A Weekend In Alabama

Earlier this month, I was thrilled to go to visit Birmingham, Alabama for a weekend. I lived there for a year, and though I was specifically visiting for a friend's* wedding, I was happy to see the rest of my Bama friends and do some sketching while I was in town!

Here's the first sketch, done in downtown Birmingham the night I flew into town. The marquee is for a store that has since closed, but the sign is still fantastic. Though it's called "New Ideal" I liked how the tree blocked the "L" so it just seems to say "New Idea." I was lucky and got fantastic lighting, though I lost it soon after I started.

I had the following morning to sketch before meeting a friend for lunch, so I pulled up a bit of pavement on Morris Ave, known for it's cobblestone and late 19th century buildings. The storefront at center is home to The Peanut Place, and the owner was nice enough to come out as I was leaving and take a look at the painting, and give me a bag of peanuts!

I knew I wasn't leaving Birmingham without painting the Alabama Theater (y'all know I love a good marquee!)

What I didn't know was that I'd paint it twice! I had enough time to do another sketch but not enough to find another location, so I shifted position and did a second one of the marquee.

Then, I went to see Gina and Matt get hitched! Naturally, I sketched them.

I had a bit of time on the Saturday morning before I met friends for brunch and caught my flight, so I did one more sketch, of the back of another building in downtown Birmingham.

I took some photos and am hoping to do some paintings of the other great signage Birmingham has to offer! I had a lovely trip and am already looking forward to returning.

Fun fact: Gina is the friend who originally said "Do you have an instagram? Why do you not have an instagram?" So really we can blame her for all this.