Upon landing in Cleveland, I took a half-hour to sit on the desk in my fifth-floor room at the Aloft hotel and sketch the bright PanAm blue span of the Shoreway Bridge. The furnishings in this hotel aren't so luxe, but the expansive views compensate. I never get tired of watching the river traffic on the Cuyahoga, hearing the ding of the RTA Waterfront line at my feet, feeling the room quiver temblor-style as the miles-long freight trains rumble-roll past.

(Pitt marker and watercolors in Strathmore hardbound watercolor sketchbook)

A rainy day (imagine that!) last April in London. The venue? Bibendum, the Conran mecca, erstwhile home of the namesake Michelin Man. I splashed in after a long, drenching stroll on Fulham Road and stopped at the Oyster Bar to give my umbrella a rest. Spied this vignette through the glass so out came the camera -- snap, snap.

The collaged paper on the watercolor is from the South Kensington section of Muirhead's Short Guide to London (1953). It was a flea market find; I adore old Baedekers.

From the introduction:

London is still labouring under the stress of six years of war : many buildings of historic and artistic interest have been destroyed by enemy action, and still more have not yet been restored to their normal condition ; so that the descriptions in the present volume must needs be provisional in many instances.

Just a few more weeks till I get my annual fix of the city across the pond.

Little Red Barn in Vermont, from an original photo. Holbein gouache in Strathmore Toned Gray sketchbook.

Since we're not going to London Book Fair this year, I've decided to attend the 3rd Annual Plein Air Convention & Expo in Monterey, California. I've been thinking about what materials to take besides watercolor. All the outdoor videos from last year's convention show painters dealing with a lot of wind (it is the coast, after all), so I'd probably have to invest in slower-drying acrylics if I went that route.

Gouache, on the other hand, seems to fit the bill nicely. It is compact, can be rewetted, and seems perfect for the smaller supports I'd be painting on given I'm taking two flights there and back. Feels like gouache (or even just adding opaque white to regular watercolors) flies under the radar a bit.

I've been looking at artists like Nathan Fowkes for inspiration, and playing with different papers. I'm really liking the way gouache looks on the Strathmore Toned Gray paper, and will try others.

What's your experience (if any) with gouache?

Title TBD - abstraction of boats in Rowayton, Connecticut. From an original photo. Acrylic on board, 16x16.

This painting has been on and off my easel since 2011. I'm calling it done.

Missed last Saturday's Worldwide Sketchcrawl but went crawling on Sunday instead.



Had breakfast at Lorca in Stamford (who can resist that blueberry rooibos tea?) and then drove around the snowy landscape of Caramoor in Katonah, NY, to sketch from inside the car. In the warmer months the lovely garden and grounds play host to beautiful music performances.





The above sketches were all done in a Stillman & Birn Gamma series sketchbook (yes, the one I got at the USK Symposium in Lisbon - wow, that was a long time ago).

The following two were done in an Arches field sketchbook. I seem to have a hit-or-miss experience with this paper. It doesn't seem to be consistent (maybe it's the sizing applied to the paper), and I find that it sometimes "sucks in" my paint and dulls it.





Back home, I opened a pack of handmade-in-Catalunya 100% cotton watercolor paper I'd bought last year in Barcelona to test it out. The surface is quite rough. I chose a less-than-optimal subject (from a photo taken a while ago, probably an abandoned barn in the Adirondacks) but I like the way the paper takes water and paint.

Joined the NYC Urban Sketchers this weekend at the Hispanic Society of America, on Broadway at 155th Street. It's so lovely to discover places that aren't tourist-mobbed. Founded in the early 1900s, the museum/library showcases paintings, sculptures, textiles and decorative arts. Its two-storey central court proved a sienna-hued oasis on this snowy/sleety winter day. The "Vision of Spain" murals by Joaquin Sorolla alone are worth the visit -- they fill an entire octagonal room and are luminous, larger-than-life, drenched with color. If you like Sargent, these are a must-see.

If you've been following this blog over the years, you know that the holidays at my in-laws' in lovely Mystic, CT (see the view across the water above) involve several traditions. Herewith, a sampling.

Tradition No. 1: Bowling on Christmas Eve with my sister-in-law's family at Spare Time in Groton, CT. Since I'm terrible at the actual knocking-down-pins bit, sometimes I bring knitting (or a skein of yarn to wind), but often I bring a sketchbook, which brings us to...

Tradition No. 2: Badly drawn bowlers. Which is probably a direct result of...

Tradition No. 3: Resolving (unsuccessfully) to practice bowling -- and sketching people in the act thereof -- at least once before the following Christmas Eve.





Yeah.

