Laurelines

Sketching Austin, Texas

I had just two full days and pieces of another two on my visit to my daughter this past week. I fell in love with Austin's houses this trip. I know of no other place that has the number and variety of quirky, colorful, and plain old adorable houses that Austin has. What IS in the water there, because I want some of it!

Unfortunately, I only managed one house sketch, but am dying to go back and (see my daughter, of course) and sketch more of these little jewels. That's what they are.

Austin also has good restaurants aplenty. My new favorite is Olive and June and I thank my daughter for suggesting it for our first night together!

I travel. I sketch. I sketch gardens and the things in them. This trip was no exception. We spent parts of two afternoons at the lovely estate Laguna Gloria.

Entering the Bullock Texas Museum of State History, you see quotations carved in huge scale on the marble walls flanking the entrance to the exhibits, trumpeting the wonderfulness of Texas. This kind of boisterous self love can be endearing, but it’s also a bit off-putting, given the state’s early history of exploitation and destruction of the native people by European settlers. This is true of much, if not all, of the original European settlements in the new world, of course. Still. Note to Texas... and to self, for that matter: healthy doses of humility never go amiss.  

Vancouver BC sketches

Last week, we took a lightning-quick trip to Vancouver to use up some airline credits we had and to see that beautiful city and region we'd long wanted to see.

It was quite rainy, it being late November/early December and all, but we didn't mind. I made some sketches. 

Here they are.

 

 

My gray toned sketchbook from Iceland came in handy here, too. I have a thing for cold and wet climates, have you noticed?

The Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia is one of the world's best. Do go see it, if ever you have the chance.

The Public Market on Granville Island is a great place to go on a rainy day. There are lots of enclosed areas and lots of places to sit, snack, and sketch!

You'll get an idea of the size of these monumental masks by looking at the second sketch posted above.

Happy December!

Sketches of sketchers sketching at the sketchers show.

At the Urban Sketchers show, that is, at the Ackland Museum of Art store.  

I, along with Amanda Hughes, Director of External Affairs at the Ackland Museum, gave a little talk yesterday about sketching to a group of 12-15 people, with the Urban Sketchers show as background and inspiration.

I brought a dozen or so completed sketchbooks, as well as lots of my favorite art supplies, to show and talk about. So did Amanda.  Our styles are diametrically opposed, so it was a good way for beginning sketchers to see the range of possibilities in approaching subjects to sketch. Of course the wide range of work exhibited amplified that point! We talked about the phenomenon of Urban Sketching and about the work on the walls around us. We answered questions about tools and technique.

And then we sketched.

 

Here are three I did, in between talking to the participants.

In this first sketch, I used all sorts of drawing materials, since I had them with me.

 

Here I used one of my beloved Portuguese laundry pencils, plus a brush pen filled with acrylic ink, and two Faber Castel colored pencils. It's fun to mix up your media. I too often forget to do that.

Here I used a big graphite stick and smudged the lines with my finger after, you know, spitting on it.  We sketchers do what we must to get the drawing right. That's Amanda Hughes seated on the right. She did a lovely, elegant sketch of the scene through the store window. SHE refrained from spitting. I told you our styles are different ;D.

It was a fun occasion and I think and hope it was helpful for the participants. Having to get out my art supplies to talk about them was GREAT preparation for my upcoming art trip to Iceland! I've rediscovered lots of cool things I have and I will take several of these long-forgotten things with me!

Urban Sketchers Group Show at the Ackland Museum of Art store, Chapel Hill, NC

Many of you know I'm an Urban Sketcher correspondent. For the last few months, I've helped organize and mount the first ever group show of this international organization. I have posted about it on Facebook and on the Urban Sketchers' blog, but not here.

I thought it might be nice for you to see one of the things I did on my summer vacation ;D.

Here is nice coverage of our show by Blue Greenberg, longtime art critic at the Durham Herald-Sun!

 

Submitted/ Courtesy of Ackland Museum Store “Tuscany II,” by Laura Frankstone, is on view at the Ackland Museum Store, part of the exhibit “Urban Sketchers.”

Submitted/ Courtesy of Ackland Museum Store “Union Square,” by Greg Betza, is on view at the Ackland Museum Store, part of the exhibit “Urban Sketchers.”

“Seeing the World, One Drawing at a Time: Urban Sketchers,” Ackland Museum Store, corner of Columbia and Franklin streets, Chapel Hill, through Oct. 6. Store hours are Mondays through Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. 

