Back in 2015 LInda, Caitlin and I took a vacation to London and Paris. I did many pen and ink drawings in my sketchbook. I didn’t paint any of them at the time but always had the intention of getting back to them to do that. When I got home from my 2025 trip to Europe I took out my old 2015 sketchbook to compare drawings from the two adventures and decided it was time to paint.
I chose to only partially paint the drawings as an experiment. I like them this way. what do you think?
The Bird’s Nest, 2015-2025
She did everything fast, frenetic, like a bird. She built her nest in the seat next to mine as we flew over the Atlantic.
The Shot of Coffee, 2015-2025
She wasn’t sure what I meant when I said I wanted a shot of coffee but it was my fault while in London because I didn’t know but the tall guy told me that they call it filtered coffee and then she knew.
The Love Far Away, 2015-2025
She ate her oatmeal as she thought of the love of her life far away but happy.
The Arm Drawn Wrong, 2015-2025
She had crutches and was eating a paster and I drew her arm wrong and had to make up for it as best I could.
Self-Portrait, 2015-2025
Self-portrait in an iPad while I Periscope in a coffee shop, Il Molino, in Lavender Hill in London, UK and eating pastries.
The Lovers, 2015-2025
I didn’t meet them so I made up a story about them but it isn’t true so I will tell it to you now. They were lovers breaking up in a french cafe but were from Rome and one wanted to go home and the other pretended to care but had a secret.
The Museum I Didn’t Go To, 2015-2025
The woman looked so French with her big bow and loose bobbed hair that I had to draw her but it was the woman eating in the back who noticed me drawing and came over wanted to see and told me about her favorite museum that I didn’t end up going to.
Caitlin and the Shy Asian Girl, 2015-2025
Caitlin didn’t know I was drawing her but the shy asian girl with the stylish hat did and it made her smile and blush and happy and I gave her my card.
She Wished She Stayed, 2015-2025
She was in Paris and was bringing home gifts to her family but wished she could stay because the kind man in the train station who saved her from having her wallet stolen and they had talked and he walked her and her friend over to the cute cafe for a glass of wine and they talked more and he helped them find the store selling a certain type of Macarons and then to dinner where they ate escargot and drank more wine and she thought she was too old for that sort of thing but felt the tingle and was happy.
After I got home from France I was inspired to continue to create when out and about as much as possible. This includes, as usual, drawing in church. But I also drew on the train, in a park and in a museum. And, as is often the case, I also drew images that I just made up in my head. I also painted a drawing I started while in France.
Mèlanie a Hotel Demeure, Paris
Once I painted the image I made sure to contact Mélanie at the hotel and send her the finished image. She was happy to see it and made a point to welcome us to stay there again if we came back.
TheSinger WaitingDistracted PrayerListening to the Sermon About the TongueLunch at the Kimbell Museum, Fort Worth, TXKatie with the DrawingEating at Klyde Warren Park, Dallas, TXWaiting for Food at Klyde Warren Park, Dallas, TXReading a Book About Women on DARTReading Her Phone on DARTThe Sermon Was About FireThe Butterfly and the VolcanoSpirals
I like my large sketchbook because the paper is very high quality and takes the ink very well. I got it at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas a couple of years back. While in France this one came out most mornings at breakfast and a few other times when I was alone and/or had plenty of time.
En Attente de Voler Vers la France
I loved this scene because of the juxtaposition between partners. One in a tshirt and shorts, the other in a big puffy winter coat. We all do what we need to do when we fly, right?
En Attendant le Train à Grande Vityesse
We had a long layover at Charles de Gaulle Airport before our bullet train to the Loire Valley. This young woman was also waiting so I took the opportunity to draw her. The space was beautiful, all windows, giant beams and guide wires supporting the roof while in the foreground there was a huge plant taking up the entire left side of my field of vision. It made for a very active background and foreground.
Petit-déjeuner à AmboisePetit-dejeuner à VersaillesHommes d’affaires au petit-déjeunerEmployé d’hôtel à Caen
Every morning I got up early and either went for a run or sat and drew during breakfast or in the lobby. Most days there was someone in the restaurant to draw but one morning there was no one so I went into the lounge and drew the hotel employee behind the desk, which also was a coffee bar.
Dejeuner au café ‘Hoct and Loct’ à Paris
My Brother-in-law Steve and I were on our own after returning the rental car so we took a stroll around Paris. We found a great little cafe for lunch and I was thinking I wish I was alone so I could just sit and draw for as long as I wanted when something surprising occurred. Steve brought out a small sketchbook and said, ‘Marty, teach me to draw.’ He had bought a sketchbook and pencils just to take on the trip. So I gave him some pointers, mostly just about not trying to worry about accuracy and not trying to make it look like a photograph and off we went. We probably spent an hour just eating our lunch and drawing and it was a lot of fun! He did really well and it made my day that he made the effort to connect with me in that way on vacation.
