Smashes and Stripes

This is a collage of the past week. Note the camper on the truck. I had lunch with a bunch of friends last Sunday after church. As I was leaving the parking lot I noticed this truck. The camper is dented perfectly across the front. I don't imagine whatever they drove into looks much better. It is so neatly done it almost looks like it was designed to that shape. But sadly, no. A couple of days later as I waited for paperwork for a project to be dropped off this nice man in a striped shirt was sitting at the next table focused on his phone. I really like stripes, I can go back through old sketchbooks and they always show up in my favorite sketches.

Houston Skyline

Pete Scully published a lovely minimalist skyline of San Francisco which really inspired me, so I decided that today was the day to try the Houston skyline. The day was clear and sunny and so spring-like that I had to be outside to enjoy it.

Sketching the "Blue Ghost"

Missy and I had a great time in Corpus Christi last weekend at my beautiful niece’s wedding.  I had a little free time and was able to get a quick sketch from the seawall of the Lexington.  I sketched this with a Micron .03 in my Moleskine watercolor sketchbook.  Watercolor wash added at home.  We didn't have time to tour the ship, but by all accounts, it's an incredible tour!  Now I have a reason to go back!

The USS Lexington, known as "The Blue Ghost", is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy.  Lexington was commissioned in February 1943, and served in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, receiving the Presidential Unit Citation and 11 battle stars for World War II service. Like many of her sister ships, Lexington was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, but was modernized and reactivated in the early 1950s, being reclassified as an attack carrier, and then an antisubmarine carrier. In her second career, she operated both in the Atlantic/Mediterranean and the Pacific, but spent most of her time, nearly 30 years, on the east coast as a training carrier.  She was decommissioned in 1991, remaining active longer than any other Essex-class ship, and was donated for use as a museum ship in Corpus Christi, Texas. Lexington was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2003. Though her surviving sisterships Yorktown, Intrepid, and Hornet carry lower hull numbers, Lexington was laid down and commissioned earlier, making Lexington the oldest remaining aircraft carrier in the world.

Sitting on the shelf

Texas Art Supply in Houston has "The Art of Urban Sketching" in the book department. I was in there yesterday and there it was on the shelf. I recommend it for all you sketchers in the area.

I was honored to be a speaker at the 2nd International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Lisbon last August. While there my wife Patti, daughter Cassie and I made a day trip by train up the coast to the little resort village of Estoril.  It was a fantastic day for sketching at the beach, experiencing another side of the laid-back culture of coastal Portugal. This 2-page spread in my large Moleskine watercolor sketchbook was originally posted as a black and white line sketch; I only now summoned the time and courage to add color.  I was happily surprised at the result, and think it captures the spirit of the day. Yes, the umbrellas really were that colorful!

I'm a native Texan (fifth generation), but was mostly raised on the Gulf Coast of the deep South.  Memories are thick there.  On a recent visit it gladdened my heart to see things slowly returning to "normal" in the wake of years of ravaging storms and the BP oil spill.  This stretch in the Florida panhandle--Pensacola through Fort Walton, Destin and Panama City-- used to be known as "the redneck riviera."  Now clever marketing minds have rebranded it "the Emerald Coast."  I hope the person who came up with that idea got a nice bonus check.

The Art of Urban Sketching delivers to TX

Just a quick post while dinner is on the stove. My copy of Gabi's book arrived this week. Yesterday morning I enjoyed a cup of coffee and soaked in a few more pages. Then made this quick sketch before heading to my office. It contains sketches from more than 100 artists. I give it two thumbs and one waterbrush UP! If you like to look through other peoples sketchbooks you'll like this book. Congratulations to Gabi Campanario and all the artists who shared their work.

34th Worldwide SketchCrawl Houston Style

We started off nice and early, for a Saturday, at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Once you enter the display area you are greeted by Mr. T Rex himself. I had put paint on a few pages of my sketchbook the night before so I just added the ink drawing on top. (Thanks Lisbon workshop "Lining Over Color")

In another part of the Museum is the Foucault Pendulum. It is hanging from a wire about 3 stories tall and swings around a sort of compass design set into the floor. Placed at even intervals around the circle on the floor are wooden pegs. As the pendulum swings it gets closer and closer to the pegs until it finally knocks one over. It takes 10 minutes after knocking down one peg until it hits another peg directly opposite it in the circle. It keeps people mesmerized long enough to catch them in a sketch. There is even a bench conveniently located nearby.
We took a break for lunch and then headed over to the Menil Collection designed by Renzo Piano. I really like their collection of  Africa, Oceania, and the Pacific Northwest Coast art. 

