San Francisco panorama from Nob Hill

September 9, 2025September 9, 20252 Comments

Hello everyone, I am very behind in posting because I was in Europe for a whole month (London, Poland and Berlin) and have an extremely massive amount of sketches to post, and I am still nowhere near caught up with posting the pre-vacation sketches – I have enough to last me forever, if you can keep up with them all. I draw a lot, that is for sure. It’ll never say on my gravestone “Here lies Pete, who didn’t draw enough”. Yet I always feel I need to draw more. Even since I got back little more than a week ago, I have been busy, running a 5k race (beating my time from last year) and then taking a weekend trip to San Francisco to watch Supergrass and then fly to Los Angeles to watch Oasis! I have hundreds of sketches to scan. In the meantime however I should finally post again here on my old-school sketchblog, and to get going again, here is a big drawing I did this summer (based on sketches I made back in February while looking out of the window of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco’s Nob Hill). It’s big, it’s detailed, it’s of a great city view, and I loved this one. I worked on it while my family were away in Disneyland and I was home alone for the weekend. Telegraph Hill there on the right, Russian Hill there on the left, Alcatraz (long may it remain a tourist attraction and National Historic Landmark), and Powell Street sweeping down to the bay. I liked the buildings on the left in the foreground going uphill like books lined up on the stairs.

Anyway I’m showing this one now because as of this week it is on display and for sale at the Pence Gallery’s annual Art Auction! I have two pieces in there this year, the San Francisco panorama and a drawing of the Primrose Hill Bookshop that I made last year (I did visit that bookshop again on my recent trip, bought a nice book by David Gentleman there, signed copy). You can find out about the Pence Gallery’s Art Auction on their website, pencegallery.org/events/art-auction.

You can also see the listings themselves at the Auction Catalog. My listings (and you can bid on them if you like!) are available to see here.

Anyway, I’d better start scanning the mountain of summer sketches, because Fall is about to begin…

a new one just begun

February 18, 2025February 17, 20254 Comments

Every year I dread the birthday week; I don’t technically age any more than I do any other day, but that day does push me ever further into the next category in the local fun runs. I tend to draw a lot in the run up to my birthday, as if to take my mind off it; the run up to my birthday is about 365 days. Ok so now we are in February, and have things got better yet, globally? No they have gotten worse, way worse already than ever worried about, and the rest of this month, let alone the rest of this year, fills me with anxiety. Where do we even start? I marginally ease this despair by drawing the world around me; there are only so many buildings with trees in front of it in Davis, yeah? I sometimes think, with all these drawings recording this city over the course of the past nearly two decades (wow) are they something that will be looked at many years later or are they just things of the moment; I need to put a book together. That would take my mind off things, maybe. I see my work on all these drawings as part of a purpose, the idea that these all might be a book or series of books. Occasionally people do see my work on Instagram or here and are like, wow I used to live there, and it sparks memories, and that’s a great thing. When I see illustrations of London, if it is a place I know and connect with well, I look at it and it takes me to places in my mind. Anyway, above it was a day when I was out sick, felt bloody awful. It had been building since the weekend, felt physically wiped out, and on this day I’d been up all night with a headache. I managed to sleep half the day, had a remote work meeting, and tried to rest for a bit more but I needed some fresh air, so went for a walk, making it all the way down to 5th Street where I stopped and did a drawing. I coloured it in later. People were waiting at the bus stop, so I added those in, “why don’t you draw people in your sketches, don’t you think your drawings would be much better if there were people in it?” they say, forgetting the name of my last book; this will satisfy them for a minute. I have waited at that bus stop before, but not for a long time. The bus that would go along there is the one that took me home to our little apartment in south Davis, the area we lived in when we first moved to this city.

A couple of days before, I was already not feeling that well and ended up going home early. After walking downtown to eat something, I found myself needing a rest at Central Park, so I got my sketchbook out and drew the big frat house on the corner. Drawn this a few times, so I didn’t draw it all, left details out and did not start colouring it in. This is enough, all that’s needed. At least I’m drawing. Often times this might be as far as I can get (due to time) and then I’m like, yep finish this one at home.

The next day, already feeling sick, I had to stay home in the morning because a new bed was being delivered to my house. My body said I needed to rest, but any chance of lying in bed was off the table. I had to take my old bed out (not easy at all, no idea how the guys who brought it in managed to do it) and then bring the new one in and put it together. After I was done, I went to work as there is a lot to do. I stopped off for some lunch on the way in, and then did a quick sketch nearby of The Barn, sketching for about ten minutes half-heartedly, not really having any energy at all. So this is kept like this, I don’t really need another sketch of this building, and this is more an illustration of how I was feeling physically.

