Remembering Ceiny Carney

Ceiny sketched by Susan

This post is in honor of Ceiny Carney -- sweet woman, talented artist and fellow urban sketcher who died about a week ago.

In May 2015, we spent a rare warm evening sketching on the courtyard at Freehouse, an eatery in a historic 1928 hotel near the UC Berkeley campus. I drew Ceiny as she sat sketching in quiet concentration in the late afternoon sun.

Susan sketched by Ceiny

Fond memories of a get together we had in the spring of this year. Ceiny, me and the gang sketched one another and gave the person we sketched the painting we had made. This was a rare sketch night because we didn't scatter in search of a good sketch location. We sat together around Cathy's table, sketching and painting one another. We had a lot of laughs. 

Above is Ceiny's painting of me, hamming it up over a vase of fresh daffodils. Didn't Ceiny's drawings capture the essence of every location? I remember her amazing concentration, enthusiasm and artistic focus. And a sweet little laugh that I can hear in my memory. We miss you, Ceiny.

My Memories of Ceiny

Last year I met Ceiny for the first time in Manchester, England  at the
 Urban Sketching Symposium.  After that trip I kept running into her every week for
 about two months including at Green Gulch Zen Retreat when no one was around except
 her and her buddy from France. I took that as a "sign" that I was meant to have her as my
 friend. It was she who brought me into the blogging urban sketching group for
San Francisco that changed the scope of my life.

Thank you Ceiny. You have forever changed me. I will pick up your torch and carry on with your 

colored pencils, beautiful smile, and wonderful sense of humor. --Vivian Aldridge

Here are four sketches to remember you by....

1) Last winter I sketched each member of my group wearing a hat.
Ceiny is in the bottom row on the right.

2) I sketched this of Ceiny in April.

3) Ceiny drew me in the sketch below and asked me if I did not mind if I had

 taco sauce dripping out of the corner of my mouth ;-)

4) Ceiny sketched this of me. She always did make feel like a queen :-)

A Life Well Composed: Remembering Ceiny Carney

I miss Ceiny, a member of our urban sketching chapter, who passed away recently. I'll always remember her compassion, her sense of social justice, and her enthusiasm for sketching the world around her. She could-and did-sketch it all!

These are Ceiny's sketches. Please see other posts about her life, her work and our memories on this blog  and related Facebook Page.

Remembering Ceiny Carney

Ceiny, one of our members passed away a week ago. She was a big part of our group and we miss her terribly. Today we are posting remembrances of our sketching time together.

Ceiny was always available to sketch no matter where we were going and always captured the scene in her trademark style. I will remember her political sketches the most and I will think of her as we carry on reporting the protests and marches to come. Here are some of those sketches and a photo of her Hands Around Lake Merritt sketch that was included in our exhibit "This Is What Democracy Looks Like." —Cathy McAuliffe