as sure as eggs is eggs

April 28, 2024April 27, 2024Leave a comment

Before I show you all my Utah sketches, I’m fast forwarding to this month, which was the 30th anniversary of the installation of the Eggheads by UC Davis professor and renowned sculptor, Robert Arneson, who dies in 1992. The campus has been having special celebrations in honor of Arneson and his beloved Eggheads, which are a series of egg-shaped sculptures all over campus. I’ve drawn the Eggheads before of course, but over the past few weeks I decided to draw all of them again, starting with “Yin and Yang” (above) which is outside Turner Wright Hall, a pair of eggs having a bit of an argument. One of the big parts of the Egghead celebration was a special event at the Manetti Shrem to which I was invited, where Robert Arneson’s widow Sandy Shannonhouse (a renowned artist herself) gave a short talk, and Robert Arneson’s son was there, and the Chancellor Gary May, the L&S Dean Estella Atekwana, and above I sketched the Manetti Shrem’s director Rachel Teagle talking about Arenson’s legacy and his famous Eggheads.

Above, this Egghead is called ‘Stargazer‘. It’s over behind North Hall near Dutton, staring up at the sky. It was installed in May 1994.

Back to the Manetti Shrem event, I sketched people talking, including an MFA Creative Writing candidate Trevor Bashaw who had written a poem dedicated to the Eggheads, I tried to write some down while I sketched. I was sketching in the fountain pen that I had used while sketching people talking in Riverside; for some reason it wasn’t quite coming out so easily, perhaps it was because I was standing (I hold my book in a funny way when I stand) as opposed to sitting at a desk, usually I would use a different type of pen for this sort of thing. Still it was fun enough and I still love that brown ink. The food at the the event was quite nice, I had a nice bowl of ice cream and a glass of wine. I did speak to a few people, some I knew, and the folks who invited me gave me a nice bag of Egghead related goodies. I also bought some big stickers at the little pop-up Egghead shop.

Above is “Bookhead“, I think the earliest installed Egghead, which is located outside of Shields Library. It’s a slightly different colour, being ever so slightly blue around the edges, and the tradition is that students rub or kiss Bookhead for good luck when taking their exams. I haven’t looked at those particular statistics but I am going to guess it has made marginally less difference than actually going into the library to study. This is a fun one though. I think if Arneson had lived he may well have created a new Egghead just staring at a phone.

This one is another fan favourite Egghead, an upside down laughing face with an ominous eye on the back, staring upwards at Mrak Hall. It’s called “Eye on Mrak/Fatal Laff“, an older sketch I did of it recently appeared in Sactown Magazine. In fact I think I even did a sketch of this back in 2005 on that very first sketchcrawl.

Here’s the last sketch from the event at the Manetti Shrem. There was an interesting video being played on loop so I sketched people watching it and mingling. There were media people there and a photographer going round. I was not feeling too well due to those seasonal allergies so I was starting to flag a little, but I had a look around the Deborah Butterfield exhibit “PS These Are Not Horses” which was pretty amazing. I had planned to walk over to the public events celebrating the Eggheads over at shields Library and the MU, which would culminate in the ‘Lighting of the Eggheads’, but my tiredness totally beat me and so I just went home to bed. It was a fun event though and I’m glad I went. You can see the video they played on UC Davis YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/aPmQf-oqnFU?si=UYA2uudwhmbDmzWT. It’s really interesting, and you’ll probably recognize some of the places from my sketches.

The last ones I did were a couple of days ago, on the other side of Mrak Hall outside King Hall. They are two Eggheads called “See No Evil/Hear No Evil“. I do remember they were in a slightly different spot when I first came, outside King Hall, but they were moved into the current spot when King Hall’s new wing was built. I drew all that from the Arboretum years ago, I’ve been here for ages. Anyway, I wanted to draw a few angles of this, so I stood behind one and drew looking out at the other (above), before sitting down right in front of it to capture its bizarre expression. I liked that one, but the sun was shining down on me, and suddenly a big group of schoolkids on an outing arrived and started rolling down the little hillocks the Eggheads are located on, so I got up and went over to the shade, where I grabbed a quick pic of the other Egghead before going back to the office (I actually added the paint while I was in a Zoom presentation, while also taking notes about summer courses). It’s fun drawing small quick sketches.

