After France, we ended up in Luxembourg. Turns out, I have people in that city. One of them is the artist and architect, Mauro Doro. He speaks like 4 languages but not english. We communicate through pantamime which actually works out pretty great and is often hilarious. When I wander the streets in Luxembourg with Mauro, It’s like being with George Clooney. Everyone mobs him. He looks at me with his sly smile and pantomimes with a shrug, “what can I do, people love me.” It cracks us up everytime.
Cathedral
My first morning in Rouen, I went with Jean-Christophe to sketch the Rouen Cathedral. It is the most elaborate decorated piece of architecture ever. As we began to draw, we thought maybe we bit off more than we could chew. We just kept at it because of our motto, “never give up.” Eventually we each got an illustration out of it. Jean-Christophe said it was like drawing lace.
Pink
Jean-Christophe Defline and I settled in front of this pink building in Rouen. The structure felt quite human. It seemed like the building could start talking to us as if we were in some live action, Studio Ghibli film. Due to the heat, I drank about 10 bottles of cold Perrier that afternoon. At every cafe we stopped in for refreshments, we seemed to know a dozen people. Jean-Christophe and I are very popular in France.
Heat
Jean-Christophe Defline and I found a cool little side street to draw in Rouen. Even though it was early in the morning, the temperatures were already approaching 90 degrees farenheit. There was a delivery truck parked where we had set up. When the driver opened the back to remove his products, it turned out to be a refridgerated truck. We were in heaven as cold air streamed out of the vehicle. This happened with two more trucks while we were there. We caught a break for once.
Me
This is what people see when they walk past me and I’m drawing on the street. There were hundreds of illustrators on the streets of Rouen. Whenever we stopped in a cafe, the owner would come out and ask us if we were coming back next year. We told them that we choose a different venue each year. They were always disappointed. They told us that the artists were the nicest, well behaved, and friendliest tourists they ever had. Plus, our drawings of the city were so fabulous and were posted all over the internet helping to spread the visual delights they get to see everyday. We are much better than soccer hooligans.
Mess
A series of little drawings I did in Rouen and Luxembourg. They range from ornate objects on the side of buildings, to door knockers, parts of statues, and a Hulk head on display in an art gallery. I’m quite good at creating these messes.
Rouen Train Station
The first thing you notice when you arrive in Rouen is the gorgeous train station. It really sets the tone for the rest of the town. The perfect place to meet people, especially if you are a bunch of artists sitting all in a row on camping stools under a shady spot facing the facade. Curious onlookers just have to see what the hell is going on. We had to take breaks from sketching every 10 minutes to chat with the endlessly gathering folks.
Abbey
There was a heatwave when I was in Rouen. When we drew at lunch, we had to be under the shade of an awning. This day the steeple of Saint-Ouen was peeking above the restaurant roofs. I did the best I could under the adverse conditions. The intense heat sapped our energy but we just had to power through. I had to show the hunderds of other artists drawing on the streets that I could share their pain. Plus there’s no air conditioning in France which goes to prove we don’t actually need it. Monet and Picasso didn’t need no stinking air con.
Rouen
We spent a week in Rouen, France. It was the site of this year’s French Urban Sketchers gathering. I’ve come to know many of the artists well, seeing as this was my third year attending. Rouen is a compact little city strewn with many eye-popping gothic churches. It’s also the place where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake. I don’t think most people in France have been there. I am working my way to every corner of the country, so this was a must see for me. Wherever I chose to draw, I found myself surrounded by some of Europe’s most talented illustrators.
MONH
Museum of Natural History.
Oriental Club
On a recent trip to London we stayed in a friend’s club instead of a hotel. It was like being in a Time Machine. Creaky old wooden staircases, marble busts everywhere, and lots of paintings of Earls and Lords hanging about. I sketched a lot of its history over a few days when I had free time.
Butt
My wife and I stayed with one of my cousin’s outside of Cork, Ireland. He has two small kids. A girl 6 and his son is 3. They asked to see one of my sketchbooks. I was flipping through when I arrived at this page. The little boy started laughing like crazy and yelling, “look, it’s a butt.” He said it over and over. When I was done he wanted to go back to the butt page. He laughed so hard, he nearly fell off the kitchen table. One of the strongest reactions to my artwork ever.
Constantine
his is a drawing of a marble portrait of the emperor Constantine the Great that lives in The Met. It’s quite a large head. It seems to be the spot where a lot of tour groups stop. I became part of the museum landscape to be ogled at. Several photographer type tourists came by with large cameras. They began filming me like crazy which made me seem important for no reason whatsoever.
