on the corner, a break in the rain

January 31, 2024January 31, 2024Leave a comment

A rainy day, the showers stopped for a bit so I took a late lunch and drew the corner of A and 1st. I’ve drawn this corner a few times, they’ve painted this building a few times too. It’s some frat house, Zeta Psi. It’s a whole culture of American university life that we didn’t really have in British universities, not to this extent anyway. I suppose it’s important for stuff, parties on picnic day and beer pong and definitely no hazing. I’ve never been inside a frat house but I imagine it’s either like some gathering of the offspring of wealthy elites with secret codes and fridges of champagne and butlers, or it’s like the house in the Young Ones with bits of old mouldy fruit that talk to socks and Neil the Hippy burning his lentils while Rik the Peoples Poet plans the next protest against fascist pigs. The imagination is probably much better than the reality. You usually see all the new frat and sorority people out and about in large groups in Fall during their ‘Rush’, all dressed up in shiny clothes. As I sketched, the occasional jogger ran by, taking advantage of the break in the rain. I have not yet re-started my own running, I’ve been a little bit lazy on that front. I have the Davis Stampede coming up too, and need to prepare for it more. I had a lot on my mind this day, I often do, the world weighing down, hard to understand. One of the reasons I draw I think is to gain a tiny bit of control over the world around me, as if I can hold it in my hand, but maybe I’m over analyzing it, maybe I just like to draw because I really like drawing. This day was my son’s 16th birthday which was a scary thought too, and my own birthday is coming up soon which always makes me fill with a little dread. Every birthday I’ve had in my 30s and 40s has been spent over here, I’ve not had a birthday in England since my 20s, and those 20s seem like a very distant memory now. Ah well, we move along with time, it’s just not always that fun.

go tell it to the trees

January 31, 2024Leave a comment

It’s still January, if you can believe it. It’s been a productive month sketching-wise. I wonder what the point of it all is, all this sketchbooking, but then I remember last January, all those trees that came down, it’s not like the trees got rebuilt or anything, they are gone forever. The big old trees have really interesting shapes and textures at this time if year, when they are free of all those leaves that give us much needed shade in the hot summer, now they open up to provide light. So I am continuing in my documentation of these large living beings, they are worth a look. This one is outside California Hall, the new lecture hall built a few years ago (it’s in the sketchbooks), with the outline of Kerr Hall in the background. I keep thinking of that Pulp song “Trees” when sketching trees, and that album “We Love Life”, their last proper album as a band from back in 2001. That was quite a long time ago now, but it always makes me think of the year spent in Aix-en-Provence when I first heard it. I liked it a lot, but it’s more what the sound of the music brings me back to I guess, and I think of the chilly mornings walking my usual route to the Faculté des Lettres along streets with bare plane trees and the occasional dog poo, to teach my classes in English. The taste of a fresh poulet-frites for dinner. Completely different life, I can barely remember much of it now. Looking on Google Street View, it looks like the old ‘Fac’ has been demolished and replaced with a new modern building, which looks a lot nicer. No doubt if I’d been there, I would have drawn it all being knocked down and then being built. Looking at this sketch, that tall Kerr Hall behind was where my current department used to live before our new building (shared with Math) was built, just before I arrived. Time moves along, the trees just watch it all go by.