And so these are Arneson’s Eggheads, happy thirty (or so) years. You can find a tour of the Eggheads at https://www.ucdavis.edu/campus-life/arts-culture/eggheads-tour, and read “The lasting legacy of Arneson’s Eggheads” to find out more about them and about Arneson. Big characters on our campus these, and look! I managed to get through a whole blog post without making a single egg-based pun.

complicated canopy

October 24, 2021Leave a comment

At the start of this month we held the latest ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ sketchcrawl at Vanderhoef Quad on the UC Davis, meeting outside the Manetti Shrem Museum. Long-time readers might recall that I drew the construction of this building and it’s complicated canopy back in 2015-16, and was invited to the grand opening where I was able to sketch the artists mingling in this great space. I didn’t sketch inside on this sketchcrawl, but I did attempt that canopy again on this sketchcrawl. There’s a lot to take in. I didn’t quite get the gradient from red to purple right on the big sign, I need to play with mixing watercolor gradients a bit. We had a good turnout, it is always fun to see other people sketching.

I drew a quicker sketch from across the street, using a purple pen. It was a pretty hot day, and there wasn’t anywhere to get a cold drink, it’s not a busy part of Davis on a weekend. I had been coaching soccer that morning at a game in Woodland (we drew 5-5; we had been 4-0 down, but came back to lead 5-4, but with about three minutes of stoppage time our opponents scored an equalizer in the last second. Exciting game!)

The last sketch I did was of the Buehler Alumni Center. I’ve only drawn this once as far as I recall, and that was a curvilinear sketch from about a decade or so ago. There it is below. I drew that in 2010, the years have flown. Anyway, we gathered again to look at each others’ sketchbooks and it was fun.

“You can’t handle the roof!”

March 6, 2018Leave a comment

This is the courtyard of the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the UC Davis campus. In January we had our monthly sketchcrawl here in Davis (we missed February; the next one will be on March 17, details to be posted later today at facebook.com/letsdrawdavis), and it was held at the Manetti Shrem. Regular viewers will recall that I drew this building from its first days of construction right through to the grand opening, and I was even invited to the big fancy party for artists and donors on the night before the opening, which was amazingly fun (the ice cream lollipops made on slabs of nitrogen were incredible). It’s a complicated piece of architecture, and I have not drawn it very often since, so I was overdue a sketch. After a morning of coaching a game of under-10 soccer (we lost 9-2 that morning, ouch) I needed to spend some time on a complicated panorama. This is a complicated panorama. Fun though, and it was nice having chats with people passing by, either other sketchers, or local Davis people I knew who happened to be visiting the museum, or students who were interested in art. One young bloke asked me about perspective and how I approach it. Well, get me on that subject! I told him about the multiple vanishing points, both up and down, and the horizon, and the sphere, curvilinear perspective, but said that with a building like this you just have to throw caution to the wind and say, ah just draw it all and see how it comes out. Don’t worry about it. Also another trick, on a two-page spread when the big valley is in the middle of the page, I used the large yellow pole that was in the foreground as a good place for a middle. Saved all those lines getting screwed up in the centre, falling down the gap. On the right, across Vanderhoef Quad, is the Mondavi Center. We’ll be going to see John Cleese there later this month. I’m sure he will be all grumpy

You can click on the sketch for a closer view if you like. Or maybe if you are in Davis, for an even more close view of the museum why not visit? It’s really cool there: https://manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu/

Also, try to draw that roof. Honestly, it is fun, like a puzzle. And if drawing that roof gets too much just put on a Jack Nicholson voice and say …

Opening Weekend at the Manetti Shrem

December 22, 20162 Comments

And finally, the art museum is open! The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art is a pretty amazing piece of architecture, designed by SO-IL and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson and built by Whiting-Turner. As you recall I have been sketching the in-construction progress of the building (let’s do a recap in a different post) and so on Opening Weekend, I was invited to attend the Director’s Debut, a special event on the Saturday night for donors and artists. It was an incredibly cool event, and amazing to finally see all of the artwork inside.

