For the holidays, M. got me tickets to see musical virtuoso (and Late Show bandleader) Jon Batiste performing live at CalPoly, so we made a weekend out of it. After meandering through wineries and lunching at Cass Wines, we made our way to Estero Inn at Morro Bay. Got there just in time to capture the sunset over Morro Rock.
We proceeded to the town of San Luis Obispo, where we had dinner at Vegetable Butcher. Then it was time for the main event. What a treat! Jon Batiste started off on stage but then brought the music to the audience, playing his signature melodica. For a while he stood directly next to us.
I had a hard time sketching him since it was dark, but I made a few attempts.
In the morning, I did another quick sketch of Morro Rock. Hard to fathom that this volcano remnant's been around for some 23 million years!
I had to be in London last week for work, so of course I looked for excuses to do some art-related things (and extend my trip)! I was pleased to be able to attend the Mall Galleries Christmas Carol Concert and Party, held during the Royal Institute of Oil Painters Annual Exhibition. It was so fun to see the fantastic paintings, sing carols, and nibble on mince pies.
Toward the end of the week, I took off with a friend on a minibreak in Devonshire. It's not quite Cornwall -- ergo no Poldark sightings, sorry! -- but the coast is similarly raw and dramatic and windswept. Despite the on-and-off showers, we managed to do quite a bit of shopping and hiking. (And of course there was a good deal of sitting in pubs sipping hot beverages and reading Agatha Christie by the fire!)
We covered a lot of ground: Totnes, Hope Cove, Salcombe, Plymouth, Dartmouth, and Kingswear. Sadly I only really sketched in Hope Cove, where we were bracing against gale force winds as we walked on the beach.
I skipped hiking on the clifftops and found a somewhat sheltered place to draw instead!
We stayed in Newton Abbot, at the Dartmoor Halfway Inn, which had a view of sheep grazing on green hills crisscrossed by hedgerows.
I'd love to go back to these towns in more favorable weather, maybe with a set of gouache paints to capture the pastel-hued buildings and steeply pitched hills and cliffs.
It's only four hours away, so why did it take us so long to go back to the Sierra Nevadas and Lake Tahoe? The last time we were there was during our cross-country roadtrip, in 2015.
Better late than never, and October is the off season (after the summer crowd, before ski season). We stopped in Truckee, California, for lunch and then headed straight to Sand Harbor State Park across the border in Nevada, with its fabulous boulders and Caribbean-teal water.
My favorite spot, though, was Fallen Leaf Lake, southwest of the built-up resorts of South Lake Tahoe. It was like suddenly being transported to Alaska. It was pristine, and largely deserted, and beautiful.
I would love to know what these two men were doing with all this equipment (and one was in a wetsuit), but I just had to draw them.
What are your favorite places near Tahoe?
Memorial Day. Logic says stay away from National Parks, right? Because of all the people who take advantage of the holiday to swarm the entrances?
Well, we joined the horde this weekend. True, we stayed in Fresno and got to the entrance early so there was barely any line. Also, we have an annual pass. And we went to Kings Canyon and Sequoia instead of, you know, Yosemite.
Okay, so getting to Fresno on Friday evening was not fun. At one point, it took an hour to go one mile. On the plus side, we saw an elegant woman on horseback as we waited, and some children in the car ahead of us got out to stretch their legs and went free range.
At least the traffic going south here is in the middle of farm country -- way more fun than idling on 95 in Connecticut.
And the payoff was those glorious vistas in the parks. At the top of this post is my sketch of General Grant (the third largest tree). Sequoias are massive. Many of them had fire scars like this one.
A highlight of our trip (apart from staring in awe at those gigantic trees) was our hike to Zumwalt Meadow. We picnicked in the shade by the river and then walked/waded to a lush clearing to see North Dome:
Like Yosemite ... but you don't have to share the experience with a hundred other people.
As we drove the Generals Highway through the parks, we saw lots of evidence of past fires. The chaparral with the twiggy remains is hauntingly beautiful.
In fact, fires are part of the circle of life there -- the sequoias rely on it to release the seeds from their cones and expose mineral-rich soil.
After leaving Nebraska we made our way up to Cheyenne, Wyoming, for a night, before heading south into Colorado and then west to Utah.
Moab, Utah, was a highlight of the trip. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the intense red sandstone against the azure sky was a revelation.
Moab is a cyclist’s paradise, with its expanses of slick rock and challenging singletrack.
Ely, Nevada, is mostly a waystation on Highway 50, dubbed the “Loneliest Road in America.” I sketched its main drag just before the sun went down and the casinos lit up below the snowcapped mountains.
By the time we got to Eureka, it was raining. While M. went in search of coffee, I tore out a page from the “official guide” to Highway 50 and tried to capture the mood with a white gel pen.
Our last stop in Nevada before crossing the California state line was Lake Tahoe. We marveled at the clear aquamarine water and, after all that rain, bright sunshine!
Moab, Utah, was a highlight of the trip. The weather was absolutely perfect, and the intense red sandstone against the azure sky was a revelation.
Moab is a cyclist’s paradise, with its expanses of slick rock and challenging singletrack.
Ely, Nevada, is mostly a waystation on Highway 50, dubbed the “Loneliest Road in America.” I sketched its main drag just before the sun went down and the casinos lit up below the snowcapped mountains.
By the time we got to Eureka, it was raining. While M. went in search of coffee, I tore out a page from the “official guide” to Highway 50 and tried to capture the mood with a white gel pen.
Our last stop in Nevada before crossing the California state line was Lake Tahoe. We marveled at the clear aquamarine water and, after all that rain, bright sunshine!
After Ohio, we hugged the Lake Michigan “coastline” to check out Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
Lunch the next day was in Davenport, Iowa, where I looked out at the mighty Mississippi River.
Omaha, Nebraska, was a pleasant surprise. It’s a foodie town, with interesting neighborhoods. We stayed near the Old Market, which is packed with shops and restaurants shaded by decorative awnings.
There are vintage signs and distinctive letterforms everywhere. Even the view from our hotel window was eye-catching:
Here's what the drive through the rest of Nebraska looked like:
To be continued...
Lunch the next day was in Davenport, Iowa, where I looked out at the mighty Mississippi River.
Omaha, Nebraska, was a pleasant surprise. It’s a foodie town, with interesting neighborhoods. We stayed near the Old Market, which is packed with shops and restaurants shaded by decorative awnings.
There are vintage signs and distinctive letterforms everywhere. Even the view from our hotel window was eye-catching:
Here's what the drive through the rest of Nebraska looked like:
To be continued...
We are driving our car across the country (well, M. is driving; I'm just riding along and playing DJ) as part of our ongoing move from Connecticut to California.
Our first stop: Cleveland! We stayed at Clifford House B&B in Ohio City and walked to Bar Cento/Bier Markt for dinner. It was Kentucky Derby night, so the place was hopping. I sketched the patrons at the bar while we waited to be served.
The next morning I drew a few scenes in the neighborhood, including one of W. 25th Street with the new Mitchell's Ice Cream outpost -- yum.
To be continued...
Our first stop: Cleveland! We stayed at Clifford House B&B in Ohio City and walked to Bar Cento/Bier Markt for dinner. It was Kentucky Derby night, so the place was hopping. I sketched the patrons at the bar while we waited to be served.
The next morning I drew a few scenes in the neighborhood, including one of W. 25th Street with the new Mitchell's Ice Cream outpost -- yum.
To be continued...
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