another look at the hattie weber museum

September 20, 2024September 19, 2024Leave a comment

I could have included this in the last post, but because it happened to fall into September I decided not to. I’ve drawn this before a few times (that could be the name of my book) and it is the Hattie Weber Museum of Davis, a little museum all about Davis that is in the old Library building, Hattie Weber being the first paid librarian in Davis. I feel like I am repeating myself, over and over, drawing the same buildings, writing the same words, being the same predictable person day in and day out. I always have been, I think. I mean, we probably all are, but me more than most. Maybe it’s reassuring, maybe it’s samey. My sketchbooks feel like a Museum of Davis though. Maybe that’s how I should approach the book I inevitably must write (or compile, I mean I don’t know if putting a book of drawings together is really ‘writing’). A book that shows the changes in the past two decades, both in the city itself and in my style, and maybe in me as well. You know, back then I would go to work, draw stuff, eat noodles, watch football, listen to the same three or four bands, write stuff on my blog, whereas now… Ok. I felt a bit ashamed of myself drawing this building yet again, as if I was totally out of all ideas. Let’s look for example at the previous times I have drawn it…

So this one was done in 2016, in early September. That was eight years ago, same time of year, shortly before an Election (one which I very much did not like the outcome of), drawn from a similar (but not exactly the same) angle.

Fast forward to August 2020 (another Election year, one which I liked the outcome of a lot more, but was no less stressful) but look, I am drawing on this side of the street now. Samey, predictable? Not me guv! Of course, summer 2020 was a real moment in time, wasn’t it. I drew this one for the Pence Gallery’s annual Art Auction, I think it sold. It’s probably the best one I did.

This one also sold at the Pence Gallery, back in 2011 when I had that big solo show. That was really fifteen years ago? Time flies. It’s eight years since my retrospective exhibition at the UC Davis Design Museum too. I have done a lot of drawing since then, a massive amount. But, as we’ve determined, it’s all pretty much drawings of the same thing, just later in life.

Whoah, what the flip is this? A completely different angle altogether! It’s like jazz or something. I was in the little rose garden looking north or northish. Look, there are people! I must have been in a good mood that day. It was September again, the weekend before the academic year started, out at the Farmer’s Market in 2022, the heady post-pandemic days. Two years from any Election, a completely stress-free environment, yep.

And then, back to the earliest one, May 2011, an innocent time when I was still putting little borders around my sketches, and drawing with a black Micron pen. there was an old school-bell outside the building in those days, whenever I would come downtown with my at-the-time-very-little son on the bus on a Saturday morning (the ‘real bus’, he used to call it) he would occasionally ring this bell. Anyway this is the Hattie Weber Museum over the years, but it doesn’t tell its most interesting bit of history, way before my time, when it was actually the original Davis Library, and was located in an entirely different place, at 117 F Street. They moved it here at the start of the 90s, and the museum opened in 1992. And I’m sure I’ll keep drawing it as long as I’m in Davis. I’ve just realized, I have never actually sketched inside…

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/

kelvingrove and the west end

August 11, 2023August 10, 20231 Comment

We took the bus over to the Kelvingrove neighbourhood, in Glasgow’s west end, to see the famous Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. It’s free to go inside, and was a fun (if slightly eccentrically organized) journey through art, design, culture and natural history. The building is beautiful, dating to the end of the Victorian age, beside the large and leafy Kelvingrove Park. Next to the Museum there are lawn bowling greens, build for the Commonwealth Games, that I had seen in Belle and Sebastian’s guide to Glasgow (on YouTube), I guess they come and bowl here from time to time. I think they were playing in Belgium that day so unlikely I’d bump into any of them. Inside there are loads of things to draw, but I wasn’t really going to draw much (the above was mostly an outline with everything else drawn when I got back to the hotel; it was on-off raining that morning). I did however have to spend the time sketching the dinosaur you see below, a Ceratosaurus from Wyoming. They did apparently live in Scotland though, I can’t imagine how I’d feel if this thing turned on me and said “hey what you lookin’ at pal?” in a Glaswegian growl. Probably very scared. That’s my son in the background looking around while I drew.

I really enjoyed the strange floating heads installation in the East Court, by Sophie Cave. I did start drawing the Spitfire that was suspended above us, but didn’t want to hang about too long so gave up. There were some lovely paintings, including a really great Lowrie, and a bunch of pieces by Mackintosh, but I think most of all I liked the big Elvis sculpture, “Return to Sender” by Sean Reed. I thought he was taking a selfie, so I joined in. Fun fact, we were married by an Elvis in Las Vegas.

