Looking Back At Urban Sketchers Houston

I thought I would do something a little different for this bonus blog post. When I create each month's post, I use the template Judith created and insert a sketch from my cache of photos. I don't have any particular way of choosing. I pick one that represents the place we went in a different or creative or striking way. Something eye-catching usually. And I always try to "share the love" by picking different folks as much as a I can. 

The sad part is that the next month, when I create the new post, that image is lost. I don't have the storage to keep all the photos, and the new image "takes over "(I found a sneaky way to rescue these images from Google) So I thought I'd look back at where the group has been over the past few years since Judith created that header. Maybe this will inspire us to revisit a place, or visit someplace nearby. This will also help some of the new people to see all the places we've been. We've actually been a lot MORE places, but Google has only saved the ones created in the header for some reason. Where a month is skipped, there was a picture of a place or the group or the throwdown instead of artwork.

Kathy

Our trip to an art studio complex in Magnolia in 2020.

Carlos

Our day at the kite festival in 2021.

Robert

The Silos in April of 2021.

Robert

The Art Car Event (held in place of the parade) in May 2021.

Martha

The Armand Bayou Nature Center in June of 2021.

Michael

People sketching in the Vietnamese sandwich shop on Silver Street.

Francisco

A trip to the farmer's market in September of 2021.

Linda P

Our annual trip to Galveston in October 2021.

Richard

Traders Village in November of 2021.

Juliette

Our trip to The Post in downtown in February of 2022.

Siao

We went to the rodeo in March of 2022.

Jen

Jen Bui's sketch from the San Jacinto Day reenactment in April of 2022.

Francisco

Another trip to the Farmer's Market in May of 2022.

Lisa

We visited the MFAH in July of 2022.

Chris

In August of 2022, we visited the new MKT outdoor space in the Heights.

Veronika

September of 2022 found us at Woodlands Town Square in the Market Place.

Linda

In October of 2022 we were back in Galveston drawing on the docks.

Peter

Peter drew this in Market Square in November of 2022.

Rita

Rita drew this at Bayou Bend in April of 2023

Truong

This sketch is from our visit to the Museum of Fine Arts in June of 2023.

Peter

In August of 2023 Peter drew this view of downtown from St. Arnold's beer garden.

Susan

Galveston again and a sketch of the Elyssa.

Judith

Judith made this sketch at Rockin' 'n Rollin' Prints in November of 2023.

Susan

We went to the Museum of Natural History in February of 2024.

Joel

We also went to Cameron Market in February.

Magdalena

In March 2024 we visited the Houston Botanic Garden.

Siao

April of 2024 found our group in Olde Town Tomball.

Svetlana

Svetlana drew this in May 2024 at the BAP Hindu temple in Stafford.

Karen

And Karen drew this also in May at the Menil.

Remember, these headers only go back to 2020. Here are some of the other places the group has been:

Barry

In 2019 we visited Project Row House in the Third Ward.   We also memorialized the closing of Wolf's Department store - also in the Third Ward.

Richard

We've been to Discovery Green a few times. We've checked out 19th Street in the Heights, the Houston Museum of Funeral History,  the Julia Ideson building at the library, Old Sixth Ward, the Art Car parade, Phoenicia Market, the Galleria, the old Hobby Airport Terminal and of course several trips to NASA. We were a group long before 2019, but part of Urban Sketchers Texas. I'd say we've been a busy group.

We are always on the lookout for new places to take the group. If you have an idea, here are the general guidelines: a) Saturday or Sunday is best because so many folks are working

 b) free or low cost is optimal so we can be inclusive c) crowds are a consideration as is parking. If you have ideas, please speak up.

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A Cool Museum Treasure Hunt

 As you can tell from the group photo in the header, we had a somewhat smaller group in attendance at the museum this time. But it was nice to sketch someplace cool, look at some art and do some people watching. This time Judith set us a small challenge. We were to find places or artworks in the museum that met one of a list of words she gave us. Here is the list: gold, pattern, floral, faces, feather, treasure, hold, mask, struggle, old/new, bright/dark, space, cool, green, awkward, angles. As you look at what people drew, see if you can tell what they had in mind from the list.

Peggy Engel and Judith headed straight for the Egyptian collection. Peggy did something a little unexpected. Instead of drawing the FRONT of the statue of Ramses, she drew the hieroglyphs on the back.

Peggy

Judith

Judith's sketch took in one whole space in the museum complete with the people and the art. Do I see some sketchers on that bench in the back?

