New Hampshire, Baltimore, and China

New Hampshire

Sunday afternoon at the aptly named Pleasant Lake, New London, NH.
Our kayaks are the last two on the right.
Mount Kearsarge is in the background, with the steep trail heading down the slope.


Baltimore

High Grounds, at the corner of Eastern and East, Baltimore
Brett roasts the beans in the back room, where you see the exhaust pipe
coming through the window.

This is Brett’s roaster.
You can see the reflection of the books and the shelves in the chrome,
as it is in the back room of a book store.

The Pagoda in Patterson Park, Baltimore.
Designed in 1891 by Charles Latrobe. It has been restored and is open
every Sunday in the summer.

The view of the Baltimore Harbor, from the top of the Pagoda.
Key Bridge in the upper left, and Fort McHenry in the far right,
where the Star Spangled Banner yet waves, of course.

The humble sight of the back of the rowhouses next to ours,
all built circa 1910, and added on to through the years.
Highlandtown, Baltimore Maryland

Our walled garden behind our rowhouse.
I drew this while sitting up high on a worn wooden step,
which is the grey object in the lower right of the composition.


China

Family trip to China 2006
This is the view from our hotel window in Hangzhou.
Note fisherman, bamboo scaffolding, and tour buses.
The long red roofed buildings are construction workers’ dormitories.
You see them everywhere!

View from our hotel in Shanghai.
Early in the AM, but notice the school children lined up and doing their exercises with military precision.
The new parts of the city are in the background.

We really had no idea what we were eating sometimes in China.
This meal surprised me. We never did figure out which three items were the “delicacies.”
We were treated to three excellent banquets where we sometimes recognized the foods.

Simon on the red sofa and Ikea pillow

Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and more Baltimore

I like to draw on site because I see the scene in a different, more profound way, and the memory is stored in my mind in a whole other way too. My sketchpad is small, and I usually draw while standing. One time I found out that a passerby thought I was a meter-maid and was writing a ticket for her car.

I drew this picture standing inside the gift shop, not buying, because it was raining.

Strawbery Banke Historical Park, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
View through the gift shop window

Church Hospital, Baltimore, where Edgar Allen Poe died

One of the oldest (and crookedest) houses in Baltimore, circa 1790. Sold in 1980 for $1.
A fixer-upper it was!

Baltimore downtown skyline, from an alley looking west

Sunset from our rowhouse, looking west to the Inner Harbor

The doorway to our rowhouse, Baltimore. Birds painted by me

A corner shrine to a victim of crime. A sad place

Afternoon sunshine, Baltimore rowhouse

Street menu in Spanish, Baltimore

High Grounds Coffee Roasters and Books, Baltimore

High Grounds Coffee Roasters and Books

The Elk of Elkins, NH (a part of New London). A local spoof of the fiberglass gnu sculptures of ‘Gnu’ London

New Hampshire and Italy

June Posting

It was a beautiful spring in New Hampshire!
(and a few drawings of Italy too)

The barn at the bottom of the hill, the red glowing next to the pink apple blossoms

The same barn, with the view of the lake and the mountain

The Barn Playhouse in New London, a summer stock theater since 1933

The town library, the Tracy Library, a house built in the early 1800's

The Pillsbury Library in Warner, NH circa 1905

A glorious lilac, and a once grand home

A field of lupines

Sunday nap time for Simon

Family trip to Venice, 2007
View from our apartment

Venice 2007, endless choices of masks

Family trip to Chianti, Tuscany 2007
View from our terrace

Terra cotta shop, Radda, Italy 2007

Drawings of Highlandtown, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Highlandtown is a small neighborhood in the eastern side of Baltimore. As the name suggests, it is on a ridge with great views of sunsets, the Baltimore Harbor skyline, and the Independence Day fireworks. Originally settled by Germans, then Poles and Italians, its most recent residents are Latinos. These families come from Mexico and Central America. Many do not speak English well, but they learn. And their children learn even faster and help out their parents.

These drawings, done in winter 2009, show a neighborhood in transition. In the spring they were exhibited at the High Grounds Coffee Shop in Baltimore, and they were included in a fundraiser for the Patterson Park Public Charter School, also in the city. I’m happy to report that they raised quite a bit of interest and money.

Eastern Avenue, I

Eastern Avenue, II

Eastern Avenue, III

Colorful Corner, with children’s mosaic

Cinco de Mayo

Pinatas and Peppers

Di Pasquale’s Italian Market
(Mural in adjacent alley)

Canton Library
This image now appears on a coffee bag at High Grounds!

Looking Out the Window

The Fine Art of the Nap

England and Scotland, October 2008!

Here is a series of drawings I did while we took a trip to England and Scotland in October, 2008. They are a mere 5” by 8”, all done on the spot. I used a pen for the black line, then water soluble caran d’ache crayons for the color. A brush and water dragged across the color dissolved it into a watercolor wash. It is very convenient to add the colors after I return indoors. It challenges my mind to remember the colors too.

Now that I have talked about technicalities, I’ll mention why I wanted to do these travel drawings. First of all, they require a lot of focus and concentration, even though they are small. I like the danger of drawing with pen…there is no room to be tentative. I love the excitement of capturing the moment and the feel of a place, both at the time of doing it, and later when they are completed. And then, I like to share them with others, as a way of communicating both my love of art and of travel.

Pub lunch - mushrooms, chips, and veg
Halifax

The view from our hotel window - walled garden
York

The view from our hotel - the extinct volcano called Arthur's seat, so close to the city center
Edinburgh

The view from our hotel room - down the steep hill and across the Firth of Clyde
Helensburgh

The view from our hotel room - a Victorian era pub called The Chester Bells
Chester

The view from our sitting room - the half-timbered Prince of Wales pub
is about ten feet across the cobbled lane
Ledbury

Our tiny sitting room - sofa, window bench, and gas fireplace. Video tapes and books of poetry.
Ledbury

The church at the top of the lane, where we attended Harvest Service
Ledbury

The ancient church of St. Michael and All Angels
Ledbury

Ledbury Hops Fair, traditionally held at the end of the growing season. The 15th century
market hall on stilts in the background with our little lane on the far left

View from the inside of Sudeley Castle - Cleeve Hill and farmers’ fields

View from Cleeve Hill of the Cheltenham valley, the Malvern Hills and Wales in the distance

A happy accumulation of our favorite British snacks