Le Pendule de Foucault avec le Monument à Diderot en Arriére-plan
The next day I was on my own in Paris. I was planning to go see the David Hockney exhibition at the Foundation Louis Vuitton but it was sold out so I pivoted to the Pantheon. I wanted all of us to go but I couldn’t convince the others it was worth it so I went solo. It was worth it. An AMAZING space with incredible history, paintings and sculptures. I will post more about it in the future when I continue my ‘Art I Love’ series. While I was there I spent a substantial amount of time doing this drawing. It’s hard to draw a pendulum because it is always moving but besides that it’s pretty much invisible. You have to draw the background to give it some space in which to live. I was able to find a bench facing the monument to Diderot so that became my background so to speak.
While I was drawing I saw a young girl sort of hovering around me. She was obviously watching me draw but was too shy to come up and talk to me. Eventually her mother came alongside her and they moved forward just a bit. I stopped drawing and gestured for them to come over. They were from England and I was able to speak to them. I showed her the drawing, explained to her what I was working on in the drawing and why. I told the young girl she could do the same thing with practice. The mother asked if it was possible to see the other drawing in the sketchbook so I turned a number of pages and showed them the completed drawings from days earlier and some I had done back home. They were very appreciative and left feeling like they had seen a genuine Parisian moment of an artist drawing, even if I wasn’t French!
Melanie à Hôtel Demeure, Paris
The last day we were in Paris there was no one yet in the breakfast area of the hotel so I meandered over to the front desk area and asked the clerk, Melanie, if I could draw her. She was amenable. We had a nice time talking about Paris and I was happy to get one final drawing in before we left for the states.
On this trip I took two sketchbooks to France, one small, one large.
I brought out the small sketchbook for when I felt like I had just a few moments to draw or I had limited room, like on the airplane. Here are the drawings from that sketchbook with any photos I took of the scene I was drawing.
Small Sketchbook
à l’extérieur du Café du Château, Amboise, France
We flew into Paris but immediately took a train down to the Loire Valley to meet Linda’s sister and brother-in-law. While we waited for our dinner reservations I drew this scene at a nearby café.
Le Paon Blanc au Jardin de Leonardo da Vinci, France
I know this is a pretty pathetic drawing of a peacock but you try drawing a moving bird!
Petit Déjeuner à l’hôtel à Caen
Each morning I tried to get in either a run or a drawing. Our hotels weren’t in urban areas until we were in Paris so I didn’t find little cafes to go and sit at. But each hotel had a breakfast (petit-dejeuner) area so I settled in and drew there.
Concert à Notre Dame
We got tickets to go to a concert in Notre Dame the first evening we were in Paris. It was a selection of sacred music, mostly about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Before it started I drew the scene, including the very large head of a man right in front of me.
Constance en Cour de la Maison de Delacroix
I had a whole day to myself while in Paris. I went to the Pantheon (see the ‘large drawings’ for a drawing I did there) and then to the Delacroix Museum. It is a very small museum located in an apartment he lived in at one point. I thought I was exiting when I discovered I was being led to a beautiful courtyard garden. While I was in the courtyard I noticed a young woman reading. I decided to draw her and luckily she stayed for quite a long time. When I was done I showed the drawing to her and she was very happy about it. It turns out that her name is Constance, which is also the name of one of my daughters. We had a nice conversation about art, books and Paris before I left.
Un Femme de Profil en Paris
As much as Paris is fantastic one thing my wife found was that the tea left something to be desired. So that meant she was very excited to see a Starbucks and went in to get her favorite Matcha tea. I stayed outside and drew this woman who was beside me. She seemed to also be waiting for someone.
Jeune Femme Assise au Mussée du Louvre
Going to the Louvre is always an adventure. So many people, so many ways to get lost in the crowd. I was waiting for my compatriots to come back from the bathrooms and saw this young woman sitting all by herself, deep into her phone with her hair obscuring almost all of her face. I knew I would have to work fast so I did a minimalist portrait that I think captures her perfectly.
Le Coureur Avant la Course en Paris
While up early drinking coffee downstair in the hotel I met a couple from Iowa. They were both dressed as runners so I struck up a conversation with them as they were ready to head out for their first run in Paris. I saw them the next morning as well but both mornings I either didn’t run or ran earlier. It would have been fun to run with them. I drew the woman of the couple as she sat drinking her coffee before the run.
