United States National Arboretum

During the last day of the summer I visited the National Capitol Columns at the United States National Arboretum with another USK member Tom Condenzio. These are the original columns that once supported the east portico of the Capitol in 1828. As well as the columns were the backdrop of several presidential inaugurations from Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, to Dwight D. Eisenhower. In front of these famous columns Mr. President Abraham Lincoln gave his second presidential inaugural address. To be honest it is a magical place where anyone can get in touch with history at the same time with nature. Walking around this forest of columns it feels like ancient Greece or Rome. It took me 2 visits with a total of 3.5 hrs of sketching and exploring. I used black ink on white paper.

Udvar-Hazy Center

The National Air and Space Museum on the National Mall is great, but tends to be a bit too crowded and filled with toddlers sprinting around.  The NASM Udvar-Hazy Center out in Virginia on the other hand is a huge facility with some incredibly awesome aircraft on display, and a much calmer space to sketch about.

You could return there a dozen times and never be lacking for a new interesting, fascinating, and awe-inspiring subjects to sketch, from the Discovery shuttle, WWII planes, aircraft from the birth of flight and every era of flight you can imagine.

And the conservation facility shows a bit of the process involved in restoring and maintaining the amazing pieces at the museum.

USk Symposium Paraty

I just returned from the 5th Urban Sketchers Symposium in Paraty, Brazil. Over 100 sketchers from around the world converged in Paraty, a little colonial town on the southeastern coast, for a week of sketching, workshops, demos, and eating. I attended workshops by Behzad Bagheri, Suhita Shirodkar, Liz Steel, and João Catarino, some of which were pretty challenging, but from which I learned a lot. We also spent a fair amount of time just sketching together informally in the city, and often sketched each other at mealtimes. I also got to explore Rio de Janeiro for a few days before the Symposium itself started. You can see more of my sketches from the Symposium on flickr, or check out everyone else's work in the Urban Sketchers Paraty Pool.

The Symposium is a lot of fun - I highly encourage any of you to go if you get the chance. It is a lot of fun to explore a new place with a bunch of other sketchers. And since we only get together like this once a year, it is also a bit like a family reunion of sorts - it is great to catch up with people you haven't seen in a while, but whose work you have been following online. I look forward to the next Symposium.

But for now, it is back to sketching D.C.

3 Views of SE DC

Bridge Spot near Garfield Park

The intersection of M St and New Jersey Avenue SE.

M St SE between New Jersey Avenue and First St SE

Over the past year, I have been contributing to This Place Has a Voice as one of the Cube Artists at Canal Park.  I am creating panoramic drawings and animations of Southeast's urban spaces. Over several visits, I am exploring and drawing and discovering what makes them unique. I am meeting people and learning what connects them to this place.

The neighborhood around Canal Park is in flux. I am fascinated by its rapidly changing urban landscape and drawn to the open-ended, provisional and transforming nature of its construction. We all leave a mark on this place. It's no accident, it just looks like one.

A place is created, shaped and lived in many and varied ways by many people, as minutes, hours and years pass. If I spend enough time in one place, I see some things change and some things stay the same. The sun will sweep by, people will walk by, talk with each other, play, paint a mural, build a building, or tear it down. I see how everything has its own identity and spirit - a tree, a fence, a sign - and I see how it all fits together.

Selected works will be projected on the Cube nightly, starting after sunset and running until 11:30, from now until the September 20th event day. The Cube is located at the south end of Canal Park (M and 2nd SE).

You can view my animated drawings here:
http://vimeo.com/user28455856

You can view my blog at:
http://kentgay.com/canalparkartproject/ 

The art that is displayed nightly on the photographic cube is funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, DC Creates! Public Art Program.  The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW) serves as the administrator of the Cube project and is collaborating with the Canal Park Development Association.

The Silver Line

Wiehle Avenue - Reston East Station

Today was the opening day for phase 1 of Metro's Silver Line. I live within walking distance of the last station, Wiehle Avenue - Reston East, so I walked over to sketch the opening day festivities. There were a lot of people there to ride the first train - I had to wait in a long line outside the station. But I eventually got on board in the second car, and rode the first train in through Tysons to East Falls Church, where the new tracks join the rest of the system. Riders cheered when the train started moving, and some even sang Silver Line songs they made up to the tunes of Christmas carols.

Riders on the very first Silver Line Train

I briefly met up with some folks from Greater Greater Washington who were touring the new stations, but lost track of the group while I stopped to sketch.

Spring Hill Station

I grew up in the outer suburbs, and have been waiting for this line to open for years. Now I can ride all the way in to DC without getting in my car, so this is an exciting day.

Crane at Wiehle Avenue

Once again a visit to The Coffee Bar.

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

The annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival has been going on over the past few weeks on the National Mall, in front of the Smithsonian Castle.  This year Kenya was one of the featured countries, and there was Kenyan food, folk art, music, and dance.  I got there just around closing time on the last day, so I didn't actually get to see much, but I did enjoy sketching to the rhythm of the music.

The Millennium Park

The Millennium Park was a very challenging sketch.....however I enjoyed every minute of it. This open theater was designed by Frank Gehry and it has a wonderful closed and open feeling all at once. It was a cold windy summer afternoon full of people enjoying elegant orchestra style of music from Latin America. There were birds singing, kids running, adults kissing, and many great things. I did this sketch the day before the begining of the AIA Chicago National Convention 2014. It took me 5.5 hrs with breaks and I used black ink on white paper.

Friday Night Live in Herndon

On Fridays in the summertime, the town of Herndon puts on a series of free concerts on the town green. Last night, we saw country-rock band Shane Gamble, along with U2 tribute band "2U" (the world's "second best U2 experience"). I sketched until it got too dark to see, at which point I had to put my sketchbook away and just listen to the music like a normal person. But that was fun too.

Diamond Head

During my baby brother's weeding in O'ahu I took the chance to do a sketch of Diamond Head and Waikiki beach. I had traveled from Coast to Coast in the U.S.A. and I must say Hawai'i is the most beautiful state that I had ever visited. It is a very spiritual place where the mountains and valleys meet with the Pacific Ocean. It was a nice beautiful sunny morning with a nice tropical breeze. It took me 2.5 hrs and I used black ink on white paper

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

I had been interested in visiting F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Sayre's resting place for some time, and finally found a good reason to as my sister told me their anniversary as coming up (the couple was married April 3rd 1920).  So the first weekend after we got ingredients together for some Gin Rickeys, drove out to Rockville, MD to a small church surrounded by commercial plazas and paid our respects.
We made a couple drinks for F. Scott and Zelda, but already there was a collection of pens, books, stones, flowers and coins left by other admirers with similar intentions.

TCB The Coffee Bar S St. NW

This place has great espresso.