I learned about the site from a blog post by co-founder Eduardo Bajzek, who maintains Perspectivas e Sketches, a blog of his own sketching and professional architectural rendering projects.

While I lived in Rio, I was very impressed with the huge numbers and amazing talents of the artists and designers working in Brazil today. While the country is justly famous for its contributions to world music, it deserves to be much better known for its visual arts and design. Beatriz Milhazes and Vik Muniz are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the contemporary art world in Brazil!

View across my neighbor's back fence.

Just a quick sketch of the view out my back window, done this last Friday. I did a series of abstract window-views while I lived in Norway. Maybe this will evolve into a new series documenting the neighborhood?

This pencil on paper sketch of a pine tree was made at the W. 11th St. Park

Yesterday, my friend Sharon (Artl8dy of E-14 Studio) and I went sketching at the West 11th Street Park in Houston.

The weather was absolutely glorious, sunny but cold. After walking around the park, we chose a comfortable log and began sketching. The park is full of towering pine trees, so I decided to sketch the branches of one majestic example. So often when I watercolor trees on site, I get overwhelmed and over-excited about all the leaves, and end up with sort of squishy pillows of greenery, without the bones underneath. This pencil sketch reveals the architecture of the tree.

It’s really exciting to show off the results of my first nature sketch outing of the year, and it was very enjoyable to spend the morning with a good art friend. Thanks, Sharon for making it a lovely day!

The forums at the International Sketch Crawl site have notices for organized sketch crawls in locales picturesque or industrial, cafes or parks, outdoors and in. Take a look and see if a crawl is already arranged in a convenient location for you. Or just grab your sketchbook and pencil and head out the door to explore your neighborhood.

Where do you plan on sketching tomorrow?

I’m so inspired by her resolution that I’m going to be a copycat and do the same thing, albeit here in Houston. The next step is finding nature zones to sketch in. We’ve been to Brazos Bend State Park, and I’ve been to the Houston Arboretum quite a few times. The problem is that most of the nature in the Houston area has been groomed and tamed thoroughly. Do you have any good suggestions for state parks and other wilderness locales in the Houston metropolitan area that you’ve enjoyed for sketching and painting?

Get together with a buddy or three and enjoy sketching the world around you!

Full Moon over Rio de Janeiro

Last week, DH and I watched the rise of the fullest moon of the year, the “wolf” moon. While DH photographed, I sketched quickly in the dark.

I’ll be away from the blog these next two weeks. I might try to post remotely, but don’t hold your breath!

©2009 Wren M. Allen-Wrenaissance Art

Our apartment building overlooks the Jardim Pernambuco condominio, an extremely pleasant gated community in the Alto Leblon neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. I made a quick watercolor sketch yesterday of one of the nearby houses. I was attracted by the compositional blocks of red, green and cyan blue.