34th International Sketchcrawl-Houston

Today was gray and rainy in Houston so four of us went to the Museum of Natural Science. Naturally we all made a try
at sketching a dinosaur. Later we visited the Menil collection and drew there as well. It was an enjoyable day!

Time goes by...in Enochs, Texas

ENOCHS, TEXAS is at the junction of State Highway 214 and Farm Road 54, three miles from the Cochran county line in southern Bailey County. It developed as a farming community and trading center beginning in the 1920s and reached a peak reported population of 250 in 1940, when it had five stores. In 1980 and 1990 its population was estimated at 164, and the town had several businesses and a post office. In 2000 the population was eighty with three remaining businesses.  This old garage and fillig station, was not among them.  It makes a great subject for a sketch of a time long past, though.  This sketch was done on location with a Micron 03..watercolor added later.

I just returned from my annual retreat at the Gethsemani monastery in rural Kentucky.  Nothing like a week of silence in the hills to put things in perspective.  The monastery was built by Trappist monks in 1847.  The look of the abbey church pictured here is the result of a renovation in the 1960s that kept the bones of the church intact but dramatically simplified its lines and overall spirit, in keeping with Trappist notions of simplicity. One of the crosses in the cemetery pictured is that of Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk who was a best selling author in the 1960s; any library or bookstore still has many of his books.  The day after this sketch was done, rain set in, followed by a howling snowstorm the next day.  My timing for sketching was fortunate.

Moveable Type Treat

Last night The Museum of Printing History, in Houston, hosted the Type Truck. I met my long-time designer friend Ping and her sister Jane at the museum for the presentation put on by Kyle about her project. She is traveling around the country printing in her truck. Check her website to see if she'll be near you. www.Type-Truck.com

ABOUT THE PROJECT
Moveable Type is a mobile print shop built into the back of an old delivery truck. Within these tight quarters, Kyle created an efficient and fully functional shop, with a small table top press for printing smaller work, and a larger proof press, capable of printing larger posters.

Kyle Durrie is proprietor of Power and Light Press, a letterpress studio specializing in inappropriate greeting cards as well as posters, music packaging, and custom stationery.

As you can see from my sketch there was quite a line to go inside the truck and print a poster. We adjourned for Thai food to warm up.

New Year's Eve Eve

The evening before New Year's Eve, we went to my husband's old college buddie's house for a party. Aside from his regular job, D's friend is a musician, as are his grown kids. Everyone brought food to share, I contributed a cinnamon-y Peach Cobbler. After visiting (and eating) for a while Bruce, Bob, Emma and a couple other folks got out their guitars and started playing. This was my first time to pull out my sketching material at a party and just draw. I knew they would not think it to "out of the norm" for me to do such a thing. A couple of folks could actually sing quite well, and sang along.

This is a collage of 3 pages photoshop'd into one image of the evening. Happy Pre-New Year.

Paul's Lake@Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge on a cold winter day!

Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge is the oldest National Wildlife Refuge in the state of Texas, having been established in 1935. It is located about twenty miles south of Muleshoe, the seat of Bailey County. It is some fifteen miles north of Morton on Texas State Highway 214.

The refuge includes several intermittent salt lakes, some of which have been modified to extend their wet periods. Paul's Lake, on the east side of Highway 214, is spring fed, and hosts wildlife during times when the other lakes are dry.

The 5,000-acre refuge is a stop for migratory waterfowl flying between Canada and Mexico. If sufficient water is present, during the winter it hosts tens of thousands of sandhill cranes. The largest number of cranes ever recorded was 250,000, during February, 1981.

This sketch was done on location with pen and ink and watercolor in my 5 x 8 watercolor moleskine sketchbook.

First sketch of the new year!

