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blame it on the trains
early morning on the last day of june, took amtrak train to san francisco and painted the view below out of the window, it's not easy painting from a train you know, try it on the underground (mind you those graffiti artists seem to manage ok). Excellent early morning valley/delta/coastal ranges view, sun-golden hills. Then via the emeryville bus i'm in san francisco and at the farmers' market at the ferry building, it's much sunnier than i'd expected, the fog stays out at sea, but it's cool so i wear my hooded sweater over my celtic shirt. And it gets windy later. So I draw the ferry building first. I draw the rest of san francisco later on. And walk up hills, and get sunburnt. Come back later.
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1.7.07 21:01 |
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cults can't cut corners
san francisco on a saturday, and i wasn't sure if i was hungry, and i hadn't planned the day out, i just knew i wanted to wander about and draw interesting buildings and views. I had wanted to go over to the marina, but for some reason didn't make it. That reason was that i also wanted to walk up telegraph hill and draw coit tower. So on the way, i stop and draw things, the first being the corner of columbus, washington and montgomery (below). Nice looking buidling, i said to myself. I learn afterwards that it's a church of scientology building. I was disappointed, to be honest. Still if you're looking for a shady money-grabbing cult who believe in aliens and celebrities, you're gonna come across it in this city. Personally i believe in the money-grabbing alien-believing cult of star wars, so the sketch above has a tenuous connection to it - the tall green sentinel building (i've painted it before), on the corner of columbus and kearny, home of ff coppola's american zoetrope production company, george lucas was a part of that set-up, and they did his THX-1138 movie. for lunch i had, after much umming and aahing, a massive brownie, in a small brioche bakery/cafe on columbus. And it was gooooood. More pictures to come, come back later.
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1.7.07 21:28 |
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two bucks for a quid, mate Two point one dollars to the pound! The exchange rate is ridiculous. We've hovered near two dollars for a while now, but it's now beyond it, and it doesn't look like it'll ever get lower. Great for Brits coming on holiday to the US, not so great for Brits who live over here and have student loans to pay off back in the UK. |
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3.7.07 05:33 |
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bay
i walked up telegraph hill, now that is a steep hill. i looked down towards the east bay, oakland in the distance, the bay bridge, the rooftops. I found a spot amid greenery and prim urban houses on vallejo, out of the sun and away from the wind, and drew the above with three different pens and some paints. Then I walked up towards Coit Tower, and drew the building below, covered in glorious neon pink flowers, the true colour of whihc i was woefully unable to capture (should have brought a highlighter pen). This was on Filbert street; no sign of Leicester City fans though. I also drew Coit Tower itself, not seen here, but it was getting just too windy for drawing, and so i marched back down down down downtown, went to virgin and bought the new art brut album, marched across the financial district for a bit to eat and a german beer in an old german pub called schroeder's, and journeyed back to davis. I'll tell you what, speaking of bright pink, I didn't put enough sunscreen on, because by the end of the day - and right now - I was glowing like a, like a, like, i was really glowing. I thought i was keeping out of the sun as well. that'll learn me. That, along with hours of walking up and down city hills, meant i was pretty tired by the time i was back on that train.
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3.7.07 05:47 |
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july the fourth be with you The fourth of July (which is a bit like cinqo de mayo, but for americans), a very hot one too. I walked out to the bike overpass just now to watch the fireworks in the distance, a lot of other people had the same idea though, as did a lot of flies, so I've come home. We did American things today, went to the big stores, with the big parking lots, and ate a big plate of food at chilis, I had a margarita (still confused about cinqo de mayo). And then we went to the movies. I'd seen Transformers yesterday - a huge Chevrolet advert, with some cool robot fights - and today we watched Sicko, Michael Moore's latest offering. Very very good, he brings up the almost hopeless situation the US finds itself in regarding healthcare - self-professed richest country in the world, yet will not give free healthcare to all, like the UK does, like France does, like Canada does - like Cuba does. The profit-making healthcare companies doing what they can to prevent people (who do have health insurance) from getting treatment, because it costs the companies money to actually treat people. If you have no health insurance in this country and you get ill or into an accident, forget it - you'll be paying massive medical bills for the rest of your life, and we mean massive. This film though was about those who do have healthcare - and how the big companies do what they can to shaft them. And you ask yourself, why can this country not offer universal free coverage? Cheap pharmaceuticals? I have a lot to say on this subject, and not the time nor space, but healthcare is an issue that burns strong inside me. I believe it should be the number one goal of this country, but there are large profit-making institutions, whose massive cash campaign donations have neutered the senate on this issue, who will stand in the way of that ever happening. Something positive for all the people. I have heard too many people complain that they don't want to pay, through tax, for other people to get healthcare, but I believe in being part of a society that cares about all of its members. Yes it's a very socialist view, and Americans are still scared of the word socialist. I often get the feeling that too many people here have been conditioned, over time, to believe that the very notion of free healthcare is a very bad thing, unamerican. I want to pay taxes so that everybody can have free healthcare, free education, free public services. This is a great country that can easily afford to do that. We're spending billions of tax dollars on illegal invasions of other countries and planting missile systems right on Russia's doorstep (what if they were to do that to us, would we allow it? oh hang on, Cuban Missile Crisis???). And we're spending it on holding people in Guantanamo Bay...and as Moore finds out in his film, all of those terr'rists and en'my combatt'nts interred at Gitmo receive complete and free healthcare. Well, gotta start somewhere, I suppose. Have a Happy 4th July...but make sure you don't get ill!
