constructing the manetti shrem, part eight

August 30, 2016Leave a comment

Now look at this. Another UC Davis construction project I have been following since last year, now almost finished. The Manetti Shrem Museum of Art formally opens on November 13, but look! It’s got a much more finished look about it than before, with that landscaping around it. You will recall that the last time I sketched it was actually from the inside – it was almost finished, the first day in fact that wearing a hard hat was not required. It won’t be long before this place is filled with art, and then with visitors. UC Davis really needs this space, and the Vanderhoef Quad is squared off nicely. I drew this while standing in the shade of the huge Mondavi Center across the street.

Check out my other sketches made during this construction by going to the tag manetti-shrem-museum… Bound to be one more post by the time it opens?

answers on a postcard

August 29, 2016August 29, 20162 Comments

Well, what else has been going on on the UC Davis campus this summer? Building work, hot days, Delta breezes, summer sessions classes, and lunchtime drawings in a post-Manchester-symposium sketching-energy spike. Actually more of a pre-UC Davis-Design-Museum-Sketchbook-Exhibition sketching sketching-energy spike. Yes, my sketchbook exhibit is opening next month, it will be called “Conversations with the City” and will run at the Design Museum in Cruess Hall from September 19 to November 13. So exciting! See http://arts.ucdavis.edu/exhibition/conversations-city-pete-scully-urban-sketcher for more details. I will be displaying sketchbooks ranging from 2006 to 2016. The exhibit is Curated by James Housefield and Tim McNeil of the UC Davis Design Department, and I will also be giving a talk about my urban sketching work (and why you should keep a sketchbook) on Thursday October 6th, from 6-8pm. I will place an announcement in the sidebar on my website, but if you are in Davis then do come by!

In the meantime…here are some recent sketches of UC Davis. Above, the South Silo, undergoing a major refurbishment and upgrade of that whole area. New eateries will be going in, the paths will be widened to create a new vista, already we have seen some big improvements (despite the removal of an old funny-shaped tree, which was kind of in the way – it’s easier to cycle around Bainer now). You can see the oft-sketched Bike Barn there too on the right. It will be fun to see how different it all looks here. Below, part of the same building, still functioning despite the big renovations next door, the UC Davis Craft Center. I drew it one lunchtime before taking a Diversity training class in the building opposite. I added the paint later on.Not a lot of shaded spots to sketch this view from but I stood beneath a small tree.

Below is Nelson Hall, which is home to the Della Davidson Performance Studio. It’s on Old Davis Road, next to the Arboretum, and this used to be called the University Club. Last time I was in here was during the UC Davis Centenary celebrations (2008-09); in fact I took my new staff orientation here a decade ago. I’ve been on campus a long time now. I always felt like these little snapshots of Davis were my ‘postcards’ being sent back to those I left in England, so they can see where I live now. After almost eleven years in California there have been a lot of these postcards…

This building below has been on campus a lot longer: TB9, aka Temporary Building #9. It’s long been an arts studio and home to decades of ceramicists such as Robert Arneson. Fun story, first ever sketchcrawl I did in Davis (Dec 2005) I ended up outside here, sketching sculptures in the back yard area. Recently, TB9 was placed on the National Register of Historic Places – see the news announcement – due to its importance in art history. About time I sketched it properly then huh! It is right next to the Pitzer Center so has cropped up in the background a few times. With the Pitzer Center no longer being a big closed off construction site I was able to get stand off the road and get a better view without being run over by trucks.

Even older still is Wyatt Pavilion Theatre, below, a decent-sized performance hall built in 1907 (that’s right, 1907! Here is some history and info). I came and saw a play here a few years ago, Richard III; I really should go and see more theatre. I do have a degree in Drama you know. Ah that explains a lot I hear you say. Well it was French and Drama if you must know. I actually did a fair bit of foreign language acting when I was at college, though usually in German. Acting in German is way more fun; you get to do Brecht!

See that blue poster on the wall of the Wyatt? That is actually advertising my exhibition! Among other things, my that is at the top, which is exciting. So anyway, come and see my “Conversations with the City” when it opens, and take a peak at my sketchbooks. I hope you like it.

three colors davis

August 27, 2016August 27, 2016Leave a comment

This is the Chemistry Building, well behind those trees there. I wanted to sketch this now, at the height of the Davis summer (well, now kids are back in school and AYSO practices start soon, summer is really kinda going away…temperatures aren’t though!). I have sketched it twice before in the past year, once in Fall and once in Spring. Spot the difference. I will sketch it once more, in about five months when those trees are leafless. A year in Davis. See, we have seasons too…

Building the Pitzer – part seven

August 26, 2016August 26, 20162 Comments

I probably have one more final post about this building, the Ann E. Pitzer Center, to come, but look! It’s nearly done! After all this time, the new music recital hall at UC Davis is set for its big opening. That sign on the building that says “Ann E. Pitzer Center” was only unveiled a couple of hours before I sketched this, at lunchtime earlier this week. It’s all very exciting. The grand opening events start on September 23 with jazz ensembles in the courtyard, followed by the Anderson-Roe Piano Duo in the Recital Hall, a concert by faculty and students of UC Davis on Sept 24, and a film screening of Koyaanisqatsi by composer Philip Glass on Sept 25, which will include a discussion betwen Philip Glass and music professor Pablo Ortiz. Here’s an article on the UC Davis website all about the Pitzer Center’s upcoming openings. I hope to go, I am eager to see the inside!

Here are the previous chapters: PART SIX (May 2016), PART FIVE (Feb 2016), PART FOUR (Oct 2015), PART THREE (Aug 2015), PART TWO (Aug 2015), PART ONE (July 2015).

