Another One Bites the Dust

9/2/19 former University Christian Church

The day before I left for the Twin Cities, I was driving through the University District when I saw that bulldozers and excavators were busily gutting the former University Christian Church. Built at the turn of the 20^th century, it was an active church until last year, when its congregation apparently moved to Lake City. More recently, some social service organizations have used the building, but that was just temporary. I started seeing the writing on the wall – literally. When graffiti appears and people start using alcoves as their bedrooms, it’s clear that a building’s days are numbered.

I didn’t have time to sketch it then, but I saw that the ‘dozing was going fast, so I was afraid it would be flattened by the time I returned home. On Labor Day I took advantage of free street parking in the area to take a look. Relieved to see that at least some of the Gothic structure still remains (the part I like to sketch most anyway), I regret that I never sketched it when it was still whole.

Most likely it will be replaced by yet another box like these across the street.

More boring boxes.

 

Northgate Auto Care Center

8/24/19 Maple Leaf neighborhood

I often walk by this strange and colorful building in my neighborhood. Although the paint job on the garage side is lively, the architecture seems a bit off. It has three roof lines at various confusing angles, and the front has four sides that jut out like a bay window. Despite lengthy struggle, I know I didn’t draw it accurately.

In any case, it will soon be no more. For many years, a variety of cars filled its garage and outer lots receiving “care.” Sometime during the past several months, all the cars disappeared, and now a sign attached to the chain link fence announces the building’s fate: It will be replaced by yet another five-story apartment building. I can guarantee it won’t be painted red, green and checkerboard.

Mostly Minneapolis

8/26/19 Hahn/Cock by Katharina Fritsch

When we weren’t busy eating fresh corn on the cob and deep-fried pie ala mode at the Minnesota State Fair, we toured around the Twin Cities, mostly in Minneapolis. We’ve visited the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden several times, but this was the first time I went with sketchbook in hand. Since I was with family members, my sketching time was limited, so I was faced with a dilemma: The iconic Claes Oldenburg Spoonbridge and Cherry called to me loudly, but I was also instantly attracted to Katharina Fritsch’s Hahn/Cock, a giant rooster in a spectacular shade of blue! The latter, installed only a couple of years ago, wasn’t there the last time we visited. . . resistance was futile. The blue I used comes close in hue, but I didn’t capture the sheer intensity of that vibrant rooster’s color.

Checking back with my party, I saw that I still had a little time, so I made a quick thumbnail-size (about 3 inches across) sketch of Spoonbridge and Cherry with the blue rooster and the Basilica of St. Mary in the background. Even with color added, it took no more than a few minutes. (This thumbnail trick while traveling is one of the most useful lessons I picked up in Amsterdam.)

 

8/26/19 Oldenburg's Spoonbridge & Cherry

The newly enhanced Mill Ruins Park preserves the remains of historic mills, water power facilities and locks used by 19^th century industries. I sketched the nearby Gold Medal Flour building on a previous visit, so this time I focused on the Great Northern Stone Arch Bridge. Crossing the Mississippi River, it is now used by pedestrians instead of trains. I enjoyed putting the glassy modern building behind it, which is more attractive than many newer buildings. I was surprised to learn that the Carlyle houses high-end residences instead of offices.

 

8/28/19 Stone Arch Bridge at Mill Ruins Park, Minneapolis

(Technical note: Those wet-in-wet clouds (above)? I did those with watercolor pencils – a technique I had much difficulty accomplishing when I was still using Stillman & Birn Zeta. You can see why I’m happy that I made the switch to Beta!)

The Weisman Art Museum has been around since the ‘90s, but in 2011, a major expansion was designed by architect Frank Gehry. Known for his organic, amorphous buildings, Gehry also designed Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (which I have attempted to sketch poorly several times) and L.A.’s Walt Disney Concert Hall (which I sketched a few years ago with a bit more success). While the rest of my party went inside to view the modern art, I stayed outside to attempt the wavy, highly reflective surfaces and crazy angles. Every time I looked up, the reflections had changed. The only good thing about sketching a building like this is that a critic would be hard-pressed to point out an angle or curve I got wrong (or right)!

 

8/29/19 Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis

Greg and his sister often like to take a nostalgia tour around St. Anthony Park, the St. Paul neighborhood where they lived as kids, so I indulge them – if I can get out of the car long enough for a sketch. This thumbnail shows the house they grew up in.