The Director, Rachel Teagle, gave a speech to the gathered attendees, including Jan and Maria Manetti Shrem, thanking them for their support and announcing that because of their patronage, entry to the museum will be free to all. Pretty awesome! I was introduced to Rachel by Prof. Tom Farver, an emeritus faculty member I know (who is one of the donors listed on the big wall, along with his wife), and they also introduced me to the wife of the late Robert Arneson, the ceramicist who made the Eggheads and many of the sculptures in the Manetti Shrem’s collection (lots of toilets!), as well as a few other artistic luminaries. As I sketched the scene above though, a couple came to check out my sketchbook, and introduced themselves to me as the Madonnas (no not that Madonna), Joen and Paul. I was pretty surprised, realizing this was the same Paul Madonna whose books I have, the San Francisco artist who does the All Over Coffee strip, which inspired me to keep drawing in the early days. I’d never met him before though I’d been to one of his exhibits, so it was a nice surprise, and I showed them my sketches from San Francisco the day before. I kept on sketching the evening away, met a few other interesting folks, probably also really well-known artists I’m less familiar with (I didn’t get to meet Wayne Thiebauld though, the local art legend), though I did know quite a few people from the local art world who were there, and one of my artist friends Dori Marshall was there with her art group presenting this colourful cycle-powered sculpture on display outside the main entrance. I drew it below, it was really fun. You could see the colourful circles projected onto the wall behind it when approaching the building, really added to the party.

There were some interesting art performances as well. Above, a spoken word group called Sick Spits performed some of their pieces, very performative, especially when spoken in the pulpits of the sculptures I attempted to draw very loosely (this is “five minute people sketching”, Pete, you wrote a book about it…). I love that sort of thing, having a background in performance (well, my undergrad degree in drama) and spoke with the performers afterwards. I need to sketch more performance artists. The food was great too. Top fancy stuff, stuff I didn’t even completely understand. I did have a lovely ice cream, which was made by pouring liquid onto a slab of nitrogen, it was very swanky stuff. I felt clever just watching them make it.

Here are some photos. The big bunch of flowers, well that was from Prince Charles, who couldn’t make it to the event, but he knows the Manetti Shrems and wanted to send his best wishes. Would have been fun to meet Prince Charles, I’ve sketched his house before. after this, the wine and canapes were put away and replaced with cereal for the big student party, which would go on until 2am. Not being a student I didn’t stick around for a bowl of Cheerios, and headed down to the pub to sketch out some of my buzzing drawing energy with another De Vere’s bar sketch. But next morning I had to get up and go back to the Museum for the Grand Opening…

There were a lot of people there awaiting the big event. That large colourful chain decorating the museum exterior was to be formally cut signifying the opening of the doors. Rachel Teagle gave another speech joined by many other UC Davis importants, and we sat on the little grassy knoll with all the other families and watched the proceedings. My son was very excited to sketch so he chose the spot he wanted and we both sketched away. My scene is above (pencil and watercolour), and I also drew him getting down to work. He’s really getting into sketching now (we did a bit more together in London the week after)…

… and he drew the scene below. Great job mate!

And so, we have a new centre for the arts on campus, a place that really puts UC Davis on the art map. (Speaking of art maps, I drew one recently too for the UC Davis magazine! Details soon). I will do a post like I did for the Pitzer showing all of the in-progress sketches of the Manetti Shrem in one go.

http://manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu/

the sketchcrawl at vanderhoef quad

December 21, 2016Leave a comment

More sketches from over a month ago! On Saturday November 12th we held another “Let’s Draw Davis” sketchcrawl on the UC Davis campus, this time at Vanderhoef Quad, named for the late Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef, location of the brand new Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, which was opening that weekend (more on that later, many sketches to post…). Several of us met up in the middle of the Quad and started sketching the scenery, the lovely autumnal leaves and bright November sunshine, the modern campus buildings lining the edges. Above is Davis sketchcrawl regular (and person I have probably sketched the most!) Allan Hollander, who I couldn’t resist sketching again.

