this stretch of road. I liked sketching this.

big red letters and a really big cat

September 27, 2023September 26, 2023Leave a comment

I did that thing where I used some masking tape to make a perfectly lined rectangle, so that I could draw and paint over the edge, and then peel it off satisfyingly for a lovely straight line, like all the proper artists do on Instagram. I went downtown and drew the brand new TKE frat house, which replaced the older looking frat house that was there for years, that I definitely sketched a few times over the years. It’s next to the Natsoulas Gallery which has that massive cat outside, part of which you can see here. It was a pretty hot day when I was sketching this. And then I pulled the tape off, and yes I got that dead straight line, but it was less dramatic than I’d liked, and I remembered that actually I like non-straight lines don’t I. Also I am not as smooth as those Instagram artists, and managed to pull up half the page with me when pulling up that tape. I mean that’s fine, it has a bit more texture now. I found myself wondering what TKE stands for. ‘Total Kinetic Energy’. ‘The King’s Elephant’. No, I got nothing. It looks a bit like the word ‘TAKE’ without the A, so I suppose you might look and say ‘Take Cat’ and then start singing Take That songs, but that’s a stretch. It’s a bit hard to ignore those big red letters though.

summer plodding on

September 25, 2023Leave a comment

A couple more from August, working in the Stillman and Birn Alpha book for the first time in a few years, getting used to that paper again. Summer sketching, that long hot summer passing me by, I went out to A Street to do some sketching. Not ‘a street’, but ‘A’ Street. I know, it’s confusing, I always have to explain it. Like when I was a kid and would have to explain to my parents that I wasn’t watching ‘a team’, I was watching ‘A-Team’, in fact it was ‘The A-Team’ which confused them further. “Which is it, ‘The Team’ or ‘A Team’? It can’t be both!” My parents didn’t talk like that. In fact The A-Team confused nobody, except me. I first heard of The A-Team when my cousin was telling me about it, when I was about 7, and I thought he was saying ‘The 18’ (he was from Norwich and they have a slightly different accent), so when I finally first watched it I always wondered where the other 14 members of the team were. Anyway, I was sketching on The A Street, I did the one below first on the corner of A and Third (they number the other streets here according to divisions, so this is Third, the next street up is Quarter, before that is Half and before that is Full Street), fully intending to go all colourful, but then getting bored, and the next day I drew the building above, The Belfry, which I have sketched before, I love its interesting shape. This was a month ago now. This week, the first of Fall quarter, all the students are back, and the place is about to be packed with bikes and excitement.

chemistry latest update

September 21, 2023Leave a comment

Time for an update on the Chemistry Building at UC Davis, since I can’t help but keep drawing it. If you’ve been following you may remember that they are building a great big wing on the side of the building, and in my last sketches it had been covered in some kind of lurid green plastic, before starting to morph into an orderly orange. As you can see from above it was completely orange, and the window spaces were covered in woodchip boards. Some vertical strips of shiny metal were also appearing, as this building reached a new stage in its long metamorphosis. I feel like I’m a nature documentary commentator, watching this building grow from a cocoon. It’s nature’s way.

Years ago, I posted a series of sketches showing part of what used to be this view in four different seasons of the year, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, with trees being the indicator of change, and the gleaming white building standing ever-present and unyielding in the background. You can see that here: https://petescully.com/2017/01/13/to-everything-turn-turn-turn/. I’m still here drawing. Those trees are gone now, and the building has changed. Things have to keep changing, to give me something to draw. As you can see above, the orange has given way to a new black skin, like a leather jacket, replete with shiny metal studs and more long metal strips. I observed this from a different angle, outside the old Hog Barn building. Below, you can see where I sketched the building again this week, stood in a different place near the Bike Barn, and by now the building has gone full Fonzie. Those metal spots look like stars. It’s a shame it won’t stay like this, but it would look out of place; Rock Hall is nearby and this would be the heavy metal wing. As you can see, it now has glass windows installed. I wish we could get a new building for our department, I’d help design it, and then spend most days sketching it until it was ready. This one is nearly ready. It needs to hurry up, I’m running out of angles to draw it from.