sunday kickaround

January 29, 2024Leave a comment

While out one Sunday during a break in the rain, I noticed a load of men playing soccer on the field by the university. I’ve passed by them before and noticed a few good football shirts among them, this time I decided to watch for a bit, and since it’s been a while, I tried sketching the players in motion. I say in motion, I mean it wasn’t as fast paced and fluid as the old AYSO United games played by quick teenagers, and on a smaller field, but sketching with my black fountain pen I did still struggle to get the ink moving along into people shapes. This was a good test of that pen, not so much the brown ink but the carbon platinum pen which I have often shied away from while out and about, it was a bit of hard work. So I got my thicker Zebra pen and added some thicker more defined outlines to some of them, and that pen felt more comfortable. It’s funny, a couple of years ago I’d have probably felt I could join in and make an impact, but these days since quitting soccer coaching and not having a ball at my feet I shy away from it more. I had a kickaround with my son a few weeks back and my foot hurt kicking the ball, that had never happened before. I’m not completely unfit (though I’m taking my time getting into training for the upcoming runs I’m doing) but definitely a bit shy when it comes to sports. Many of the guys were younger but a lot of the guys were a good bit older than me. There was one bloke who was a bit shouty at his team-mates, even though this was just a kickabout he seemed to yell at them for not choosing the right pass or not switching play or whatever, though he seemed happy to lump it off the field. Still it was good seeing all the playing styles, but I just wanted to see the kits. One was wearing a white pinny but I could tell he had underneath the 2014 Spurs black away kit, an absolute belter of a kit which I do not have (but my son had when he was six, he wore it the first time he visited White Hart Lane). Much respect. Another guy wore the 2020 Ghana away kit, the yellow one, much respect to that because I have the white home kit from the same year. There were a couple of old Chelsea kits I think, a USA away from about five years ago, a cool black Mexico kit, a black and grey Warrior-era Liverpool shirt, at least one Italy training shirt, and one other football shirt that I did not recognize, which is always quite exciting to me, I think it was a Celta Vigo away kit but I could not be certain. Finally there was a guy in a kit I recognized immediately, the 2002 blue Arsenal away kit, the one with the funny geometric pattern on the front, with that dreaded name ‘Pires’ on the back. Dreaded because as a Spurs fan, Pires was bloody devastating for Arsenal and one of the reasons they were so annoyingly good back then. He had that little stripe beard under his lip didn’t he, which I actually also had in around 1999, because ‘the 90s’. It brought back some memories, seeing that name on a shirt. Anyway, it was fun watching some Sunday muddy kickaround footy.

Dreary January Sunday

January 27, 2024Leave a comment

One of those weekend days when it’s dreary out, and I struggle to leave the house. The only thing to do is go out and draw, but some days I don’t really want to draw any more of Davis, because I’ve done it all before. I had to get outside for a little bit though, or else I’d go mad, but I have to push myself out sometimes. It’s that January feeling. So I walked over to the park, and stood next to the Davis Arts Center, and drew that. It’s undergoing some refurbishments by the look of it. It was cold out, and when I’d drawn all the ink I walked back home to colour it in, and put an old James Bond film on the telly. I never watch James Bond, they all feel the same to me, but I fancied a bit of that silliness so I watched Goldeneye, for a bit of mid-90s action. Didn’t really spur me into much action myself though.

Walker Hall, ten years later

January 25, 2024January 25, 2024Leave a comment

I have been getting the ‘on this day ten years ago I drew this’ bug, because it’s a decade since my worryingly over-productive January 2024 set of drawings around Davis (I mean, January was always my busiest month at work, yet I had the energy to produce a lot of two-page drawings that month). It’s always a good moment to reflect on the changes. This week my then-six-year-old son became a sixteen-year-old son, which scares me to think how fast that’s happened. I’m working in the same department, just in a very different job, but I’m still plugging away with drawing campus on my lunchtimes. I’ve published two books since then, had a successful retrospective sketchbook show, been interviewed by the chancellor of the university, done a lot of travelling, and there’s been a pandemic in the middle. The world has been an ‘Interesting Times’ sort of place in the past decade, give me the decade before that any day. But looking at just one spot and tracking the changes, this view of Walker Hall above, the new modern Graduate Center in the historic refurbished building, is a good example. Regular followers will have seen my sketches of this building as it was slowly turned into the center that we see today, and many of my in-progress sketches are still on display in the lobby there, which is a massive honour (as a former grad coordinator I always maintained good relations with Grad Studies, and it was the previous Dean Jeff Gibeling who gave me the idea to draw the progress of the construction when it was first announced a decade or so ago in a meeting). I think I may have already known the future plans when I drew the panorama below, or maybe that was a little afterwards, but this view was always one I wanted to draw like this, and of all the panoramas I drew in January 2014 this one was my favourite. Now it has captures a moment in time that has passed. I liked the big diagonal shadow against the windows, and trying to convey the large E-shaped building using curvilinear perspective. It was drawn in the old Seawhite of Brighton book I was using then, while the newer one above was drawn in the watercolour Moleskine (side note, in recently comparing older scans to newer ones, I’ve decided I don’t like my current Epson scanner at all, I cannot seem to capture the right amount of clarity no matter how much I mess with the settings, unlike with my older (now long-departed) HP scanner. I’ve rescanned some older drawings recently and they don’t even compare with the older scans, regardless of 300dpi or 72 dpi. It’s subtle when they are small but I really notice it now. Time for a new scanner.) Anyway, this one above might put a final bookend to my Walker Hall series of sketches. It’s been a fun journey, but the building’s finished now and it should look like this for its foreseeable future. You can see them all in this Flickr folder.

