art, music and architecture about

October 10, 20104 Comments

On Friday I went to the 2nd Davis Art About. I say ‘went to’, it is in fact a whole collection of evening exhibitions in stores and businesses around downtown Davis, exhibits of local artists, and art events, and it was a lot of fun. I wish I hadn’t eaten so much at dinner though, because they all had snacks and wine. I liked the oil paintings of Davis by Andrew Dorn, which were on show at the USE Credit union, and also the large close-ups of freight trains by Marieke De Waard, displayed at clothing store Riki. I ended up at the Avid Reader on 2nd Street (where I worked, once upon a time), and admired the pastels of Kathryn Esterly. I did a sketch of Gary, local KDVS DJ and a guy I’ve known for years, playing his ukelele as he does every Friday at the bookstore. I used to enjoy those Friday evenings at the boosktore listening to that gentle music.

I decided to stick around for the book talk, which was to be given by Michael Corbett. I’m glad I did, for it was very interesting – Corbett is a famous architect, who designed the groundbreaking Village Homes in west Davis. He is also a former Mayor of Davis, and is responsible for a lot of how the city I draw daily actually looks today. His new book, “The Poetry of Architecture”, is a look at how architecture affects our ability to think, and explores architecture across Europe – it looks like a great read. I sketched him talking; he is very tall.

Look at me drawing people. I hope to draw some more. After this, I went to Little Prague to draw the German band I hoped to sketch, but they were just finishing up; I’ll have to go back in two weeks.

they’ve got cars big as bars

October 9, 2010October 9, 20105 Comments

I stuck around the Harvest Fair in Santa Rosa on Sunday afternoon, sketching old cars, getting a red sunburned neck in the process. The cars belonged to members of the Antique Automobile Club of America and ranged from old 1920s Fords (the sketch of which is in the previous post) to more modern classics from the 80s. I am not a car person, not a gear-head in the slightest, but I absolutely salivate at these classic designs. Partly because for me they represent the classic America; as I said to one of the old fellows I spoke to, this is how I imagine American cars – enormous, long, sleek, magnificent, with fins and curves and power and elegance. Of course, you get here and it’s all beige Toyotas and testosterone-fuelled SUVs, and they all look the same, no matter the car-maker, a bit of a let-down. These beauties make up for that.

The blue 1936 Dodge above reminds me of Daddy Warbucks. The red 1958 Chrysler Saratoga below, of which you can only see the rear end, reminds me of Biff Tannen. That was a long, long car, and a wide one. There’s no way that would fit into a regular parking spot at Target.

I really liked this green Oldsmobile 88, from 1954. I really liked the old-fashioned license plate.

This is also my entry for this week’s Illustration Friday, the theme of which is transportation. And what transportation!

all’s fair in love and scarecrows

October 8, 2010October 8, 20102 Comments

At the weekend we were in Santa Rosa, and we went to the annual Sonoma County Harvest Fair at the fairgrounds. It’s the first time I’d been since 2005, mere days after emigrating to the US, when taking part in the pumpkin tossing contest was like a rite of passage. I didn’t toss any pumpkins this time, but I sketched one, a giant one. I had to sketch a scarecrow, which although it was scarecrow number one, it came second in the scarecrow contest. I also sketched a pygmy goat, it was a cute and tiny and had a great beard. It seemed to have a little conversation with me while I was sketching too, bleeting away. My son preferred the piglets I think, and playing in the hay-maze.

I was most drawn to the exhibition of old cars, brought there by the Antique Automobile Club of America. I don’t get the chance to practise drawing old cars often – they are so much more interesting than modern cars – so I jumped at the chance to do so. Above is a 1929 Ford Model A, and I particularly liked that it had a trunk, an actual luggage-type trunk, attached to the back of it. It has a lot of personality!

how does your garden grow

October 4, 2010October 4, 20101 Comment

While in Santa Rosa at the weekend, I walked down to Luther Burbank Home and Gardens and sketched in the afternoon. It’s a pretty little place, and the old house is very sketchworthy. Burbank was an important botanist and horticulturalist who created/developed many species of plant and flower, as well as a famous potato. There’s a small chance I may be mistaken about this, but I think he invented Mr Potato Head. The site is in fact California Historical Landmark #234.

I also sketched a fire hydrant, because, you know, I’m collecting sketches of them. This one reminds me of a dalek. Perhaps it needs some Mr Potato Head glasses and moustache to cheer it up.

mountain high

September 4, 2010September 4, 20102 Comments

It seems like there’s no staying away from Oregon this summer. We drove the long, long drive north, my third trip to the state in a little over six weeks.

We were in Roseburg this time. It’s quite mountainous there, and we were visiting a house at the top of a mountain. Beautiful countryside for sure, probably got bears and porcupines and mountain lions and all sorts of wild animals, oh my.

I took advantage of the incredible views to do some very un-urban sketching. Living in Davis, I don’t normally see inclines, let alone sketch from mountainsides.

This is historical logging country. We saw so many big trucks packed up with huge tree trunks. And there are a lot of trees. Douglas County where we were was named after Scottish botanist David Douglas, after whom the Douglas fir is named. He brought back a load of North American tree species to Britain. Look at me learnin’ ’bout trees.

where streams of whiskey are flowing

August 30, 2010August 30, 201010 Comments

While I certainly prefer the beers over here on the American West Coast, the pubs just don’t quite match up to the ones we have back home. Sure there are some interesting bars here and there, but give me a London pub any day (but with Anchor Steam and Fat Tire on tap). This is the imaginitively named G Street pub in Davis. I can’t say I’m particularly a fan of this place (where the guy at the door comes and stamps your hand after scrutinising your ID, though you may be halfway through your first pint), I much prefer Little Prague further up the road. It does attempt to bring a little piece of north London verite to the mean streets of Davis however: the toilets are as bad if not worse than any you’d find in Camden or King’s Cross. Nonetheless, it’s a good place to come and do some drawing, bar staff are friendly and pour a good pint, and there is a lot to sketch. Plus they have pool tables.

