Ackland Museum Show in North Carolina!

 The first group show of Urban Sketchers: Seeing the World, One Drawing at a Time opens at the Ackland Museum of Art, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Thursday August 16th. Thirty eight of the group's one hundred contributors have donated sketches, proceeds from the sales of which will go mainly to Urban Sketchers to support their educational programmes, with a small percentage to the Ackland Art Museum. These are two of the four sketches I sent in, with my thanks to Gabi Campanario and Urban Sketchers, for the wide world they've opened up to me! 

This is a street scene in Parkview (other sketches from there here). Along the pavement, vendors set up their wares and hope people visiting the shops and restaurants will stop and buy. The man was selling bulbs from his carrier bag, with a magazine opened on a page with pictures of clivia in bloom. I have bought bulbs from a similar salesman before, and something completely different came up from what he showed me, so you take your chances!

The woman selling baskets and pots sat patiently, aware that I was sketching her. When the sun started sinking she loaded up her goods to leave - she saw me pick up my pen to sketch her again, and said in words I couldn't really understand, but got the gist of, that she certainly wasn't going to hang around to be drawn again - and within minutes was flouncing off down the road, and gone.

Waiting, again

Here is a long series of sketches I did last Thursday while once again waiting for my son to book his Driver's test - after three years and for the fifth time (five goes at the learner's too). I won't go into the corruption and bribery that is rife in getting licences in this town - just saying - he qualified and deserved to get it a long time ago! We went to a new and apparently straight testing station, so once again, with feeling...

 I sketched quickly, thinking I may have half an hour or so - only applicants were allowed inside the building. After my pen ran out of ink and four hours later, he came out, booking in hand for Monday after next. Holding thumbs, crossing fingers and toes and ready to go into battle if it doesn't happen this time!

A Boy, a Butterfly and a Birthday

My Postcard From My Walk to Desiree arrived in California - hooray! Done on the visit to Shepstone Gardens of a couple of posts ago, it was stretching the concept of 'from my walk', as it was more of a gentle amble from spot to picturesque spot.
The butterfly, however, is one I see quite often while walking, and this one was sitting very peacefully on an arum lily in my garden after a walk, to be photographed and later painted. My sister-in-law in Cape Town, known in her area as The Butterfly Lady, tells me it is a Citrus Swallowtail, also known as a Christmas butterfly.
A Sketch in Time is now five years old, and once again I ask myself, "Quo Vadis?", but it will probably carry on bumbling along in its rather aimless manner, as I do. Thank you to all who visit here for bumbling along after us!

NeighbourGoods Market

 For the 36th Worldwide Sketchcrawl, four of our group went to the NeighbourGoods Market in Braamfontein, where Joburgers go in their hundreds every Saturday to buy from: (off their website) 'local farmers, fine-food purveyors, organic merchants, bakers and distributors, grocers, mongers, butchers, artisan producers, celebrated local chefs, and micro enterprises'.

 A freezing cold front blew in that morning, so I started sketching from the relative shelter of a canvas awning - the hat and accessories stall inside, then turned on my chair to draw the hardy souls outside on the rooftop balcony overlooking Braamfontein.

 Downstairs to join the others, Anni, Marlene and Alan for a delicious lunch and to carry on sketching - the two girls above, and the one in the bright jacket below, took photos of my sketches of them - thankfully quite happy with their portrayals!

 The queue for this paella began forming as the two cooks started a new batch, and waited patiently until it was ready. It was all gone within minutes -  must have been good!

 This tall, slim woman in her black and white skirt caught my eye as she stood in front of the tall, slim cake stands full of black and white wrapped cupcakes.

Which I couldn't resist buying two of (Red Velvet and Bar-One - yum!) to take home for my last sketch of the day, before sharing them with my son - my husband's will power standing firm as mine crumbled!

Shepstone Gardens

On Monday a group of us went to Shepstone Gardens, a Heritage site and a busy wedding and events venue. It is a whole conglomeration of stone constructions - houses, chapels, pathways, walls, a garden shed and a studio, commissioned by the Modderfontein Dynamite Company and built around the turn of the century by Afrikaners after the Anglo Boer War - from 1 000 tons of quartz rock. Apparently Mahatma Gandhi stayed on and off in the encampment at the foot of the ridge, while his friend, the architect Kallenbach was building.

The first sketch I did there is on its way as a postcard in the Postcards from my Walk project, so I won't show it yet. (my last one never reached its destination in California, so holding thumbs for this one!)

I had another prepared splashy watercolour sheet in my sketchbook and the blues and browns fitted well into the shape of the wedding chapel, so that was my next subject.

There was a little boy looking like he needed something to do (he was on school holidays and his dad was working in the Gardens) on the lawn next to me so I offered him a sketchbook and pencil, which he shyly but eagerly accepted. He told me his name was Gift, and he spent the next hour or more drawing intently - watching me looking up and down and sketching, and then following suit. I think he indeed has a gift, to be so young - in Grade 2 so not more than 6 or 7 - and concentrate for so long on his carefully observed drawing. I left him my pencil, I think I'll go back with a sketchbook - a possible young urban sketcher/artist/architect in the making!

Tennis Rules, OK?

A lot of time spent in front of the TV watching tennis lately and when I'm not too wrapped up in the match to think of it, I sometimes pick up a pen and try and scribble down the action. This time without rewinding and stopping on frames as I did four years (four years!!) ago in this post, I hardly looked at the paper as my pen tracked the movement resulting in some strange but descriptive postures. Not very flattering to the players, but fun!
Much as it would be nice for a Brit to at last win, in this Jubilee and Olympian year, I have to stay loyal and yell once again.... Go Roger!!

Fête de la Musique

Last Saturday we went to sketch at the French Fête de la Musique in Melville, where 7th Street was closed to traffic, restaurants and cafés overflowed their tables, chairs and sofas outside into a beautiful warm, sunny day and a free and easy atmosphere took over as three large dancing puppets started the festivities.

I thought there was to be a brass band and had prepared a sketchbook sheet at home with watercolour washes to draw over - thinking the yellow splashes would be a good base for a brass band to burst forth from into the blue. Well there was no brass band and the puppets pranced past so quickly, I hardly squiggled down their outlines before they and the drummers behind them disappeared down the road. I'm feeling the urge to sketch in different mediums lately - this first technique was more successful than others...

 ...my next sketch (above) I tried Carioca markers in a sketchbook that didn't allow them to wash and spread with water as I intended, so onto different paper that did... as did the disposable Pilot Vpen, which I love using for its watersoluble properties, but hard to control on the trot.

I managed to capture my daughter (with her back to me, above) a proud new resident of Melville, then I pulled out my Pentel Pocket Brushpen for a few more figures as they dashed past - so much activity, this was not a relaxing sketching experience! Perhaps when I go sketching I should just take one pen with me to stop myself trying to use everything in my artillery and feeding my indecisiveness and confusion.

Having lost the other sketchers in the crowd, I joined my family for lunch in a Mexican café, fitting in another sketch while waiting for the food to arrive. I had done a fair sketch of my daughter's fiancé - a good likeness, dark in tone against the light outside - but later at home I thought I'd 'fix' it and really messed it up, saturating the paper with uncontrollably bleeding colours and pens, dabbing didn't help and I lost his face completely. Lesson: do not fiddle with sketches after the fact!

A last sketch before home, rather wishing I was younger, trendier and more energetic to carry on eating, drinking, sketching and listening until late to the great variety of music pumping from every doorway up and down the street.