Friday, October 22, 2021

Sketching on the Subway

In 1980 Tom Kinkade (yes, that Kinkade) and I decided to take a summer off from art school to ride the freight trains across America from California to New York City.


Manhattan thrilled me, terrified me, and fascinated me. I desperately wanted to capture some of NYC's energy directly from life into my sketchbook using pens, and gray markers.

I never went back to art school because I was learning so much more from the real world. Tom and I wrote a book called The Artist's Guide to Sketching in 1982, and that was long before he became the "Painter of Light" and also before "urban sketching" and "plein-air painting" came along.


You can hear a vintage tape recording from that journey on this YouTube video. The quality isn't great, but it's a memory rescued from oblivion.

4 comments:

markmors said...

I really loved "The Artist's Guide to Sketching." I walked into the college bookstore and there it was on the shelf! But I had to sell it a few years later when low on money.
Is there anyway it can be reprinted?

Mitch M. said...

What a great adventure for a couple of young guys! Love it.

Frances Buckmaster said...

I used to have a copy in my home art library. It disappeared at some unknown point. I too, like markmors, would love to see a reprint.

Mike Lynch Photography said...

Police were furious that no one sounded an alarm, much less intervened when lot of folks were observed using their phones to record a rape in progress this week in a Philadelphia subway car. .
(Talk about sketchy!)

https://www.npr.org/2021/10/22/1048362202/septa-train-passengers-recorded-rape-without-calling-false-prosecutor

And I was wondering if that news and if that inspired your recalling your less-offensive subway sketch above.