A Day Trip to Galveston- Part II

Robert's view of the lunch crowd

At lunch, we enjoyed the meal at Maceo's. Then it got very quiet. When we looked around, everyone was drawing the scene at the table!

Mary's view of the lunch crowd

After lunch, we had the morning throwdown.

the morning throwdown

As Judith remarked, a wide variety of subjects and points of view.  The morning crowd broke up and those remaining moved on to Sealy Avenue, a row of lovely Victorian "ladies" just begging to be sketched.

Someone sketched the sketchers!

Joel's sketch

Robert's sketch

Lisa's sketch

Lisa was fascinated by the multicolored stained glass in this house.

There was just so much to draw!

the afternoon throwdown

As you can see, everyone tried their hand at one of the very complicated and ornate houses. A challenge to be sure! I feel sure that Urban Sketchers Houston will be returning to Galveston.

A Daytrip to Galveston-Part I

The group (minus Peter) at lunch at Maceo's

For those of you visiting our blog from urban sketchers outposts afar, Galveston is a lovely port and beach town on the Texas coast about 50 miles from Houston. It enjoyed a lively past in the Victorian Age until the 1900 Storm wiped it out. Now it is enjoying a new life with beaches, tourist attractions and a cruise ship port. Lovely proud victorian homes and business buildings remain, just asking to be drawn. There is a port with a shrimp fleet and historic ships. On our trip, we barely scratched the surface of all the wonderful things to sketch. 

We had a good turnout, as you can see from the lunch photo. People arrived and went as schedules allowed. First, we tackled the dockside.

a view of the busy port

This view of the port captures the busy port traffic and the gray morning sky.

Eve's sketch

New sketcher, Eve, captured a challenging view of the Coastguard cutter.

Renata's sketch

Renata was excited to try out her new fountain pen on the same subject.

Chris's sketch

I chose a view dockside with the shrimpers and the pelicans. It was chilly sketching.

Next, we moved on to the Strand. The lovely old Victorian buildings are a challenge to draw.

Robert's sketch

Robert, Judith and I all loved the Trueheart-Adriance building on Kempner St. with it's wild colors and over-the-top ornamentation. Robert also took a peek down an alley.

Judith's sketch

Martha's sketch

Martha, chose a simpler subject, but included a historic clock and some green space.

Mary's sketch

Mary chose the same building, yet the sketches couldn't be more different. Judith remarked on this at lunch. So many different takes on the same places!

A Farewell to Wolfe's

Urban Sketchers Houston

Last weekend, Urban Sketchers Houston said farewell to Wolfe's Department Store on Emancipation Avenue. The store is in its final days and will close by December. Twelve people showed up to sketch both inside and out.

Robert's sketch

    

Chris's sketch

Robert and I, along with several others, focused on the cool sign and the exterior.

    

Joel's sketch

Joel captured a little bit of everything inside and out.

 

Jeff's sketch

Jeff's sketch

Jeff captured one of the customers in front of the hat display and did a study of the cool shoes.

 

Mary's sketch

Mary went up to the mezzanine level and got a view of the whole scene.

Carolyn's sketch

   

Mary's other sketch

Both Mary and Carolyn saw the abstract shapes made by the mannequins and the guitars back in the pawn shop.

Lunch was at This Is It, a classic Third Ward staple for soul food. But first, we did the throwndown

We even had one person working in Procreate on an Ipad this time. 

Join us for the next sketchout. Details will be posted soon.

NASA- A Unique Sketching Opportunity

The group at NASA (not pictured-Joel Walker, our host who took the picture)

Urban Sketchers Houston went to NASA on Saturday. Thanks to Joel Walker, who works there, we were given floor level access to the building where the training modules are located. You can see one of them in the top photo.

Seventeen people showed up to draw the very large training equipment from an up close and personal point of view. Here is the throwdown.

As you can see, everyone found something interesting to draw. 

Cara's view of the Orion capsule

Jen drew one of the EVA suits

Joel drew the nose of one of the Space Shuttles

 

Peter drew Rovers and the Robot Arm

   

Robert drew the Orion training capsule

As you can see, it was an interesting morning. Thanks to Joel and welcome to all the new sketchers who showed up. 

Summer Vacation

Judith in London

In the summer, when it's really hot, the Houston sketchers tend to stay in. Not always, but often. People are away on vacation and busy with their families. We'll be back together again in the fall. There's always lots to sketch.

In the meantime, some of our members have been posting interesting vacation sketches on the FB group. The first one is from Judith's trip to London. She reports that it was quite hot. She are her buddy Isabel were trying to get over to Amsterdam for one of the sketchouts at the Symposium, but had to content themselves with London. The sketch above is the Palace Theater.

Mary McJunkin in Arizona

Mary McJunkin went to Mesa, Arizona. One of her sidetrips took her to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon where she made this lovely sketch.

Ed Petit in Seattle

Ed Petit did a lot of traveling this summer. This is from his trip to Seattle to take Urban Sketching Weekend, a workshop with Gabi Campanario. 

Ed's sketch from the weekend

This is a house the group sketched in Bothell, Washington. Look for more of Ed's sketches on the FB group.

Richard Scruggs in Nashville

Who knew Nashville had a Parthenon? Richard Scruggs took a few trips this summer as well. This sketch is from his trip to Nashville.

Toronto's Old City Hall

Toronto's new city hall

These last two sketches are from Richard's trip to Toronto.

Peter Norris in Italy

And lastly we have Peter Norris's trip to northern Italy. This sketch was done in Verano.

Did you go someplace interesting this summer? Send me a jpg and I'll share it here on the blog.

In the meantime, happy sketching.

Project Row House- The April Sketchout

Back row: Meghan, Susan, Barry, Ed .     Front row: Peter, Robert, Judith, Barry

Eight sketchers showed up to sketch at Project Row House in the Third Ward on Saturday. In 1993, a group of Houston artists saw a group of shotgun row houses about to be demolished. They developed an idea to save them and to benefit the cultural, social and arts community of the Third Ward. This is Project Row House.

Barry's sketch

Robert's Sketch

Judith's sketch

Joel's sketch

The throwdown

Looks like fun!

Farewell Canino's Farmer's Market

January 26th was both the last day of operation for Canino's and the Worldwide sketchcrawl. We had a good turnout and the weather cooperated. Here we are for the group pic.

Here's our sketchbook throwdown. I think we got a nice representation of the front market, the back market and the general area.

Here's Robert's sketch of one of the stalls in the back market.

Mary chose a view down the alley between the old market buildings. Soon all of this will be gone. Oh, the market will still be there, replaced bit by bit by a more gentrified version.

Please consider joining us at future crawls.  You can subscribe to this blog and get all the new entries through a service like Feedly. I will be keeping this up more regularly for those who don't use Facebook. See you soon at the next sketchout!