IMG_7906s

The leafy park was a pleasant walk, and we headed past Glasgow University. This would have been a nice place to study. We were hungry for lunch and so headed to the shops in the west end. I was looking for a couple of guitar shops though, where my son and I spent a nice bit of time looking at guitars. The first was CC Music, on Otago Street, they were very friendly in there and I chatted with the guy about California while my son tried instruments. He’s getting really into the guitar now, having first been playing the ukulele. We then went to Jimmy Egypt & Son’s on Great Western Road, a great little shop, where I bought a cool new guitar strap (unfortunately no guitar purchases, not as easy carrying back to the US). We lunched at a great little burger place called Brgr, then walked about the cool little shops. It reminded us a bit of Muswell Hill. We didn’t go to the Botanical Gardens, but we did pass through the university again on the way back to the bus stop. By the way, the dates on all these sketches are wrong, it says 6/25/23 when actually it was the 26th, not sure why I did that. Anyway, since I was in Britain I should have written 26/6/23, but I’m Americanized now ain’t I.

This was not in the west end, but back in central Glasgow on St. Vincent Street. While the family rested at the hotel, I went out drawing for a while, and for some reason I really liked these roofs. This reddish sandstone is emblematic of much of Glasgow’s architecture, such as the old Evening Citizen offices further down in St. Vincent Place (I wish I’d drawn that building), and of course in Kelvingrove Art Museum. The sky was nice, blue with moving clouds, and as I sketched lots of Metallica fans kept walking past, in their Metallica t-shirts. I supposed Metallica must have been playing somewhere. Actually now I think of it, it was Iron Maiden, not Metallica. I always get those confused. Wait was it Def Leppard? No, it was definitely Iron Maiden. Yes, loads of Iron Maiden fans walking past, in their Iron Maiden t-shirts. I can’t believe I got that wrong, actually. I was in my Belle and Sebastian t-shirt (maybe it Camera Obscura? I’m so forgetful). Not that I felt uncomfortable, it’s not like I was in an Ireland shirt while watching the Orange Order march past. Iron Maiden fans are pretty friendly in my experience, back in the 90s when I would go to heavy metal clubs in London, they were usually the nicest places to be at night. Anyway I thought about going to draw an old Glasgow pub, and nearly sketched a big old place called the Horseshoe, but it was getting on for dinner time. I forget what we ate, some Scottish fast food thing, but we did afterwards finally try that classic delicacy, Deep Fried Mars Bar. It was actually amazing, and even thinking of it now, I want another. Maybe not super healthy, but you don’t come to Scotland to eat super healthy. With that in mind, we retired to the hotel for more Tunnocks Tea Cakes, washed down with Irn Bru. Here’s my drawing of one of those delicious little beauties.

Next up, we drove north, through rain and country. I would like to revisit Glasgow some day, wander about a bit more, chat with some locals in the pub, climb a few more hills, see some music. Another day.

my name is Sue, how do you do

May 5, 2023May 4, 2023Leave a comment

A great sketcher once said (and it was Lapin, by the way) that every sketchbook needs two things – a dinosaur, and an old car. Sketchbook #45 has those things now, after we visited the Field Museum in Chicago, an incredible collection which is chock full of dinosaurs. (I already drew an old car at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento) I missed out on going to the Urban Sketching Symposium in Chicago in 2017 (I had just been promoted, and felt it would be a good idea to stick around and learn stuff in that first month on the job), so I missed Lapin’s workshop “Groarrr!” which took place at the Field Museum, drawing Sue, the enormous Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that is the highlight of the collection, as well as being pretty much the most complete T-Rex skeleton in the world. Plus it’s called Sue, so I had Johnny Cash in my head the whole time. “My name is Sue! How do you do! Now you gonn’ die!” I also briefly had the theme tune to The Sooty Show in my head, thinking of the silent cheekiness of Sooty, the mischievous squeak of Sweep, and the bossy voice of Soo, the only one who could use real words, if you don’t count Matthew who was a real human and now a hand puppet, or at least so we are led to believe (did you ever see his legs?). People who didn’t grow up in Britain will have no idea what I’m talking about, but I did imagine Sue the T-Rex talking in that voice, saying “izzy wizzy let’s get busy”. Never mind all of these pop culture ramblings, it has been a busy week. If you want to learn some actual stuff about Sue the T-Rex, you can visit the Field Museum website: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/sue-t-rex. We don’t know if Sue was a boy dinosaur or a girl dinosaur (insert an Ian Malcolm quote from Jurassic Park here) but they were named after Sue Hendrickson, who discovered the dinosaur in 1990 in South Dakota. The light in there kept going dark, for mood and storytelling, which made sketching a little tricky.

