je pense, je pense, je pense

October 20, 20113 Comments

The Pence Gallery on the right and Antiques Plus on the left, a view of D Street drawn one lunchtime a couple of weeks ago. That man really was hunched up like that working on his laptop. It seemed wrong to leave him out. Seemed a strange place to study, but who am I to talk, I hunch over my sketchbook around town all the time.

So I don’t know if I have mentioned it before, but this December I will be having a show upstairs at the Pence Gallery, exhibiting many of my recent urban sketches. I’ll publicize it a little more widely as it draws near but I have been busy drawing away, still one or two sketches left to do but I’m getting there. They’re all sketches of Davis, places locals will recognize. Like this one. Stay tuned!

33rd worldwide sketchcrawl

October 18, 2011October 18, 20112 Comments

Last Saturday was the 33rd Worldwide Sketchcrawl event, and here in Davis it was the latest in our ‘Let’s Draw Davis!’ sketchcrawls, that started exactly a year ago. I invited local sketchers down to sketch the ‘hidden’ spots of downtown, starting at Mansion Square on E Street.

There were about ten of us at the start, expanding to twelve in total (I keep a sign-in sheet!), regular faces as well as some newer sketchers. We were joined by a reporter from the student-run local newspaper the California Aggie, Ramon, who I sketched above. He wrote a nice article about the Davis sketchcrawl in today’s Aggie (link to today’s edition at bottom of this post). Mansion Square is an interesting place, quiet and off-strip, behind the old Hunt-Boyer-Dresbach Mansion. When I first came to Davis, I went for an interview in the Kaplan center there (which doesn’t appear to be there any more), doing well in my presentation (what did I talk about, I don’t recall, interactive theatre or ghostly black dogs or something) but less well in the SAT and GRE practise tests (it was the math that did it for me, I aced the language bits).

I don’t know what the brick thing above is, but it looks a bit like a slice of pork. Anyway, off across the street the sketchcrawl went to Orange Court, where I knocked out this very quick-looking sketch above right, and a few of us ate lunch at Sophia’s Thai Kitchen (one of the tastiest eateries in Davis). Below are Tiffany and Christine, two fellow sketchers.

Finally, some sketching in the alleys between E and D. There are some really interesting spots back there, hidden away, cool little tea sops and cute gift stores. This one, Creme de la Creme (which made me hungry for Creme Eggs, oddly enough, but then I’m always hungry for Creme Eggs)

The next Let’s Draw Davis sketchcrawl will be on November 19th in Community Park. The next Worldwide sketchcrawl will be, well I’m not sure, probably in January – find out by checking out www.sketchcrawl.com! (Can I just point out, for the 32nd ‘crawl I was in Lisbon? Thought I should remind you, because that was brilliant! And i still need to post some more stuff about Lisbon, if ever I gte the time…)

33rd Worldwide Sketchcrawl forum

Let’s Draw Davis Flickr group

California Aggie Oct 18, 2011

pole to pole

October 17, 2011October 17, 20116 Comments

The corner of 3rd and University, sketched last week on a lovely sunny lunchtime. Those seven bollards seem to represent some sort of boundary between campus world and downtown world, though in reality there’s another block until UCD actually begins. That’s the Davis Copy Shop in the background. The trainers hanging from the telegraph pole, I don’t know what boundary that marks but I have heard that in other cities it marks street gang boundaries. That’s a chore, isn’t it, having to throw those things up there. I imagine the gangster’s roster system on a monday morning, “Ok you, you’re in charge of drive-bys today; you, you’re on popping-caps-in-asses; you, you can throw the shoes over the telegraph lines, no don’t complain, very important job. Don’t use Reebok.” I’ve seen it in a few places in Davis so it must be true. Maybe countries should adopt that system, but the bureaucrats will always be involved. “Well no look according to the Basel Convention we have to use shoes with laces, I’m sorry but wooden clogs just won’t do. And no you can’t use two ‘left’ shoes, article 13(b) clearly states that the shoes must be left and right.” And what if there are no telegraph lines? And they can’t be easy to get down, can they. Still, they add decoration, and if you fill them with nuts and seeds it gives the birds something to eat in the cold winters (it’s been in the mid-80s here this week, brrr).

putah creek crawdads

October 14, 2011October 14, 2011Leave a comment

I’m taking advantage of the amazing October weather, and last Saturday after a nice breakfast downtown with my family (I gorged myself on cinnamon roll french toast, oh yeah) I went to the Farmer’s Market for some sketching. I don’t get there to sketch very often so it was a good opportunity. There was a band playing very old-style songs, they were called the Putah Creek Crawdads and it was lovely music to listen to while sketching. Some of the songs, old folk songs, I hadn’t heard since I was a kid (when they were sung by old Irish singers my mum used to listen to). I drew them from behind, facing the market itself, as it seemed to be an interesting angle (and I had somewhere to sit in the shade). I showed them afterwards, and though I didn’t have space to fit all of the musicians in (there were six) I think they quite liked it. They’re next playing at Ludy’s Main St BBQ in Woodland on Friday October 21, so if you’re in Woodland, check them out.

