AirBnB – A Lovely Way to Travel

sketch of pitcher and Tabasco

“Austin Hospitality”, mixed media by Kerry McFall

Our Heartland Tour continues into week three.  Driving this time of year gives us a clear sense of when we drive into a new season – Spring started two miles south of Waxahachie, TX on 35E, with a thin veil of green beginning to flutter in a few trees.  Summer started in Austin, with flipflops and short shorts everywhere.  Summer ended the next day as temps went from 80ish to 40ish… weird weather, but our luck is holding out.  We’ve missed the artcitc blasts, driving about 100 miles ahead of the storms… fingers crossed that we can hold on to that good fortune!

Since this trip is a business trip with slightly different requirements than our usual gypsy wanderings, we’ve been staying mostly in hotels.  Austin was apparently gearing up for their South by Southwest festival though, and hotels were packed, so we fell back on our “Default Accomodations” resource, AirBnB.  If you’re not familiar with it, this web-based organization provides unique ways to stay in private homes.  We have been both hosts and guests, and we love it.

Our Austin hosts provided a lovely home in a quiet neighborhood, a silky soft old dog named Heidi, good conversation, and (of all things), a vintage golf club for my husband as a parting gift!  Bonus!  I was able to start a pencil sketch of part of their collection of Mexican pottery before it was time to head for South Padre Island and more summer weather.

Technique Notes – I finished painting and drawing from a quick photo.  The china marker outlined the highlights on the glass first, then paint and colored pencil followed.  I used a brush pen with black ink for some outlining, then my white water-based paint marker reinforced the highlights, and finally a white colored pencil made some nice transitions over the top of that.  I really like the color palette of this one – bright and full of contrast.