Winter From My Window

The view of the very north end of Lincoln Park is always changing.  There is usually a steady stream of people - walking dogs, jogging, biking, sitting on benches.  The lake beyond the park changes color and motion from minute to minute.  But on this particular morning, no one was out and about - a random person would pass by every twenty minutes or so - and the lake was frozen stillness.  The sky just melted into the lake, and there were no shadows.  It was beautiful and peaceful, and I wanted to capture that feeling on paper, but I wasn't sure how to begin.  Ultimately, I decided to try the pan pastels that I had recently purchased.

Sometimes, I think it helps to not know what you are doing!  I just had fun with the pastels, on tinted blue pastel paper.  I added in trees (not all of them - there are hundreds!) with a dark brown Micron pen.  When I was finished, I sprayed the image with a fixative.  Some time in the near future, I would like to sit closer to my window and do another piece from a different vantage point, adding in the highway below for a more urban feel.

And we are off!

Urban Sketchers Chicago blog is started! I can't begin to explain what it means to me, how important this is, how long it took to get to this point, how much self-doubt, how many sketches done alone, how many people helped, how many hopes and dreams... The tale would be too long anyway.

Urban Sketchers Chicago is here, we are on the map, in real life and online. We are off to do great things, draw great drawings, and show our world - one drawing at a time.

And in this spirit, here's my little part of Chicago. This is where I live, in one of these buildings in the background, and this beach - the Hollywood beach - is my backyard.

And to continue to introduce myself: I am an artist and an Urban Sketcher. With the help of numerous people I started Urban Sketchers Chicago group in April 2012 - one of the best things I've ever done. My thanks and never ending appreciation goes to Gabi Campanario, Marina Grechanik, LuEllen Joy Giera, Kate Johnson and most of all to our own USk Chicago Correspondent Barbara Weeks whose generous help and remarkable talent got us to this place today.

Here's a self portrait I did for The Sketchbook Project 2011 and shamelessly use since then.