Lunch time sketches, Downtown, St. Louis

Opportunities for urban sketching sometimes occur in fleeting moments. While eating lunch recently I had a few minutes to open my sketchbook and try to catch images of downtown. The views are as random as a winning lottery number. I read somewhere that the great artist John Singer Sargent could set up his easel virtually anywhere and create a masterpiece. That is a high standard to try to achieve but it is a good thing to remember so as not to get discouraged when subject matter and time are limited. Keep sketching!

Bespoke Sketchbook pages, 6"h x 6"w, Sharpie Flair pen, Faber-Castelli PITT artsist pens, shades of grey, 03/15-03/17, 2016. Michael Anderson

Adam & Eve in Tower Grove Park, St. Louis

Adam & Eve in Tower Grove Park, St. Louis, 07/12/2015, 7" x 9", watercolor on Canson 140 lb cp, Michael Anderson.

I took my sketching kit to the weekly outing of the Missouri Plein Air Painters Association in Tower Grove Park. The park is a large swath of urban landscape that once was the private garden of wealthy St. Louisan, Henry Shaw. It includes several ponds, some planted with lotus and waterlilies. After completing a couple of ink sketches I launched into the watercolor study above. A passerby stopping to look at each of the painters works in progress commented that my page looked like the Garden of Eden and said "you even have Adam & Eve!" One of my MOPAPA friends responded "That is your title." And so it is. Perfect for a Sunday morning in this earthly paradise.

Lotus plants, Precise V7 roller ball pen, Faber Castell Artist Pens

Plein air painters, Precise V7 roller ball pen, Faber Castell Artist Pens