make me understand or i’ll forget

January 23, 2024Leave a comment

First two-page panorama of 2024, click on the image to go to my Flickr page and see it bigger. In fact you can see all of my two-page (or more-page) panorama drawings in one album there, currently 218 of them and counting. Cast my mind back ten years ago, I decided to go a little bit overboard with the two-page panorama sketching, I called it ‘Panoramarathon’, sometimes I called it ‘Januarama’ or whatever because they were mostly in January 2014, when I was for some reason ridiculously productive. I’ve been looking back at some of those and even doing ‘ten years later’ versions, I’ll post that later. I have drawn the scene above more than once or twice over the years, usually from slightly different angles. This one shows the Heitman ‘Hog Barn’ on the left as always, with a bit of the South Silo, the Bike Barn occluded by trees, those standing stone thingies, that big leaning tree and on the right, the newest bit, that Chemistry Building wing whose construction I’ve been following in my sketches for the past four years. One change from sketches made over a decade ago is there used to be another big tree to the left of the big one there, it had a more interesting shape to draw, but was unfortunately in the way of the path they wanted to make so off it went to the big carpentry shop in the sky. I like all the colours. I know I draw these scenes over and over, Davis is not that big and I always say I’m bored of drawing everything again, but if I lived in London or New York I’d probably get bored of that too wouldn’t I. I like drawing the changes, as we’ve established. But it is January and all I do think about is going somewhere very far away with my sketchbook and no hurry or schedule, especially when there’s a lot on your mind you just want to plough it into a book that you’re filling, that’s where I put all my ‘stuff’, my sketchbooks.

January’s gonna January

January 20, 2024Leave a comment

How’s January going for you? Actually no, don’t tell me, Januarys are rarely fun. I mean, ours started in Maui so that was fun, but then you have to come home and get on with January. I like being busy, it helps when there is a lot to do and keep organized with. We’ve so far not had the massive wet and windy storms that we suffered last January, in fact there has been a decent amount of blue sky weather so I was out a lot in the first couple of weeks doing some sketching, all those January shadows. Here are some from downtown; above, the building on the corner of C and 3rd, not far from my optometrist (where I spent a lot of money before Christmas ordering new glasses, my most expensive ones yet because my eyesight is getting so bad, still waiting for those). As I write, it’s just after 3 in the morning, and the rain is coming down outside. We are expecting big storms this weekend, wet and windy, hopefully we don’t get so many trees down like last year. We had planned to go up to the mountains this weekend, but the weather will be bad. So we’ll stay inside watching movies and drinking tea and hot chocolate, I mean there are worse things. I’ve had an issue with one of my teeth that’s made this week pretty annoying; the visit to the dentist will mean more expensive visits to the dentists, so the next few weeks I’ll be anxious about that. Back in London my dad’s been in hospital since Christmas so that’s been a big worry, I just heard he is getting out now thankfully, but I’d still like to try and get over there soon. And globally, well there’s never good news these days is there, it just feels like the world is spinning the wrong way sometimes. Work is picking up; its’ faculty recruitment season, and our campus also launched a new financial system we have spent years preparing for and are now struggling to get to grips with, a classic ‘did it really need changing to something far more complicated?’ moment. At least it keeps us busy. Anyway, we all keep pressing on. I’ve been drawing a lot, but there’s nothing new about that, even if it’s a lot of the same places over and over. Draw your little part of world to make sense of it.

The first weekend of the new year, I popped out on my bike to sketch downtown. I had decided in 2024 I would draw at least once every day; yeah even with my productivity that’s not happening. I draw more than most as it is. Still I went down C Street next to Community Park and sketched the side of Community Church, it looked good in the sun. After that I cycled over to the bit of 3rd Street just over the railroad tracks, in the old east downtown, ‘Trackside Center’, and drew the scene below. I thought they were going to redevelop this whole place, that might still be in the works, talked about for a number of years now. the lovely chocolate shop is still there, but not much else. I like having that signage in the foreground, that’s one of my motifs I guess. I have not drawn a fire hydrant in the foreground for a while. This is because I tend to stand when I sketch a lot more than I did 10 or 12 years ago.