Julie Dans l’avion Pour Londres
We met this woman, Julie, and her family as we were headed home. We had a change over in London and met them at the British Air desk before we checked in. They went on their way and we thought we were about to do the same but there was a hiccup. My ticket had me as ‘Marty’ but my passport had me as ‘Martin’. They would not allow me to board with that egregious infraction, even though I had already made it to Europe, so I had to spend and hour and a half with reps from BA and American Airlines to hassle it out. It took quite a while but it was resolved and we ended up just one seat back from Julie and her family. I drew her as she watched a movie.
Ana Endormie au Dessus de l’océan
Our second leg of the trip home had me in a middle seat. A young woman, Ana, with a healthy bit of sun on her cheeks sat down next to me. We talked for quite a while about her student trip to Greece and our vacation. Because she was right next to me I wasn’t thinking I would draw her but when she nested with a blanket, ear buds, a neck pillow AND a sleep mask I felt like I could safely draw her without bothering anyone.
I only did two drawings in color. Both were started by referencing photos I took and were not drawn live.
Une Femme Dans la Boutique de Souvenirs à Versailles
This drawing started from a photograph I took in the souvenir shop at Versailles. I happen to catch this woman in passing and liked the splash of red on her lips. Later that night in my hotel room I drew and colored her. It was the only time I brought out my markers on the trip. Next time I would leave them at home.
Protéger l’investissement
This was another started from a photo. This person I photographed on purpose because of how quintessentially Parisian she looked while browsing in the Louvre bookstore. She had something in her hand that I could not discern so I turned it into an umbrella. The angle of it made me think about her protecting her purchase so that’s the direction I went.
In May of 2025 we spent 10 days traveling around France. We We met up with Linda’s sister and brother-in-law in the town of Amboise in the Loire Valley, drove through Caen, Bayeaux, and Giverny in the Normandy region, then on to Versailles and Paris.
In past travels I carried a DSLR camera but this time I used my iphone exclusively. Sometimes I wished I had a full camera but on balance I felt I got most everything I wanted without the hassle. All the images here were converted to BW from color. The color added a lot to some of the images but overall I like the mood and feel the BW images give so decided to be uniform in imagery.
Back in the 2000s and 2010s I took a lot of road trips. We went through Texas, Colorado and New Mexico on a regular basis. We went through a lot of roadside convenience stores and tourist stops and somewhere along the way I thought it would be fun to design postcards of what I was seeing, sort of like tourist postcards, but of the every day small realities of my travels outside of tourist attractions.
Here is a selection of the cards.
Colorado Post Cards
‘It Was All About The Light Where We Were’ Colorado‘We Saw Beautiful’ Colorado‘We Should Take A Little Hike’ Colorado‘A Vacation Day @ the Outlet Mall’ Colorado‘Our 5th Day Was the Fourth’ Colorado
New Mexico Post Cards
‘Stay on the Trail It Said And We Obeyed’ New Mexico‘Extra Hot Post Card’ New Mexico
Texas Post Cards
‘We Blew Into Texas’ Texas‘Our First Day Was A Blur’ Texas‘We Went Shopping in the Lone Star State’ Texas‘We Saw Dallas From the American Car’ Texas“I Drove Through the Panhandle and Saw This and This and This and Her’ TexasShe Served Us Breakfast in Texas’ Texas
Slide Show
It Was All About the Light Where We Were
We Saw Beautiful
A Vacation Day @ the Outlet Mall
We Should Take A Little Hike
Our 5th Day Was the Fourth
Stay On The Trail It Said and We Obeyed
Extra Hot Post Card
We Blew Into Texas
The First Day Was A Blur
We Went Shopping In The Lone Star State
We Saw Dallas From the American Car
I Drove Through the Panhandle and Saw This and This and This and Her
Back in 1981/82 my first wife, Kathy, and I were living with her parents in San Jose, California. We had returned to the Bay Area after my failed graduate school effort at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. That’s a story for another time but the result was we returned home with no money and no jobs so living with her parents was really the only option. Once we were there I quickly landed a job at a restaurant in downtown San Jose called Eulipia. To get there from their suburban home I took the bus every day. The first nine are from that year of bus travel.
Drawing on a moving vehicle of any kind is a challenge. You have to let go of precision. It forces you to let your physical action in the world be part of your image of the world. It’s an incredible teaching tool in developing both style and ability. If I was teaching drawing now I would make that an essential assignment.
Fast forward 21 years to 2003 and I am in Europe with my daughters on vacation. We travel by train, bus, car and subway and I draw while on them all. The final three are from that trip to give you an idea of how my style and ability changed and progressed over those 2 decades. While they were drawn live I worked on them quite a bit afterwards so they are much more polished than the earlier drawings.
