With Judith in Madrid

Visit of Judith and her husband  David to Spain. During his stay in Madrid, we shared with them a few hours sitting on a terrace in Las Vistillas, with a beautiful view of the Almudena Cathedral. 

María,Judith,Ursula, me and Joaquín.

My document

Old Gold

For the past two days I've been stuck at my local Apple Store with an uncooperative laptop. Fortunately, the folks at the Genius Bar were both very knowledgeable AND helpful, and I am once again "on the grid." (Best of all, they got me up and running without charging me a penny. Thanks again fellas!)

To celebrate I'm launching a new series entitled "Old Gold" on my blog. (Installment #1 is "Roma") And this series will run in alternating installments with a series on technical issues and product reviews, and regular posts "from the field." If you'd care to join me for a stroll down memory lane, click on the link below and, afterward, please let me know what you think.

http://earnestward.blogspot.com/

The Skate Park

One of the nice things about living in a big city is discovering new places that you never knew existed. The city has been trying to upgrade Buffalo Bayou by putting in walking trails and paved bike paths and shelters and little pockets of interest all along both the north and south bank. Today I rounded the corner onto the Sabine Street bridge and lo and behold there was a brand new skate park. Didn't take the skaters any time at all to find this. The place was jammed even in the heat.

Texans in South America

Our 3-week sketch/study trip in South America with my old friend Professor Max Conrad and many of the usual suspects begins Saturday.  Patti and I will fly from Fort Worth to Miami, then on to Belo Horizonte in Brazil.  We'll make our way along the southeastern coast through Ocuro Preto, Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, Paratay, Ilhabela and Sao Paulo.  While in Sao Paulo we will stay with my old friend and fellow LSU lanscape architect Sergio Santana.  Then off to Peru to experience Lima, an ecotourism lodge at the Reserva Amazonica, Machu Picchu and Cuzco before heading back to Texas. My goal is to produce between 40 and 50 watercolors during the trip.
We've visited 36 countries since 1999, but this is our first trip to South America to see what they know. It's overdue, and we're really jazzed.  High adventure indeed!

Introducing Earnest Ward

Hi! When I heard that Texas was getting its own USK chapter a few months ago I was thrilled -- after all, there are hundreds of sketching enthusiasts scattered across our great state and USK is a fantastic way for us to meet and share our mutual interest. And then when I was asked to become a contributing correspondent I was honored. For those of you who don't already know me tho', a brief introduction might be in order.

I was born into a family of intrepid travelers. Every summer, growing up, my folks would pack us into the car and we would camp our way across whichever continent we were living on at the time. And, by the time I graduated from high school I'd lived in Britain (twice), Germany, and Taiwan, and visited numerous other countries. Along the way I discovered a passion for recording the world about me in drawings, paintings, and printmaking -- but most of all in sketchbooks and journals.

Along the way I met and married my soulmate and fellow adventurer. And when our two beautiful children came along it seemed perfectly natural to us to continue the family tradition with them -- including regular voyages of discovery here in Texas and across the U.S., a two-month "slow travel" sketch crawl across Europe and, most recently a stint as Artists-in-Residence at North Cascades National Park.

My personal motivation for sketching is to "see" more of the world around me. (Nothing goes into a sketch that the artist hasn't first consciously perceived. The same can't always be said of photography or video.) And my personal focus tends to be the natural and cultural history -- past AND present -- of the places I visit.

So, I'd like to thank Jim for inviting me to join ya'll and I look forward to, hopefully, meeting each of you in upcoming sketch crawls. In the meantime, "Happy sketching!"

Puerta Grande - Madrid

To be carried high on the shoulders of aficionados out through the Grand and Moorish Puerta de Madrid, is the ultimate dream of any torero (bullfighher).

Puerta Grande o Puerta de Madrid.

The Plaza de Toros de las Ventas ( Often known as las Ventas) is a classic example of the Neo-Mudejar stile, it was opened in 1931, and hosted its first corrida (bullfight) three years later.
25.000 spectators, evoke more sense os a theatre than a sports stadium : it also hosts concerts.
The area where the Plaza de Toros is located os known as Las Ventas because , in times gone by, several wayside taverns (ventas) along with houses of ill repute, were to be found there.

