Greenwood Cemetery

It was a blustery late afternoon at Greenwood Cemetery. Unusual for Halloween, the leaves, still in their peek autumn color, have barely begun to fall. Today, I was prompted by Urban Sketchers weekly theme: cemeteries. Not unusual is that this and the other times I've drawn there, I've never seen another human.

But there are always crows:

And from the cemetery bluff, looking across the Cedar River and its watershed to the vast distance of farmland, is one of the best views in town.

Road Trip - Monticello (Home of Thomas Jefferson)

I recently returned from a trip to Virginia.  The weather was wonderful and the trees were just beginning to turn.  One of our first stops was Charlottesville where we had the opportunity to visit Monticello.  It is an absolutely wonderful place and you can really see the brilliance of Thomas Jefferson come to life.  The flip side is that you also see what it took in slave labor to keep such a plantation operating.  Definitely eye opening for sure.

It is an incredible place and it is maintained in spectacular fashion.  To see the rooms where TJ lived, worked and literally died is a great experience.  A gem of American History.

More from the trip will hopefully follow in the coming days . . . Don.

GHOSTS!!

Ghosts in the Windows

The people who recently moved in across the street have seized the Halloween potential of this very old, very decrepit, charming house.

pocket-Moleskine sketch for Ghosts in the Windows

This is not the first October I've painted this house.

Gingerbread Roof and Silver Maples

                         Happy Halloween everyone!!

pocket-Moleskine sketch for 

Gingerbread Roof and Silver Maples               

Apple Picking

Me drawing in the orchard

               
                                                                                                      A family outing on the East Coast

Dowling Street

This past Friday I was working at the White River gallery in Montague, Michigan, where I am a member. The gallery is a stone's throw from where we keep our boat in the summer.

Since it's past the peak of tourist season I wasn't busy. So in the afternoon I sat down on a bench, in front of the gallery, and did this sketch of the building across from the way on Dowling Street. It was a fun way to spend time and enjoy the waning warm days of the fall season.

Saturday at Ted Drewes

We narrowly missed the rain this afternoon. Only a few sprinkles here and there threatened us. We ended up with a good turnout of sketchers and captured some great scenes.

Drawn by Brian Anderson

Chris sitting in the foreground sketching

The minimalist lines of Bruce Wulff

Chris and Bruce

Deb and Vihar

Lisa gets some frozen custard from Ted Drewes

Side View by Bruce Wulff

Architectural Salvage, KCMO

Architectural Salvage, KCMO, a photo by Cathy (Kate) Johnson on Flickr.

I hadn't taken my journal into the huge Architectural Salvage building, so just sketched bits and bobs in my little folding purse journal--I ALWAYS have it with me!

Still Standing

This old maple stands in the corner of an area where our condo association doesn't mow. I noticed the tree this morning when I was dropping off yard clippings at the association's brush pile. The tree has a lot of character and is obviously old. It's top was broken off long ago but the tree still soldiers on and today it carried accents of fall colors.

 

Drawing Around Saint Louis

Folks, it has been some time, but I thought I would give an update and start posting some more. This last week a group of us settled down at the Coffee Cartel in the Saint Louis Central West-End. We are working on a project in which the theme is things related to Saint Louis.

I recently wrote on Facebook about how in the past I had written cards to people in which I wrote all the memories that I had about a person. In this case however, I asked people to think about all the things that they fondly remembered about Saint Louis in the same way. Some of the responses that I got are below. I hope nobody minds me reproducing them here:

Memories of Saint Louis

1.) "Watching my son's bicycle races in Tilles Park, walking the paths in Jefferson Barracks park and eating at the concession stand at lunch hour in the summer, Standing in line at Ted Drew's on South Grand, Listening to Mary Daly sing at Wendy G's or Faloni's."
 -Don Neccesary

2.)  "This is from Kirkwood. Late Friday night, full blanket of snow on the ground and more falling. Meramec College campus blemishless - no footprints (save my own), car tracks. Silence! No cars, airplanes, birds, dogs, nothing. Air just right - still, moist and cold, but not biting. I am alone and 15 and illegally out of the house and struck dumb - my heart too big to draw breath! - by how beautiful the world is."
-Kate Boyd

3.) "The Botanical Garden on a chilly March day with the first forsythia and dogwood blossoms. Under the industrial steel structures near the river. On top of the football stadium while it was under construction, and the only access was by ladder. Walking on the cobblestone streets at the Landing at the edge of the Mississippi flood water. Seeing the tip of the Arch from 55/70 in Illinois after a long drive home. The Eads Bridge. The rocky bluffs along 270 and 44, made when the highways were built"
-Elaine Goble Swanger

Coffee Cartel Doorway
by Brian Anderson

4.) "Carondelet park, Delmar Loop, Hanging out in Washington University Library reading books, Powder Valley Nature Center in the Fall, The Muny, Learning that my Great Great Grandfather worked for Henry Shaw, Playing the slots at the casino, the Soapbox Blues Festival (before 2005 - no longer exists), spending the afternoon at Saint Louis Bread Co. sipping coffee and feeding the chickadees breadcrumbs, brown color of Saint Louis sidewalk cement, paddling on boathouse lake, taking the Metro train to work and talking to friends.... The Big Muddy Blues Festival back when they had 4 stages, CWE on a rainy day... Coffee Cartel, Kaldi's,Hanging out with artists including Chris Manzo at Meshugah Cafe, The hippo on the roof of City Museum. Rue Lafayette"
-Brian Anderson 

Some of these ideas and memories we all have within us can fuel some sketching excursions in the near future and give us drawing ideas. This next weekend (10/5/2013) we will be getting together and drawing at Ted Drewe's. Anybody who wants to and is close enough can gladly participate - (event link here).

Bicycle Delivery guys
drawn by Bud Pondrum

Here are just some of the pictures and drawings that some of us worked on in the CWE.

I did a little sketch of the doorway using my iPad. I am getting a little bit better at using it after about six months and am playing with different apps like Brushes 3, Procreate, Adobe Ideas and Autodesk's Sketchbook. Mostly, I have played with Brushes and Procreate.

Of course we have many artists who work in a variety of media and it is great to see the different subjects they choose to draw as well as their individual styles. Bud Pondrun sketched a couple of guys who kindly sat down for us. Lisa Wilson who was more courageous than myself went and asked some of the passers by if they would pose for us.

More can be seen on our event posting on Meetup and on our Facebook Group page.

Drawing from Euclid & Maryland
by Donnovan Knight