Here’s another, from D Street a few days later, the weather starting to get cooler and cloudier, another ‘2 Hour Parking’ sign in the foreground. I stood outside the Pence, looked up toward Mustard Seed and Cloud Forest Cafe. The house on the right has been many things (I even exhibited some drawings there years ago when it was an artists’ studio) but is now called ‘Wines in Tandem’, that’s what the sign says anyway. Wine is nice, I don’t drink much of it though. My wife’s mother brought a nice bottle for thanksgiving and we had some during dinner, but never finished the bottle; it’s still there in the fridge, because we can never finish a bottle of wine. Never had that problem when I was 22, student parties and so on. I’m a lightweight now with wine. I’m a lightweight with beer too really, but it’s a bit easier on me. I never liked drinking spirits, but I do like a nice cocktail, and we had a few in Maui swimming in the pool. And there in the middle of the sketch is the red phone box, famous in Davis, symbol of my old home country. When my son was very little we would come downtown on the bus (the “real bus” he would call it) and we would pretend that the red phone box was like a rocket ship, and go to Saturn and look around, and then come back to Davis. Those were the days. One of my earliest downtown sketches was of that phone box, back in the summer of 2006, and I’ve drawn it many times since. Lego just came out with a new red phone box set that I am going to have to get, to put on my shelf at work with my other London Lego sets. If only that phone box was a real teleporting ship, I’d use it go go back to London more, I do miss that big annoying wet crowded expensive old city, even in January when I know it’s at its worst. Davis is a nicer place to be in a month like this, no doubt, but the storms are coming in. Every year has a January, the Monday morning of months.

the helpful cat

January 18, 20241 Comment

I worked from home for a couple of days after getting back from Maui, just before the new academic quarter began. I don’t think anybody wanted this quarter to start. I’m still in two minds about whether I want this year to start. You cannot stop the progress of time, hold it back though we try, it keeps on crashing through. As my old boss in Finchley two decades ago used to say, “What I can do?” We just get on with it. I had a companion while working at my desk, our cat Whiskers who likes to keep us company whenever any of us work from home, he needs to be right there supervising. He’s a pretty quiet supervisor. I definitely prefer working from the office, but taking a day from home every so often can be nice, and oddly more productive with no (human) interruptions. My laptop screen is pretty small though, and occasionally a cat will sit across the keyboard. Here though he was just keeping the laptop case warm for me, a useful task. He and his brother were very happy we were home from Hawaii. We arrived back after dark, and it was pouring with rain. I always unpack my clothes right away when returning home, it’s a habit of mine (yet when I do laundry and hang up my wet clothes in the bathroom, it can be a week or so before I put those clean clothes away after they’ve dried, it’s funny). I drew Whiskers in pencil and watercolour.

Pa’ia, `Īao, and Up-Country to Haleakalā

January 18, 2024January 18, 2024Leave a comment

It wasn’t all beach time in Maui. I mean it mostly was, plus pool time, plus playing the ukulele looking at the ocean time, plus expensive cocktail time. There was a lot of looking out at the sunset like Luke Skywalker as well. On one of the days though we hired a car and went off on an adventure. Four years ago, we had done the Road to Hana, or at least as much of it as we could fit in in the short December daylight. This time we were going Up Country, but we did stop off in one familiar place, the surfing town of Pa’ia. We were going for lunch at the Pa’ia Fish Market, an evidently popular place with a long line out of the door. While my wife and son lined up, I went a bit further down the street to start a sketch of Tobi’s Shave Ice, where we had been back in 2019. Page 1 of a new sketchbook. I loved their shave ice when we went before, and this time did not disappoint either, when we popped in after lunch and after shopping in the little stores. Pa’ia is an interesting little town, a lot of traffic rolls through though, so it doesn’t feel peaceful. We didn’t go to the beach this time. For the best; while we were getting lunch, a fire truck zoomed through town, and it turns out that a local surfer was killed by a shark out in the waves at about the time we came into town, we heard later on. It was sad news, and the beach was closed off. From Pa’ia we drove uphill and up country. Before we went to Pa’ia though we visited the ʻĪao Valley State Monument in West Maui, a really interesting tropical park with deep green valleys and a dramatic promontory called the ʻĪao Needle (Kūkaʻemoku), which I did a very quick sketch of above in pencil and paint. The needle is said to be a huge phallic representation, whatever that means. The valley has been the burial ground for many big nobs, that is local nobolity and even one of the Hawaiian kings. There was a particularly bloody battle here in 1790 called the Battle of Kepaniwai, between Kamehameha the Great and the Maui army of Kalanikūpule, but Kamehemeha won and the islands were united. It was a really interesting and beautiful place to spend a morning, and covered in a blanket of tropical cloud.