lemonade at the market

September 19, 2023September 19, 20231 Comment

This is a little snapshot from the Davis Farmer’s Market that I drew one Saturday morning earlier this month. I was using this Chinese fountain pen that I had had in my office for a number of years but never yet used, so I thought I’d fill it with platinum carbon ink (very black, very waterproof) and see how it worked while sketching out and about. Well it worked ok, but was a little bit leaky, leaving me with inky fingers. I was drawing directly onto a light pre-prepared watercolour wash, which was in a perfect rectangle because I was trying that idea out again, putting tape down to create a nice clean border. The sort of thing that works for a painting on its own but just doesn’t sit right in my sketchbook. I might go back to doing some sketches with a drawn border like I used to, shaky pen, allowing some things to pop out of it. Anyway I stood and drew this little scene, the bright yellow lemonade stand (slightly dimmed by that wash underneath perhaps) alongside the Handmade Pies truck (I’ve never eaten there but should like to try it sometime). I’ve never had that Lemonade either; it was a hot morning, Labor Day weekend, but I didn’t fancy anything too sugary, I was in preparation for my Labor Day Race a couple of days later. The market was busy that morning, lots of people out, lots of food, families playing in the park, of course you also get the other stalls at the far end, including the Flat Earth wallies, I can’t even. As for this pen, well it was ok, but didn’t really draw how I like to draw, and not as smooth as the Lamy Safari for a fountain pen. I went back and got the old Lamy out, assuming that since I’d not used it in a long long time that it must be completely dried up with old ink and unusable, but in fact it did not take much washing to bring it back to life. So I ordered a couple more Lamys in different sizes, and I might start sketching with those again. They seemed to leak less, but of course at some point you have to refill the ink while sketching out on location, and I always make a mess of that. We will see. I’m going to try fountain pen sketching again for a bit, but I’ll still mostly use my nice trusty brown-black Uni-ball signo.

drawing the quiet times

September 19, 2023September 18, 2023Leave a comment

Here are a couple of sketches from campus drawn in August. Above, the side entrance to the MU, next to the campus bookstore. Below, the view from the big round table in the Silo, where I was eating lunch. It was too hot out to bother looking for something to sketch, so I drew Peet’s Coffee. I don’t drink coffee, and I don’t go to Peet’s very often (they can’t even spell Pete) because they always take so long and have long lines of coffee people, and it requires several people just to get a pastry, and I don’t even like their pastries that much. It’s the same with all these coffee chains, I never go in them if I can avoid it. I love the chocolate croissants at the MU, so much nicer, but they only have them half the time, and never at all in summer. Summers are long. The Fall quarter begins next week, everyone will be back and it will be a bit chaotic, but it’s always good once things get going again. Still the quieter times are nice.

goodbye, tree

September 18, 2023September 17, 2023Leave a comment

Sad tree update. We thought after all those big storms at the start of this year that we had seen the last big tree loss in Davis for a while, but this one is particularly sad. In the UC Davis Arboretum by Lake Spafford, very close to Mrak Hall, stands a tree called a Japanese Zelkova, out on its own and in a perfect spot to provide loads of shade not only to students and picknickers, but also to the many ducks and geese that call this part of the campus their home. This tree was planted back in the 60s and was so well loved. So when they discovered a serious crack in the trunk last month, likely caused by the weight of the many branches (which have always been meticulously managed), which was not possible to fix, the tree was deemed too dangerous to leave and so scheduled for removal. Here’s some information about the tree: ucdavis.edu/news/damaged-lake-spafford-tree-slated-removal . The UCD Arboretum IG account also posted the news, with a photo of how Lake Spafford looked back when the trees were first planted in the sixties: www.instagram.com/p/CxGiZm_husi/?img_index=4.