Linda attended a conference at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and I tagged along because why not. I did what I usually do when traveling and that is get up early, get a coffee and pastry and do some drawing. I was on my own the last 2 days while she attended the conference so I spent some time at the pool and drew there as well. I also found a great opportunity during lunch at a noodle place.
I took the opportunity to draw in my big sketchbook and use my copic Gasenfude brush, which is very much like using a sumi brush. The one exception is the ‘Early Morning Coffee with Phone’ which is with my regular Copic pen and in my smaller sketchbook.
People often ask me how long it takes me to do drawings like these. On average each drawing took about an hour to an hour and a half, except for the one in the smaller sketchbook. Beside each drawing but one is a photograph of the scene itself. These were taken after doing the drawing so the original people have often changed positions or left completely and have been replaced by others.
One of the interesting things about this type of drawing is whether the person I am drawing realizes they are being drawn. I try to be discreet enough so they aren’t conscious of me drawing but sometimes it happens that they notice. ‘Alone at the Pool’ is an example. I had just started drawing her head when she seemed to be aware of me drawing her. I wasn’t sure but I didn’t want her to be uncomfortable so I directed my attention to drawing the surrounding structures and scene. She soon forgot about me and by the time I came back to her she had moved into a completely different position and I had to make up most of her body. It turned out I sort of blew it and had drawn a structure where her feet should be, as you can see.
I’ve been scanning my sketchbooks this year and recently scanned one from 2000-2002. There were a number of drawings of people on planes or about to get on one. Planes and waiting rooms are wonderful places to people draw and I always make sure I have my sketchbook with me when I travel for that exact reason.
In some cases I met these people, found out their name and a small portion of their story. Some knew I was drawing them, like Jess the flight attendant. She was sitting staring down the aisle late at night and it was kind of hard to miss me drawing since I was the probably the only person with a light on in the cabin. Other times I am observing, taking in not just the face but the whole environment, like in ‘A Passenger’s Story’, which really more my story of what is happening all around her rather than what she is thinking. And then again I am often just imagining what someone might be thinking based on just a brief conversation like in ‘Cate Wishing’ or on nothing at all, like in ‘I Hope He’s Nice’.
Click on any image to start a slide show. Let me know what you think, do you have a favorite?
In September of 2018 I went to Erie, Pennsylvania to run the Erie Marathon. It was my final effort to qualify for the 2019 Boston Marathon before the registration deadline the very next day. We had to take a short bus ride from a giant parking lot to the small start area in a nature preserve. While on the bus I met sisters Katie and Emily Funk who had flown in from out of town like I had to run the race. We had a good, if brief, conversation before we arrived at the start area and went on our way. We traded names and promised to connect on social media to see how we all did.
Katie and Emily Funk after the Erie Marathon, Sept. 9th, 2018
After the race we did indeed connect on Social Media. All 3 of us had qualified for Boston at the race and were making plans to connect again in Boston come April. However, one of the quirks of the Boston Marathon is that you can qualify and still not make it in and that is what happened to me. I missed out by 16 seconds. But the sisters made it in with time to spare and fulfilled their dream by running in the 2019 race.
Emily and Katie
Sisters, Sisters
You can see two things by the t-shirt Emily is wearing. One, they live in the neighboring states and two, they love each other a great deal and cherish the times they can get together. This was often when they were running marathons around the country together, always with the hope of qualifying for Boston.
Emily and Katie with the father, Charlie Funk, after the race
Not only are the two of them runners but so is their dad and a third sister, Jennie. Charlie Funk got the idea he wanted to run Boston when Emily went off to Boston College and he got hooked on the idea of running past BC at mile 21. He made it happen in 2008 (and 3 more years). Jennie has run Boston as well. Ever since then they have been a running family.
Painting the Relationship and the goal
Late in 2020 I got an unexpected message from Emily. She told me that they had tried for years to qualify, running 4 marathons together, each time coming up short until finally at Erie they made it happen. And now she wanted to give Katie something that would be a memento, not just of Boston, but of the entire journey they have been on together. So she contacted me hoping I might be available to create something. She sent me some photos of them together and some in action during races. She also sent me pics of the 5 medals representing the 5 races they had run.
After doing a lot of collaging and editing of the various photos I came up with an idea and executed it. I wanted to include the two of them, the 5 medals and the ribbons that held the medals. Here is the final result.
I sent it off to Emily in time for her to present it to Katie when they got together sometime after Christmas. She sent me a pic of them holding it along with all the medals. It made me feel great to have been asked and to be able to produce something that represented their love and their journey.
