wyatt deck (again)

October 12, 2023Leave a comment

This is Wyatt Deck, UC Davis. You may remember it from such recent drawings I did as that one of Wyatt Deck, and that other one of Wyatt Deck. I decided it needed a third sketch for some reason, and I stood in the shade next to the old Wyatt Pavilion, possibly the oldest building on campus, and drew it from this angle. I had gone over there because it was Friday lunchtime, and on Friday lunchtimes there are folk musicians that gather with their folk instruments and play folk music. I thought about drawing them, then I got a bit shy about sketching folk and thought, folk that. So I stood well away and didn’t draw any musicians (who may not have thought it was very flattering anyway). I did listen in on what they were playing for a bit (there were quite a few Beatles songs in there, which I approved of), and I thought that maybe on some other day I might bring my own instrument along to play some stuff, but if I’m shy drawing people then I’m definitely a bit shy playing music with people. So I stand off on my own as usual with my sketchbook drawing things I’ve drawn before, and that’s fine. The world is stressful, so play music, do drawings, write stories, do the good stuff.

walker

October 11, 2023October 10, 2023Leave a comment

And back again to Walker Hall, the Graduate center, you’ll remember that I drew its whole redevelopment over the course of several years until it finally opened in late 2021, with a more official grand opening in 2022, when many of my sketches were put on display in there to show the changes from the old Walker Hall to the new Graduate Center. It was a very busy day, the first day of Fall classes, and there were crowds of students standing by the roundabout near the Silo cheering the buses and cyclists, apparently this is a tradition on the first day of classes, one that I had never noticed before in the previous 17 years. I needed to get a sketch out, so I stopped here at the familiar place, and drew it as it currently looks. Nearby, a young student squealed suddenly, I thought perhaps they had been run over by a bike, but it turned out they were just excited about something on their phone and wanted to make a loud excited sound. Then a few minutes later, another young student made a loud yelping sound. What is going on with these young folk I thought, is this a new thing? It turned out the second person had been stung by a wasp or a yellowjacket or something, and that looked pretty painful. Stung on the first day of classes, things can only get better. I sketched up to a certain point, suddenly very aware of any flying insect in my vicinity, and decided to call it a lunchtime.

shields

October 10, 2023October 9, 2023Leave a comment

Now everyone is back on campus, it’s busy, etc and so on. I miss the summer, all that quiet. In a weird way I miss the pandemic times, when everyone was at home, and campus was eerie and quiet, I would still need to come in fairly regularly so I felt a bit like a guardian, keeping the torches lit until the return of All The People, if that day would ever come again. Actually mostly I was drawing maps of our building, with little diagrams in shared spaces to show that people would be at least six feet apart. The ‘worksite plan’. I had to do a lot of that, but I liked making colourful maps anyway. It was great to finally get people back on campus back then. I’m not saying I prefer it quiet, I do like the bustle of an active campus and having lots of people about our department, but I do appreciate those quiet moments. Here’s one place for some nice quiet, the Shields Library. It’s a massive library, one that I regrettably don’t visit as much as I used to. The first few years I was here I’d often check out books, mostly related to medieval language, but then I just stopped. I’m no longer studying in academia; for a while, before we moved out here, that was my life, long days and evenings in the library researching as best I could (did I really have to read every published article that referenced medieval alliterative poetry? I didn’t really know what I was doing, did I). I liked the quiet, the smell of the books, the space for ideas. One idea I had was ‘move to America’, so I did. I didn’t know what to do with myself when we first arrived in Davis in that November in 2005. Some days I wouldn’t really leave the apartment until late afternoon, and the only place I knew I’d feel at home was this place, Shields Library. I’d be here until it was time to get the bus home for dinner, writing emails home and updating my blog (this was before we got working internet at home), exploring the halls and picking up a pile of books about things like Chaucer or Anglo-Norman language to sit and look through, taking notes that would end up nowhere. I was glad when I finally got a job, but I’d still come here on my lunchtimes to get my head back in shape, before I really started sketching on all my lunches. All these years later, I am still needing that break to get my head back together, and usually that involves a sketchbook more than a book about Caedmon’s Hymn. I enjoyed drawing this. In fact it was sketched one day before my 18th anniversary of moving to the US. I always feel a bit funny around that time, always remember how I felt in those days, a mixture of excited and confused, and in desperate need of Weetabix.