Judith

Judith's sketch of the canopic jar includes some of the hilarious questions and comments sketchers are likely to get when they are out and about in a museum.

Susan D

Susan decided "First things, first". She started with the familiar metro stop by the entrance to the Beck building and a bit of ephemera to mark the day.

Susan

Susan moved around the museum a bit collecting a bit of sculpture here, a tapestry there and  some people admiring the work in the Raqib Shaw exhibit.

Barry

Barry worked in graphite to draw this bust. Since we are restricted to dry media in the museum, people have to come up with more creative solutions.

Pay Ling

With that in mind, Pay Ling used watercolor crayons minus the water to draw these tapestries.

Phillip

Phillip also worked in pencil to draw two very different objects. But then he switched to pen for the Greek vase.

Phillip

Have you guessed any of the word prompts yet?

Jenny

You should be able to guess the words that inspired Jenny. And even guess the location if you go to the museum often.

Ouisie

Phillip's daughter Ousie took up the challenge. Always nice to have young sketchers join us.

Decha

Decha also drew an entire gallery view.

Chris

First I drew the gallery view with the classical sculpture and all the receding doorways. Just ink for that one. Then I went over to the Kinder where I found this intriguing wood sculpture set against an interesting wall. I used watercolor pencil for that one.

It was an interesting evening. We didn't do a traditional throw-down, but we did talk about our work a bit. 

We are looking for something a little different for our July sketchout. If you can think of an INDOOR venue it should Free or inexpensive and not too crowded on a Saturday for sketchers. Please make a suggestion on Insta or FB. Several of our leaders will be on vacay, so we will need you to show up and play "leader". It's not hard and I'm sure anyone who had attended a sketchout know the routine. Thanks. We all need to pitch in to keep this going.

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir - The Hindu Mandir

 

our group

I think the two pictures give you some idea of the complexity of the things we were trying to draw on our visit to the Hindu temple in Stafford. The intricately carved panels of the mandir covered both inside  and outside. It was amazing. In her drawing in the header you can see that  Svetlana did a good job of capturing the many carved columns and the dark, cool atmosphere inside the temple.

The day was hot. So the main job was finding shade long enough to get the sketch. Some folks did tackle drawing the entire temple building.

Michelle 

Michelle was very patient.

Alicia

Decha

Rania

Peter

Jenny

Susan

I think the commonality among these sketches is that they really simplified the very intricate shapes and picked a color palette to pull it all together.  It was a tough subject.

Some folks kept it even simpler.

Mary m

Mary took one portion of the temple and the surrounding greenery for context. Lovely reflections in the pool in the foreground.

Vicki

Vicki went strictly black and white. All light and shadow. It gave her drawing wonderful atmosphere.

Jacklynn

Jacklynn went straight for the watercolor and limited her palette to five colors. Very effective.

And leaving the white of the paper works every time.

Nancy

Using a toned paper is another option. It worked well for Nancy.

Michael

Michael drew from a completely different vantage point. He also limited his colors. You can feel the heat of the sun.

Shakti

Shakti stuck to pen and ink. I like the inclusion of a few people.

Jen V

Jen V worked in pencil. Very simple.

Paul

A nice graded wash worked well for Paul. After that, just a little ink pen and some embellishments.

Sketchers hard at work

 A couple of us drew the carved entrance gates. I just wasn't up to a whole temple.

Jeff

Jeff included sketchers hard at work.

Chris

This way, I could compose a page for text and drawing, something I've wanted to incorporate for a long time.

Fran

And Fran laid out her entire watercolor on site. But, running out of time, she completed the drawing later. As I've said before, this is perfectly ok. (especially with a large and complicated subject)

Judith

Judith went into the temple and drew a sampling of the carved posts she found there.

Bruce

Bruce also went inside and drew a goddess statue.

Nancy

Nancy drew one of the altars to the gods. The addition of the gold and the contrast with the black paper and  Posca markers is effective.

Here are some more of the drawings from both inside and out.

Magda

A collage on a prepared blue background.

Chris

Different color scheme, but along the same lines. A bit of this and that.

Susan

Women in their saris.

Yug

Yug drew some detail. He kept at it even though, as he said, it was hard.

Jen V

A river goddess

Peter

Another goddess

Nancy

Pillar detail.

Here's the throwdown.

our throwdown

Here's to all the hardy souls who stuck it out until the end.  And here's to our gracious hosts at the mandir.

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