The first dinosaur I drew though was the nemesis of the T-Rex, the heroic Triceratops. I always imagine Triceratops as a Captain America type figure, fighting the big meat-eaters for hours, looking up and saying “I can do this all day”. In the books Triceratops would always be locked in battle with the Tyrannosaur, its large parrot beak, rock solid neck shield, and the horns of both a rhino and a yak, like who designed this creature, a four year old? Triceratops is nevertheless a design classic, really hard to beat. Parasaurolophus and Styracosaurus have pretty amazing heads, but Triceratops is beautiful. I sat on a bench with my son and drew the whole thing, a good spot to rest the legs after looking at so many dinosaurs already.

I did this sketch above while they were resting again a bit later, watching a school orchestra play some music from the movies (not Jurassic Park) in the main hall of the museum. Hanging above in the foreground is a model of the enormous flying prehistoric beast Quetzalcoatlus, which I’m not going to say is an ugly dinosaur, but is no Triceratops. It’s no Pteranodon either. It was gigantic though, you would not want this thing pecking away at your plane’s cockpit (spoiler alert for one of the Jurassic World movies, which was not very good). I should point out, Jurassic Park is one of my favourite films of all time, and I adored the book as well. It is for me nothing short of a perfect film. I quite liked the follow ups, the Lost World and Jurassic Park 3, though now I think about it Jurassic Park 3 was not actually very good. Jurassic World…well, I’ll say it was enjoyable, I guess. A nice idea, but not a re-watcher, and the characters were completely irritating. The follow up, Jurassic World Volcano Wars I think it was called, was utterly diabolical, and there was nothing whatsoever of interest, but I did watch it on a small airplane screen so no huge loss. The last one, Jurassic World Dumpster Divers or something, we actually went to a movie theatre and paid actual dollars to see, and the universe is never giving me back that five and a half hours or however long it was. It was advertised as having the original three back in it, and back in it they indeed were, and Jurassic Park it was not. Jurassic World Dominion made Jurassic Park 3 look like The Godfather Part 2. I’m not going to say it was the worst film I have ever seen (because I have watched The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Hour Long Sequels) but you know when you like apples and you eat all the different apples, but you eat one apple that tastes so disgusting and makes you want to vomit, that while it doesn’t put you off eating apples completely, it does make you much less likely to want to eat an apple afterwards, to the point where you just give up eating apples and eat cereal instead. Well that was the last Jurassic World film and movies in general for me. But you know, you should watch it, don’t take my word for it.

I could have spent all day in the Field Museum, learning and sketching, but we moved along, and headed for the Nutella Cafe. We decided to skip the Art Institute, due to Museum Fatigue, though my wife did go there on our final morning in Chicago and the pictures she took of all the very famous artworks made me wish I had actually gone. Next time! Instead, on our last morning I stayed at the hotel with my son, before heading out to do one last sketch, down at Michigan and Wacker. It’s a bit of an unfinished sketch, but I decided this time not to bother going in later and drawing all those windows, because you know, you get the idea. Tribune Tower (on the right) is an architectural masterpiece, containing stones from famous buildings from all over the world, which is actually a bit weird but ok.

Right, Top Five things I would like to do next time I’m in Chicago:

Listen to The Blues. I never got to go to any of Chicago’s famous Blues clubs, like Kingston Mines, or one of the other ones. I will admit, I’m not exactly a massive Blues afficionado. I like it, but not as much as I want to like it. But Blues in Chicago? That I want to see. I want to be somewhere in Chicago watching some old Blues player carve riffs out of a big Gretsch, taking in the whole atmosphere, so that all I want to do is get home and play Blues riffs until my fingers hurt.
Art Institute. As mentioned, I decided to sketch in the street instead of actually see some great art. That might have been a mistake, or maybe I was just saying to myself, no I’ll do that next time. They have Van Goghs, Picassos, they have that American Gothic painting, and Nighthawks by Hopper! My mate Roshan had that as a poster.
Watch some Improv. I never got to to go any of Chicago’s famous Improv clubs, like The Second City, or one of the other ones. I will admit, I’m not exactly a massive Improv afficionado. I like it, but not as much as I want to like it. But Improv in Chicago? That I want to see. I want to be somewhere in Chicago watching some old Improv actor carve witty lines out of a big Suggestion, taking in the whole atmosphere, so that all I want to do is get home and improvise until my fingers hurt.
Have a different Deep Dish Pizza. I really liked the one at Pizzeria Uno, as described in a previous post, but I would like to try some other places, maybe get some local suggestions.
Wrigley Field. I never got to to go any of Chicago’s famous baseball parks, like Wrigley Field, or one of the other ones. I will admit, I’m not exactly a massive baseball afficionado. (Okay, I’m not doing that again.) I do like a ballpark, but even I know Wrigley Field is pretty special and historic, and there’s nothing more American than going to an ancient baseball stadium,, taking in the whole atmosphere, so that all I want to do is get home and swing a baseball bat until my fingers hurt (I literally never want to do that after watching baseball).