And finally, end of the week, felt a lot better by then (maybe the new bed is helping with the sleep) and it was Friday afternoon, everything was done so I finished an hour early and walked downtown for a birthday milkshake. The new year diet never happened, but it’s 2025, comfort milkshakes are gonna happen, while milkshakes are still available. Still wasn’t feeling too well, but definitely better, and that milkshake had my name on it. Before heading home I walked over to D Street and liked the way the just-after-5pm light was hitting the Pence Gallery. The days are getting a little longer. Each day feels like a million years. I drew and added only a few colours and the shadows, this is all it needed. Another year over.

pence art auction 2023

October 8, 2023Leave a comment

Late September, I went to the Pence Gallery’s annual art Auction party, which is always a nice event with food and drink and music. They don’t have the exciting Live Auction any more as it’s all online, but the Pence director Natalie Nelson did give an announcement when the online bidding is about to close, and it’s fun seeing everyone check their phones to see if their bid has been outbid, or if their art has sold. I had to sketch of course, so I grabbed a beer and some Dos Coyotes food and stood out on the courtyard, with the evening getting darker, and sketched the lived band, I think they were called According to Bazooka. I always like sketching to music, it helps to have some rhythm to draw along to. I had to squint my eyes to see in the gloam, especially to draw the drummer who was mostly behind the woman in front. I was sat at a table with some of them afterwards and showed them my sketchbook, I think they liked it. Thought I am not sure, as I did overhear the man singer telling someone else about it saying that it wasn’t very flattering, but maybe it was about something completely different. Below is my quick sketch of Natalie thanking everyone who made the event a success, and giving the five minute warning that the auction was about to close. I drew that one quickly with the fountain pen.

Here are my two pieces that were in the event, ‘Deacon Brodie’s Tavern’ and ‘Bar Italia’. And both sold! I was very pleased to hear that, I was quite happy with both those drawings. And then I cycled home and watched the F1 Japanese Grand Prix.

deacon brodie’s tavern

September 4, 2023September 4, 2023Leave a comment

The other drawing that I’ve put into the Pence Gallery’s Art Auction was this one of Deacon Brodie’s Tavern, on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. I wanted to draw an old pub, and I decided to go beyond London this time and draw one I never got around to sketching while I was in the Scottish capital. I didn’t even pop in for a pint, I’m sad to say. The one evening I went out to sketch a pub, I didn’t go further than the block near our apartment, but this was just a little way up the hill. I had taken a few photos of it before, as I remember seeing it on one of Rick Steve’s many shows, so I knew it was famous. It dates back about 200 years or so, and was named after a well-known local character, Deacon Blue Brodie. Sorry, Deacon William Brodie. He was an upstanding Edinburgh citizen, a maker of cabinets, but boy did he have things in his closet. Do you see what I did there. By night, he would turn to a life of crime, becoming a burglar to pay off his gambling debts, trying not to ‘drawer’ attention to him ‘shelf’ and fall foul of the long ‘armoire’ of the law. Ok enough cabinet gags. The point is, Deacon Brodie led a double life, eventually leading to his being hanged in 1788 – ironically, as the sign outside the pub states cheerfully, on gallows he himself had designed. There’s a lesson for you. His story however inspired a much more famous one, when Robert Louis Stephenson created the characters of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (Spoiler alert, Jekyll and Hyde are the same person). The pub sign on the corner shows the respectable Jekyll-like goodie Deacon Brodie on one side, with the Hyde-like villain Deacon Brodie on the other.

As I say, I never went in this time, but I guess it’s one of the stops on the literary pub tours of Edinburgh, when you presumably go to literally every pub. I had to draw it, and this will be in the Pence Gallery’s Art Auction this year; details are at: https://pencegallery.org/events/art-auction/. As I said in my last post, there’ll be a Preview Exhibit on September 8th if you’re in Davis, and bidding starts on Sept 10 through Sept 23, when the Art Auction Party takes place at the gallery.

