Yesterday our sketching group “garabateando.com” moved to La Placita de Santurce. La Placita creates an interesting dynamic that has become one of the top meeting and entertainment spots in the metro area. Here is the refurbished building of La Plaza del Mercado, an early 20th century marketplace, and its small square or “placita”. Plenty of small bars and restaurants surround the square, so it is definitely one of the places to visit if you come to Puerto Rico. By the way, the placita has a sculpture of four 4-ft-tall avocados, so it is sometimes referred as La placita de los aguacates.
I got there a little early with my family; I got one good black coffee and a “small” mixed fruit smoothie. Good that I asked for the small one, which they serve in two 10 oz cups and they let you whatever is left in the blender vase (like 5 oz more)… all for $2.
The day was cloudy, and the rain seemed inminent, so we setup indoors to sketch inside the marketplace. However, it never rained, we moved outdoors and sketchers started to arrive.
I hadn’t noticed that there is an artist that is regularly set up, selling his paintings and he came by, probably checking what we intruders were up to. I thought he’d get mad as if we were trying to steal his thunder, but instead he was very nice, even encouraging us to sell our stuff. His name is Ero Kaball, which now that I write it is a word play of “caballero”, or gentleman. Good guy, I hope he does alright.
We had a fun afternoon, a few whiskeys with coconut water (superb!), some great company and lots of sketching. We’d like to welcome newcomers Amarilis, Lori and Lyann. Prof. Manuel García Fonteboa attended officially for the first time as well, although we’ve been sketching together for years now… but he’s equally welcome. We’d be adding some photos to garabateando.com. Here are some of my sketches:
