Little Shops in Mumbai

Little shops are everywhere, tucked into spaces you wouldn’t imagine they would fit into.

This paan-wala’s shop is literally a niche in a wall, and when closed up, looks like a set of shutters on a wall. In this shallow space, he fits all that he requires for his thriving business, has a seat for himself, and visitors can hang out on the little ledge in front of his store.

And these flower shops that line the street at Matunga Market are built with simple materials: tarp, bamboo, and coir rope.

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These sketches were done as part of the weeklong workshop I ran in Jan 2023 in Mumbai with Zainab. We announce the dates for the Jan 2024 session at the end of this month and open registration then. If you think you want to join in on this adventure, join the interest list by writing to me to let me know, because seats are limited and will fill in soon.

Here are the earlier posts in this series of sketches from India:
• Kite flying in Gujarat
• My great, great grandparents home and more sketches from Surat
• Stepping back in time in Mumbai
• Markets of Mumbai
• Mumbai’s Grand Architecture
• Art Deco in Mumbai
• Cold drinks on the Streets of Mumbai
• Layered Scenes in Mumbai

Layered Spaces

One of those things I think of as intrinsic to sketching in India is that you’re always looking at layer upon layer, wherever you look. It’s rare that you get an unobstructed, direct view of something with a lot of “breathing space”‘” around it. Of course, you could eliminate and simplify, but mostly I like to do neither, because the layering is so intrinsic to how I see the scene.

From where I sat at Kala Ghoda, three iconic structures stacked up: The foreground is the “The Spirit of Kala Ghoda, a slightly oddly proportioned sculpture of a horse. The red building middle layer is the now-defunct Rhythm House, where I spent hours tailing after my sister as she browsed and bought LPs. And in the background, the Stock Exchange building.

This next sketch is in the heritage village of Khotachiwadi where a chapel and some historic homes are juxtaposed against the newer skyscrapers in the background.

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These sketches were done as part of the weeklong workshop I ran in Jan 2023 in Mumbai with Zainab. We announce the dates for the Jan 2024 at the end of this month and open registration then. If you think you want to join in on this adventure, join the interest list by writing to me to let me know.

Here are the earlier posts in this series of sketches from India:
• Kite flying in Gujarat
• My great, great grandparents home and more sketches from Surat
• Stepping back in time in Mumbai
• Markets of Mumbai
• Mumbai’s Grand Architecture
• Art Deco in Mumbai
• Cold drinks on the Streets of Mumbai

Mumbai Sketches: Ganna Juice and Nimbu Soda

There is no way I would ever been allowed to eat or drink anything from a street vendor as a kid. Which might explain my deep fondness for street food and drink. I had plenty of fresh lime soda and sugarcane juice on the streets of Mumbai.

I also sketched both vendors.

Here are both sketches. They’re also the answer to that question I get asked often “What do you do first, line or color?”

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These sketches were done as part of the weeklong workshop I ran in Jan 2023 in Mumbai with Zainab. It was such an incredible experience that we are running it again in Jan 2024. If you think you want to join in on this adventure, join the interest list by writing to me to let me know.

Here are the earlier posts in this series of sketches from India:
• Kite flying in Gujarat
• My great, great grandparents home and more sketches from Surat
• Stepping back in time in Mumbai
• Markets of Mumbai
• Mumbai’s Grand Architecture
• Art Deco in Mumbai

Art Deco in Mumbai

Which city is second only to Miami in the number of art deco buildings it has. You guessed right: it’s Mumbai.

We sketch walked this stretch of buildings opposite Azad Maidan with an architectural historian and stopped to draw vignettes that caught our attention: typography, friezes, windows and “frozen fountains”.

These sketches were done as part of the weeklong workshop I ran in Jan 2023 in Mumbai with Zainab. We are running it again in Jan 2024. If you think you want to join in on this adventure, join the interest list by writing to me to let me know.

Here are the earlier posts in this series of sketches from India:
• Kite flying in Gujarat
• My great, great grandparents home and more sketches from Surat
• Stepping back in time in Mumbai
• Markets of Mumbai
• Mumbai’s Grand Architecture

Mumbai’s Grand Architecture

Here is a portion of the CST Station building (Formerly Victoria Terminus) from our viewpoint at the Municipal Corporation building. Both buildings are superb examples of Mumbai Gothic architecture at its grandest and maddest. I really liked how the winged lions on our balcony seemed to guard over the scene.

The next two buildings that also sit next to each other are the Taj Hotel and the Gateway of India, both built in the Indo-Sarasenic style.

And while the Gateway is the more photographed structure, it’s the Taj hotel that is the older one. I had that little tidbit of information recorded on a page of my sketchnotes from a historical walking tour that morning. (see my notes below).

I loved having a historian walk and talk us through the history of the city at the start of our week in the Mumbai. It put what I was looking at in context and let me notice things I’d never seen before.

These sketches were done as part of the weeklong workshop I ran in Jan 2023 in Mumbai with Zainab. We are running it again in Jan 2024. If you think you want to join in on this adventure, join the interest list by writing to me to let me know.

Here are the earlier posts in this series of sketches from India:
• Kite flying in Gujarat
• My great, great grandparents home and more sketches from Surat
• Stepping back in time in Mumbai
• Markets of Mumbai

Sketching in Mumbai’s Markets

I love markets anywhere in the world, and Mumbai’s markets are no exception.

If you turn up early in the morning at Crawford market, (well not even super early, we got there at 8am) the little stores are just opening and setting up. The men at this banana stall were carefully hanging bunches of bananas on ropes after separating them from a larger bunch.

