Trying to be a BIG City Urban Sketcher for a Week

I was in Brookline, Massachusetts for a week spanning Thanksgiving, spending time with family. Brookline is part of the greater Boston metropolitan area. My husband and I rented a pleasant flat in an apartment building, on a treed street.

From Beaconsfield Road Flat

Through the front windows, I did a Neocolor II wax pastel drawing of the apartment across the street. To my Midwestern sensibilities, the building was quintessentially Boston: brick facade, slate roof, copper flashing, bay windows and stone lintels. Snow remained on the roof from the flurry the day before.

Beaconsfield Road preparatory sketch

I had high hopes of doing a slew of big city urban sketching in-between family times--drawing on the trolleys and subways, sketching Boston landmarks, even fitting in the trademark Urban Sketchers coffee shop scenes. All that alluded me: I came down with the flu! After which, looking out from the inside of this cozy home away from home was all I could muster between fever, chills, and long naps.

My daughter-in-law sent over flowers.  I put them on the counter next to the kitchen window.

Drawing a minimal sketch of the utility pole from bed seemed a huge effort.

Luckily, on my first full day in Boston, before I got sick, I went to the Goya exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. What a world-class museum! What an inspired exhibit! See some of the works in the Goya exhibit and sketches I did at the museum in my Urban Sketcher International Blog post: Goya and his admirers in Boston HERE.

Lift Shack

I spend a good bit of winter skiing. I'm a senior ski patroller and a certified professional ski instructor. Since, with our move to Rockford, Michigan, we now live only seven miles from a ski area I thought it might be fun to teach skiing this winter. So in addition to doing ski patrol duty on the weekends, when I teach patrollers to ski and run rescue toboggans, I've been teaching skiing a couple of days a week at the Cannonsburg ski area.

During lunch break I did this quick sketch of Cannonsburg's lift shack where four skiers at a time board the lift and head up the hill.

Been cold where you are?

Big Snow

Snow Covered Roof

Snow Covered Car

Winter has been beastly cold here in Iowa. Last night we had our first big snow. This is what I awoke to this morning, as seen from my upstairs window,  using water soluble graphite applied with a water brush.

Snow Fall

I spent the day manning the desk at the White River Gallery in Montague, Michigan. It wasn't busy so I sat near the front window and did this sketch looking out and down the street. It was quite beautiful with all the snow...the first time in years we've had this much on the ground this early. So, snow fall...a Christmas portrait. Happy holidays to all.

Unrelenting Winter--Waiting for Spring

I'm sorry for being a curmudgeon.  But the views from my windows and the crusted, slippery mess of mounded snow that I navigate on daily walks (really trudges), tell me one thing: WINTER IS UNRELENTING.

Fogged Windows, March Rain

One day this week it rained and sleeted all day, adding an icy crust to the record breaking winter's snowfall, unmelted in dirty piles everywhere. I took refuge in my bedroom, finding interest in how fog on the window altered a familiar view. Is fog on the windows in March a sign of Spring?

Bedside Table, Snow Falling

By late afternoon of the same day, the temperature dropped and chubby snowflakes started to fall, continuing through the night. Is a heavy, wet snow in March a sign of Spring?

Days before, it had snowed and snowed for a string of days. The dreary storm laden sky merged with the whiteness of the snow-covered roofs.

Willoughby Tower, Snowy Roofs

And then the week before that, there was the snowstorm that everyone at the grocery store was proclaiming to be the last BIG ONE.  HAH! Is increased snowfall in late winter a sign that spring is coming?

Spruce Behind 2-Story House in Winter

As you can see, I'm starved for color!!! I NEED SPRING!!!! I NEED GREEN.  (Sorry for the rant.)

2 Steeples for February Scavenger Hunt

2 Steeples in Winter

When the leaves are off the trees, looking north from my second floor bedroom window, I can see the steeples of St Patrick Catholic Church on the right and First United Methodist Church on the left. This is a Neocolor II water soluble wax pastel done at the end of January 2012.

Here's the same 2 steeples from a different angle and a different season in watercolor.

2 Steeples Autumn

One Room School

We actually had snow Sunday night. So yesterday morning I drove over and did this sketch of the old Beckley Road school sporting a coat of snow. The one room school dates way back and is on the historic register. It's an all seasons scene stealer...very pretty to look at. In addition to being a school the building has, at various times, been an antique shop. These days it mostly stands empty.

Skiing Caberfae Peaks

My wife and I spent New Years and the New Years weekend at the Caberfae Peaks Ski Resort, Cadillac, Michigan. Caberfae Peaks is one of the oldest ski areas in the country. The area's history dates back to the late 30s when the Peaks opened for business. I've been skiing at Caberfae since I was in high school...which is getting to be a very long time ago.

For the past 16 years I've been a member of the Caberfae Peaks Ski Patrol. My oldest daughter and her husband are also patrol members. As a patroller I take care of injured skiers and snowboarders. However for the past several years I've been the lead hill trainer for the patrol. As such I spend the majority of my time these days teaching our new patrollers how to ski and how to transport injured patients off the hills via rescue toboggan. I'm also a certified professional ski instructor. So winter is a very busy time for me.

New years eve afternoon I was off shift and had time to grab my sketch book and do a quick sketch of Caberfae's Shelter chair lift. The Shelter lift services the area's beginner and intermediate slopes and is quite busy most of the time.

Because I didn't have to patrol 'till Sunday, we drove up to Cadillac Saturday afternoon. Early arrival and day light give me time to quickly sketch this view of the cross country trails that run behind the hotel where we stayed for the weekend.

Winter--Now Spring

Crabapple Winter Shadows

White Crabapple 11th & Clay

A tree, drawn two months apart, is a way for me to chronicle the seasons. This crabapple is across the street from my house. I drew it from my second floor bedroom window in February at midday, compelled to record its blue shadows on the white snow. This week, in mid-April, it came into glorious bloom--a veritable cloud, a perfumed canopy, that spans overhead across the sidewalk. I set up my portable easel on the sidewalk across the street and drew, my back to the west. The late afternoon sun warmed my shoulders and cast dappled shade. Cedar Falls, Iowa, my home for 25 years, is a very treed city. This individual is one of my favorite.

Both are done with Neocolor II soluble wax pastels in Canson archival photo albums. Winter was done on black paper, spring on "wicker". 13.5 " X 11"

Inside and Outside

In winter, by necessity, I draw from inside, looking out. It's an opportunity to have a landscape and a still life in one image. All three of these drawings were done here in Cedar Falls, Iowa, since the start of 2012.

 I drew this today. On the sill of our kitchen window, my husband is keeping a few of the shellbark hickory nuts he picked up in the fall.  Outside, parked cars and snow.

Windowsill Hickory Nuts, Winter Outside

In January, from inside the University of Northern Iowa greenhouse, looking out to a leafless tree.

Cactus House

From our second floor bedroom window, looking out to the trees and snow across the street. My husband was having a hard day (aka cabin fever). In this case, a landscape and portrait combined.

January Blues