New Hampshire and California

Local readers: This Saturday, July 12, we will gather at Sunapee Harbor, NH for another Sketch Crawl. Last month’s was great fun, and I’m looking forward to doing it again. I call our recently formed group the Second Saturday Sketchers.  It runs from 9 AM (or whenever you can get there) to 12 noon. Rain or shine. It is a miniature harbor—you will be able to find us whenever you arrive.  See last month’s post for further details. Saturday is also a designated International Sketch Crawl Day, too! We will not be alone! Check out www.urbansketchers.org to learn more.

 

Our Canadian branch family came for a visit recently, and one day we headed to Hampton Beach. It is a sandy stretch of shore on the Atlantic Ocean. The waves were a little higher than usual and the occasional brief gusts of very warm air quite confusing. We think this was all due to Hurricane Arthur coming north from the southern part of the U.S. coast. 

The two figures to the right are family members, our daughter and grandson, busily erecting sand castles. The man in the Hawaiian shorts is not related. It was a crowded beach. Sometimes you sit very close to people that you don’t know at all. I added the color at home.

 

Just for fun, I decided to gather five drawings that I have done on our town green, which all include the wooden bandstand. Four of the drawings show a band or a small number of musicians playing in the bandstand.

 The town green hosts local musicians throughout the summer, at Friday evening concerts and at the weekly market on Wednesday afternoons. All kinds of musical styles. Sousa marches, jazz, blues, big band from the 1940s, and folk are the most common. Above, a woman plays a flute during one of the markets. Next to her is her drum.

Local residents and summer visitors bring their chairs and  picnic suppers. The events are free.

Our attractive bandstand has small sculptures of squirrels and French horns too.  It was recently renovated, and the shingles on the roof are still acquiring their weathered-in appearance.

 

Once a year, the New London Garden Club hosts its Antique Show fundraiser. At this time, the bandstand is filled with antiques and other old stuff. The date this year is July 26 should you be in the area.

I drew this scene of the New London Market On The Green in 2010, a year before we became vendors. The yellow dog is unknown to me, but you can see my husband behind it with our departed small black and white dog named Hank.

 

Another view of a Friday night band concert on the green. Hank is in the foreground next to our picnic blanket. The adults listen to the music and the kids run around (and pat dogs). It is a nice sort of freedom, and a blending of the generations.

This year our three grandchildren brought a ball to kick around.  And, as children do, they made lots of new friends.

One last sketch on the green from my collection. I loved how no one was paying any attention to me as I was drawing. Except for the yellow dog.

And now some more sketches of downtown Los Angeles, frequently known now as DTLA. 

 This is a view from the top of Ten Ten Wilshire, a tall building where our daughter has an office. The crane was part of the 73-story Wilshire Grand project. The day that the cement mixers drove up en masse for the footings and foundation for the big project was officially called The Big Pour.

 

Here we have the Roxie Theater on 518 South Broadway, DTLA. It opened in 1931 for film presentation, rather than stage events. For architectural purity, I chose to draw it without the street level film marquees.

I love to draw crowds and markets. Just around the corner from our daughter and son-in-law’s apartment is this Sunday market at 5th Avenue between Broadway and Spring Streets. 

Note the several pairs of things in the composition. Pairs of earrings, two scarfs, twin leashed dogs, and a double stroller with two young children. These things just happen.

See the figure with the striped shirt?  At first, I couldn’t tell if she was walking towards me or away. I purposely tried to capture this spacial ambiguity.

 

The Eastern Columbia Building at 849 South Broadway, constructed in 1930, is our daughter’s favorite she tells me. I think it was originally a department store. The thirteen story, bright turquoise, blue, and gold terracotta clad building was restored and converted into 147 condominiums in 2006. It is Art Deco style with panels of wheat sheaves. Or maybe chevrons.

The two different times on the clocks show how long I was drawing the top of the façade.

One day at the market, I drew the afternoon sunlight glowing through jam jars made by the Cutting Farm in Springfield, NH.