So, a few hours later, it's time for

Tradition No. 4: A CVS run to stock up on mints and Purell for Christmas Eve mass. This one started in M.'s family -- apparently the lord is more inclined toward those who take communion with brand-name fresh breath and sanitize after handshakes. We learned from last year's Smarties bulk-buy disaster and wisely chose Ice Breakers Sours in a berry flavor.

Tradition No. 5: Sketching at church. There are several points during the Christmas Eve service where we're just waiting -- waiting for a processional, waiting for the rector to read the nativity story to the young ones, waiting for everyone to place their contributions of baby food and diapers up at the manger, etc.



Therefore I draw -- and I included a list of items to bring next year to make sitting through mass more entertaining comfortable.



Of course, next year we'll be looking at (and live-tweeting?) this Internet sensation.

Happy holidays, everyone!!

A few quick sketches from this morning's NYC Urban Sketchers excursion. Here, I'm looking out from in front of the Time Warner building.



And this one's from W 56th & Eighth Ave.

We're often in Mystic, CT, for Thanksgiving, and on the Friday and Saturday afterward we like to trawl nearby towns to start our holiday shopping. Sometimes Wickford, RI, or Niantic, CT, are in the mix, but this year we stayed a little closer -- downtown Mystic, of course, but also Westerly, RI, and Water Street in Stonington, CT. Sketched this from a bench outside a shop, wearing a warm coat and fingerless gloves.

Joined the NYC Urban Sketchers yesterday for a jaunt through New York literary haunts in Greenwich Village. We started at Washington Square North -- the world of Edith Wharton, Henry James and others. Was wishing I'd brought fingerless gloves by the time I finished this sketch, it was so cold. (What I did bring along was my new messenger-style bag from R.E.Load Bags in Philadelphia, as it allowed me to haul a lot of sketching stuff very comfortably with my hands free.)



Then we went in search of Louisa May Alcott's ghost, on MacDougal Street. When we spied a cozy-looking cafe across the street, we decided to pause our wandering and warm up over steaming mugs of tea. The minute we stepped in, we knew we'd want to spend a few hours -- it was exactly the sort of old-timey place you dream of stumbling upon as you stroll in the Village.



The host graciously let us take over a table in the front and guided us through the extensive selection of teas. For subjects, we had the shop's ever-changing clientele, some of whom ordered drinks to go and some of whom lingered to read or gossip or tap away at a keyboard.



We tried out one another's pens (we're always in search of the next one to add to our collection), and I was dismayed to learn that Art Brown (my go-to pen shop in NYC) closed a few months ago.



I kept a few of the tea-stained placemats to paste into my sketchbook (they were a bit too buckled to draw on).





After a light lunch, we continued on our book tour, crossing Seventh Avenue to walk down Grove Street, where O. Henry apparently wrote. I left the group at that point but tarried in a few shops along the way to Grand Central. Browsed the jewelry and John Derian-ware and Laura Zindel ceramics at Lori McLean and picked up a little brochure called "Charming and Unusual Shops, Galleries & Boutiques in Historic Greenwich Village" -- it's illustrated with fabulous ink drawings of the storefronts.

One of them is The Ink Pad, a tiny stamping and paper arts emporium crammed with all kinds of creative objets. Since it was on my way to the 14th Street subway station, I stopped in and picked up a Strathmore hardbound watercolor journal. After all, I'm just pages away from filling my Moleskine sketchbooks from the Lisbon and Santo Domingo Urban Sketching symposia....

Took advantage of a crisp fall weekend to drive down to Virginia. Stopped at Ellicott City and Frederick in Maryland, then Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, on the way. Visted a friend from high school in Winchester, then proceeded south on Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park before exiting at the tiny town of Sperryville to have lunch and sketch with Jessie while M. biked.



Then it was onward to Old Town Alexandria, where I spent a leisurely Sunday morning with a block of Hahnemuhle Quattro watercolor paper. I strolled down King Street from the Lorien Hotel & Spa to the waterfront, stopping to sketch along the way.



The town takes a while to wake up on a Sunday morning, so I had the streets mostly to myself.







A highlight of our trip was Wisconsin-style pumpkin frozen custard at Dairy Godmother in Alexandria's Del Ray section. So decadent! On a future visit, will have to stay longer and sketch that neighborhood, too!

Capped off a day wandering around New York with a visit to the Harbor Point Beer Garden here in the South End of Stamford. I was pleased they had Ace ciders and not just Angry Orchard, which everyone around here seems to stock. Listening to the band, sipping pear cider, sketching quickly as the breeze picked up -- a nice end to the evening.

Painted this to enter into a show ... was going to call it "Saturday Afternoon at the Big Box Store" but then figured "Do It Yourself" would say it all in fewer words.

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.