And by the time I finished this sketch of the fruitseller (below), he’d cleared up all those crates you see in the front and had an immaculate display set up to entice his customers. Only one thing troubled me: See that yellow box in the front? It has mangoes. In January. That’s just wrong.

This next one is a super-quick sketch in the fish market. If markets are busy and full of activity, fish markets take it to the next level. I walked in with three adventurous sketchers from our sketching group who braved the madness for a quick standing-space-only session.

This next sketch is really just to record the very striking Arvind Gawde, assistant to shopowner Hitesh Dave. His vertical red tilak worked so well with his aquiline features.

This is a shop in the spice market, where bags of chilis line the shopfront and piles of assorted spices fill the rest of the store.

Most of these sketches were done as part of the weeklong workshop I ran in Jan 2023 in Mumbai with Zainab. It was, in fact, such an incredible experience that we are running it again in Jan 2024 and will announce it next month. If you think you want to join in on this adventure, join the interest list by writing to me to let me know.

Here are the earlier posts in this series of sketches from India:
• Kite flying in Gujarat
• My great, great grandparents home and more sketches from Surat
• Stepping back in time in Mumbai

Faces of Recovery: Shalesh P,

“Faces of Recovery” is an ongoing project with members of Recovery Cafe, San Jose. 

Shalesh P. walks into the room with a bounce in his step and talks about a not-so-simple past, his path to recovery, and his hopes for the future, with an optimism that we could all learn from.

Recovery Cafe San Jose is so much more than a safe place for anyone in recovery. It is also a place to learn new skills and participate in activities that bring purpose to life.

Anna Brown‘s energy is infectious. Through her Community Chorus class, she never sat down while she played the piano, sang, choreographed movement for the songs and keep the spirits of this group of singers high throughout an hour of intensive practice.

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You can read every story in this series so far here. You can read more about and support the amazing work of Recovery Cafe San Jose here.

Sketching Mumbai: Stepping Back in Time

The main reason for my trip to India was a one week workshop in Mumbai that I co-taught with urban sketcher Zainab. I love Mumbai. It is a city of contrasts, one that holds many different worlds within it. Right in the middle of one of the poshest neighborhoods in the city, Malabar Hill, flanked by modern skyscrapers, is an ancient water tank built around AD 1127. What is wonderful about this (and many other ancient sites in India, really) is that this isn’t a place frozen in time. It’s a living community with homes, temples and even a large open-air laundry surrounding the tank.

Here are the steps of that tank, where loud, honking geese hold court.

Sitting on the steps, I sketched this religious ceremony while drinking my chai. One day I might learn that dirty water next to a cup of chai is a disaster waiting to happen. This was not that day. My chai needed to be replaced soon after I took this first shot.

This first sketch was my solution to dealing with a super-complex looking scene at the open-air laundry, with clothes drying above and bundles of them on the ground below. I basically sandwiched the view between these two layers and sketched it, adding some details to the laundry later.

And this last sketch is probably what I love drawing the most: people at work. The man in the front washes a striped shirt on a washboard over an old bathtub. Behind him, another man works a hand-cranked wringer.

More sketches from India coming soon. If you missed them, here are the earlier posts in this series:
• Kite flying in Gujarat
• My great, great grandparents home and more sketches from Surat

More sketches from Surat, India

It was incredible to be in Surat for the two days of Uttarayan, the kite flying festival. Those sketches are here. But my super-short trip included other things. Among them: Eating incredible Surati food.

This is Puneet, making locho for the family.(Here’s a Surati locho recipe if you’re curious. ) That contraption Puneet is making locho in is typical of the sort of small, inventive and very specific-use machines you will see all over India. This one is essentially a steamer-box with multiple trays that can make enough locho to feed a party of 30. Make a pot of chai (on the left side of that outdoor stove) while the locho steams and breakfast us ready!

All the Surati staples: ponk, undhiyu, umbadiyu, ghari, cold coco and lots, lots more were consumed in my very short stay. My extended family in Surat made sure we were well fed!

We also visited a lovely home that once belonged to my great-great grandparents, whose photograph is still in the house. Dumas Villa was a weekend house that they owned when they built up a fortune (which didn’t last, but that’s a whole other story) and it was lovely to go to a house that my mom and her brother remember visiting as little kids.

One last little sketch from Surat, this one from the market in Nanavat market. I sketched this while this gentleman loudly advertised “Three nightgowns for only 1000 rupees!”.

My first post from India is here. This is post #2 and there are lots more to come.

San José Sketchwalks

As a Creative Ambassador for the City of San José in 2023, I will lead a series of walks in the city through the year, focussing on drawing to connect and discover. Each walk will be narrated by a San Joséan who will share stories, history, and memories on the walk while I guide you through drawing the experience.

Sketchwalks are open to EVERYONE, but I am especially encouraging anyone that does not consider themselves an artist or is beginner artist to sign up. Drawing instructions will be tailored to complete beginners and supplies will provided to the first 15 signups for each sketchwalk.

Why Sketchwalks?
Writer Lauren Ekin says it beautifully: ”Walking is mapping with your feet. It helps you piece a city together, connecting up neighborhoods that might otherwise have remained discrete entities“

And drawing is walking with your eyes and following that path with your pencil. Drawing slows you down and lets you connect deeply to where you are with all your senses.

San José Sketchwalks combines the power of walking and drawing for an experience that creates a lasting connection to neighborhoods in San José.

Whether you have known these places for eons or have never walked them, you will see and draw something you never noticed before.

Preservation Action Council is my project partner, and the Ambassador Program is sponsored by San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs

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Our first sketchwalk for Women’s History Month in March, telling the story of Carmela Fallon at Fallon House, was announced yesterday by San Jose History and filled up immediately. But there are more sketchwalks coming soon.

More info on the walks here.