8/29/19 St. Anthony Park neighborhood, St. Paul

Sketching the Butter Head Artist: Achievement Unlocked

8/27/19 The farmer raising these cows was originally from Sammamish near Seattle. When Betty lifted her tail, the farmer
rushed in with a huge bucket to catch the stream before it made a mess in their stall. 

A blue ribbon winner

Sheep, cows, butter heads. . . I’ve been to sketching heaven!

Although we visit family in the Twin Cities every year, we aren’t often able to make our visit coincide with the Minnesota State Fair. The last time the stars aligned for us was in 2016, and I was lucky enough to join USk Twin Cities at the 8th Great Minnesota Fair Sketchout. This year we had more flexibility, so we were able to do it again, and I had the time of my life sketching at the 11^th fair sketchout!

She had stepped away as organizer for a few years, but Roz Stendahl was back this time as our fearless leader and chicken sketcher extraordinaire. Founder of the fair sketchout, she pulled strings to attract quite a bit of local media coverage (more on that later). But most of all, she organized a fun sketch outing (two, in fact; I went on Tuesday, and a second group met on Saturday) at what is arguably the country’s best (if not the largest) state fair.

This dwarf hotot with lovely black eyes was pure white; the color splotches
were inadvertently transferred from the opposite page when it started raining.

My first priority was the animals – both furred and feathered. Animals of any kind are not easily accessible to this city girl, and since they are one of my all-time favorite sketch subjects, I eagerly wandered from barn to barn and sketched whatever would stay still for me (and even those that wouldn’t, like the bantam that pecked and turned around continuously).  

Nervous, twitchy bantam

This young sheep had been born premature; his breeder told me Little Joe could fit in the palm of one hand on the day he was born. 

Queuing up for the sheep competition

Trimming a cow before competition

A special rendition of Rouser as I eat Australian battered potatoes.

My first of many food breaks was for a huge plate of Australian battered potatoes (with sour cream and sweet chili sauce! The best thing I ate at this fair). A man passing by asked me what they were, so I offered him and his kids samples. Grateful for the snack, he wanted to pay me back by playing “Rouser” on his trumpet. At this offer, I must have disappointed him, because I simply muttered “OK,” with my mouth full of potato.

Undeterred, he pulled out his trumpet and delivered the song, which ended with lyrics that made me realize “Rouser” was a game fight song of the University of Minnesota. I apologized for my non-local ignorance – surely he had expected more enthusiasm when he announced what his performance would be! Yes, I did consider sketching him, but at that moment my fingers were so greasy that my pencils would have slid out of my hands. I was content to enjoy the performance as I munched potatoes, thinking about how much I love this fair.

The crowds admire the completed butter heads.

As much fun as I was having sketching animals, I had a specific mission: to catch the sculptor at work on a butter head. Since 1965, the same artist has been carving the likenesses of the reigning Princess Kay of the Milky Way and her court every year. Each bust is made of 90 pounds of butter, and the sitter gets to keep the finished bust when the fair is over. (The pageant winners all seem to come from dairy farm families, so presumably they have refrigerators large enough to store a 90-pound butter sculpture of themselves. If not, I guess they eat it quickly.)

In 2016, I arrived at the butter heads exhibit just after the sculptor had left for the day, so although I saw the busts, I was very disappointed to miss the action. This time I arrived shortly before artist Linda Christenson returned to work on Princess Elizabeth Golombiecki. I warmed up by sketching the crowds admiring the completed butter heads.

The challenge was a minor detail that I had forgotten about from the previous visit: The sculptor, the sitter and the surrounding completed busts are enclosed in a rotating, refrigerated platform (kept at 40 degrees). To sketch them, I couldn’t stand in one spot; I had to walk slowly around the glass refrigerator trying to maintain the same view. It was my most challenging sketch of the fair, but very much worth it to achieve my personal mission.

 

The sitter fielded questions from the audience as the artist continued working on her butter bust.

Reg Chapman of WCCO TV

About that media coverage: After the final meetup and sketchbook throwdown, Roz led us to local TV station WCCO, where host Reg Chapman prepped us for our three minutes of fame (see the video segment). Twin Cities sketcher James Nutt represented Urban Sketchers well, and all of us got to show our sketches during the live broadcast (I’m barely visible, but you can see my sketch and purple bag toward the end).