There is one other thing I’d do next time, that’s get in touch with some of the Chicago Urban Sketchers I know, such as Don Colley, who is pretty amazing. I thought about contacting some to see if they wanted to go and sketch an old bar some night, but this was a family trip and I knew I’d be cream-crackered too. I am tempted by the Chicago Sketch Seminar this July, although it’s very soon after another trip I’m taking, and I’m sure I’d be too tired. But it does look really fun.

Ok, so we then went to the airport, where we waited for hours and hours for our plane to deign to take off. We spent so long at that damned airport, and I hate airports at the best of times. So I sketched people again, in my little red sketchbook. That was pretty boring. We played a lot of Super Mario Kart 8 on the Switch, I had bought a new Switch Lite before the trip as the battery in the old one was utterly dead. We were exhausted, and it was going to be a long flight if we ever got on a plane. I don’t know why Southwest was delayed so much, but it wasn’t Tornadoes, they all happened the night before. Anyway, get on a plane we eventually did, so I had to do one last in-flight sketch. Until next time Chicago! I always fantasized about doing that thing where you take the Amtrak train for several days across the country, watching America on ground level as it gradually changes, waking up in far-flung cities or small-town America, but after spending four hours in Midway airport and getting bored out of my head, I think spending three days in a train seat might be enough to make me just get a plane back. But Chicago was damn cool, and I’ll be back.

among jets and giants

July 26, 2021Leave a comment

Last week we went to the Aerospace Museum of California in Sacramento, which I’d wanted to visit for ages but as always, never get around to it. I grew up near the RAF Museum in Hendon, living about a mile or so away, yet it wasn’t until 2019 on a brief visit back to London (there was an Urban Sketchers London sketchcrawl there) that I finally visited. The California Aerospace Museum has a pretty amazing collection of planes and helicopters, and to quote the Bard, I love all that shit. When I was a kid I was obsessed with war planes, fighter jets, army helicopters. I loved the Spitfire of course, who didn’t, but was a big fan of the Tornado, and of the classic F16. In my primary school, probably because of our proximity to the historic RAF Hendon Aerodrome (now the site of the RAF Museum, and Grahame Park Estate) divided the kids into four houses, common in British schools (magical or otherwise; round our way your wand would be broken and your broomstick half-inched), and those four houses were named after great fighter planes: Phantoms (blue), Harriers (red), Jaguars (green) and Tornadoes (yellow). I think they were the colours anyway. Come to think of it maybe Jaguars were blue. Were Phantoms black? They might have been green. I don’t care. I was in Tornadoes, we were yellow. We got house points for good deeds, doing well at stuff (most of my house points were for drawing) (I might have lost some for drawing on the table though), and sports day. I did have pictures of planes on my bedroom wall; my big sister went out with a guy called Neil for a while and he worked at British Aerospace, so he brought me some brilliant prints of fighter jets. I used to draw my own ones, overloaded with all kinds of missile and machine gun, helicopters too. One of my favourite shows was Airwolf. Anyway the nine-year-old me was in heaven seeing all these old American fighter planes. It’s mostly open air, all the planes and choppers are displayed around the outside of the main hangar building, which mostly holds exhibits and engines and things about space, as well as an enormous aircraft called ‘Makani’, a many-propellored ‘energy kite’. Even thought it was morning it was very hot and hard to spend too much time outside. I particularly liked seeing the banana shaped helicopter and the Sikorsky ‘Jolly Green Giant’, and was enthralled with the fighter jets (no F16s, sadly). I got to draw a couple of them – the F86 Sabre (above), which had the logo ‘CALIF-ANG’ on the side (I made my wife take a photo with it, since she goes by Ang (short for Angela) and is from Calif (short for California). I love the US Air Force logo, that big star, it’s so classic. I also drew the McDonnell-Douglas F-4C “Phantom II”. I had to draw a Phantom, in honour of that old school house (my friend Wayne was in Phantoms). I always thought they were a British plane but of course that fighter originated in the US, and was exported to the RAF. This one flew extensively in Vietnam and is supersonic. We were able to go inside some of the larger planes, and in one huge Korea and Vietnam era plane there was a man who had participated in combat missions in Vietnam in that very plane, not as the pilot but as one of the crew on the plan, and who had parachuted from it many times. His stories were fascinating, and when asked if he enjoyed his time serving in the Air Force he said yeah, because he was up in the sky – it was much less fun for those on the ground. I’d like to go back and draw more some time, spend a few more hours there, but maybe at a cooler, less oppressively sunny time of year.