Above is the Mondavi Center, an amazing performance space, with the fountains of the Vanderhoef Quad in the foreground. I actually won a t-shirt for this sketch, they sent it to me, it’s nice. Below, also longtime Davis sketcher and fellow British-accenter Alison Kent sketches away, with another sketcher Suzanne sketching beneath a big hat. someone actually asked me once for a good tip on drawing faces when sketching people in public, often a tricky subject, and I said “make sure they are wearing a hat that covers their face, so you can get around that” and clearly I wasn’t really joking!

And below is a large panorama of the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art itself! I will likely post this sketch again in the next post about the museum, or perhaps in an upcoming post where I display all my sketches of it from first construction onwards, but the building is finally finished and open! On this day, the day before the Grand Opening, they were having special opening events throughout the day – at this time, there was a special event just for faculty. That evening they were to have the ‘Director’s Debut’, an event for donors and artists (including me!! I’ll post about that next, it was fun), then another late-night event for the students. The colourful chains around the edge are there for the opening event, made by local people to be formally cut to open the museum. I had never two-page-spreaded this building before (that’s a new verb, that), given it the old panoramization treatment (another new word), so here it is. Not easy to draw over two pages with its unusual curving roof but I gave it a good old go.

We sketchcrawlers met up at the end to check out each others books, and it is always fun to see the range of different styles and points of view. Great fun as always, Davis sketchers! Now I had hoped to run a sketchcrawl here in December, but my weekends suddenly filled up fast and so I never got around to it, but I am working on a set of dates for next year starting January, and will announce those here shortly, and email all those on my email list. I’m hoping to have the Davis sketchcrawls continue monthly, but I am also planning a ‘themed’ crawl in San Francisco at some point (history themed, dates/details to be set…) and possibly another themed crawl in London, though the dates for that are also uncertain (probably going to be Soho themed though, after two Wren crawls, a Ripper crawl and a Fleet Street crawl…). Roll on sketchbookers of 2017! I gotta feeling we’ll all need a bit of sketching…

Let’s Draw UC Davis!

November 1, 20162 Comments

Join us for another sketchcrawl in Davis, California! This time we will sketch around the exciting area of Vanderhoef Quad, on the UC Davis campus. This is home to the UC Davis Welcome Center, the huge Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, and of course the brand-new Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, which has its grand opening the very next day. Not far from here is the Robert Mondavi Institute for Food and Wine Sciences, an interesting place to sketch with its Good Life Garden (Jerry and Margo live next door), and of course the UC Davis Arboretum and Lake Spafford are just a couple of minutes’ walk away, a peaceful place to sketch.

START: 10:30am, middle of Vanderhoef Quad
FINISH: 3:00pm, same place

As always this sketchcrawl is FREE and open to anyone of any age/level who just wants to get out and sketch, and meet other people who like to sketch. All you need is something to draw with!

Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1589040501405221/

constructing the manetti shrem, part eight

August 30, 2016Leave a comment

Now look at this. Another UC Davis construction project I have been following since last year, now almost finished. The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art formally opens on November 13, but look! It’s got a much more finished look about it than before, with that landscaping around it. You will recall that the last time I sketched it was actually from the inside – it was almost finished, the first day in fact that wearing a hard hat was not required. It won’t be long before this place is filled with art, and then with visitors. UC Davis really needs this space, and the Vanderhoef Quad is squared off nicely. I drew this while standing in the shade of the huge Mondavi Center across the street.

