Extremadura via iPad
I made these sketches just a couple of weeks ago while visiting family in Spain. They show the 900-year-old ruins of a castle in Montemolin, a tiny village in Extremadura where my parents were born and returned to after decades…
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Sketch of Pacific Northwest painter Henry Stinson
Henry Stinson is a well-known Pacific Northwest figurative painter based in Pullman, WA. Back in April I was teaching a sketching workshop there and I met him by chance at a coffee shop. Truth is, I didn’t know who he…
I see sinking ships
I first heard of a “sinking ship” building in reference to a Seattle parking garage built on a sloping street near the iconic Smith Tower. When you look at it straight on, the building resembles the bow of a ship…
The spirit of urban sketching
The way I see it, being an urban sketcher isn’t merely about drawing cities, big or small, urban or rural, with a pen or with your fingers on an digital tablet. It’s about drawing places that can be put on…
Goya: ‘I’m still learning’
Reading Goya’s biography by Robert Hughes, I came across this exceptional black chalk drawing by the Spanish painter. Goya made the drawing not long before he died in 1828 at age 82. That’s an unusual longevity for its time, which…
Interview with El País: Cómo mirar a través de un lápiz
Discovering this article and video in El País today was like unwrapping a Christmas gift that got lost under the tree. What a nice surprise to end the year! Ana Alfageme, a veteran journalist at the largest Spanish daily and…
Portland memories of sketching with Gérard Michel
I did the sketch you see above the last day of the Symposium. We were sketching right outside PNCA, the art school that hosted the event. Just a block up the street, a band played at a restaurant and we could hear…
Urban Sketchers blog captures city life around the world
Talented artist-correspondents from around the globe will share their sketchbooks starting Nov. 1 at www.urbansketchers.com, a new group blog that will showcase drawings from the city streets on at least four different continents. From dynamic cities like London, Moscow, Barcelona, New…
Urban sketches at Flickr
I enjoy drawing the streets and the people of Seattle. And I enjoy seeing other artists’ sketches of their own cities just as much. So I started a Flickr group as a one-stop place for all the urban scenes that…
San Lucas Road house
A painting I did in 2001 of the first house Michelle and I rented while we lived in Palm Springs. The painting was done from a photo. I am more of a drawer than a painter and this is one…