Pickin' and eatin'

Easter weekend we took a trip up to visit one of my sisters and her family and stayed in Denton, Texas. It was perfect spring weather. 

Downtown  Denton is centered around a large country courthouse and is lively with bars, coffee shops, restaurants, and funky old antique shops. Every Saturday morning a group of musicians gather on the courthouse lawn for a little pickin'. My uncle is the one playing the big bass. They play a range of country and bluegrass music. 

One evening we went to eat at Rooster's home of the Hell Burger, a burger doused in ghost pepper sauce. (Only the hottest chili in the world, as recognized by Guinness Book of World Records. According to the Scoville scale of pepper pungency, the ghost pepper (aka India’s Bhut Jolokia chili pepper), is 300 times hotter than a jalapeno and 10 times hotter than a habenero). I wanted to survive the weekend so skipped the blazing burger. The mash up of neon and cheezy decorator touches gave me plenty to sketch.

Honor Thy Music. Nashville.TN

Short trip to the Country Music City.

I've been missing in action......

Hey gang!  Just checking in to let you know that still alive!  I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything lately to USK Tx...I haven't been doing much USK-worthy location sketching lately...I have found myself in a season of watercolor painting.  I'm very intrigued by the medium and have dedicated myself to getting better!  This hasn't left much time for my other love...location sketching in its pure form!  So....be patient with me...I'm still around!  I'm dabbling with some "plein aire" watercolor stuff right now that would qualify under our manifesto...stay tuned!  Loving seeing everyone's stuff!  Keep up the good work!

Memorial Park

As we know, the drought has killed a lot of trees in Texas and Memorial Park is pretty hard hit. It's one thing to read that the city will cut down about 5,000 trees. To actually see what that means is another thing altogether. I went for a walk on one of the multi-use trails on the south side of the park. In some places spring had brought green lush foliage and things looked almost normal. In others, however the whole area was cleared and the great mountains of brown debris and sad stumps told the tale. Earth movers have made mountains of branches and stumps and bark where the city has been working. Little green understory plants have popped up in some of the cleared areas. I can only hope we have a wetter summer than is currently predicted. The Memorial Park Conservancy has plans to replant, but those babies will need water!

39th SketchCrawl- Hunstville State Park

Afther the  Hug's Hunt 25 km trail race , i had forces to do this sketch to celebrate the world wide SketchCrawl, this time alone.

Quality Time

On Saturday my daughter asked if we could spend the day sketching together. So, while the big get-together was going on downtown (and that was an amazing turnout!) we were enjoying the quietude of a sleepy little neighborhood in the Historic Southside District.

Our stretch of May Street only recently reopened after a complete resurfacing and we didn't even have to contend with street traffic.

The traditional and the not-so

World Wide Sketch Crawl in Houston took me down to Hermann Park south of downtown. I have been to this park since I was a child. I am the 2nd oldest of 8 kids in my family so inexpensive entertainment was always a priority. On summer evenings when I was young, my parents took us to Hermann Park's large amphitheatre to see live musicals. I particularly remember the performance of "South Pacific" with a huge procession of actors coming down the hill carrying torches and even a dive off a cliff into a pool of water mystified me.
This weekend was the annual Japanese Festival. I had never been to the festival or to the Japanese Garden part of the park. I only ran into one other sketcher. ?! Part of the festival had the typical rows of tents selling trinkets and food. The stage had performances including Taiko drummers, which I always enjoy. But two colorful parts of the event that 'drew' my interest were the Vocaloids and the tent for dressing in a Yukata, which is a summer weight kimono. Vocaloids are mostly teens, girls and guys dressed as manja characters. They dress in brilliant colored fantastical wigs, some reaching below their hips and colorful cartoonish outfits. These three teens, watched over closely by their mamas, were very popular, teen boys wanted to have their picture taken with them. The girls played music on their phone and danced along in cartoony poses.
At the Yukata tent was a long row of beautiful kimonos with sashes, sandals and hair decorations. For $5 you could get outfitted and stroll around in the gardens for 20 minutes. I thought that was a tremendous bargain. Of course there was a lot of picture taking. All through the garden they teetered around on the wooden sandals.

39th Worldwide Sketchcrawl-Salado, Texas

This sketchcrawl weekend found me on a craft retreat in Salado with only a little time for sketching. However, the town is charming and I did manage to get out on Saturday and record just a bit of it. This is a bicycle fence, which is a small-town phenomenon I hadn't heard of. Very cute. And this is the pedestrian footbridge over Salado Creek. The weather was gorgeous and the bluebonnets were out, but it was a busy weekend!

39th Worldwide SketchCrawl in Fort Worth!

A BIG turnout for the 39th Worldwide SketchCrawl in Fort Worth!  This was our first downtown outing, organized by Urban Sketchers Texas, Downtown Fort Worth Inc., AIA Fort Worth and several sketching friends; the weather was amazing! Everyone agreed this should be a monthly event...stay tuned!

Sketch Crawl Houston - Japanese Festival

This weekend's Houston location for participating in the WW Sketch Crawl will be at the Japanese Festival in Hermann Park!

Date:   April 13 (Saturday)                  

Time: Saturday 10:00 –

Place:  Hermann Park 

MAP - http://www.hermannpark.org/

6000 Fannin Street, Houston, Texas 77030

FREE Admission

Check the SketchCrawl website forum for updates and meeting location.

