sketching the new gorman museum

September 29, 2023September 28, 2023Leave a comment

There’s a new exciting museum on campus. Well when I saw ‘new’, it just celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, so not new exactly, but it just opened up in a brand new location near the Arboretum. It’s the Gorman Museum of Native American Art, at UC Davis, and occupies a building that has been completely transformed for the new museum, including the installation of a large, circular public artwork by the artist Tsinhnahjinnie, and is based upon Native American basketry designs. The grand opening of the museum was last weekend; I missed the Friday ribbon-cutting, but I did visit on Saturday when there was live music and dance, and public viewings of all the amazing art. I went with my family after our sketchcrawl at Wyatt Deck, and loved all the artwork. I drew the building earlier in the month. I have sketched this building before, several years ago when it was the Nelson Hall and housed the Della Davidson Performance Studio (this was for the UC Davis Arts Explorer guide in 2016). In fact I’ve attended many meetings and events in that building over the years, but what I always think of was that I went to my New Employee Orientation here back in 2006, when I was fresh-faced newbie to UC Davis. It is interesting having watched this campus evolve over the years.

News article announcing the Gorman reopening: https://lettersandscience.ucdavis.edu/news/gorman-museum-native-american-art-uc-davis-reopening-new-expanded-home
Information about the Gorman Museum: https://gormanmuseum.ucdavis.edu/

the hydrant’s robotic arm

September 29, 2023September 28, 2023Leave a comment

It’s always time for a fire hydrant. This one is outside our building on the UC Davis campus, and recently grew an unusual robotic arm, which is propped up by some metal leaning device, making it look a bit like Charlie Chaplin, I suppose. I do love drawing fire hydrants though. Recently I gave a talk to the Urban Sketcher Jacksonville group (via Zoom, I didn’t fly out to Florida), they were very friendly and we all did a drawing of a fire hydrant at the end which was nice. That was my demo, drawing a hydrant, simplest thing there is really. Other sketchers who are more typical art teachers probably do much more complicated demos, but I’m always very nervous drawing live (especially from a photo) so my demos usually feel a bit flat. I was able to talk to people about sketching which is always the most fun. I tried to avoid going all Rolf Harris with those “can you guess what it is yet?” phrases because ugh, Harris. Still, the hydrant we sketched actually had a fun little smiling face and seeing everyone else draw the happy hydrant made us all feel good, I think. Draw fire hydrants, they are perfect urban sketching material.

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

living room in red

September 28, 2023September 26, 20231 Comment

I was on the couch, not feeling too well, and I wanted to draw in red pen, so I looked at the cat (number 1 of 2), lying there asleep, and drew the living room looking towards the kitchen. Drawing in red pen is interesting. Not a lot interesting to add here though.

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.

bedroom sketching

September 26, 2023September 26, 2023Leave a comment

Here are a couple of sketches from the start of this month. I found this fountain pen that had been in my office for years, it was from China, given by a former student I think, I’m not even sure how long ago. I thought I should put some ink in it and see if it worked ok. So I filled it with some Platinum Carbon ink and did a few sketches (including the one of the lemonade stand downtown), and the one below against the pink background. I decided I didn’t like it enough; it drew ok, but the ink definitely leaked a bit, and you don’t want that ink on your clothes. So I decided against using that pen any more. I did however dig out my old Lamy Safari, assuming that it would be all dried up and unusable. It was not difficult to clean, so I filled that up with platinum carbon ink and drew the scene above, the view from my bed. I was watching an old episode of Anthony Bourdain. You can see my electric guitar leaning up against the bookshelf. It’s also in the sketch below, it’s a Squier Telecaster in Lake Placid Blue, and it’s very nice to play. I love playing my guitar; I may not be very skilled technically, but I can play decently enough for what I like. I realized a while ago, I can’t play all that fiddly stuff you see guitarists do, I love strumming chords and rhythm, and that’s because that is the sort of music I like. I don’t listen to fiddly guitar hero stuff, so I don’t play it. I’m always a bit embarrassed about my guitar playing, because ‘real’ players play ‘properly’, but I only play for me and I get better where I want to get better. Now I wish I were a better singer, that would be nice, but I don’t even like my speaking voice let alone my singing voice. I am sure my neighbours growing up didn’t much either. We liked a sing-song in our house though, that’s where all the Irish music came out. Anyway, do I like drawing with fountain pen? I think so (because I just bought two more Lamy Safaris in different nib sizes) but we’ll see. I just don’t want to have to refill my ink thing while out and about, because my ink well is well messy. Bedroom sketching. Reminds me of the heady days of the Pandemic, when that was our cocoon.

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.