Ducros House, Thibodeaux LA

This weekend found me road-tripping from Fort Worth to Houston to Thibodeaux, Louisiana and back.  I sketched this amazing Greek Revival house on the edge of Thibodeaux while my daughter attended a friend's wedding festivities there.  I later found out it's the Ducros plantation house, built between 1830 and 1850.  It's on the National Register and is currently undergoing restoration to see new life as a bed and breakfast.  I loved the fact that the road sign across from the house said, "Devil's Swamp Road;" sounds like something from a screenplay.

Formal Application

These drawings come with a little story. It's been a busy month and try as I might, the closest I've come to location sketching is my own backyard. There is a little black-and-white cat who was adopted by my neighbor but she spends most of her time in my yard. She naps on my porch and my deck and drives my indoor cats crazy. She also hunts in my garden. Lately I've been finding little gifts waiting for me on the doormat. Earlier this week it was a mouse. I decided that this offering was a little crispy and rank to bring inside for sketching. The Katydid and the Monarch carcass, however, were perfect. I've started to joke that she is "formally applying" to be my cat. I'm almost afraid to see what I come home to next and she ramps up her campaign.

Live - Dead Music Capital Band

A recent weekend trip to the live music capital of Texas, Austin, to visit Mini Maker Faire.  The Maker Faire is a gathering of makers, everything from weaving, robotics, hackers, crafts, soldering projects, basically anything that you might find someone tinkering with in their shop. I liked the   large, adult-size rocking horses, that were styled more like the 4 horses of the Apocolyps, made by a woman that one day decided she wanted her own rocking horse. Then she made another, and then started to sell them. Of course we had to climb up and have a ride. I don't know why I didn't sketch them. This band marched into the faire and played for a good long while, the Dead Music Capital Band. They were scrungy, pale, bloody with ratty clothes.

Museum Day. Museo Sorolla-Madrid-Spain

On the ocasion of the celebration of the Museum Day , a group of Urban Sketchers were invited to visit the Museo Sorolla, and drawing the inside and outside.
Surrounded by a secluded garden, like an oasis in the centre of Madrid, the Museum holds the greatest collection of works by the Valencian painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863-1923)
Sorolla is often called the "Master of Light" but as attractive as his pictures, his studio and house are more or less as he left them when he died en the 1920s.

some more sketches in my blog

Madrid from the Sky. Ok, almost !!

Another saturday morning, cool and with some ugly clouds on the horizon, we chose the comfort of a cafeteria installed in a ninth floor of a well-known departament store chain with a unbeatable views over Madrid.

Gran Vía from Callao, in the rear the Plaza de España-

Teatro Real in the center, Catedral de la Almudena to the left and Palacio de Oriente to the right

Palacio de la prensa

Update on my March 10th Post.....

I posted the sketch of Broadway Church of Christ on the left back in March( http://urbansketchers-texas.blogspot.com/2012/03/finding-right-view.html )...a quick sketch just to explore composition, value, etc. 

The sketch on the left was done in the studio from the study....I apologize for this one-time violation of  the first imperative of the USK Manifesto(We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation), but I thought it was interesting to see the difference.  I think I prefer the looser and free-er feel of the original study!  My work tends to "lose something" when I labor too hard over it!  

Back to pure location sketching!

The Texians

Here are some more Sketchcrawl pictures from the reenactment at San Jacinto. The Texians had a little camp set up at the far end of the "mall" from the monument in a spot just across the road from where the actual Texians camped. People who do these take them quite seriously and the costumes were impressive. The cannon in the vignette is one of the famous "twin sisters". Judith and I wandered around quite a while looking at the camps and the various activities people were engaged in for the amusement of visitors. In one spot the soldiers would lead a group of little boys marching them like soldiers to carry out the "execution" of a traitor. (only to reprieve him each time at the last minute) I was told that some of the group camped there the night before, which must have been very soggy with lots of mosquitoes. The only anachronism became apparent when you got onto the levee separating the park from the wildlife preserve: just over the heads of the Texians you could see the tops of the cargo ships as they glided up the Houston ship channel just behind the trees.

