Traveling with Art Supplies

My necessities...believe it or not they just weigh in at a bit over 2 lbs...

I always SEEM to carry more than I need when I travel, but the variety of mediums you see here sort of puts paid to that idea!  You can see what I used and why I needed everything I packed here: http://artistsjournalworkshop.blogspot.com/2014/06/and-this-is-why-i-need-to-carry-more.html

dreaming of a new home

Bill drove down to Houston to drive me home (I flew there the first part of June). Because his time away from work was limited, we asked all our kids to drive to Brenham to meet us for lunch on Saturday, Brenham being sort of centrally located between everyone's homes. Had a blast eating at Ernie's, a downtown restaurant I found doing a Google search.  They gave us a private room and we could let the little kids run and play.

  

After eating, our son-in-law took us driving, looking at homes for sale in the area. Our top three favorites, located near a lake, are sketched above -- two of them are log-style cabins! We would like to find a smaller home with a large detached garage or outbuilding to turn into a woodshop for Bill when he retires later this year -- two of these had such buildings already on site.

Traveling cross country

Nobody seems to be able to be disconnected from their electronics these days!  (Except me, my cell phone disappeared between home and the far side of TSA security...)

Of my 6 fellow travelers that I had time to sketch before boarding, only one didn't have a cell phone, iPhone, iPad or game...disconnected while connected.

Spent a couple hours in a converted warehouse that's a coffee shop now in downtown Tulsa that I found on prior business trips. Again on business, I  was lucky enough to be in town when I knew they had an open mic night. House rules say all material must be written by the performer, so I wanted to see what local artists can do. I brought my sketch gear to keep me company. Turned out to be a fun night. Performers were approachable, the audience was supportive of their talents and I had some nice sketch time.

more from San Antonio, TX

views from our hotel room, a photo by vickylw on Flickr.

Now that we are home from our trip, I'm slowly finishing up the sketches done in San Antonio, Austin, and Houston, Texas. This sketch above shows some of what we could see from our room's terrace. I debated a few days over whether to add full color or not --- the San Fernando Cathedral was so lovely to look at, I decided to leave the rest in ink only. At night this cathedral is beautifully lit up.

 (BTW, the remains of the fighters at the Alamo are purported to be buried in this church. Also, Santa Ana raised the "no quarter" flag from one of these towers before the battle.)



We explored two missions in the area (besides the Alamo). This first one was nearly fully restored in the 1930's, making it easy to envision life there in the 18th century. The Spanish converted virtually all the hunter-gatherer tribes of Native Americans in the Texas area to Christianity --- these missions were their communities, fields, herds, and protection from the warring tribes. But they used to drive the priests "nuts" because they slept on these hard stone floors instead of on the beds provided!

I am loading all sketches on my Flickr site (as I finish them) but only some on Blogger; if interested, you can see other sketches HERE. There will be more posted in the next few days.

And Many More

We just got back from a quick trip to San Francisco where we celebrated my grandson's and son's birthdays with robots and lighthouses –  different days, same month. It was a great time but all too short. Not a lot of time for sketching but I did manage a few.

More California Sketches

This was a quick one, done right before we went off to the beachside restaurant...it's the lifeguard shack we mentioned before...

You can see the spares, waiting in the wings at Zuma Lagoon...

My painting setup, on a nice big flat rock...

I love these little shacks all up and down the coast...

Here's last year's drawing, as promised!  Marcia Milner-Brage sketched them in 2011 as well, as you saw in this post.  They're irresistable!

I seem to have edited out the highway and all the buildings...

Zuma Lagoon, lifeguard shacks, and Highway 101 in the background...

And a few more travel sketches on our parent blog, Urban Sketchers, here.

Home again, home again!

We Midwesterners seem to be on a traveling kick!  I just got home from California with 19 pages of sketches in  days...

I always like to do one composite page in the airport...

I've yet to EAT here, but it's really cute...

California backyard...with my Noodler's flex pen...

A Hotel composite...several days worth on one page...

Across from the Sunset Restaurant in Malibu...

Nice landscaping...

And my father-in-law's poor, sweet rescue beagle...I think I ended up with 15 sketches of her.  (I was raised by beagles...)

Travel Sketches...

I love to do travel sketches, wherever I am...these are from the Kansas City airport, the one we fly out of whenever we go somewhere.  It's a great way to pass the time, record a journey, and calm any travel jitters!  These are done with my new Noodler's Ahab fountain pen on Canson MiTientes paper...

I try to do at least the first full page or spread of airport sketches...sometimes with the plane or loading tunnel, sometimes the tower, sometimes the building itself, and always my fellow travelers...

So I've got sketches of Denver, National and Dulles airports in D.C., Boston, St. Louis, Las Vegas, Ontario (California), and more...funny when I think how long it took me to fly anywhere!  I was in my 50s...