I went down there last Wednesday, the day before it was going to be taken away, and sketched it one last time. What a beautiful tree it was. There were already a couple of workmen there with a machine taking away the bench. The poor tree probably knew something was up. Trees aren’t just furniture, they are actual living things, but it was going to die. I mean, yes they often become furniture afterwards, but I’m trying to be sensitive here, I love trees. I said goodbye to the tree (in my head, not out loud, obviously), and went back to work.

I came back next morning, to see if the deed had been done. The main trunk remained, but completely removed of all branches. It reminded me of Aslan, shaved and murdered on the Stone Table, but I heard no crack of Deep Magic to bring it back to life while my back was turned. I sketched it (see below), and went off to a meeting about temporary visas elsewhere on campus.

By Friday, it was completely gone, just a stump and a sign commemorating the tree left. I did not feel like sketching it. This area has a lot less shade now, and shade is good for keeping the ground cool during those long Davis summers. Goodbye, lovely old tree.

the poking machine

September 12, 2023Leave a comment

It’s that time of year when loads of street construction gets done before the academic year starts. At least, I hope it’s done before the academic year starts. 3rd Street is a bit of a mess, with loads of work meaning cars and bikes and even people can’t access it too easily, so we have to go around a short way, causing ‘chaos’. Hardly chaos, but the way people talk about it. It does give an opportunity to draw another construction machine though, I feel like it’s been a little while. Remember when my son was very young, I’d go out of my way to draw these machines, he loved those, we’d read books all about them before bedtime. Now he’s fifteen and a lot less interested in construction machines, but I still like to draw them. This one had an ominous looking pointed contraption on the front, like it is a machine designed for poking, or prodding. I’ve no idea what it does, and that’s how I like it, I never want these sort of things explained to me. If I were to go a big place full of these machines, the last thing I would want is for someone to tell me what they actually do, when I always imagine them as big mechanical monsters designed for destruction and, you know, poking.

let’s draw davis at orange court

September 8, 2023September 8, 2023Leave a comment

Last month I organized a Let’s Draw Davis sketchcrawl, the first one I’ve organized in a very long time. The meet-ups have still been happening regularly for a while, though due to my own busy weekend schedule I’ve not usually been able to join them, let along organize any. Hopefully that will change now, and I’m going to start getting out and sketching with other sketchers a bit more regularly again. It was a very hot morning in the middle of August, and we had a pretty good turnout as we met up in the shaded courtyard of Orange Court. I stood for what seemed like ages drawing the scene above, a view I’ve drawn before, I like all the different angles and shapes, and all the warm colours against the blue sky. I wish my scanner had done a better job on it though, I think the settings were a bit off. It was also really hot and dry – I found it very difficult to paint, because my watercolours were not only drying too quickly on the page (that may be the paper too, using the slightly thinner Stillman & Birn Alpha instead of the watercolour Moleskine) but also in the pan, I found it difficult mixing and judging the water to add. Here are some of the other sketchers I drew. The guy in the soccer shirt, Alejandro, I have sketched him a few times before, and I have drawn him in a Wolves shirt. I wasn’t sure what this jersey was – black and white stripes, made by Charly, they make a lot of Mexican teams’ kits, but I didn’t recognize the badge nor the colours. I was stumped. I like a challenge when identifying a kit, but I couldn’t figure it out. It turns out it was the kit of a team called Cuervos (Crows), which is not a real club but is from a popular Spanish-language Netflix show. Still it looked a bit like it might be a Charleroi shirt, and I just had to sketch it. I am a little bit obsessed with football shirts as you know.

Other sketchers posted some lovely drawings on the Let’s Draw Davis FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LetsDrawDavis. I don’t know if there will be a sketch-meeting this month, but I’m planning to organize one on the UC Davis campus on October 14 – details coming soon.