 

On Franklin Street at the Ackland store, there is a lively exhibition of sketches made by professional artists on their trips around the world. They are an active group called Urban Sketchers and, through the magic of the Internet, they have come together to show the things they see in their own cities and places they visit. These are quick, made “in the moment” and the degree of finish varies. Some are carefully drawn, like Eduardo Bajzek’s “Bass Player,” and we feel the warm wood surface of the instrument. Others are like Greg Betza’s quick lines that crisscross into a city plaza, with people and buildings and streets intersecting in the background. Bajzek does architectural illustration and is from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Betza is an illustrator, artist and designer and lives in New Jersey.

 

And then there is Chapel Hill’s Laura Frankstone, who brought the Urban Sketchers project to the Ackland Store. Frankstone’s sketching love, however, is not for local scenes but places far away. Her two images in the show are of the Tuscany countryside, although she writes Paris is her favorite city and the months spent there recently by herself sketching was the “fulfillment of a long-held dream.”

 

It has to be such a joyful gift to be able to sit in a place, take a pen, pencil or brush and a piece of paper and put down what you see. It is a practice of patience, so much more satisfying than taking a photograph. Even if the time spent is minutes, the hand and eye bring the scene to the brain and it is there long after the moment has passed. “Drawing a city isn't just capturing it on paper, it's really about getting to know it, to feel it, to make it your own," writes Nina Johansson, a Stockholm correspondent.

 

Urban Sketchers are professional architects, graphic designers, illustrators, educators and traditional painters who live in and travel to cities such as London, Sao Paulo, New York, San Francisco, Chapel Hill, Singapore and Seoul. Their mission is to encourage the artistic and educational value of location drawing and to show others the world, one drawing at the time. The Chapel Hill exhibition showcases 90 art works by 38 of the group’s international contributors. Spanish-born Gabriel Campanario, who now lives in the United States, and is a staff artist for the Seattle Times, organized the group, first as flickr in 2007 and then as the nonprofit Urban Sketchers in 2009.

 

Blue Greenberg’s column appears each week in Entertainment and More. She can be reached at blueg@bellsouth.net or by writing her in c/o The Herald-Sun, P.O. Box 2092, Durham, NC 27702.

 

Sketching at the North Carolina Museum of Art

I'm still madly and happily painting volcanoes, but I miss frequent sketching. My husband and I went to the North Carolina Museum of Art this past weekend to remedy the situation. Here is what resulted: 

This polychrome 18th century German, 'Adoring Angel,' calls to me. I've sketched this before,

but wanted to connect to the angel again.

Another view:

On a (very) different plane, here is a self-portrait:

and a vignette from the African Gallery:

The second batch of volcanoes should be ready to share soon. I can't rush the process, much as I wish I could.

Rome again, Rome again

For this trip, I limited my art supplies to:

3 waterbrush pens filled with Payne's Gray, sepia, and cerulean ink

1 Pigma brush pen in burnt sienna

My blue Portuguese laundry pencil

2 Cretacolor oil pencils in sepia and soft black

a  lightweight plastic travel palette with manganese blue, burnt sienna, transparent pyrole orange

1 travel watercolor brush

A big Pitt Artist pen in warm gray

Then I bought a box of cheap colored pencils for children at Poggi's. I used the orange one a lot!

I left my Stillman and Birn sketchbook at home (!) in my packing haste and had to buy a Daler and Rowny Ebony one, also at Poggi's. 

Here are more of what I did with these:

Here's my stepson Lee, at lunch with my daughter Cecelia and me. I put that orange pencil to work!

As a reminder, here's an earlier scene of that same cafe

I have a few more sketches from Rome. Soon!

Museum sketches, North Carolina Museum of Art

The newly-renovated North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh is a real stunner. The permanent collections are displayed in the best possible way in exquisitely designed, ethereal spaces, with lots of natural light. 

I had time on my last visit to make two brief sketches. Color added later, as per the museum's rules.. no wet media allowed, of course.

This is a heartbreakingly beautiful angel, Bavarian, 18th century, in polychrome and gilt.

And here is an antique head, Greek or Roman... I didn't note at the time, unfortunately. It looks very pristine, I'll say that.

Off to Austin, Texas tomorrow for a lithography workshop, cold-addled head and all.

Achoo!