The California Feetwarmers

McCabe’s Guitar Shop and the City of Santa Monica partnered up to present a concert series called Americana in the Park, which explores the the roots of Americana music. Each concert features food trucks and a Guitar Pop-Up Shop.

Ukulele musicians Heidi Swedberg and Daniel Ward opened for the Grammy-nominated New Orleans-style jazz band – The California Feetwarmers who reimagine 1920’s and 1930’s classics from around the world.

For our first Christmas together, I bought Red a Christmas present of a guitar from McCabe’s, so I thought I’d go and support their event. Plus, sketching in coffee shops can begin to feel a little mundane if that’s the only place you do your urban sketching.

I was excited to see that there was a tuba player as well as banjo and guitarists, and thought that the style of music would lend itself to them standing still enough for me to draw.

But I actually found it quite difficult to get inspired by sketching the band. I think because I was too far away, and there were too many people and too much equipment on the stage. It was a little overwhelming.

But it wasn’t a wasted effort. The audience were beguiling enough to draw, and most of them were sitting down to watch. Although I did sketch a couple of the audience members who were dancing. I’ve realised that there has to be a focal point for each subject—the guy with the long legs is a prime example of this. There needs to be some defining feature which attracts the viewers eye.

Some of the audience members got in on the act, and one of my first sketches was of an old guy playing a little egg shaker percussion. He was jigging about a big to the beat, but kept himself in profile for me to sketch.

McCabe’s are hosting another couple of concerts in the park for autumn, and I’m going for another sketch. Just me, my chair, and my art materials.