And here, for a bit more history, are the posts about the old Boiler Building, the previous tenant of this spot, showing its whole demolition back in 2012. The changing campus…

the all-new all-different MU…

August 18, 2016August 18, 2016Leave a comment

Okay, we’re at the halfway mark for Manchester sketches so I thought we’d bring it back to Davis for a bit before resuming the symposium story. This is the current state of the Memorial Union at UC Davis – the shiny new bookstore is now open, but the rest is still under a lot of reconstruction. The UCD Bookstore by the way does stock my book, if you’re interested! the renovated and revamped MU is expected to reopen in December, I can’t wait to see how it finally looks. My son for one is eagerly anticipating the reopening of the bowling alley; he had his birthday there last year and has missed it terribly. Once it’s all done, I will sketch the end result. More change at UC Davis!

how are things in your little world

July 16, 2016July 16, 20164 Comments

Here’s a view that I used to sketch a lot more, but I got bored of it, as it never really changed much. It’s the South Silo at UC Davis, as viewed from the steps of Bainer Hall. I used to sketch it every six months in fact, once in winter, once in spring, tracking the changes. This past week I noticed however that it had changed quite dramatically – the big wild tree to the left of the leaning one was cut down, as were several other smaller ones near the Bike Barn, as the UC Davis South Silo area undergoes a major redesign. This is going to look pretty different. Here’s an article in The Aggie detailing how it will eventually look – quite a change, I think. More dining locations will be added (hooray!), plus a convenience store (I still miss the little one that used to be the Law Bookshop). It won’t be all done until next year.

While we are waiting, let’s go back in time and see what it used to look like….

January 2015

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July 2011

January 2011

June 2010
January 2010

June 2009

January and March 2009

June 2008

January 2008

July 2007

I will miss that tree.

constructing the manetti shrem, part seven

July 12, 20164 Comments

I last posted construction pictures of the forthcoming Manetti Shrem museum of Art on the UC Davis campus back in April. A lot has been done since then – the canopy is now finished, the landscaping is ongoing, and (something I’d not thought much about) the interior is already pretty much complete! So, I was invited along for a special viewing of the inside (many thanks to Prof. Tim McNeil of the Design Dept for the opportunity!), and it was one of the first days that hard hats were not required inside, meaning I didn’t get my photo-op of sketching in hard-hat and fluorescent jacket (I only wanted that for the urban sketching street cred), but I got the full inside experience of how a brand-new museum is designed and completed. Every corner of it was so modern and cool, and the most amazing aspects were the sudden views outside, looking at how this building interacts with its environment but from an interior perspective. This really is going to be the most spectacular new building on campus, not simply functional but enlightening too, I think. After having a good look around at the future gallery spaces and imagining what artwork will grace its walls (I know that Wayne Thiebald made a big donation of art recently), I was able to do some art myself, sketching the above view of the main entrance area looking out toward the Mondavi Centre.

A few days later I came back to sketch outside at lunchtime, and rather than the wide-angle view I focused in on the same entrance area, but from the street looking in. You can see how it is all coming together now. Opens in November…

Here are the previous posts documenting the construction in my sketchbook…

PART SIX – PART FIVE – PART FOUR – PART THREE – PART TWO – PART ONE

celebration time

June 10, 2016Leave a comment

Here in the world of academia, this week is graduation week. Thousands of students undergrad and graduate receive their hard-earned degrees this week and step out into the world. In our department at UC Davis we held a special awards and graduation ceremony a week before the official commencement, honoring our young statisticians and biostatisticians. I did a couple of sketches at the event, but mostly got award certificates ready and took photos and applauded enthusiastically. Great job, everyone!

And a few days later, on by far the hottest day of the year, we held our annual Spring Picnic, and I did this one sketch below. The banner is part of a poster I had made to advertise the event. It was really, really hot, but we had a good turnout, and it was a nice way to round off the year. And so, on towards summer…

building the pitzer, part six

May 30, 20162 Comments

It’s nearly done, the Pitzer Center, the new Music Recital Hall on the UC Davis campus. I’ve sketched this spot since it was the Boiler Building, and watched that old campus character get knocked into the dust, with this finally rising to take its place. It’s nearly done.

Here is the front entrance area, now fully glazed. This is what will greet visitors to campus for years to come. I’m looking forward to finally seeing performances there myself.

Below, a panorama using pencil. I was thinking about Florian Afflerbach that day, he would have enjoyed to sketch this building. It’s through him that I gained the interest in sketching buildings like this, and using them to really study perspective.

Here are the previous chapters: PART FIVE (Feb 2016), PART FOUR (Oct 2015), PART THREE (Aug 2015), PART TWO (Aug 2015), PART ONE (July 2015).

walker way

May 29, 20162 Comments

This is the back of Walker Hall, which will be redeveloped into the Graduate and Professional Student Center at UC Davis. The basic “E” shape of this building will remian and the front will be pretty much as it is now, but the interior and much of the rear will be radically altered. I am therefore planning to sketch it a few more times before the winds of change blow in. It’s not really used for much these days so a change is on the cards – another one. I remember when there were other walls in front of these, with cacti all along them, and then when they redeveloped this stretch of campus they opened this up into the walkway you see now. This will in fact be opened up further creating a corridor all the way down to the entrance Shields Library (visible in the distance there). Walker Hall was named in 1959 after H. B. Walker, who was chair of the Agricultural Engineering department. One of the things they will have in this new center are rooms that can be named after people (faculty, I presume). More information about the new center can be found on the UC Davis Graduate Studies website. I drew this one lunchtime this week, while listening to the History of Rome podcast.