University of St. Thomas and the Chapel of St. Basil

 

The group

The rain mostly held off and we had a good day for sketching on the University of St. Thomas campus. Welcome to our visitors from the Dallas chapter.

As you may have guessed from the group photo, sketchers were focused on the architecture of the Chapel of St. Basil. Peter, whose work is in the header, sketched it from three sides. Here's Peter hard at work.

Peter

Here are some of the other folks spread out along the mall hard at work.

As you can see, people came prepared with their portable stools and chairs and took advantage of the cover when it showered.

Before I go into all the sketches of the OUTSIDE of the chapel, Judith was the only one to venture inside.

Judith

And here is her sketch of the outside. The stamp is an impression made with Plasticene clay of one of the markers on campus.

Judith

Michael

Michael widened out a bit to include the adjoining walkways. As did Richard.

Richard

Barton chose a similar angle.

Barton

Jeff used colored pencil on toned paper.

Jeff

Joel and Chris both stamped their finished drawings. Joel's view is from the labyrinth garden, while mine is from upstairs and further down the mall.

Joel

Chris

Rebecca, Susan and Olinda each had their own unique takes on the building.

Rebecca

Susan

Olinda

Paul

Paul managed to include a few people.

The chapel and the mall weren't the only things to draw.

Ash

Ash drew Hughes House, the childhood home of Howard Hughes which now houses the Theology Department.

Martha

Martha also drew part of that area.

Malia drew gardens.

Malia

Rebecca drew a statue that sits in one of the gardens.

Malia

I went over to the Link-Lee Mansion, which used to be admissions and now contains the offices of the president and vice-president. It is a historic Montrose home where the university now has gatherings in the old ballroom upstairs. The WHOLE house would be VERY complicated. I drew a snippet of the portico.

Chris

We gathered for the throwdown and then went off to lunch.

throwdown

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We always welcome new sketchers and visitors from other chapters.

Our bonus April sketchout is coming up this weekend. Join us!

A Visit to the Ismaili Center

The Group

Our March sketchout was at the lovely new Ismaili Center in Montrose. The architecture and landscaping are stunning, so it was a great place to sketch. Here is our group standing out front.

You will see several sketches of the building from the front entrance in this post. But Jeff Whitley, whose sketch appears in the header, went to the back garden which slopes down towards Allen Parkway.  This is his view of the back garden and the deck  that overlooks the Allen Parkway greenspace.

Susan went to the end of the reflecting pool at the front of the building and drew the view back towards the entrance.

Susan

Sandy and Heather had a similar idea. One shows the complete building and one is a slighter tighter perspective.

Sandy

Heather

I was interested in the raked shadow on one side of the building and the intricate patterns in the concrete.

Chris

Several sketchers were interested in the gardens. In Monica's sketch you can just see the building through the trees.

Monica

Lisa drew a small pond with benches.

Lisa

Tanya drew part of the cactus garden.

Tanya

Paul went up to the deck on the upper floors and drew the view back toward the city skyline.

Paul

There was plenty to draw inside the building as well. First, there was Fran, who found a spot where there were all sorts of interesting angles to draw. She kept at it and was able to finish the drawing at home. 

Fran

Rita Wilbur lay on the floor and drew the very interesting patterns on the ceiling.

Rita

Decha found some interesting reflective surfaces.

Decha

Nick and Mark sketched inside and in pencil. You can see the same pattern Rita drew on the right hand page of Nick's sketch.

Nick

Mark

Kel was determined to find a person to draw. She finally found someone enjoying the garden.

Kel

We had a throwdown at the end. It was interesting to see what everyone chose to draw.

throwdown

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Heritage Park

 

Our group at the throwdown

Rain may have threatened, but our group managed to have a sketchout downtown at Heritage Park. Among the collection of preserved homes in the park is the Jack Yates home from Freedman's Town in the  Fourth Ward, an appropriate subject for a February sketchout. Several sketchers chose that house for sketching, but there was so much there to draw!

First let's appreciate Monica's sketch of the small wooded glade in the middle of the park. You can see that in the header. She drew a second view, which you can see below.

Monica

Let's look at some of those sketches of the Yates house.

Jeff Whit

Jeff Whit did a great watercolor of the house.

Susan

Susan chose a three quarter view.

Another favorite subject was St. John's church.

Lisa

Lisa picked a back view with the winter trees.

Decha

Decha drew the church from the side with all the winter trees and the skyscrapers behind. A nice contrast.

Carlos

Carlos also chose the side view with all the tall buildings just behind.

Judith

Judith moved way back and got a much broader view of the trees, the winter park and all the buildings.

Chris

I kept, mostly, to black and white with a splash of color on the roof of the little pavilion that sits in the middle of the park.

There were other houses in the park to draw. Each one of them has a place in Houston history.

Joel

Joel did a study of the Pilott house in brown ink.

Heather

Heather and Sherry chose to sketch in pencil.

Sherry

Candy drew the Staiti house and surroundings in ink.

Candy

Janice decided to draw the very large sphere in one corner of the park.

Janice

Candy's husband Jeff did a collage of the church and the various buildings behind it.

Jeff

Susan finished her first sketch and went across the street to draw Oldenburg's Geometric Mouse.

Susan

We had a group throwdown and then went off to lunch.

If you're reading this blog for the first time and urban sketching interests you, why not join us on our next sketchout? We'll be meeting at the new Ismaili Center in March. You can find out more about our group and the dates and times of our sketchouts on Instagram. You can see more sketches and meet more of our group on Facebook.