A week in California is never enough. But when I found out I was going to a conference in Anaheim around my birthday, my immediate thought was: perfect excuse for M. and me to drive from LA to San Fran in a convertible (with shades and a scarf and a sketchbook, of course)!

Kicked off this coastal crawl with a mini Urban Sketchers reunion: Chris and Shiho met me at Downtown Disney in Anaheim (I was staying at the Grand Californian Hotel). We had dinner at Tortilla Jo's while we drew.







The conference ended on Monday night -- so Tuesday morning M. and I picked up our ride -- a black Mustang convertible -- and set off on Highway 1.

In Malibu, I found that I really like watching people surf, or at least attempt to surf.





We lunched in Santa Barbara, and I sat in the shadeless part of the park to sketch the Mission:



And then ... the fog rolled in. It pretty much sat on us for the rest of the trip. We never saw the top of Morro Rock (though we did kayak out to see the sea lions and the pelicans up close).



We spent most of Wednesday chasing gaps in the fog all the way from Morro Bay to Carmel. Don't get me wrong - Big Sur was still beautiful in its misty coyness. And it lifted enough for us to take the requisite souvenir photos of McWay Falls and the Bixby Bridge. But mostly we'd look to the left and see ... gauzy whiteness. So? We'll just have to go back another time.

Thursday was: Carmel-Monterey-Golden Gate Bridge-Sausalito-lunch in Napa-back to San Francisco for dinner-drop off car at SFO-get on redeye. All this with the Bay Bridge closed for the completion of the new eastern span!

But still, time for one last sketch to kiss California goodbye, from Bridgeway in Sausalito.



As Arnold says, "I'll be back."

On three days in the summer, New York opens up Park Avenue/Lafayette Street to pedestrians and bikes and rollerbladers. This was the scene last weekend at Lafayette near 4th St.

Driving to New Hampshire took way too long on Friday afternoon (>3 hours to Hartford?!). But once we arrived in Peterborough, all the getting-there-annoyance melted away. Peterborough has enough around it to keep us busy (shopping, lakes for kayaking, bikeable country roads) but is small enough not to attract hordes of tourists. Our base was the ever-delightful Little River Bed & Breakfast. Saturday evening, after kayaking, a trip to Eastern Mountain Sports, lunch with area friends and downtown shopping, we parked our folding chairs at Depot Square Park for the Actors' Circle Theatre production of "Two Gentlemen of Verona."



Not the most accomplished of the bard's plays (most likely his first, apparently), but this version was set in the Roaring Twenties, so it was fun to see (and sketch) the flappertastic costumes and props. Remembering what I learned at the USK Symposium in Barcelona, I took along stencils, colored pencils, a glue stick, that Strathmore toned gray sketchbook and more, to get away from my usual pen + watercolor routine.

At Mystic Seaport's Antique and Classic Boat Rendezvous. Sadly several vessels couldn't make it, we learned, due to bad weather in the region a few days prior.

Have I mentioned the amazing food in Spain? We really didn't eat a bad meal the entire time we were in Barcelona, though at a certain point I did tire a little of the ubiquitous pan de tomate ;)



Friday

Another warm, sticky day. Before the first workshop, went up to the 6th floor spa deck of Le Meridien hotel to sketch the view. Next time I'd like to go up into those hills.



Started off in the morning with Shari Blaukopf's Triad Symphony workshop, where we explored the possibilities of working solely with Alizarin crimson, Ultramarine blue and Aureolin yellow. After some value studies, we painted a small flower stand near the Església de Santa Anna, a lovely church. A bit bummed that I didn't actually go see the cloister.



After the class, a few of us took the metro to Barna Art -- because, you know, one never has quite enough art supplies. I snagged one of the few remaining Escoda travel brushes as well as a pack of Catalan-made watercolor paper at sister shop Barna Paper. After inhaling sorbet for lunch (yes it was that hot), I attended the Sketching with Dry Twig and Chinese Ink demo by Ch'ng Kiah Kiean. We watched closely as he deftly and rapidly sketched the cathedral with just a few tools.

Then it was off to Capturing Space Through Form and Color, taught by Marion Rivolier. Was not happy to walk nearly 30 minutes to the location, down in Barceloneta. (Plus, by now I know from experience that the second workshop on the second day of each year's symposium is generally my low point in terms of energy!) So I probably wasn't paying attention to the exercises, but I managed to paint a number of these panoramas of the buildings and trees down there. No pen or pencil lines, thus no "safety net."