bar italia – round the corner in soho

September 1, 2023September 1, 2023Leave a comment

Looking back to London, this is the famous Bar Italia, a cafe on Frith Street in the heart of Soho. I drew this as part of two pieces I out in to the Pence Gallery’s annual Art Auction, deciding I really wanted to put in a place that meant a lot to me. Well, Soho means a lot to me, not necessarily Bar Italia, given that the last time I actually had anything here was in the mid-1990s. I just love that it is still here, still very much keeping Old Soho alive in the face of all the dross and change in this area. I drew it on an 8″x10″ piece of paper and framed it, I was really pleased with how it turned out. That might be me sat in the corner, wearing what looks like a Charleroi shirt (lot of Italians lived in Charleroi), but not exactly representative of when I would actually go there. For one thing, it’s daylight, and another, I don’t drink coffee. Bar Italia was a great place to go at about 3 or 4 in the morning, after going to whatever small Soho nightclub that played indie or rock music, and have a cold soda or even a cappuccino. I knew some Italians back then and we’d sometimes go there in those wee hours and those were the only times I ever had cappuccino, and the cappuccino in Bar Italia was really good. I can’t stand coffee, but that was nice. It was more the location, filled with interesting people, Soho people, all that little bit still awake and alive before the night bus home. In summertime the sky would already be streaked with early morning pink, as you walked down to Trafalgar Square to get the N5 from outside the National Gallery with the rest of the world. In those days I had boundless energy; if I stayed up all night, I wouldn’t even notice. I definitely had the odd occasion when I would be up all night, then rater than sleep I would just shower, have breakfast and then go off to work my day job in the Asda coffee shop. When you’re 20, you can do anything. I was a sensible 20 year old though, not very hedonistic, but I loved London. I remember going off to Germany when I was 20, to spend a year working in a school for children with disabilities, a live-in job I found so difficult and stressful that I ended up leaving, and coming home again. Mostly I just missed London. The world out there was great, but London, and this London especially, was just the best place. I’ve long since left it behind now, and found a new life in California. Pulp famously ended their Different Class album with the song ‘Bar Italia’, dedicated to this old Italian cafe, including the line “I’m fading fast, and it’s nearly dawn”. When a man is tired of London, it’s time for the Night Bus. This building, 22 Frith Street, has a longer history though, as the blue plaque indicates. This is where John Logie Baird first demonstrated his new invention, the ‘television’, back in 1926. That caught on didn’t it. Further up Frith Street is Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club – and I’ve never actually been there. When i was in my late teens and 20s, jazz clubs were not really my thing. Maybe some day I might go, and pop into Bar Italia afterwards.

This drawing will be in the Pence Gallery’s Art Auction this year; details are at: https://pencegallery.org/events/art-auction/. There’ll be a Preview Exhibit on September 8th if you’re in Davis, and bidding starts on Sept 10 through Sept 23, when the Art Auction Party takes place at the gallery, always fun, and there are loads of great artists involved this year.

at the 2018 pence art auction

September 24, 2018September 23, 2018Leave a comment

This year I had two pieces in the Pence Gallery Art Auction, a drawing of St.James Church, Davis, and another of the Turtle House on 2nd St. They didn’t sell this time, but I did get to attend the Gala event. They always have nice food and drink there, and you get to talk to local art people you may or may not have met before, so I went along for an hour and a half and looked at all the nice artwork, and then did a sketch. It had been a busy day. In the morning our under-12 AYSO team, playing with fewer players than our opponents (who were a really good team), came from behind three times to win, which was exciting and especially nice after I had woken up at 4:30am to watch Tottenham lose to Liverpool. Then I spent the afternoon watching other AYSO games, scouting teams and watching players I used to coach, before we headed to Sacramento for a party thrown by my father-in-law. After that I went to the Pence (see above) and then back home for some rest. I was totally exhausted by this point.

making a song and dance about things

June 27, 2016June 27, 20167 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I went to the downtown Davis “2nd Friday Art About”, as I had a couple of pieces on display at the Pence Gallery following the Garden Tour (both sold, by the way – hooray!) and so while there was sunlight I stuck around downtown to do a bit of sketching. Inspired by the watercolour sketches of dancers by Kumi Matsukawa from Japan (who wrote chapters in my book Creative Sketching Workshop) I sketched a couple of women dressed in bright Spanish style dresses who were moving from spot to spot, performing a dance to some flamenco style music, and moving on. I also caught them in quick pencil gestures, below. This sort of loose style sketching is useful for people moving quickly, focusing on the gesture and movement rather than going for accurate details. That’s usually how your eye registers things, and your hand works slower than your eye so let it dance with the dancers.