Putah Creek Crawdads

duel of the freights

October 11, 2011Leave a comment

I finally got around to drawing the freight trains. Ever since moving to Davis I have lived near the railroads, and every day and every night epically long trains of freight cars rumble away across the continent, where if they’re lucky travelling hobos and cats will stow away on board and tell stories through the night until they arrive in some dusty town in Georgia. Well that is how I imagine it. This is a really big place, America. The trains really can be more than a mile long and I got used to their ever-present rumbling a long time ago. These freight trains are moored on the railroads that run alongside 2nd Street. Sometimes we drive down there so that my freight-train-loving son can see them. And yes, if you look closely, some of the graffiti says ‘Feck’. I don’t know what the rest says, but it probably says ‘Drink’ and ‘Arse’.

Drawn on strathmore hot press paper with a uniball vision micro, and watercolour. I drew it on sunday, the 9th, but wrote the date wrong. I did that in my drawings all weekend. Perhaps I’m ahead of my time? Or maybe I just need to check the calendar every now and then.

do backflow preventers dream of electric sheep?

October 10, 2011October 10, 20115 Comments

Last Friday after work, I took advantage of the still-daylight-hours of eary October to draw downtown, another larger drawing. I have drawn this scene before a couple of times, but it’s an interesting building on E Street with an even more interesting metal-pipe-thing in front of it. I sat outside the Natsoulas Gallery, and it was a gorgeous evening, with many people out and about. Occasionally people would come up to me and say, “ooh, that’s nice”, which is always nice. One guy loved that I was drawing the pipes. I told him I’ve drawn lots of them. They’re like art sculptures all over the town, he said, and I agree. I’ve always though they kind of look like robotic animals, this perhaps being some sort of camel. “Backflow Preventers,” I told him they are called, as I was told a while back by someone who works with them. Very technical beasts they are too. What do they do, he asked. Prevent backflows, I suppose, whatever that means. I don’t really know. I prefer to be ignorant of what they actually do, it’s like magic, it just has its function in the world. But I do love how they look.

redrum she wrote

October 7, 20113 Comments

The diner formerly known as Murder Burger. It had to change its name many years ago due to some out-of-towner complaining. Perhaps it should read ‘so good they’re to diet for’? Drew this place this week. I don’t go there often, but they do killer milkshakes.

Speaking of names, I heard that Arsenal FC are suing a lady who runs a hat shop in Seville of all places because its name apparently infringes their property rights. It’s called ‘Arsenale’, which as I’m sure you have spotted, is not the same word, it is spellt differently. It’s also an Italian word, likely referring to the Arsenale district of cities like Venice where ships were built (this hat shop is in Seville’s old ship building district). Is that absolutely mental or what? I mean seriously are they kidding? Is someone going to confuse a Sevillan hat shop with a poor underperforming team from Islington? Are they having a laugh? Apparently the Spanish judge is siding with Arsenal! Perhaps the hat-shop should call on a famous half-way line Gunners conqueror to represent them in court: Nayim. That’s a courtroom battle I’d like to see.

I wonder if a certain famous dead race horse is thinking, hmmm, maybe I should sue this diner in Davis for using my name? (“I know just the guy to represent me in court: Neigh-im“). No, that would be silly. But it could happen…

you saw the whole of the moon

October 6, 2011October 6, 20113 Comments

Davis Community Church, by Central Park in Davis. Drawn on a nice Sunday afternoon, while there was live music playing in the park behind me. The band were tecnhically very good, though I’m not sure about the choice of songs they played. They did play some cool stuff by Elvis Costello, but there was a fair bit of 80s rock, and when they played “You Saw the Whole of the Moon” all I could think of was that episode of Father Ted, when Father Noel (Graham Norton) was singing it dancing around that tiny caravan. Appropriately, I was drawing a church. I’ve drawn it before a couple of times, a couple of years apart each time.

thank you for the music

October 6, 2011August 26, 20161 Comment

This big old building on campus, right by the Music Building, has been set for redevelopment for some time now but doesn’t appear to be moving along. It is supposed to be knocked down and turned into something modern and fantastic. I like this building though. I have drawn the rusty pipes on the side before, and this view is the rear, drawn from the path that runs by the Arboretum (Cushing Way).

I just wanted to point out, because it needs pointing out, that Spurs beat Arsenal this past weekend. I just wanted to mention it. Nothing to do with the drawing.

This, as were many other in this ongoing series, was drawn on a piece of 8″x10″ hot press Strathmore watercolour paper, with a micron pigma pen and some watercolours.

the little house downtown

October 3, 2011October 3, 2011Leave a comment

I’ve wanted to draw this pretty house downtown, on the corner of 3rd and E, for some time now, and last week after work I finally did so. A few people spoke to me as I sketched, fellow admirers of this gorgeous building, and I told them that this is part of a series of Davis urban sketches I am doing for my upcoming show in December… It’s a lovely building, but I have to admit that the feature which excited me the most to draw was the TV antenna, you don’t see them too often nowadays.