As in previous years, Minnesota Public Radio also featured sketches (including some of mine) from the fair on its website.

We don’t get to go every year (after all the deep-fried foods I consumed that day, my arteries are grateful that we don’t), but whenever I’m lucky enough to attend, I’m convinced it’s the best fair in the country.  

Many thanks to Roz for organizing another terrific fair sketchout!

Sketchers at the Fair! (Photo courtesy of Tom Nelson)

I'm proud to add my 11th sketchout button (designed by Roz) to my collection. At right is my 8th sketchout button. I hope to add more to my collection someday.

See, I ate my vegetables, too.

Greg was thrilled to find a gluten-free grilled cheese sandwich!

Suburban Trees

8/30/19 Bloomington

8/26/19 - 8/28/19 Bloomington

Last week we took our annual trip to visit family in the Twin Cities. While I thoroughly enjoy experiencing and sketching in St. Paul and Minneapolis, we usually stay in suburban Bloomington to be near family members. Filled with LaQuintas, Holiday Inn Expresses and other chain mega-hotels, our “neighborhood” is what I would call bland, blah and boring (OK, I’m being generous).

In the mornings as I waited for Greg to shower, I looked out of our 16^th floor window for something to sketch. Thankfully, the parking lot was marked by trees, which I had fun making fast thumbnails of. One day I took a walk to the edge of the parking lot and found a large tree with an ugly parking ramp and generic glassy building behind it. Even in suburban sameness, trees are unique, challenging and ultimately beautiful.

Technical note: I’m so happy that I switched from Stillman & Birn Zeta to Beta! I love the foliage texture that I’m able to get with colored pencils on Beta’s toothy surface.

Product Review: Cretacolor Marino Watercolor Pencils

Three Cretacolor Marino pencils came in the Amsterdam box.

A few days ago I reviewed the water-soluble graphite pencil that came in the Cretacolor box I received at the symposium. The same box contained three Cretacolor Marino watercolor pencils. A box from a past symposium had included a fourth color, but I thought it would be a fun challenge to use only the three primary hues that came in the Amsterdam box: cadmium citron, permanent red dark, and Prussian blue.

The round, metallic blue barrel has a subtle sheen with the branding stamped in silver. The glossy end cap indicates the pigment hue. Although I prefer the whole barrel to indicate the pencil’s color, it’s a pretty pencil design. The color name, number and lightfast rating are on the back (along with the unavoidable bar code). According to Austrian pencil maker Cretacolor, these “Fine Art Quality Watercolor Pencils” have the “highest lightfast ratings.”

The metallic blue finish is unique and very pretty.

Harder than most watercolor pencils I’ve tried, the Marinos hold a sharpened point well for details. A bonus, at least for these three colors, is that the water-activated hue is the same as the dry pigment. It always takes a longer learning curve to use watercolor pencils if the hue changes drastically when water is applied (Derwent Inktense comes to mind).

Marino pencils in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

On the downside, I found Marino pencils to lack pigment compared to the brands I use most often, including Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle, Caran d’Ache Supracolor and Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer. The swatches, made in a Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook, show one swipe of a waterbrush. The apple sketch required more applications of dry-wet-dry pigment than I expected from an artist-grade pencil.

8/22/19 Cretacolor Marino pencils in Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook

I probably won’t be buying more of these, especially because I enjoyed using only three primaries. OK, so a red and yellow Honey Crisp wasn’t a very challenging subject for using three primaries. The fun of it, however, motivates me to do it more often (but maybe not with Marinos).

Marimba in the Park

8/31/19 Marimba band at Maple Leaf Park

Returning home after spending several days in the Twin Cities (more on that soon), we were both still a bit travel-weary. We decided to ease into Labor Day weekend with a walk to Maple Leaf Park. To our surprise and delight, a marimba band was performing. A large crowd of residents of Aegis Living Ravenna retirement community, which borders one side of the park, had pulled their camp chairs out to hear the lively music.

Although I had been feeling somewhat melancholy that summer was essentially over (as defined by Labor Day weekend), the music perked me right up. There’s no way you can listen to marimba music and feel anything but summer.