Singapore surprised me: Outstanding food, a heady mix of modern and vintage, walkable neighborhoods and infinity-pool views. Apart from the relentless saunalike weather, we had a great time at this year's event. Can't believe I've now attended my fifth USk symposium -- and this time as a participant, activity leader and board member!
We flew SFO > NRT > SIN. I started with a drawing on the airline's food tray placemat:
And then, sketched travelers during our layover in Narita, Japan:
Before the symposium got underway, we got to do a little sightseeing. It was so hot and humid that even my eyes were sweating. We visited Little India and then walked to Kampong Glam, with hipster boutiques in the shadow of the Sultan Mosque.
Dinner was at Lau Pa Sat market, which specialized in satay.
After a traditional hawker breakfast of roti prata and kaya toast dipped in soy sauce-drizzled soft-boiled eggs, we went to the Singapore Botanic Gardens. It's hard to imagine wearing uniforms with full sleeves and rubber boots in that stifling weather.
In the evening, I sketched people hanging out in the hotel lobby.
To be continued ... read Part 2
You can walk the length of the main street in this little coastal town in a few minutes. The stiff breeze didn't stop us from enjoying a hearty lunch at Duarte's Tavern. And of course we stopped in at the little boutiques, visited the goat farm and watched tiny crabs in the tide pools at the beach. Later we feasted on Arcangeli Grocery artichoke bread and fresh Harley Farms goat cheese and tomato sauce.
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...
The San Mateo County History Museum in downtown Redwood City used to be the old county courthouse.
The light here in the peninsula is intense; sunglasses and a hat are a must. The blazing rays make lovely shadows to paint though, so I can't complain.
A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to Julia Kay's Portrait Party -- a live one, at Alley Cat Books in the Mission. It was lovely to meet Julia Kay in person and to practice drawing fast portraits of people.
Last month I joined the SF Bay Urban Sketchers at the Old Mint. There were several people in costume promoting the ongoing History Expo. We enjoyed listening to their proclamations and chatting with the various role-players.
My pre-Google "jobmoon" in February was a weeklong trip to Italy.
We ate bucatini and pasta carbonara and savored crispy artichokes. In Vatican City I sketched the tourists craning their necks skyward in the Sistine Chapel.
What a place! I'm glad I'd read Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King. It's a fascinating account of how these frescoes came to be.
No trip to Rome is complete without a trek to the top of the Spanish Steps. I took advantage of a brief period of sunshine to sketch the scene below.
Rome was lovely and picturesque, but it was Naples that stole my heart. Our hotel was right across from the Castel dell'Ovo, with stunning views of the bay. Fellow urban sketcher Lucia Marinelli and I met up to draw the scene despite the chilly wind.
Naples is narrow alleys and breathtaking views. I stamped my sketchbook in the Moleskine store at the train station - fun!
And who can forget the artisanal pizza, the sfogliatelle, the gelato?
On the flight back I read Andrea Camilleri's The Shape of Water, featuring the irrepressible detective (and foodie!) Inspector Montalbano. Sicily calls!
We ate bucatini and pasta carbonara and savored crispy artichokes. In Vatican City I sketched the tourists craning their necks skyward in the Sistine Chapel.
What a place! I'm glad I'd read Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling by Ross King. It's a fascinating account of how these frescoes came to be.
No trip to Rome is complete without a trek to the top of the Spanish Steps. I took advantage of a brief period of sunshine to sketch the scene below.
Rome was lovely and picturesque, but it was Naples that stole my heart. Our hotel was right across from the Castel dell'Ovo, with stunning views of the bay. Fellow urban sketcher Lucia Marinelli and I met up to draw the scene despite the chilly wind.
Naples is narrow alleys and breathtaking views. I stamped my sketchbook in the Moleskine store at the train station - fun!
And who can forget the artisanal pizza, the sfogliatelle, the gelato?
On the flight back I read Andrea Camilleri's The Shape of Water, featuring the irrepressible detective (and foodie!) Inspector Montalbano. Sicily calls!
Big news: We're in the middle of moving to California! More about that soon, plus sketches from my "jobmoon" trip to Italy. The past several weeks have been a whirlwind of prepping, packing, list-making and house-hunting, so on Saturday I took a few hours off to meet up with the South Bay Urban Sketchers. We met at Red Rock Coffee Company in downtown Mountain View and then wandered down Castro Street with our sketchbooks. It was a great way to start the weekend!
For M.'s birthday I surprised him with a three-state roadtrip extravaganza to see family and friends; he was behind the wheel but didn't know where we were headed. Our first destination was Schenectady, NY, to see a performance by the Mop & Bucket Company, an improv group. We reached there as the sun was setting, creating a brilliant-hued backdrop for GE's original headquarters (cool trivia: its zip code is 12345).
As we gear up for yet another wintry mix event here in Connecticut, it's nice to remember that the snow will, eventually, melt. Here are two paintings I did several years ago, inspired by a workshop I took with artist William McCarthy at the Rowayton Arts Center.
A local resident commissioned me to paint an 11x14 watercolor of the downtown Stamford area. I did two versions in slightly different styles: one in watercolor with some watercolor pencil details and the other in an ink-over-watercolor technique.
Here's version 1:
And here's version 2:
I rarely paint the same scene twice, so this was an interesting experience. The second one felt more spontaneous - it was as if my hand had "learned" the structure of the scene.
The resident chose version 1. Which style do you prefer?
Here's version 1:
And here's version 2:
I rarely paint the same scene twice, so this was an interesting experience. The second one felt more spontaneous - it was as if my hand had "learned" the structure of the scene.
The resident chose version 1. Which style do you prefer?
Reposting a sketch I did several years ago of a caricaturist in Paris, on this day of tragedy.
... we did not use milk crates to steady ourselves on the ice. We just balanced on our blades and figured it out. Apparently today's kids need walker-style skate trainers, makeshift milk-crate towers lashed together with wire ties, and all kinds of other aids. Sigh. It was much more fun to sketch at Washington Trust Community Skating Center in Westerly, RI, than to dodge their crates.
It was so warm over Christmas that I sat on the bench outside Bank Square Books to capture the downtown Mystic scene.
Selected a bunch of sketches and paintings I'd done in and around Mystic, Connecticut, over the years to create a 2015 calendar on Shutterfly. Got two of them made as gifts for M.'s mom and grandmother. It was really easy to create, and the printing and paper quality are excellent.
Small paintings of downtown Stamford, CT, from my original photos.
Had to create a video for a conference speaker application, so I made M. learn iMovie, and I made a quick visual listicle about sketching while on the go.
At the junction of Wilson and Rowayton Avenues in Rowayton, Connecticut, is this Civil War cannon, inscribed with memorials to area veterans.
There's something about Cleveland. And not because of that guy who left and came back. One of my favorite places to go on Saturday mornings is West Side Market. This time we found out we could climb up into the balcony overlooking the stalls. So we got crepes and perched there and ate (and I sketched) and watched the market slowly fill with people.
Before meeting a friend for brunch at Urban Farmer, I slipped into the Cleveland Public Library for a few minutes. How could I not have seen this place before? I could have stayed for hours. I was smitten by the John G. White Chess and Checkers Collection -- the world's largest chess/draughts library. And oh, those adorable miniature books!
While I couldn't meet up to draw with any of the Cleveland Urban Sketchers this time around, I did happen to meet illustrator Bruce Biddle at the library. Turns out CPL's fine arts collection is extensive, including shelves upon shelves of watercolor books. So many treasures.
S'why we keep going back. Any other Clevelandphiles out there? What are your faves?
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