Anyway after we left Pa’ia we were uphill all the way to Haleakalā. We stopped off on the way in a small village called Makawao, where we looked around and found the Maui Cookie Lady. This was a tiny little store, so small only a few people at a time could go in, while everyone else had to wait outside. (That reminded me of the newsagents near my school, which only let two school kids in at a time.) That waiting time gave me a chance to get the sketchbook and brown fountain pen out, and I drew as quickly as I could. Eventually my wife emerged with these two massive, well I say cookies, I thought they were cakes. I was less fussed about eating these massive cookies, but when I finally did eat some the next day, I was blown away. The one I had was some kind of chocolate one, and it was like a mix between a cookie and a brownie, but way better than either. It was one of the most amazing things I’d ever eaten. So if you are in Makawao, look out for the Maui Cookie Lady because she makes seriously amazing (and huge) cookies.

We drove further up, up, up country, getting some dramatic views across Maui, our ears and eyes all popping. Then we hit the clouds, and the sunlight dimmed, and the roads twisted and turned in huge zigzags up the mountain. Eventually, the clouds melted off and we entered Haleakalā National Park. We bought a National Parks Annual Pass, because we definitely intend to visit some more this year. I’ve become quite interested in National Parks, and have collected pins and postcards from each one we’ve been to. Ok in the past few years, so far we’ve visited Arches (Utah), Canyonlands (Utah), Yosemite (California), Petrified Forest (Arizona) Grand Canyon (Arizona), and now Haleakalā (Hawaii). There are many more on the list. We are planning to visit Bryce Canyon and Zion (both Utah) later this year. The day was pushing along fast, but we were only in Haleakalā for one reason – to watch the sunset. A lot of people come to watch the sunrise, but I didn’t much fancy getting up at 3am to drive several hours up a mountain in the dark, and then not get a parking space. Sunset it was, and I have to say, we all agreed it was well worth it, a real once in a lifetime experience. We drove above the sea of fluffy white clouds for a while longer, like this was some floating island in the sky. We reached the crater and went and had a look, but we wanted to make sure we got a seat at the top table so we got back in the car and headed for the summit. Haleakalā – which means ‘House of the Sun’ in Hawaiian – is a giant dormant volcano, and the crater is an impressive sight as the shadows slowly drift across it. Legends say that the grandmother of the Hawaiian heroic demigod Māui was born here. I had to sketch it. There were otherworldly plants called ‘silverswords’ dotted around, a super rare plant that grows nowhere else on the planet except here. It was cold up at the summit, 10,000 feet above sea level, and we had to wrap up warm. There were a lot of people gathered up there, but it wasn’t too bad, there was sunset enough for everyone. I played my ukulele up there above the clouds. This is a sacred place for local people from Maui, and you can see why. There was a local man singing as the sun set, with his own ukulele, singing a local version of ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’. Across the mountaintop are the space surveillance systems of the Observatory, which you can see in my quick pre-sunset sketch below. It was beautiful.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime sunset. I know the sun goes down every single night and pretty much always has done, but where you watch it from really makes a difference.

Yeah Maui was pretty amazing. Big thumbs up from me.