I also sketched a band that was playing in the courtyard of the Pence. They moved around a lot less, but my eyesight sketching from a distance made it hard to pick out too many details, but the red of the middle guitarist’s dress really stood out.

sketching in a garden

May 18, 2016May 18, 20162 Comments

Last Sunday I once again took part in the Pence Gallery’s annual Garden Tour. I didn’t get to tour the gardens myself, but was a resident artist in one of the gardens, down on 4th street in Davis. The weather has turned hot, and so I stood in what shade I could shelter beneath and drew in a large Stillman and Birn ‘Alpha’ sketchbook. There were quite a lot of garden visitors that day, and I spoke to many about sketching, pens, and so on. Not being a big oil painter with a big easel I stood out a lot less than some other artists but I like to think I bring something different. It was an interesting garden, much less floral than others I have done, and more modern, a very interesting place to entertain; the owners have transformed it into a really pleasant and welcoming space. I sketched the views showing the house front and back, early and late afternoon, totally remodeled and repainted from what it looked like just a few years ago.

After that, I was very thirsty (the one bottle of water provided for me was very, very warm), so I went to the pub to cool off. It’s nice to spend an afternoon drawing though. Just don’t mention the football. Glossed right past that.

This was the third time I’ve done the Garden Tour; see my previous results from 2014 and 2012. Images will be on display at the Pence Gallery at some point soon.

2014 art auction at the pence

September 26, 2014Leave a comment

Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Pence Gallery’s annual art Auction, as one of the contributing artists. The wealth of amazing work on display was amazing, as always. The Pence is a great place and they work tirelessly to promote excellence in local art. I met a lot of nice people there, and really enjoyed watching the auction. I sketched at the back, stood next to the dessert table (wow, amazing chocolates!). The auctioneer is very humourous, and very god at getting the crowd to buy art (though every time he said “going once, going twice,” I really wanted to say “c’mon baby don’t be cold as ice…”) This is the third year in a row I’ve sketched it, and I think I’ve captured it now. Below, the view from the patio outside. A very warm night, people talking, art-lovers buying, music playing. One of my favourite spots in Davis. Oh, and both my pieces sold! I honestly hadn’t expected them to this time (I’ve sold my pieces in the previous three years) so I was pretty buoyed, and went home pretty happy. I had been coaching my son’s U7 soccer team (the Red Foxes) that afternoon, it had been a good game, so all in all a pretty nice Saturday. Many thanks to Natalie Nelson and the good people at the Pence for inviting me to take part and attend this very fun event.

scene in davis!

June 11, 20141 Comment

This Friday will be fun. I am pleased to announce that I will be exhibiting several of my Davis sketches as part of a group show called “Scene in Davis”, on display at the Art-Is-Davis co-op at 222 D Street, downtown Davis. The other featured artists are Dave Webb, Joe Finkleman and Ben Tuason, and we were all selected by the resident artists because our work is devoted to the subject of Davis. The resident artists at Art Is Davis are Dori Marshall, Seana Burke, Marieke de Waard, Jan Castle-Walker and Joanne Andresen; many thanks to Dori for inviting me to participate. There will be a reception starting at 6pm this Friday 13th June, and I plan to show some of my sketchbooks and talk my usual nonsense about uni-ball pens and fire hydrants. If you are in town and would like to say hello and see my Davis sketches, I’d love to meet you!
The show will run until July 6th, and the pieces will be for sale; maybe a nice gift for someone graduating from UC Davis, perhaps? I’m excited to see what the other works on show will be! Always enjoy seeing Davis so well represented by artists. You can visit the Art-Is-Davis website at

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But of course that isn’t all, as I also have some pieces on display at the Pence Gallery next door as part of the Garden Tour exhibit, in the upstairs conference room. You may recall the post I made about the Garden Tour recently (

dans le jardin

), and all three of my sketches are up for sale. Here are two of them on the wall:

Now there was also going to be participation in a third show, the annual ‘Tiny’ Show at the Pence Gallery, which I saw today and has some wonderful pieces (such as an amazing night-time painting of the Varsity). My contribution, drawn and painted onto a 5×7″ piece of canvas board, was of Vesuvio in San Francisco’s North Beach, redrawn from the sketch I did while stood outside there last March. Here it is:

However…it already sold! I went by today, and the Pence told me a lady from San Francisco, to whom the Vesuvio had special meaning, bought it and wanted to take it with her there and then. So while it won’t be in the Tiny Show, I’m ecstatic that it sold so quickly! I really love that corner of planet Earth myself so I am really happy it touched someone else as well. It was hard work drawing on that canvas board (it ain’t like drawing on paper) but very rewarding.