Saturday

I knew this morning's workshop was going to be hard. Omar Jaramillo and João Catarino showed us how to paint around what we wanted to highlight in their workshop, titled Negative Forms as First Structures and Minimal Storytelling. I struggled with the first part, where we had to paint just the buildings, leaving the trees, cafe umbrellas, etc., white. I won't show you my sad attempts. The second part was more my speed -- we had to quickly paint gestural forms of the people wandering around near Placeta del Pi.



After lunch at a Vietnamese place near the cathedral (a welcome break from tapas), I attended an informative and charismatic lecture by RISD faculty member and illustrator Fred Lynch. He was quite the storyteller.

Finally it was time for the 40th Worldwide Sketchcrawl! Keeping with tradition, the last day of the symposium coincided with a worldwide sketchcrawl, so we all gathered at the Arc de Triomf to draw, have a group picture taken and celebrate.





A few of us went on to dinner at Luzia Street Grill, where the blank white paper placemat begged to be filled with a sketch.



Sunday

A day to rest, at last (sort of.) M. and I splurged for tickets and took a ride on the hop-on, hop-off Touristic Bus so that I could get a feel for the city (not to mention see some of the famous Gaudi buildings). It was nice to be off my feet. Of course, there were many stops along the route where crowds of people got on and off. I took the opportunity to sketch the Palau Nacional from the top of the stopped bus.



I leave you with a sketch of the beach in Barceloneta, where we stopped for lunch and to dip our feet in the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean.



Looking forward to next year's symposium, wherever it may be!

That's right, you won't see any sketches of the city's fabulously undulating buildings here! I spent four and a half days in Barcelona attending the 4th International Urban Sketching Symposium and somehow managed not to draw anything by Gaudi. Here's how it went down.

Wednesday
Arrived after an overnight flight and sank happily into the bed at Le Meridien for a nap. Wandered over to La Sagrada Familia. Was not impressed by its perpetual construction site-ness (I'd been warned, but somehow wasn't quite prepared for all the sheathing-scaffolding-craning.) Meh. Didn't inspire me to whip out a pen.

Dinner at Els Quatre Gats was more promising. This ancient cafe played host to one of Picasso's first one-man shows.



Thursday

Let the games begin! We convened at the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, were given our massive bags of sponsor swag and sent off to our first workshop. Mine was Dynamic Ink, with Norberto Dorantes, where we had to draw with non-waterproof ink and wash. Not easy! Our subject was Carrer Comtal.







At midday, I attended a demo on Digital Urban Sketching, with Monica Cid and Josu Maroto. Of course, I trotted out my iPhone and finger-sketched while I listened to the instructors talk about various app and stylus options.



Was very excited for my afternoon workshop, Drawing from the Heart and Over Color Splashes with Tia Boon Sim and Paul Wang. It was raining, but happily we were inside the cafe at the Palau de la Musica Catalana. We were encouraged to play with wax, ink, sticks, salt, and splashes. So play we did.











To be continued...

Seems like we were just in Santo Domingo -- but amazingly a whole year has already gone by and it's time for the 4th International Urban Sketching Symposium ... in Barcelona!



Thank goodness for the long holiday weekend, giving me time to plan what I'm taking along. In addition to my usual watercolor kits, fountain pens and sketchbooks, I'm taking pens loaded with various *non-waterproof* inks, a selection of colored pencils, some Neocolor II crayons, a bamboo pen and extra ink. The pens and pencils fit into my Niji wrap, and the extra ink (and a small container of salt) is in a kayaking dry bag to prevent any accidents in transit. For water containers, I have a collapsible dog bowl and an H2O4K9 dog water bottle with the bowl in the cap, both of which attach to my bag with carabiners. (Oh, plus a laptop and scanner so I can blog during the symposium!)

Speaking of bags ... all the warnings about pickpockets got to me, so I went out and got a Pacsafe Metrosafe 200 GII anti-theft bag. It's a fairly lightweight daypack and can fit my 7"x10" sketchbooks and paper blocks. I figure it will be useful in other places as well.

To keep a few materials at hand, I took this gardening apron from Terrain and machine-sewed some pen pockets into it. That way I can keep a small sketchbook and a few pens/pencils within reach. I was inspired by a something similar that Inma Serrano had in Santo Domingo.




I also "pre-colored" some sketchbook pages with India ink and shellac-based ink, so I can draw on top.



So... what are *you* bringing to Barcelona?

How could I resist my friend's Facebook post (complete with pics of her children's adorably decorated bicycles) describing Southport, CT's old-fashioned Fourth of July parade? Followed by lawn games on the grounds of the Pequot Library? I was in!



I'd just started to sketch the start line when they were off! I frantically scratched out some lines, trying to capture the gesture of the kids gathered together in front of the buildings.

At the Pequot, everyone swarmed the hot dog stand; some kids got their faces painted.