The Madrid Railway Museum

Is located in a former station, one of the finest and most representative examples old Spanish industrial architecture. The museum contains a selection of vehicles and other railway-related exhibits.
On a cold and rainy morning, with a group of Madrid Sketchers, spent a few hours, drawing and chatting.
Was fun.

Some more sketchs of this day in my blog.

Sketch Crawl and Santa Anna

World Wide SketchCrawl 35. Fellow USkTX sketcher Chris F. and I met out at the the San Jacinto Monument for the reenactment of the Battle of San Jacinto. This was a great opportunity to capture a wide assortment of activities and the reenactors dress and gear was wonderfully varied. Quite a few people had questions about what we were doing. From the website www.sanjacinto-museum.org "The battle reenactment dramatizes the decisive battle where General Sam Houston led his Texian soldiers to victory over the Mexican Army eventually leading to almost one million square miles of Mexican territory becoming a part of the United States.  The reenactors  dramatically interpret the Runaway Scrape (Texians fleeing from the advancing forces of Santa Anna), the cannon duel and the final battle between the two forces."

Greetings from Madrid.

During the trip to my hometown to participate in the Rock 'n' Roll Madrid Marahton, I attended the 35th SketchCrawl with a group of Madrid Sketchers, to a park where it could see beautiful views of the Madrid skyline and its sierra,  and spend a fantastic hours chatting and drawing.

SketchCrawl Saturday - Austin

Austin sketchers will also be celebrating World Wide SketchCrawl 35, as we meet-up at the SFC Austin Farmers Market, Downtown; 400 W. Guadalupe, Republic Square Park @ 9:00am.   From there we'll meander and have lunch in the 2nd St. district then quite possibly crawl over to the South First Street bridge for some afternoon sketching and a bird's eye view (and sounds!) of the Austin Reggae Festival @ Auditorium Shores.  We'll regroup later and round-out the day with an evening @ Threadgill's, an iconic Austin food/music venue, from 7:00pm - till ?   We'll be relaxing, sketching the scene, and enjoying while listening to Seth Walker (w. Carsie Blanton)  @ 9:00 pm croon the night away.

So, if you're in Austin please join us for all or any part of this sketch adventure.  Hope to see you there!

33rd World Wide Sketch Crawl | Auditorium Shores Gazebo w. Austin skyline @ South First St. Bridge
sketched on an iPad 2, w/ ArtRage software, and my index finger  :)

bscott@shaevel.com
www.shaevel.com

Change of plans - maybe?

Tomorrow is the re-enactment of The Battle of San Jacinto.
There will be a battle re-enactment at 3p.m.
Starting at 10 a.m. there will be Mexican and Texan camps set up for visiting.
This would be a pretty cool opportunity and something completely Texas-y.
 I now change my vote from Discovery Green to San Jacinto Battle. What do you think?
The website: http://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/
We'll post the final location by tomorrow morning at 7:30.

SketchCrawl Saturday - Houston

World Wide Sketch Crawl is this Saturday. Houston sketchers will be meeting at Discovery Green in downtown Houston. Meet at 9 a.m. at location marked with #4 on the map. (at the parking garage, with your back to the convention center, go to the garden area to the right of the garage entrance) We'll meet there again at 11 for anyone coming late. There will be lots of activity around, lovely gardens, and the skyline. Houston, I know you are out there. Please come join us, all skill levels and all ages welcome. See you there!

The Children's Room

I am captivated by the old Ideson Building as well. I knew they were doing a complete renovation and I hadn't seen the finished work. I have fond memories of the building, particularly the children's room. The results of the renovation are just spectacular and the Norma Meldrum Children's Room is restored to its former glory. They have relit the entire building so you can better appreciate the original architectural details....and they just GLOW. The antique books in this collection are a trip through time.
Inspired by Tómas I sat and drew the alcove. I think at one time this alcove housed the picture books.