Check out my other sketches made during this construction by going to the tag manetti-shrem-museum… Bound to be one more post by the time it opens?

constructing the manetti shrem, part seven

July 12, 20164 Comments

I last posted construction pictures of the forthcoming Manetti Shrem museum of Art on the UC Davis campus back in April. A lot has been done since then – the canopy is now finished, the landscaping is ongoing, and (something I’d not thought much about) the interior is already pretty much complete! So, I was invited along for a special viewing of the inside (many thanks to Prof. Tim McNeil of the Design Dept for the opportunity!), and it was one of the first days that hard hats were not required inside, meaning I didn’t get my photo-op of sketching in hard-hat and fluorescent jacket (I only wanted that for the urban sketching street cred), but I got the full inside experience of how a brand-new museum is designed and completed. Every corner of it was so modern and cool, and the most amazing aspects were the sudden views outside, looking at how this building interacts with its environment but from an interior perspective. This really is going to be the most spectacular new building on campus, not simply functional but enlightening too, I think. After having a good look around at the future gallery spaces and imagining what artwork will grace its walls (I know that Wayne Thiebald made a big donation of art recently), I was able to do some art myself, sketching the above view of the main entrance area looking out toward the Mondavi Centre.

A few days later I came back to sketch outside at lunchtime, and rather than the wide-angle view I focused in on the same entrance area, but from the street looking in. You can see how it is all coming together now. Opens in November…

Here are the previous posts documenting the construction in my sketchbook…

PART SIX – PART FIVE – PART FOUR – PART THREE – PART TWO – PART ONE

constructing the manetti shrem, part six

April 12, 2016April 12, 20163 Comments

The continuing construction of the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis has reached a new phase, with the large metal canopy now finally coming together. Early last month I sketched the scene above, the framework for the canopy undergoing its paint job, while the large metal slats that would make up the design were beginning to be inserted. It’s like a massive Airfix model but without the smell of superglue.This was particularly fun to sketch, figuring out the complicated lines and curves, but also because this scene is so brief – already it looks totally different.

Here you see, just a few weeks later, the canopy is already complete, or as good as. I sketched this on a day when the sky was lovely, with deep blues and fluffy white clouds, not a very common sky for Davis. Reminded me of Britain.I sketched this from beneath the shade of the UC Davis Welcome Center. The buildings around Vanderhoef Quad are modern and bright. This is a really exciting part of campus now. Below, I sketched another view of the Manetti Shrem from a little further back, beyond the Mondavi Center. You can see the interesting shape of the canopy as it curves around the entrance. This will be a really photogenic spot. I stood beneath a tree to sketch. As i did, I got several odd looks from people as they passed by. Nothing bad, just, I don’t know, frowns. Shifty looks, suspicious glances. I must look odd standing there with a sketchbook under a tree, it’s fair enough. People on this edge of campus are usually a bit better dressed. No, they are, I don’t know why. They are walking to their cars parked at the Mondavi or on their way to an important meeting at the Founders room at the Buehler or the Graduate School of Management or doing something in the Conference Center, I don’t know, they dress better than the people hanging out at the Quad or at the MU Bus Terminal. Maybe that is why they gave me shifty looks, “who is this odd freakish weirdo beneath a tree with a small creepy black book staring at the distance like a fool?” I put it down to turning 40. This didn’t happen so much when I was 39, no back then it was all, “who’s this cool character coolly hanging in the shade making fantastic cool urban art which is so cool?” But now I’m 40 it’s all changed, it’s all downhill from here. Or it would be, if Davis had any hills.

I’m enjoying sketching this construction though, and the Manetti Shrem will officially open its doors in the Fall with a Grand Opening on November 13, 2016. Check out their website at: http://manettishremmuseum.ucdavis.edu/.

Here are the previous posts charting the construction in sketches…

PART FIVE – PART FOUR – PART THREE – PART TWO – PART ONE

constructing the manetti shrem, part five

January 29, 2016January 29, 2016Leave a comment

The second of my 2016 sketches so far, continuing my documentation of UC Davis’s upcoming new art museum, the Manetti Shrem. The frame of the large metal canopy is up; this will look impressive from the air. Here (from the Manetti Shrem’s website) is a pre-visualized idea of how it will look: shremmuseum.ucdavis.edu/museum-design/index.html. I feel like I’ve been peering through the window at Christmas time waiting for a glimpse of the new toy display; I can’t wait to finally walk around inside. I’m going to keep documenting as it goes up, updating every couple of months or so, but in the meantime here is a little retrospective so far…