Business Travel to Little Rock

Just got back from a 2.5 day meeting. With drive time that pretty much wipes out a week, but for as little as I need to do it, I don't mind. Had time to do some urban sketching, too. I packed my sketch gear and I was able to grab one night on my own. Unlike my last travel, to San Antonio, this town doesn't mind if you sit for a while. Much more convenient to sketch. Time flies too quickly, though. As soon as it was done, it was time to call it a night.

Meet the Correspondents--Cathy Johnson

Hi--I'm Cathy Johnson, usually called Kate by my friends.  I've been sketching and painting since I was a kid (a very long time ago), and I love to draw architecture, nature, people...you name it.  I've been organizing sketchcrawls since 2006--so much fun to get out with a group of people who GET it!

I love to work in ink, watercolor, graphite, colored pencil or whatever I grab when the spirit moves.

I've written a lot of books (including Artist's Journal Workshop) and magazine articles--I'm an inveterate teacher.  I've served on the board of Urban Sketchers, and was a correspondent on the main blog for years--till I got so busy I gave up my spot to someone new.

Introduce Yourself, Please!

Hi all--it's come to my attention that the parent organization would love for blog correspondents/contributors to introduce ourselves here--then they can link to us as correspondents on the main blog.  I'll do mine in a bit.

Please put Meet the Correspondents and then your name in the subject line, and be sure to use the tags or labels so we can find you! 

If you have a photo of yourself sketching, that would be lovely, and please include a couple of your sketches!

Thanks much, all!

An invitation from the parent organization

Join us for two live chats with the Executive Board on Facebook on Monday, March 2:

3:00-4:00 pm GMT-1 hour

and 

10:00-11:00 pm GMT -1 hour

We will be hovering around our laptop ready to take your questions. You can ask us any question, any question at all (except no math questions).   :)

Looking forward to chatting with you!

Cheers,
Elizabeth, Gabi, Jessie, Mario and Brenda.

Graceful Old Lady

I had a committee meeting in San Antonio this week and took along my sketch gear. This old building caught my eye from my hotel room. Luckily I had a chance to find out her story and sketch her. Chatted with an employee there and had a run-in with a cop and pan-handled by street people. All in the day of an urban sketcher. I have more of the story on my blog post. The Hotel Robert E. Lee is now a low-income apartment complex that rents rooms for $600-$800/month. This is just a couple blocks off the River Walk, so the location is prime. The masonry and woodwork are all tight and well maintained. They restored the old signage and the old water tower on the roof, too.

Alma Visit

I love these small towns. One of the women I work with lives in Alma and another was born and raised there and lives in another small town close to Alma. Since the town comes up in conversations I decided Wilma and I needed to make a visit. Their retail stores close at noon on Saturday since they are so small so we had to get there early.

As much as I wanted to sit and sketch, it was just too cold and windy. I shot a few pictures on my cell phone and sketched at home. I focused on the hardware store because it's been in the family of one of the two coworkers I mentioned since the 1970's. My 4-H Shooting Sports kids compete here in a couple weeks for air-rifle competition. We've made it here for the last six years, so I see some of the town then, but by the time our competition is done on Saturdays, the sidewalks are rolled up.

Lunchhour Coffee

I wanted to start the new year with a work-day tradition of mine. A cup of hot coffee at a coffeeshop over lunch, with time to sketch or draw. Needed a sketch, or course. This is the closest independent coffee shop to my work location right now. These coffeeshops seem to move or go out of business. Blackbird is a change of ownership a few years ago and is a nice shop with a personable owner. Until I win the lottery I'll need to limit my time here to just the lunch hour. I could spend the whole day.