Urban Sketchers are Alive and Well!

How do you arrange a meeting that can accommodate people from all over the world? You do your best. And that's how I "attended" the second ever Urban Sketcher's admin meeting at 6:00 AM on Sunday May 24 on Zoom. I did my best.

Once I got into the meeting, I could see there were a lot of folks online. I scrolled through the five screens of participants—that’s five screens with 20 participants each screen—and saw many I knew. There were sketchers from Brazil, Spain, Indonesia, Hong Kong, England, New York, Florida, and everywhere in between. It felt like a family reunion!

The goal was to share ideas and challenges and to inspire chapters to stay active during the pandemic. Several admins shared activities and ideas they have done in their groups.

USk Singapore, for example organized a “Circuit Sketch Break” for 28 days from April 7 through May 4. They posted 28 prompts for sketching from home, had sketchers submit their work and had a drawing for a prize at the end. They have since extended the submission deadline so people can continue to be inspired to sketch.

USk Dubai launched a “sketch at home campaign” with weekly prompts and submission instructions. They plan to publish the sketches in a journal. Here is a sample of their prompts:

Week one: Food

Week two: Through the window

Week three: My partner in lockdown

Several others shared what their group has been doing or not doing. They shared their successes and frustrations, asked questions of others and basically just hung out sopping in the vibe of being among so many active sketchers again.

At the end we had the traditional throw-down, or in this case a hold-up, where sketchers held their work up to their camera so we could see. Many had sketched the meeting; some just held up a sketch they had done recently. It was all quite fun and made me realize how much I miss the USk family.  

I have felt pretty sluggish about sketching during this lockdown period. The USk Talks have been fun. (Thank you Stephanie Bower, for your talk and challenge last month). And the USkTalk challenges have been interesting, although I’ve only done a few of them. But this meeting was like a good cup of coffee. Time to wake up! In Thurston County where I live we will be able to gather in groups up to 5 people beginning in June. Hopefully King County will be able to do the same pretty soon. Until then, I hope you are all safe. And keep sketching!

Hold-up of our zoom call sketches. 

The Onions of Pine Island, NY

I was back in New York from August through mid-October and had some time to explore the area and learn a little about the local lore. One story that I actually heard on Planet Money podcast last February referred to the small town of Pine Island, NY which is just up the road from my daughter's house in Warwick. Pine Island is sort of unremarkable.  However it sits in the Warwick Valley which is renown for it's black dirt. And what grows best in that black dirt? Onions. Move over Walla Walla.

The Planet Money story told of a Pine Island onion farmer who figured out a way to corner the onion market, first locally, then all over the country. You can hear the 15 minute listen: Episode 657: The Tale of the Onion King

I didn't get a chance to draw the onion fields, which are definitely black. But I saw plenty of onions.


In bags:

In bins:

And corn, tomatoes, peppers etc. etc etc.

You can read more of the story on my blog, Olysketcher.com

Hat and Boots - Vestiges from the Fabulous 50's

For the first time in a few months I joined Seattle Urban Sketchers on their Sunday sketch outing. And for the third year we've hit the Georgetown Garden tour. Those earlier visits had me at the Georgetown Trailer Park. This year, however, I was determined to get over to the infamous Hat and Boots at Oxbow Park. Created in 1954 for a Georgetown gas station, the historic landmark, was billed as the largest had and boots in America.

First I did a quickish thumbnail:

And then tried pencil and watercolor. 

Fun to be back with the group.

Hanging with the Los Angeles Urban Sketchers

I've been in Santa Monica since mid-June getting acquainted with my second grandchild, I've had a couple opportunities to emerge from Babyland into LaLaLand. Today I met up with a few of the Los Angeles Urban Sketchers at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum. It's an old building that has been expanded; the contrast between old and new is striking.

Virginia Hein and Heather Evans Davis and I headed across the street to the lovely rose garden where we could have a bit more distant view of the original building. Check out their sketches here.

As I was waiting for the group I started a quick sketch of one of the old guys - triceritops maybe? And on the way in to the museum, I quickly sketched some fellow "subway" riders. This may be the only "subway" in the world that has to stop for street traffic.