Spent a few hours today in the northwest part of the Texas panhandle.  This is the first of a couple of sketches that I did on location at the Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge.  The area is home to migrating sandhill cranes.  They begin arriving in december and will remain until March....then they begin their migration to their summer breeding grounds 2500 miles away in northern Canada.  Amazing and beautiful bird...not bad eatin' either!

SketchCrawl #34 - Houston

Mark your calendars for the first World Wide Sketch Crawl of the year 2012!

Saturday, Jan. 21.

Check in at the forum for World Wide SketchCrawl to help us pick a time and place to meet. http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum (I am minigirl on the forum)

Hope to see all our Houston Area sketchers there!! Make sure to let us know you are coming and check the forum that morning in case of any change of plan.

Burgers in Fort Worth

Life is hectic during the holidays and it has been hard to find the time to sketch or post. So here is a sketch from the Thanksgiving Holiday. For Thanksgiving we took a road trip up to Fort Worth to visit my sister P and her family. We stayed in FW's art district near the museums, and were able to spend an afternoon touring them.

For lunch we went to Dutch's near the TCU campus. We went based on a review in TX Monthly magazine for best burgers in Texas. Guess I was hungry when I saw the photo in the mag, 'cause I just had to try their Bleu Cheese Burger.

The buns tasted homemade and the melty cheese, bacon and burger were awesome. Definitely belongs on the "Things I Shouldn't Eat" list, but yum!

Pilates on the Square

This pretty building, on the southeast corner of Georgetown's square, owes its charm, at least in part, to the Main Street Project. In 1982, Georgetown, Texas, was chosen to be an official Main Street City and took part in the Texas Main Street Program (which is ongoing). This program focuses on "downtown revitalization, within the context of historical preservation." One of the four points of Main Street's approach is design, including storefronts, signage, landscaping and public spaces. Any changes made to downtown buildings must obtain the approval of the Main Street board. I love that Georgetown's citizens can exercise their minds and bodies in these quaint surroundings!!!

Platinum sepia ink and watercolor in my handmade sketchbook.

Meet Texas Sketcher James Richards

Hello all, I'm Jim Richards. I'm based in Fort Worth and the co-founder of an urban design consultancy called Townscape, where my partner and I creates plans for old town centers, new town centers, urban villages and transit-oriented developements. As a landscape architect, my focus is on the connective tissue between buildings, where the life of great cities takes place.  Freehand sketching is at the heart of my creative process and a signature element of our firm's work.

My first on-location sketching was done as a landscape architecture student at LSU back in the 1970s.  My early career involved design drawing on an almost daily basis, but I didn't return to location sketching with gusto until I began traveling around the world to study cities and projects in 1999. I now travel quite frequently for work and pleasure (visiting and sketching 32 countries so far), and sketching has become an integral part of the travel experience for me as well as my primary creative tool at work.  I enthusiastically promote freehand sketching through magazine articles, lectures and hands-on workshops at universities across the country and abroad, and I'm currently working on my first book, Freehand Drawing Renaissance, due from Wiley Press in January 2013.

I became a member of Urban Sketchers back in March of 2010, and was a lecturer at the 2nd International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Lisbon in August 2011.  The Lisbon experience was amazing, and inspired me to enlist some regional talent to start Urban Sketchers Texas!  I'm really looking forward to watching our network of sketchers grow and become a source of inspiration and encouragement for creative professionals and recreational sketchers alike.
flickr site:  www.flickr.com/photos/jamesrichardsdrawings
website:  www.townscape.com

the fountain at dos salsas . . .

Dos Salsas (translation: two sauces . . . roja and verde or red and green) is the premier Tex-Mex restaurant in Georgetown. As a matter of fact, according to Urban Spoon, it is the most popular restaurant in town. It certainly gets my vote! Pretty much on a weekly basis. . . usually for enchiladas suizas . . .

I arrived early for dinner with a friend the day I sketched the fountain (tucked into a corner of the parking lot, between the Dos Salsas catering truck and a loooong bench for the usual customer overflow . . . not a lot of space for landscaping . . . this used to be a Dairy Queen!). The water was turned off, but the steady stream of birds (mostly grackles) seemed to be enjoying it immensely. As a matter of fact, even though it was a little chilly and getting on to evening, one brave grackle helped himself to a serious bath . . . a whole lot of "splishing and splashing" went on!!