Veihmeyer

October 9, 2023October 8, 2023Leave a comment

One from early September on campus, before everyone was really back. This is Veihmeyer Hall on California and Hutchison. One of them days when I really needed to sketch. Been a lot of those lately; sketching helps with the old stress levels. this past week, the first week of October, felt like it was about three weeks long. On Thursday I even made a reference to a meeting that had happened on Monday as having happened ‘last week’. I was glad for the week to be over, but there’s always another one coming along. As long as I keep taking time to do some drawing in my of time, I am ok. I always track my drawings per year; this week I reached the same amount of drawing done this year as in all of 2022, which is impressive, and there are still almost three months left. Need to keep it up. Also need to do some different things, try a few different angles, some different pens (I’ve just purchased some more fountain pens of different size nibs). Or just draw whatever, because doing any drawing is better than doing none.

drawing wyatt deck

October 1, 2023September 29, 2023Leave a comment

Our September ‘Let’s Draw Davis!’ sketchcrawl was held in the UC Davis Arboretum at Wyatt Deck, a favourite spot for sketching and relaxing. Several of us met up and sketched around the area, while behind us we could hear them setting up at the Gorman Museum for their grand opening day of music and dance and art, so there was a backdrop of cool sounds and singing to sketch by. It’s always better to sketch to music (good music anyway, I’m not a fan of scratchy street violinists, or those ones that bang plastic buckets, or those little accordions playing the same tune over and over that you get on the streets of Rome or somewhere). This was really good soulful music. Actually one bit did go on for quite a long time and made me think of a James Bond soundtrack, I felt like I was sketching in a spy movie. An urban sketcher would not make a good spy, we’d be too obvious, but we might make a good diversion for a spy. I’ve never been that into James Bond, to be honest. Anyway, I sketched with my Lamy fountain pen on Wyatt Deck, still getting the hang of drawing with that medium again, it’s all about decisions, art, and figuring out what you like.

I went back to the beloved brown-black uni-ball signo for the next sketches, drawing the scene above of the view across Lake Spafford towards Mrak Hall, and the former location of that lovely tree that was cut down recently. What a shame. I really wanted to draw these trees on this side of the lake, that one that is leaning right into the water for a drink next to the other one that wears its heart on its trunk, by the look of it. There were people walking by, and joggers. I did spot other sketchers too, who were not there for the sketchcrawl (or they didn’t want to do the meet-up bit; I was like that when I started). The Arboretum staff were setting up a couple of stalls with information for people visiting, stickers and maps and so on, so I had a little chat with them and got some stickers (I love a sticker).

When I was done with that sketch I wanted to draw some flowers, so I drew those red flowers was like, ok I’ve done that. I had fifteen minutes before the final meet-up so I did another one of the Wyatt Deck, and then we all met to look at each others’ sketchbooks. Always fun to see how others have drawn the same spaces, in their different styles, always something to learn. After that, my family and I went over to enjoy the Gorman Museum, before going downtown for a milkshake. That’s a nice Saturday. That evening after a rest at home I went to the Pence Gallery’s Art Auction Party; my two pieces both sold, which was great news. Then I went home and watched the Japanese Grand Prix. That’s a good Saturday.

The next Let’s Draw Davis! sketchcrawl has been set for Saturday October 14, also on the UC Davis campus but this time over by the MU; details about it are found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/703049981188081/. I’ve also put the flier in the sidebar of my blog here. If you like urban sketching and would like to draw some of Davis with us, come along!

You can see the results of the September sketchcrawl at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LetsDrawDavis

that ‘draw everything in davis’ guy

September 30, 2023September 28, 2023Leave a comment

This was the first two-page panorama in this particular Stillman and Birn sketchbook. It’s a scene I have drawn before, the little building called ‘University House’, one of the oldest on campus, with the rear of Voorhies to the right there. I stood in the shade, it was the week before classes, so relatively quiet on campus but tour groups were starting to lead large groups of new students around. While sketching this, a passing man asked me, “hey aren’t you that Instagram guy?” I was not sure if I was. I do post to Instagram (it was UC Davis that originally asked me to set up an account, actually) but not all my sketches, as I sometimes forget. Plus whenever I post, I hear my wife’s phone go off with a loud alert, and feel a bit self-conscious. “My supervisor told me about you,” the man said. I suppose I was that Instagram guy by now, as the man said he follows me and liked my drawings. That was nice, so I said thank you, and hoped that I was in fact that Instagram guy and not some other Instagram guy. I’m not sure I want to be known as that Instagram guy (I’m usually that fire hydrant guy, which to be fair I am), but it’s better than that Twitter guy (I’ve posted there more often – sorry, it’s called ‘X’ now isn’t it, FFS billionaires, seriously). I wouldn’t want to be that Facebook guy either, that sounds like it would be someone infamous. I most definitely would not want to be called that Truth Social guy (no chance of that), but I think that particular title is permanently taken. I wish people called me that MySpace guy, that would be pretty retro. Or that GeoCities guy. My first website when I was at university in the late 90s was GeoCities, but I replaced it with an Angelfire website. What’s next, Threads I guess. Threads. It sounded like a good idea, but it was named after the scariest film of all time, the film that gave me more nightmares in the mid-80s than Chris Waddle’s haircut, and still does. I’m still here, still on my old blog, plugging away on WordPress, still sketching in my sketchbooks, that Sketchbook guy. No I don’t want to be called that, actually, I prefer Pete. I’m not a fan of when people style themselves things like that ‘the sketcher guy’ or something, it feels like putting a beach towel down on a sunbed. Now I’m worried that there is another sketcher out there in Davis called ‘that Instagram guy’ and I’ve just claimed credit for whatever it is they do. I thought about back in Lisbon in 2011, at the urban sketching symposium, I was talking to my friend Florian (most amazing sketcher, who sadly died in 2016) about football stickers or something, when an American woman interrupted and said to me “Oh it’s you, my friend really wants to meet you!” Florian and I looked at each other while I had to stand there waiting for a few minutes until her friend came over. Finally the friend, another American lady, came over and the first lady said, “this is Paul, you wanted to meet him.” The second just looked at me and said “no, that’s not him,” and they both walked off without explanation or apology. I think she thought I was Paul Heaston, who wasn’t at that symposium. Florian and I (both red-headed urban sketchers like Paul) just looked at each other a bit nonplussed. I thought about that John Lennon bit from A Hard Day’s Night. “She looks more like him than I do.”