Fort Worth Sketchcrawl Saturday April 13

 

 

Urban Sketchers Texas and Downtown Fort Worth Inc. are sending out a call for sketchers (and aspiring sketchers!) to meet at 10 am April 13th at Burnett Park (501 W. 7th Street )in Downtown Fort Worth to participate in the 39th Worldwide SketchCrawl.

WHAT IS IT? Worldwide SketchCrawl (www.sketchcrawl.com) takes the idea of a pub crawl and adapts it to a social sketching event. It's an opportunity for creative people to meet each other, draw together, and share their sketches with each other and online. These events are "global;" sketchers from around the world gather in their cities on the same day to participate and post their sketches online.

WHAT ARE THE RULES
1. There are no rules.
2. Anyone can participate
3. Any level of ability, from veteran artists to first time sketchers.
4. Bring your own sketching gear.
5. Kids under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

We will meet in the park at the corner of 7th and Lamar Streets. Anyone who wishes to participate is welcome! We will chat briefly; disperse to sketch the visual treasures of Downtown Fort Worth. We’ll reconvene at the park at noon to share sketchbooks and for a group photo, then adjourn for lunch on your own. Downtown onstreet parking is free on weekends. More information at www.fortworthparking.com.

QUESTIONS? Contact Urban Sketchers Texas through jim@townscape.com

Houston Fire Museum

I really enjoyed the historical displays, imagining all wood homes and farmhouses surrounding rural Houston, even as recently as 40-50 years ago (yesterday for the european standars ). Very well preserved fire equipment.The upstairs firefighters' living quarters was interesting but the exhibits were largely blocked by shipping boxes, a play area por children and a smal gift shop with proceeds going to help support the volunter division.

Not your granny quilter

I went to a design conference for modern quilts in Austin, TX recently. The buzz at the conference was that more than a dozen of the "girls" got tattoos during the week at the conference. Not this girl. Quilting has gone mod. 

Fort Worth Public Market

B. Gaylord Noftsger's Fort Worth Public Market (built in 1930) -- Part 1 of my new Little Texas series on "lost" architectural treasures, "forgotten" neighborhoods, and rural communities that offer a touch of unexpected beauty from an earlier era to those who "discover" them. 

Old Car Graveyard

I've been driving past this lot full of rusty old cars for years now, but recently began to eye it as a sketching possibility. I think someone once thought they would rescue these classic beauties, but now they've been left too long and I always think of it as the place good cars go to die. Honestly, drawing cars is another area where I need practice, but this place just called to me. A few lines are pretty wonky, but all in all I'm pretty happy with the result. Oh, and I finally broke down and got myself a Lamy Safari, so there's the added advantage of a little practice with the fountain pen.

Gabi Campanario reviews Jim's book!

Gabi Campanario, the award-winning journalist from the Seattle Times and founder of Urban Sketchers, posted a review of my book Freehand Drawing and Discovery on his blog.  It's a fun read, and includes the short video from the book's Amazon page.  I think you'll enjoy it!  Here's the link:

http://gabicampanario.blogspot.com/2013/03/urban-sketching-as-creative-fuel.html

A Rim With A View - The Residency

Hi!

I've just received word from the National Park Service that I'll be spending two weeks in late May/early June as the winter Artist-in-Residence at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. (If you're a flatlander like me you're probably reacting the same way I did when I received the call; "Winter? In May?" Yep, they tell me that I can expect 8 to 12 feet of snow on the ground when I arrive!)

In addition to studying and recording my own take on the natural history of the Park, I'll be working with the Park Service to visually communicate threats to this natural wonder (there are two: global warming, which threatens the lake itself; and Rust Blisters, a fungal infection which is expected to kill off 90% of the White Bark Pine -- the only tree species that will grow at this altitude).

And I'll be depicting the Park's architectural heritage -- the buildings of the CCC and USNFS eras (one of my favorite reasons to visit any national park or national forest in the country).

If you'd like to learn more about CLNP and my upcoming residency, I invite you to read my recent blog post. (http://earnestward.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-rim-with-view-part-i.html) 

I may find it necessary to revisit the park in summer to see what the ground floor of some buildings look like.

Interested in being the Symposium Correspondent?

Each year the International Symposium has a full-time corresponding who covers all the aspects of the event through sketches and narrative, and makes one (or sometimes several) daily updates to the symposium blog to share the happenings of the symposium with the world.  If you have the talent, energy and desire, and if you can be in Barcelona July 10-14, see the application form below for more details.

CALL FOR URBAN SKETCHING SYMPOSIUM CORRESPONDENT VOLUNTEER 

Dentist Office.

Visit to the dentist, this time of companion. Despite carrying a book, ends up killing this time with :

A Week in a Monastery

Many of you know that spend a week each January in silent retreat at the Gethsemani monastery in rural Kentucky. It's always one of the best weeks of the year, and I consistently leave with new insights and perspectives.  The sketch here captures the small cemetery that each retreatant passes through as they enter the monastery.  Please see the entire series at my blog, www.jamesrichardssketchbook.com

A light snowfall adds to the deep quiet of the monastery grounds, only occasionally interrupted by the church bells.