a look at the gallery

January 12, 2012January 12, 20121 Comment

This is the Pence Gallery where I had my show last month. I had wanted to go and draw the building properly for a while, as it’s a very interesting design, but usually the foliage hides it a bit (but I love January!). I started this on Tuesday lunchtime, and then finished it off last night at home. Canson watercolour paper with uniball vision micro pen and cotman watercolours.

Incidentally, if you missed the show, you can see all the drawings that were on display on this new page here: Pence Gallery Show December 2011. Hope you like it!

nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapit

January 11, 2012January 12, 2012Leave a comment

This was a nice beer, Pliny the Elder, from the Russian River Brewing Co in Santa Rosa CA. A gift from my mother-in-law (cheers Lois!), it’s quite strong at 8%, and something of a cult favourite among beer afficionados (try saying or typing that after a few). Written all around the label are recommendations that you actually drink the beer, not save it. It’s a living thing, beer, you have to treat it right or the taste will go funny. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that (and I had a beer at Jupiter in Berkeley last month that really was very much so off). This label makes sure to remind you. “Pliny the Elder is a Historical figure, don’t make the beer inside this bottle one!” “Age your cheese, not your Pliny!” “Respect your Elder: keep cold, drink fresh, do not age!” “Do not save for a rainy day!” Good advice. Well it hasn’t been rainy here in quite a while, nor will it according to KCRA3 Chief Meterologist Mark Finan, so chin chin, bottoms up!

Drawn in the ‘beer bottle and glass’ brown sketchbook. “In Vino Veritas”; that was from Pliny the Elder, did you know.

let’s draw davis!

January 10, 2012January 10, 2012Leave a comment

It’s time for another Let’s Draw Davis sketchcrawl! January has been nice so far, weather-wise, lots of mild sunny days with bare trees, so great sketching weather. This time we’ll be starting at the Farmer’s Market, and finishing up at the Delta of Venus. It’s also the day of the 34th Worldwide Sketchcrawl, in which sketchers all over the planet get out and draw their cities and towns.

START: 10:30am, Davis Farmer’s Market (C & 3rd)

FINISH: 3:00pm, Delta of Venus Cafe (B St)

As always, this is free and open to anyone who likes to draw. All you need is something to draw with and something to draw on!

Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/301621166540875/

Flickr group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/letsdrawdavis/

Hope to see you there!

be my gust

January 7, 2012January 7, 20123 Comments

The wind was up today. It was like those swirling late autumn days from about a month ago. But most leaves have already been swirled, and now the trees are nice and bare and it’s perfect for sketching the buildings of Davis, because finally you can, you know, see the buggers. The last time I drew Old City Hall on F Street, there was too much foliage to contend with, and the shadows were just blobby masses, but now we get striking dramatic shadows, long and far-reaching even in the middle of the day. I love January. I’m always super busy (and super stressed), but at the same time super creative. I drew this at around 2pm today, after a big messy chicken burger at Froggy’s (Swiss and Shroomer, much recommended).

Perfectly bright weather – but I underestimated the wind a little. Well, I didn’t really but I was still getting blown about all over the place. I sat on the sidewalk beside my big Alphabet Moon bag (I had just been there to buy a wooden railway bridge; so sad that it’s closing down, but all of Davis was in there today buying out the stock). This whole thing took about an hour and a half, in my large Canson watercolour pad, most ot the paint being done on site (the rest – the sky, the greenery – being completed over a beer at Woodstock’s around the corner while waiting for the bus, out of the wind).

they call me the roller

January 6, 20122 Comments

Beautiful day out today. I mean, freezing this morning, but very sunny by lunchtime, although a bit nippy. I just had to get out and sketch. Despite being ridiculously busy in January, I always enjoy sketching in this month. We often have mild, bright Januarys here. But I didn’t draw a street scene or campus view with the sun shining through bare, leafless trees, because I saw this, a little mini steamroller, sat on Shields Avenue on the UC Davis campus. What a beauty! I’ll draw sunny skies tomorrow. Today was all about steamrollers.

shine on alphabet moon…

January 5, 20127 Comments

Very sad news this first week of the year, our favourite local toystore Alphabet Moon has announced it will be closing this month. It’s come as a great “oh no!” to the people of Davis, parents and kids and others alike. The day after hearing the news, I just had to get over there at lunchtime and sketch the place for posterity. I must say I am gutted by this news. I take my son there most weekends, and they have toys out to play with such as the great wooden railway table. When I told him, he was none too pleased. It’s always sad to see local shops go out of business, especially toystores. Toystores are where you can find those things you never see elsewhere, you never knew you wanted. Buying toys online is not the same – for one thing it’s rarely cheaper, and two you can’t see the thing, pick it up, maybe play with it. Now everyone will have to go to Target or WalMart, and while they have a lot of toys they only carry the things that all the other big box stores carry, nothing unique. As Art Brut once sang, “Don’t buy your albums from the supermarket, they only sell records that have charted.” Toys R Us? Please, that place is depressing. They have a Thomas the Tank Engine set laid out as well, but you can’t play with it, all the trains are glued down. Small independent toystores are always better, and once they are gone they’re hard to bring back. But, as with everything, we’re all to blame. As more of us buy online, and we all do nowadays, more stores go down, both big and small, and that ultimately leaves us with emptier downtowns, and much less choice. Either way, the young kids of Davis will have one less fun place to go on the weekends.

first sketch of the year

January 1, 2012January 2, 20122 Comments

Happy New Year! My first sketch of 2012; it was a very mild and sunny day, and after taking a short power nap (yes, a power nap, after which I ate lunch, which is for wimps) I cycled over the freeway overpass to sketch this little fruit store on Mace Boulevard, Ikeda’s Orchard Fruits. This is the very edge of town, the easternmost part of Davis. Well, there is some more south of the freeway that stretches out further but it’s the easternmost point of Davis north of I-80. I guess.

Anyway, here’s to more drawing in 2012…

absolutely J street

December 31, 20112 Comments

Some more sketching from yesterday’s afternoon in Sacramento. Above is St.Paul’s church on J Street, in Midtown. I had thought about sketching the cathedral downtown, but decided in the end to do something a little smaller and homelier. I sat opposite, outside the Sacramento Memorial Auditorium, and listened to the most recent Art Brut album (confirming my view that it’s really not as good as their previous ones). I sketched for just under an hour before moving on up J Street.

I ended up sketching this building above, which is home to the French Cuff Consignment boutique. They have one of these in Davis (everything in Sacramento has a double in Davis, it seems; I keep expecting to bump into the mirror-version of me, crouched over a moleskine) but it’s not in as cool-looking a building as this. A little sun peeked through the clouds giving some faint shadows so I drew those in.

Drawn on the second last day of 2011. If I don’t get around to posting my 2011 retrospective tonight, then Happy New Year everybody!

to you in your little dream world

December 30, 2011December 31, 20112 Comments

I went to Sacramento today, just to get out of Davis for a bit. Downtown there are so many people wandering about, up and down K, J and L streets, but me I stop and draw fire hydrants. The one with the green top has an unusual head attachement that I’ve not seen before, while the yellow one is a fairly typical design you’ll see in Sacramento. Fire hydrants make such good models, don’t they!

pub lunch

December 29, 20113 Comments

I went downtown at lunchtime today, intending to do some drawing in the bright weather. However I suddenly decided that chips in mushroom gravy sounded really good, so I popped into De Vere’s on E Street. Good place to sketch! I drew the bar previously from the middle; this one, which took under an hour, was drawn from the end. The chips in gravy were really good.