I wanted to practise drawing people, sure, but also bottles – I always have a bit of an issue with them, I rush the shape and scotch the symmetry. In fact, I have the same issue with people. Guitars too, funny enough, hence my hesitation at drawing musicians. I remember years ago studying art at school how often (especially in cubist painting) I’d come across still-lives of bottles, guitars and female figures, as though they were all aesthetically connected, which I think in a way they are. Practise is the only way. I’m pleased with how I represented the bottles in the image below though, it says exactly what I wanted it to. Not that I’d drink any of the contents; the shots here a big and potent. I’m a beer man myself. That tap on the right there is Anchor Steam, the San Francisco beer, very nice too. Mine’s a pint, if you’re asking.

down the market

August 29, 2010August 30, 20102 Comments

I don’t go very often to the Davis Farmer’s Market. It’s not very big – not compared with the sort of markets I used to go to in London, Belgium, France – but it can be pretty busy, with lots of things going on. Because it takes place in Central Park, Davis, between two playground, there are always lots of kids and parents about, it’s very much a family place. There is a carousel, and people making balloon swords and dogs, and organic chocolate, and so on.

There is usually music too, and so I sat and tried to sketch the musicians, very quickly.

Then I sketched the market itself, and look at me drawing loads of people! I am inspired by the symposium, you see. It’s hard to believe it was a month ago already! That means it’s only eleven months until the next one (in Lisbon).

I must confess, when I was a kid I hated markets. I hated being dragged around them, that slow walking, looking at stuff I was just never that interested in. Car boot sales were one thing, regular markets another, but I didn’t like any of them. The Saturday Market in my native Burnt Oak I hated, accessible via an old alley and piss-slippery steps. I remember going to Chapel Street or Church Street or one of them as a kid, pretty young I was, and stopping at a Pie and Mash shop afterwards and throwing up (I hate pie and mash too; some cockney I am). Then there was Wembley market, a gargantuan affair clustered in the shadow of the stadium, my enduring memory of it being so packed all I could see were people’s behinds, all those people at Wembley without the excitement of seeing an actual football match. I got tall, and still avoided markets (and Camden Town station on a Sunday), but I did learn to appreciate them when I lived on the continent: the one in Charleroi which covered the entire town on Sundays, the near-daily ones in Aix which were always better places to buy food than the stores, that amazing one in central Munich with beer and wurst and music everywhere. These helped me enjoy the markets back in London more: Borough, Portobello, Spitalfields. Next time I’m back, I’ll probably sketch them. I still don’t like crowds, but (since sketching the market in Portland) I’m getting more excited about sketching markets as important places of human existence. (Well, I say that now…)

trainspotting

August 28, 2010August 29, 20105 Comments

I sketched at the Davis Farmer’s Market today (I’ll post that later; all my sketches are being posted in nonlinear fashion these days while I catch up with my backlog). I missed my bus home by mere seconds, so had to wait an hour for the next one. The bus stop is by the railroad, and I noticed a cool looking engine parked about a block away, near 6th Street. I sat by the lumber yard and sketched away. It’s from the California Northern Co; if I’d had more time I would have sketched the whole thing, from side view. If it’s there again I will do so. I was pretty pleased with this drawing, so I couldn’t wait to post it.

ordinary people that are like you and me

August 27, 2010August 27, 2010Leave a comment

Back in Davis… Actually these were drawn straight after Portland, but just before Monterey, but I’m getting round to scanning my drawings. Quite the backlog built up…

You may have noticed, I have a thing for fire hydrants. I may even put together a special compendium (now don’t be silly). Most people ignore them. But as a Brit kid who read Richard Scarry and other such American picture-books, fire hydrants have always seemed exciting and exotic. Well, ‘exciting’ makes me sound like a trainspotter (I prefer drainspotting), but I still love seeing them dotted about towns and cities. Did you know (and I’m not talking to Americans, who obviously do know) that you can’t park your car in front of one? The fire department could have it removed. I like their shape too – some appear to be wearing hard-hats, some (like the one below, at UC Davis) look like those stocks they used to put crooks in back in ‘the old days’ to have tomatoes and abuse hurled at them. Now they just get parts on celebrity reality shows.

The other sketch above is of gas pipes, sticking out the back of a building on 2nd Street. It was in Portland where we (the European sketchers) were talking about how cool they looked, and Gerard Michel drew an excellent picture of some. I was eager to sketch them in Davis (having done so before, a good while ago). I think this all falls into ‘everyday objects we take for granted’, but if you’re illustrating your city, you can’t miss them out.

call the engines, call the engines

July 25, 2010July 25, 2010Leave a comment

Above: a toy fire truck, drawn in my brown paper book. This was actually in the course of being played with while I was on the floor sketching it. At one point, Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi – volunteer firefighters, didn’t you know – jumped on board and went to rescue a kitty. I find I’m drawing things I think my kid will like. Below is UC Davis fire station, drawn during a lunchtime this week. Did you know the firefighters here actually have collectable baseball-type cards that kids can collect? It’s true, and they’re pretty cool, they tell you about the fireman or firewoman, and they have a safety message on there and everything.