The heat and humidity were palpable. Many people stayed in the shade of trees with popsicles and ice cream to stay cool.



The lawn games were lots of fun -- there were costumed races with kids dressed up as King George, Betsy Ross, Paul Revere, etc. Of course I couldn't resist sketching the sack race, where the kids hopped to and fro in pillowcases imprinted with flags and stars!

Just returned from a marathon roadtrip to attend M.'s cousin's wedding. We drove to Cleveland, then Columbus, then (with a detour into West Virginia) back to Connecticut via Hershey and Lititz, PA. Whew! Here are a few sketches done at Stauf's Coffee in the Grandview section of Columbus, Ohio. They had decorated the place with bike jerseys and other bicycle gear for the annual Tour de Grandview, which had taken place a couple of days earlier (we had a great vantage point from right outside the rehearsal dinner venue).

Here's another plein air acrylic painting done in Rowayton -- it wasn't an easy one, as the paint dried fast, there were bugs, I kicked my water container over, etc.... touched it up a bit later in the studio. I still think I'll eventually like this medium for plein air work -- I just have to learn it better (and possibly upgrade to slightly better quality paint).

Also participated in my first Quick Draw on June 8, during Jersey Central Art Studios' Paint the Town Cranford 2013 event. Note to self (and others): leave lots of extra time to arrive and scout out a location! We ambitiously thought we'd stop by my office in Secaucus to get all my belongings first (we're moving to a flexible hoteling-only workspace at EY this month) before heading to Cranford to get set up. Due to a blockage on the Saw Mill Parkway, we ended up seeing all of Yonkers stoplight by stoplight and barely made it to Cranford in time. I chose a view and squeaked something out in the two-hour timeframe allotted, but I'm not even going to show you what I painted -- it's destined to be gessoed into oblivion!

Wow, I haven't posted to the blog in a while -- so get ready for a slew of catch-up posts! A while ago (the end of May, in fact, as the note on my sketch helpfully reminds me) we had Bartlett Tree Experts come out and take down the two trees in our backyard that had keeled over in Hurricane Sandy. Couldn't resist doing a quick sketch of the guys through the kitchen window.

Plein air watercolor has always appealed to me -- it's the minimalism of the kit required, I suppose, and the spontaneity of the medium. However, I've always admired plein air work in other media -- oil, acrylic and pastel alike.

So when I saw that Pacific Northwest-based artist Annie Howell Adams was teaching a daylong workshop titled Fauving up the Landscape here at Rowayton Arts Center, I signed up and persuaded a friend to do the same. Figured it was a good opportunity to try a new medium and learn from an expert.

The week of the workshop, things got very busy at work. I hadn't had time to shop for supplies, so I hastily put together a bag the night before, noting with despair that I was missing some key materials -- to wit, decent canvases and a tube of alizarin crimson.

Since I wanted to meet my friend before the start of class, M. and I left the house early. On the way we saw a sign for an estate sale, so we decided on a quick detour.

"Looking for anything in particular?" asked the lady at the cashier's desk in the foyer of the estate-sale house.

"Nah, just stopping by on the way to a painting class at Rowayton Arts Center down the road," I said.

The woman brightened. "Oh, you should definitely check out the art supplies downstairs -- my aunt used to take classes there, too!"

She wasn't kidding. Her late aunt had certainly taken her hobby seriously. In 10 minutes I amassed a boxload of prime art supplies - including, by coincidence, the very items I needed for the class. New canvases? Hog-bristle brushes in various sizes? Check! Alizarin crimson acrylic paint? Check! What were the odds? Armed with my finds, I headed off to the workshop feeling very lucky indeed.

Annie, the instructor, was lovely -- so down-to-earth and such a fount of information. She shared her palette layout and did a demo outdoors showing how to mix colors. She often sketches on her canvas with black gesso before glazing with medium and adding layers of oil on top. Here's an illustration of this technique on her blog.

I love that she's unabashedly passionate about creating art in all kinds of media; so many artists these days confine themselves to a certain type of work and even limit their range of subject matter, all to keep galleries happy and establish a signature style. Yawn.

So - how did I make out? I found that my watercolor setup worked just as well for acrylic: I filled an AquaTote collapsible fabric water bucket and set it on my folding stool. On the portable easel was the butcher tray, which held paper towels, a few paint tubes and a rectangle of palette paper secured with mini spring clamps.

The sun and breeze that day meant that paint dried very fast. Next time I'll bring a spray mister to keep my paint wet. I mostly used a limited palette of a warm and a cool version of each primary, plus white, with no browns or black.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, especially as I'd never painted outdoors with acrylics before. And I'd like to think that the beloved aunt, whose materials I used for the painting, would have been happy to see her paints, canvases and brushes live on.