sketching rita

January 20, 20112 Comments

So here are the sketches I did at last week’s Friday ArtAbout, during Rita Hosking’s performance at Armadillo in Davis. I was amazed at her music, it reminded me how much I love country/folk music. She is a singer-songwriter from northern California, who lives in Davis. She plays all over, though, and in fact toured the UK last summer. After a very busy week, I found it really relaxing listening to her and her band, Cousin Jack, while sketching (and as you know I’m trying to practise sketching musicians, as I’ve always found it tricky). People were coming up to watch me sketch as well, and because some of the younger audience couldn’t see what I was sketching, I sat on the floor. From that angle I was able to sketch looking up at the fiddler, Andy (see below).

Check out Rita’s website and Facebook page. Her music’s great!

By the way, my prints are still on display at Armadillo Music for the next few weeks, so pop down and have a look at them.

beneath whose chilly softness

January 11, 2011January 11, 20111 Comment

As soon as I had finished sketching in the snow to close out Moleskine #6, I went inside and opened Moleskine #7, got myself a cup of tea and some Quality Street, stood by an extra warm radiator and looked out of the window. I sketched the other side of the street where I grew up, from my old bedroom window. After freezing my fingers off outside, this was an excellent way to spend the rest of the afternoon, while my son napped.

see me at the record shop

January 9, 2011January 24, 20184 Comments

Here’s an exciting piece of news: next Friday, January 14, I will be exhibiting some of my sketchbooks (including the fire hydrants book and the Davis accordion moleskine) and prints of my work, as well as giving a live sketching demo, as part of the monthly Davis 2nd Friday ArtAbout event. It will be at Armadillo Music, a small independent record store on F St (near 2nd St). This should be a lot of fun! The artist reception will be between 7-9pm, preceded by live music from 6-7 by a surprise special guest (I don’t know who it is!). I’ll have a selection of prints up in the store for about a month, available to buy, mostly Davis urban sketches.

This is Armadillo Music on F St, in case you’re wondering. I sketched it today (in the cold).

Here’s the flier for the ArtAbout event (pdf). So, if you are in Davis next Friday evening, please pop down to Armadillo and say hi!

from pillar to post

January 3, 20112 Comments

And so onto my sketches from London. Not having any fire hydrants, it was obvious I would have to sketch soemthing even better – the post box (or pillar box) at the corner of the street where I grew up. I got up early (as jetlagged travellers do) and sketched it as Burnt Oak locals passed thinking, ‘nutter’. This dates from the reign of King George V (hence the GR cypher on the front) and is of the standard pillar box design. I drew this more than once – the second time it was covered in snow…

leavin’ on a jet plane

January 2, 20115 Comments

Happy New Year! I got back into Davis today, after two and a half weeks in snowy England. I’ve never seen a winter like it in London, but I still managed to do some sketching, though probably less than usual. The scanning and posting will be an ongoing process. Here’s a good place to start: my first and last sketches of the trip, both on BA jumbo jets, drawn in my Moleskine diary.

Here’s the thing: I hate flying. Not in a BA Baracas “fool aint gettin me in no plane sucker” way. I hate airports, the ever-decreasing baggage allowances, packing suitcases, Heathrow, overhead lockers, the toilets, the engine noise, the fact it takes me two days to get over the ear-popping thing and I hate that sleeping on a plane is practically impossible. Flying is not my favourite thing, but it’s a necessary necessity. Carbon footprint my bottom.

Below is the sketch I did while waiting to leave London yesterday, New Year’s Eve. You can sense the dread.

And so it is a new year. In fact today is 1-1-11, which must be significant. New Year’s Resolutions? I have no idea about that, but I had three doughnuts for breakfast. Perfect jetlag cure. Art goals? Just keep on going, keep on drawing everything around me.

2010 was an interesting year for sure, and very full on art-wise. Some interesting projects, some interesting travels and of course the Portland Urban Sketching Symposium in the middle of it all, spurring the creativity of the rest of the year. We held a couple of great sketchcrawls in Davis in the Fall, and a third ‘Let’s Draw Davis’ crawl will take place on January 22 to coincide with the worldwide sketchcrawl. There are more fun things happening soon as well so I’ll keep you posted.

But for now I’ll just say happy new year, I hope 2011 is filled with fun and if you haven’t yet taken up sketching as a way to record your world, why not do so now? It’s so much fun!

oh, the weather outside is frightful

December 22, 20105 Comments

So… as you may have gathered from my non-posts this past week, I am away from rain-sodden California to lovely London, where I’ve had a week without any rain whatsoever.

Oh, but we’ve been having the worst snowy winter weather I’ve ever seen here. Many days after a sudden blizzard, the snow is still here there and everywhere, tough it hasn’t stopped me from getting out there with sketchbook. Yes, fingers freezing off and pens giving up the ghost doesn’t get in the way of this urban sketcher. Not two months ago I was sketching in hundred degree weather heat. Thing is, I grew up with snow lasting only a day or two before sodding off, and always tell people about our comparatively mild winters, but now it seems the snow comes earlier and stays longer, and the disruption is magnified. Naturally, Britain fails to cope, as the absolute madness of Heathrow attests. I’m glad I came a few days earlier than I would have. I just hope we can get back…

These are a couple of photos of what I have been out sketching though; the top one being the street where I grew up, about an hour after the biggest blizzzard I can remember here. I’m sure people thought I was a nutter sitting out there freezing, well they’re right, but urban sketchers are tough beasts. My fingers took a battering in the second one too, sat down by the River Thames, looking out at HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge. My toes were frozen too. I warmed up with a nice chicken and mushroom pie. That’s one thing Britain can always get right!

