LOADS OF VIEWS, REVIEWS & EVENTS |
I’m devoting this issue of The Wheelbarrow to all things Nashville, where I just spent a wonderful week teaching and learning with Warehouse 521.
It was my first visit to Music City USA, which I can now say comes by its nickname honestly (more about that below). Apart from Nashville’s eye-opening history and culture, I also enjoyed a much-needed preview of spring, with fruit trees in glorious flower, and with tulips and daffodils bursting through their winter blankets.
As for music, well, it doesn’t get better. I attended the Grand Ole Opry’s 50th Anniversary concert, spent an evening at the Station Inn listening to a bluegrass jam session, and received a crash course in music history at the Country Music Hall of Fame. And, warming the heart of this former graphic designer, was a visit to Hatch Show Print. A letterpress print and design shop founded in 1879, Hatch is responsible for some of the most iconic concert posters ever created. And it's still going strong, using its original equipment and vintage type — not a computer anywhere!
What else did I do? Well, I’ll let my sketches do most of the talking.
This warmup sketch of Nashville Jam shows some of Nashville’s early spring light. Since it’s surrounded by recording studios, I assumed it was a venue for music jam sessions. Then I realized it’s a brunch place — so, literally jam.
I walked by this rusty GMC pickup on 12th Avenue South, then walked back because it badly needed sketching. This was a great place to add a few stickers that I always buy when I travel.
A few folks I managed to capture while waiting for the concert to begin at the Grand Ole Opry.
My workshop met one day at the charming Leiper's Fork, a tiny town just south of Nashville, for a bit of vignette sketching. I’m a sucker for rusty machinery, so the old gas pump and tractor filled a need.
Whenever I roll into a new town, I make a beeline for the nearest art shop. Not because I need more art supplies, but because I’m weak. This time, though, at Jerry’s Artarama — with outposts all over the southern U.S. — I scored something really useful.
I often carry a white gel pen for lettering on signs and for final touches. But these pens are always too dry for my liking. The Signo broad nib pen, by Uni-Ball, finally gave me the thick, creamy white line I’ve been hankering for.
The Signo was perfect for lettering on this water tower. The tower stands outside East Iris Recording Studios, next to a mural of famous musicians (from left, Robert Plant, Alison Kraus, Steve Earle...).
For the final day of our workshop, we visited and lunched at Nashville Farmers’ Market. Once again, the Signo came in handy for lettering. Verdict: the Uni-Ball Signo has earned a permanent spot in my sketch bag.
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The Secret Lives of Color
by Kassia St. Clair
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If you’re a fan of Ann Patchett’s books, as I am, a visit to Nashville must include Parnassus Books, which she owns. It’s a thoughtfully curated shop, as you’d expect, where I finally bought The Secret Lives of Color.
I’ve been eyeing this book since 2016, when it was published, and now can’t say enough about it— and I'm only halfway through! Here’s what you won’t find in The Secret Lives of Color: illustrations, colour wheels or photos. All the colour, in a book about colour, comes from the stories. A few about colours on my palette:
• How a German paint maker and alchemist, in 1705, set about to make a batch of Cochineal Red Lake but instead wound up with a previously unseen blue. Apparently, he’d been sent the wrong raw material — but the right one for what we now call Prussian Blue.
• How Naples Yellow — and in fact all yellows — were unreliable and unstable for centuries. Only in the 20th century did advances in chemistry give us the yellows we all depend on.
• How ancient Vermillion, made from the mineral cinnabar, was once as precious and expensive as gold.
• How, in the 19th century, William Winsor and Henry C. Newton imported a dull brown substance from India that, when ground up and touched with water, yielded up a brilliant luminous yellow. It was apparently derived from the sap of a certain tree in Cambodia, better known at the time as Camboja — hence Gamboge.
The Secret Lives of Color is not all-inclusive and encyclopedic (thank goodness!), just packed with historic and cultural lore. You’ll find an aha! moment on every page.
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Sketching Green Onions
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’ve begun posting more regularly on YouTube. These are short instructional videos in which I share some of my sketching tips and techniques. The latest is of me sketching a bunch of spring onions on my kitchen counter. I hope you like it! And if you do, please subscribe, so you'll get an alert every time I post a new one.
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Bar Harbor, Maine
Together, we’ll capture the fall colours of scenic villages, secluded harbours, fishing boats at anchor and maritime gardens, as well as rugged coastal scenes of jagged rocks and crashing waves.
October 14-18, 2024
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Tucson, Arizona
Let’s meet for an all-inclusive week at Tanque Verde Ranch, where we’ll experience together the desert’s untamed beauty, its subtle colours and distant mountain vistas.
January 20-24 and January 27-31, 2025
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French Alps
Join me for an all-inclusive week of sketching alpine meadows, cobbled village streets, waterfalls, glaciated peaks and wildflowers!
June 11-18, 2025
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American Watercolor Society 157th Annual International Exhibition
April 2-26, 2024
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Thanks for reading.