A Wave from Wailea

January 11, 2024January 11, 2024Leave a comment

Maui No Ka Oi. That mean’s ‘Maui is the Best’, and it is a beautiful place. Looking out at the Pacific Ocean from where we were staying in Wailea, towards the island of Lanai, the barren land of Kaho’olawe, the small volcanic shell of Molokini, over to West Maui which looks like it might be another island but is joined to Maui by a large fertile valley, and beyond to Moloka’i, none of it seems real. We sat and watched one sunset on New Year’s Day, and the range of colours in the domed sky around us made it feel like we were in a giant IMAX dome. Paradise on Earth. Though looking out at West Maui, which I drew above in afternoon light for my final sketch of 2024, it was hard not to think of all those who suffered in those terrible fires back in the summer, especially in the devastated historic capital of Lahaina, just on the other side of that mountain. Even though we’ve seen so much fire in California in recent years, it is hard to imagine when looking at a view like this, but hard not to think about. IT was a poignant New Years Even for Maui, though still celebrated with the fireworks out at see, as it was the last time we were here. We sat on the bluff this time overlooking the beach, watching the fireworks and worrying if it would scare the sea turtles, and I played my ukulele as 2023 sodded off and 2024 waltzed in. We were one of the last in the world to leave 2023 behind, better late than never.

I did most of my sketching in the morning before everyone was up, and in the afternoon when it was nap time, and mostly just went out to sketch the view of the Ocean. I drew in my Moleskine, and also in my little Fabriano Venezia which is lovely for little watercolour sketches, and nice drawing in portrait format for a change. The sketch above was shortly after sunrise. On the morning before, we had gone out in the outrigger canoe to explore the ocean, getting an interesting little tour by our local guides (who were actually from South Africa and Argentina), pointing out all sorts of history and story that we didn’t know about. We didn’t see any whales while we were out there, but there were plenty around, being whale season in Maui. We saw some from a long way off while we were on the beach. We didn’t (thankfully) see any sharks. We did encounter a sea turtle right up close though, swimming alongside our canoe. It was a pretty great experience, and I loved being out on the water.

I drew the sketch above after sunrise on the following day also. I wanted to focus a bit more using the paints and less of the pen. That little boat with the red triangular sail was out there every morning. This was New Year’s Eve, and later that morning I went snorkeling for the first time. I’d never done it before and was a little hesitant; I can float about well enough but am not the strongest swimmer, but my wife got me a good floaty vest so I could do my best with it. About a minute after getting under the water, a big sea turtle swam right up to me, and then passed by slowly, swimming alongside me for a little bit. It was a great experience, though I was nervous to see it at first. I grew up with tortoises, so this was special, but I kept my distance. The honu as they are called in Hawaiian is a protected marine animal. I didn’t see another, but I swam around a lot of very colourful fish in the rocks and corals. Oh dammit, I forgot to make a joke about singing ‘Christmas Corals’, I’ll do that next time.

Above is a quick sketch of Molokini, the little crescent-shaped volcanic crater – sorry, it’s a ‘caldera’ – which is super popular with snorkelers. It’s supposed to be spectacular, though it was used for target practice in World War II (Kaho’olawe itself was bombed to bits during the war and long afterwards as the US military used the island to test its weaponry, and remains unpopulated). It was quite hard to see Molokini, but I brought my binoculars with me.

The next couple of sketches from New Year’s Day were done close together as the sun was getting ready to set. I really wanted to catch the colours of the sunset going into the ocean, with the shining volcanic rocks in the foreground. I drew the one below before the one above, and you can see the change in the colour of the sky in the short space of time. It wasn’t as windy that day, but on one of the afternoons I sat out there by that tree with my ukulele playing hard into the wild Wailea winds as the ocean splashed nearby. It’s a good place to play the ukulele, so relaxing.

And below, my last sketch in Maui by the ocean, another morning looking out at West Maui, a palm tree, well-trimmed vacation resort grass, and a big rock that has a sign on it telling us it had been deposited there on the bluff from the ocean by a huge wave a few decades ago. Call my bluff indeed. I have a bunch of other Maui sketches I couldn’t help drawing from our trip ‘upcountry’, I will post those soon. It was a lovely trip to Maui. The cocktails were a bit expensive, but we got to enjoy them from an infinity pool looking out at the sea. The food was good, although I tried a local ‘Molokai potato and banana curry’ which I thought might be good but was actually gross, here’s your expensive check. The seafood was delicious though, and our dinner and Mai Tais at Monkeypod were incredible. It’s these views though, this is what you come here for. Maui No Ka Oi.