But boy, is it cold…

of mists and mellow fruitfulness

December 12, 20101 Comment

This is Mrak Hall, the big powerful building at the heart of UC Davis. I have drawn this view a few times before, and in December too, because the leaves on these trees turn glorious colours at this time of year. This was a lunchtime sketch, a moment of much needed calm in the busy busy time of year.

it’s beginning to look a lot like christmas

December 8, 2010December 8, 20105 Comments

After all those fire hydrants, plus a short break from sketching, I was starting to forget what the nearly-finished Moleskine 6 looked like. I have three pages left, and intend to complete it in London, but I added a sketch yesterday lunchtime of the Christmas tree in the E Street Plaza, Davis. I drew it (as I’ve done before) from the window of Chipotle, with the clock fountain thing in the way, reminding me of how little time I have left to sketch. the trees are absolutely amazing right now, all brilliant reds and yellows and oranges, though as I speak a big storm is sweeping through the valley and blowing many of those leaves into the gutter.

So it’s nearly Christmas, folks. I did start making an advent calendar but it looked rushed and so I’ve abandoned it. I spent too much time on fire hydrants last month. Still, people seem to like them. I love the Christmas time of year. Santa’s not happy though, his naughty/nice list was published on Wikileaks. Here’s a tip, folks: don’t get the England world cup bidding team to write your xmas list, no matter how good you are Santa’s elves will stick you in the ‘naughty’ pile. I’m looking forward to mince pies and Quality Street, etc. I didn’t go to the Davis Christmas tree lighting thing though, which they hold here every year, as it is usually crazy. One thing I do love here though are all the houses that go mad with decorations; there’s one near us in Davis who really decks his halls out every year and has hourly music and light shows, even a little train that rattles around. Many cities have whole streets of houses that compete with each other for festive garishness, ‘candy-cane lanes’, with amazingly elaborate shows and attractions that must take all year to plan, all the windows, the whole garden, the whole roof, covered with loud Christmas ornaments – that must be a heavy burden to keep that up every year. I daresay in Britain you’ll say with a grumble, “ooh, it’s getting like that here now,” but believe me nobody does Christmas like the Americans*. They’re really really good at it.

(*Except the Germans, of course – German Christmases are truly wonderful, but I won’t mention them because they beat England 4-1 in the World Cup, lest we forget)

meeting you outside the station, asking about your favourite colours

November 24, 20105 Comments

Last Sunday, the weather was bright, sunny and cold, following an enormous sketchbook-scaring-away rain and thunder storm in our part of California. Still, a few brave Davis sketchers got together for the second of our Let’s Draw Davis sketchcrawls, going from the train station and down Second street, braving the fantastic sunshine.

My sketch on the left was while I was sat outside the amtrak station, and I wanted to keep using the paint splatter thing, but this time contain it within a box. Interesting results. It’s a colourful enough view anyhow. You can see fellow sketchers Pica and Rahman sketching away.

While sketching, I was joined by my son Luke, who had just been to the toystore, checking off things he wants for Christmas. He also did a sketch; he likes using daddy’s paints. He’s a great little urban sketcher already!

Next sketch was the Davis Tower, still at the train station. Several of us sketchers were all sat together at this point so I got to converse about Weetabix, the new TSA screening regulations, Peregrine Falcons and Tottenham Hotspur, among other things. I’m getting used to sketching with others, it’s fun. I recommend it. I had to draw that guy who sat in the picture, he was very sketchable.

The day continued down 2nd Street. I added a few more pipes and hydrants to my NaNoDrawMo tally, but I’ll post them another time. Here are the corners of F and E as they meet 2nd St. The autumnal colours are out in force. More photos of the day to come…

czech please

October 11, 2010Leave a comment

After the 2nd Friday Art About and the talk at the bookshop, I went off to possibly my favourite pub in Davis, Little Prague, for a beer and to sketch that German band I didn’t sketch a couple of weeks ago (I am little prague beer-pump attempting to sketch musicians these days). They however were just finishing up, but told me to come back in a couple of weeks, and asked that I make them look slimmer when I draw them. Fair enough! So I got a beer and settled down to watch the baseball, which was amazingly still going. I like the San Francisco Giants (thanks to my wife and especially my brother-in-law) and they are currently in the play-offs against the Braves.

As soon as I got my first beer, the Braves got a game-winning home run. Bugger. So, out came the sketchbook. The music that replaced the German oompah band was not so good, just some dance music for them what like to dance. I sketched the beer pumps and the lamp, and then turned my attention to the opposite direction and drew the very busy bar. I’ve sketched in here many times. I like drawing in bars, because you can really capture an atmosphere, and you can have a beer and some conversation with locals while you’re at it. It had been an evening full of mixing with Davis locals in the Art About so it was nice to sit and relax at the end of a busy week, with another week to go until the Davis Sketchcrawl…