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5.7.07 06:51 |
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very green creek
copic multiliner, cotman watercolour, moleskine watercolour pad; a very hot lunchtime, down at the arboretum, and would you believe the creek is bright green! it's more like st. patrick's day than independence day. like a big stream of mushy peas, or superman's worst nightmare. the duck and her little ducklings that swam by as i drew didn't seem to mind. |
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5.7.07 08:04 |
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i don't like crickets We hit the hundreds and then some today. Davis - in fact the whole of the West - got very hot again. Well, it's July, isn't it. But the bugs have come out, and we're not talking about Cheney's warrantless wiretapping wonderland. I could hear the small buzz of tiny mozzies, hopefully not tanked up on west-nile, and the drone of crickets in the evening. Bugs of all shapes crossing the street, and my path. Tonight one particularly large specimen scuttled across my paperwork, on my desk. Cue wild flapping movements from pete, looking for things to attack this bugzilla with. It escaped my wrath, my shock-and-awe tactics, my yellow-pages, and for this bravery (or rather, for this ability to stay out of harms way) I decided to let it survive, and live in the filing cabinet. Just not to come out when I need something. You see, I'm a benevolent dictator.
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6.7.07 06:49 |
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out with the paintset again
a santa rosa weekend again; it was 103 when we left davis, and 73 when we got to santa rosa, the temperature difference is hard to adjust to (some people wore shorts, not me though...) but we managed. Today, i went out and about and drew some, first the little bridge in the little parklet near the burbank historic neighbourhood (see above), and then the washington mutual bank on the fourth street (below). I wanted to draw some of the old wooden houses, but then thought, bollocks. Next time.
copic multiliner .01, cotman watercolours, moleskine watercolour paper. |
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8.7.07 06:09 |
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extraneous details you can't live without This weekend, back in London, David Devant & His Spirit Wife marked the tenth anniversary of their debut album with a gig at the 100 Club, but I was five thousand miles away in California and could not go. I remeber going to the launch party for the album all those years ago, buying the album at the gig, playing it constantly, and not even trying when aunty mabel said david lay the table. They were joined by martin white and the mystery fax machine orchestra (i'd seen the accordion-playing mr white at mr solo's chalk farm gig in may, and he's a great performer). And still i mised it, due to my inability to travel great distances in the blink of an eye (i knew i should have chosen that super-power over the one i actually got, the magical ability to tell if food or drink has gone off just by looking at it). Oh well. Maybe I'll go to the 20th anniversary gig.
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8.7.07 21:04 |
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in the river city
 a hot and (unusually) sweaty day today, and I went to the hot city of sacramento, and stood looking at the river, so i decided to draw it. I'm not joking: a group of people, two women, speaking Spanish, and four children, speaking English, came up and, honestly, took a photo, they were all standing one side of me, the photographer stood the other side of me, and they took a photo of themselves with me in the foreground leaning over my sketchpad pretending they are not there. they didn't say a word to me, or even looked as though they were interested in what i was doing, but that was bizarre. If they wanted a picture of themselves with the river in the background but without the red-headed sketcher with the sour look on his face, there were no end of places they could have stood, but for some reason they chose to take it right where i was, with me specifically in between them. Hey, I'm from london, I could ignore them if they were in a gunfight. They soon buggered off. The second picture was drawn in the park around the capitol building, i was sat at the army memorial monument (i think it was), avoiding the sunshine. if you're from burnt oak you may think this building resembles the big flats on orange hill road (and montrose, and cressingham, and other places). I only just thought of that. Or you may not, of course (the palm trees for one thing, not really a burnt oak thing). |
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9.7.07 06:36 |
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