cmoorelife

Posts from the ‘Travel’ category

Inktober 2017: day fifteen

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It’s Sunday, so it must be time for the Arches omnibus.

I begin with Delicate Arch. 

I am Boba Fett perched at the Great Pit of Carcoon, and the Sarlacc is belching below me. At least it feels that way as I sit clinging to my rucksack and ink pots, terrified my sketchbook, or me, will slide down the 45 degree slope and into the sheer drop below.


It may be the altitude, or the heat, or the prospect of death, but when I stand, I have a major attack of the vertigos.

Can’t believe I stood under the arch for the money shot and an hour later I’m clinging to the rock with my head spinning!


Next up, a touch of sedate pen work down in the valley.

That’s Delicate Arch again from down below



One arch isn’t enough for me, so next up, Double Arch.


Yesterday was all chipmunks and vultures. Today lizards, deer and a skunk in the middle of the road!

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Inktober 2017: day fourteen

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Endurance sketching today in Bryce Canyon. Nobody warned me about those bitter cross winds!

I put the full Faber-Castell ‘Terra’ Pitt pens through their paces in far from optimal sketching conditions – stood on a cliff, on a narrow path, in mighty gusts!

7 layers and still chilled to the bone.


A walk around the stunning Navajo loop saw another opportunity to perch precariously for 45 minutes. I really missed my compact little paint palette, as shuffling through a rucksack for the right colour inks on a steep slope is not so fun.

Supreme thanks to my little helper today. You are ‘sweeter than Muscat wine’

After that, a 4+ hour drive to Moab. Some truly eye-watering scenery, if only I could sketch and drive at the same time. 

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Inktober 2017: day thirteen

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I had a request for Halloween pumpkins today. So with just an hour to spare before leaving Vegas for my road trip, I reeled off as many pumpkins at I could.

One of the brilliant Halloween displays on the Linq Promenade

Friday the thirteenth: The gates of hell, where soft rock meets teeny pop. No wonder that fella looks a bit peaky

Sweetly terrifying pumpkin family

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Inktober 2017: day 11

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9am is far too early to stumble across a pair of 20 foot high peacocks, just begging to be sketched.

Peacock flower display in The Bellagio Conservatory

Once I finished the pen work, I eyed up the fancy mosaic floor and decided this was not the place to risk ‘Inktober day five: The return’. So I went round the corner to a safer spot, to finish the ink wash.

Don’t spill it. Don’t spill it.

Not quite believing that no one moved me and my grubby little palette on, I returned to my flowered friends to finish off.


Next stop, the worlds largest chocolate fountain, 8m high and multi-flavoured!

A woman knows real love, for the first time

My final stop of the day had to be the fountain of the gods at Caesars palace.

Oh wing-ed horse you are the campest I have ever seen, with your teeth so white. Forever destined to be a grinning backdrop in the photographs of tourists less beautiful than you.

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Inktober 2017: day ten

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For Inktober, I’m following the urban sketchers manifesto, essentially, paint it as you see it, live, as it happens. 

However today, I’ve also managed to match the official Inktober theme of ‘gigantic’. Hard not to, since everything in Vegas is gigantic.

I’m working solely in ink this month, straight down in pen with no sneaky pencil outlines first. So the MGM Grand lion could so easily have ended up wonky.

See… I really am here!

The MGM Grand lion. It could so easily have gone wrong…


I also did a quick sketch of New York-New York, whilst a couple stood next to me getting married by a man with a briefcase. Just them and a photographer. 

I added the colour sitting next to an Irish bar, in New York, in Las Vegas. Weird.

Think I made a better job of the real thing!

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Inktober 2017: day eight part 2

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One of the first things you see when you hit the tarmac at McCarran airport is the sheer, golden sheen of the Mandalay Bay hotel, looming over the jet black pyramid of the Luxor.

Normally I would have my sketchbook out, desperately putting down some lines, but right then, it’s too sobering. It would be impossible to be here without mentioning and feeling for the people involved in, and impacted by the recent mass shooting. 

Over the next week, I’ll try to capture Vegas as I see it. 

I circle through sprawling, dim lit Casinos and out into the blinding sunshine, face to two face with two women in leather hot pants, brandishing whips. It’s pretty clear that life in Sin City, goes on.

I start with Paris, which I last sketched in the flesh in 2014. Midway, a couple ask me to take their picture. I do.


Then on to the Bellagio fountains, where Fleetwood Mac and Phil Collins pound out to a techno beat. 

The fountains spring into action to the tune of ‘Gad bless Amer-i-caw’ and I have 15 minutes to sketch them. 

Midway, a man asks if he can take a picture. Now this is not unusual. I stood sketching at the top of Gornergrat mountain in Switzerland, whilst literally, a train load of tourists shoved long lensed cameras between me and my page, some ruthlessly diving in, others smiling and gesticulating thanks. I don’t usually mind and if someone asks, I usually let them, but my body thinks it’s 1:30am, I’m tired, and I don’t fancy it. ‘I’d rather you didn’t’ I say politely, he tries again, I say the same. He walks around the other side of me and tries again (bear in mind I have only 15 minutes) ‘no’ I say, ‘but it’s for me’ he says. I raise an eyebrow and carry on sketching.

It’s 7pm in Vegas, but my body thinks it’s 3am. I’m standing alone on the strip in Las Vegas, sketching the iconic Flamingo. Midway, a man asks me if I might have any idea where the Uber pick up point is. It’s time to sleep.

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Memories, Massacres and Muggles

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Vintage 2006

I last visited Coire Gabhail (The Lost Valley) on a tranquil day in May 2006.  Following directions my brother had scribbled on a scrap of paper, we arrived at a deserted car park as the mist silently lifted from the Glen.

Looking towards A’Chailleach

Up to that point, drawing was just something I did to pass time when I visited my parents at Christmas.  I had a small, slightly weird collection of pencil ‘still lives’ – odd shoes, misshapen candles, a Swedish Christmas gnome etc.  Sometimes I’d bring a sketch pad and pencil on holiday, but it generally stayed unused in my bag.  However, this time, it was so quiet that I plucked up courage, pulled out my pad and captured the view.

Eleven years later, I’ve overcome my shyness of sketching in public and discovered the joy of pen, watercolour and properly bound sketchbooks.  So, armed with Google maps, I was desperate to recreate this special moment.

Sadly, the first attempt had to be aborted, as all the car parks were full of tour buses, tripods and people flying drones.  The Lost Valley, it appeared, was no longer quite so lost.  Not a wasted journey though, we parked further up the pass and walked the path to Buachaille Etive Beag.  Time for a quick sketch looking towards A’Chailleach, shrouded in shadow, whilst we basked in the sunshine.

Castle Campbell, previously know as Castle Gloom

Oban

That evening, seduced by fish and chips in Oban, I persuaded my ever patient partner that it would be worth making a second attempt the next day.  With an early start from Dollar, a belly full of coffee and gorgeous weather, the mission was accomplished before lunch, I even managed a bracing dip in the icy stream below the valley.

The Lost Valley

 

Glenfinnan Viaduct

I found out later, that there is a grim irony in setting out from the shadows of Castle Campbell in Dollar to The Lost Valley.  In February 1692, this idyllic place provided one of the escape routes for the MacDonald clan during the brutal massacre of Glencoe by the Campbell soldiers, under the orders of William of Orange.

Finally (and slightly inappropriately after that serious note) in a blatant attempt to get more hits on my blog, the evening ended at the Glennfinnan viaduct, made famous in the Harry Potter films and now featured on the Scottish £10 note.

The Wallace Monument

To make up for that, I also sketched the Wallace monument.

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