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/

the hydrant’s robotic arm

September 29, 2023September 28, 2023Leave a comment

It’s always time for a fire hydrant. This one is outside our building on the UC Davis campus, and recently grew an unusual robotic arm, which is propped up by some metal leaning device, making it look a bit like Charlie Chaplin, I suppose. I do love drawing fire hydrants though. Recently I gave a talk to the Urban Sketcher Jacksonville group (via Zoom, I didn’t fly out to Florida), they were very friendly and we all did a drawing of a fire hydrant at the end which was nice. That was my demo, drawing a hydrant, simplest thing there is really. Other sketchers who are more typical art teachers probably do much more complicated demos, but I’m always very nervous drawing live (especially from a photo) so my demos usually feel a bit flat. I was able to talk to people about sketching which is always the most fun. I tried to avoid going all Rolf Harris with those “can you guess what it is yet?” phrases because ugh, Harris. Still, the hydrant we sketched actually had a fun little smiling face and seeing everyone else draw the happy hydrant made us all feel good, I think. Draw fire hydrants, they are perfect urban sketching material.

chemistry latest update

September 21, 2023Leave a comment

Time for an update on the Chemistry Building at UC Davis, since I can’t help but keep drawing it. If you’ve been following you may remember that they are building a great big wing on the side of the building, and in my last sketches it had been covered in some kind of lurid green plastic, before starting to morph into an orderly orange. As you can see from above it was completely orange, and the window spaces were covered in woodchip boards. Some vertical strips of shiny metal were also appearing, as this building reached a new stage in its long metamorphosis. I feel like I’m a nature documentary commentator, watching this building grow from a cocoon. It’s nature’s way.

Years ago, I posted a series of sketches showing part of what used to be this view in four different seasons of the year, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, with trees being the indicator of change, and the gleaming white building standing ever-present and unyielding in the background. You can see that here: https://petescully.com/2017/01/13/to-everything-turn-turn-turn/. I’m still here drawing. Those trees are gone now, and the building has changed. Things have to keep changing, to give me something to draw. As you can see above, the orange has given way to a new black skin, like a leather jacket, replete with shiny metal studs and more long metal strips. I observed this from a different angle, outside the old Hog Barn building. Below, you can see where I sketched the building again this week, stood in a different place near the Bike Barn, and by now the building has gone full Fonzie. Those metal spots look like stars. It’s a shame it won’t stay like this, but it would look out of place; Rock Hall is nearby and this would be the heavy metal wing. As you can see, it now has glass windows installed. I wish we could get a new building for our department, I’d help design it, and then spend most days sketching it until it was ready. This one is nearly ready. It needs to hurry up, I’m running out of angles to draw it from.

drawing the quiet times

September 19, 2023September 18, 2023Leave a comment

Here are a couple of sketches from campus drawn in August. Above, the side entrance to the MU, next to the campus bookstore. Below, the view from the big round table in the Silo, where I was eating lunch. It was too hot out to bother looking for something to sketch, so I drew Peet’s Coffee. I don’t drink coffee, and I don’t go to Peet’s very often (they can’t even spell Pete) because they always take so long and have long lines of coffee people, and it requires several people just to get a pastry, and I don’t even like their pastries that much. It’s the same with all these coffee chains, I never go in them if I can avoid it. I love the chocolate croissants at the MU, so much nicer, but they only have them half the time, and never at all in summer. Summers are long. The Fall quarter begins next week, everyone will be back and it will be a bit chaotic, but it’s always good once things get going again. Still the quieter times are nice.