Sala Berkeley Back to School Sale Window, ink & watercolor
Cedar and Shattuck in Berkeley on a warm fall night was perfect for our Tuesday night sketch-out. I started a few blocks south to draw the window display at “Sala.” Their windows are always great and have inspired me to draw them before. I was hurrying and didn’t quite get the proportions right so instead of tall willowy mannequins, these gals look a bit squat.
Cedar & Shattuck corner signs, ink & watercolor
It got dark so quickly there was time for just one more sketch before we went indoors. There’s a new Philz Coffee a couple of doors down from the corner with a large upstairs room filled with comfortable sofas, arm chairs, and big dining tables with fancy dining room style chairs. They were having a special event, “The Insect News Network.”
Insect News Network Show, ink & watercolor
The host with a microphone interviewed a bug scientist guest about the life cycle of various bugs that are found in urban gardens. They displayed slides and passed around live bug specimens in jars. Both were good speakers and made it all seem quite fascinating. It was great having entertainment while drawing. Their summing up statement was that “insects rule the planet; humans are only along for the ride.”
My plein air painting group held a workshop today at the beautiful Legion of Honor in San Francisco’s Lincoln Park at which Ed Terpening demonstrated. After an hour some people set up and started their own painting but I watched the full demo so had only enough time for this quick sketch. At the critique Ed pointed out the problem with the size of the guys in the foreground compared to the cars which made me laugh.
Ed is one of those rare artists who can paint while at the same time explaining the how, and why of what they’re doing. I learned so much! I’ve enjoyed following Ed’s blog, Life Plein Air for years and it was a real pleasure to meet him in person.
Afterwards I tried to walk over to the museum to see the Impressionists in Paris show (wonderful!) but was prevented by this craziness:
There were about a hundred noisy, smoky mopeds, coming up the hill and then circling around and around, more and more of them. Finally they left and I made it across the street and directly to the museum’s café for a much-needed latte. While I sipped I sketched the view out the cafe’s french doors (except they didn’t have Ed’s name above them):
Sketch under my notes about the workshop in journal
I took notes during the demo on a page in my journal that had an unfinished sketch done with green pen which is what that green mark is under Ed’s name.
Apparently the Legion of Honor is a place people go to take wedding and Quinciaños photos (even though their ceremonies weren’t actually held there). I noticed five different groups being photographed and took my own photos of a few. Since I used a zoom lens you don’t see the tourists and museum goers that were all around them:
Wedding group #1, So formal and seriousWedding Group #2: Flower GirlsQuincianera and her court of honor getting ready for photos
The Quinciañera is a Latin American tradition for celebrating a girl’s 15th birthday. Formerly a religious celebration, it has become an obscenely expensive event that can match weddings in cost and extravagance, including ball gowns, banquets, limos, huge parties, photographers, bands and more. I wish they’d save their money for college.
After their photos they left in a huge stretch limo as long as a bus but made out of a Hummer.
What is he thinking?
Nobody looked like they were enjoying themselves much in any of the groups. Except maybe the photographers, but they were getting paid to do their art.
I almost passed up this sketching opportunity as I hurried home from work but realized it was worth postponing dinner for and walked back. Here was this cute guy selling gourmet popsicles out of a pretend ice-cream truck that is really just a large tricyle inside a cloth-covered frame, playing rinky-tinky ice cream truck music.
I asked the proprietor, David Meisenholder, if he would be there for a while so I could sketch him. He’d been about to leave but was nice enough to wait while I sketched him (and he even made a few more sales).
The pretend, miniature “truck” is a brilliantly creative work of art, the kind of thing that makes your mind sort of expand and contract all at once, and is perfectly executed down to the little pretend headlights and grill on the front.
This is a new venture for David and his partner; you can see photos of the Popcycle’s “Maiden Voyage” here and you can find his locations via Twitter.
Summer Squash on a Messed Up Page, brush pen & watercolor
Last week we went to a fairly desolate corner in El Cerrito with the intention to sketch a church and the local Wienerschnitzel fast food drive-thru. I was starting to get a migraine and feeling generally stupid so my first attempt just left a page with a bunch of black lines that I could see were all wrong.
I left the page and moved on to the next one (below). The next day I went back and drew right over the messed up page with my green Pitt Brush Pen to paint the squash above. (I’d cooked and eaten its delicious brethren but saved this one to draw.)
Wienerschnitzel, El Cerrito, Ink & watercolor
Here’s my second attempt. I love the way even the stupidest building can be pretty at sunset. At 7:30 it was already too dark to see so we gave up on drawing the church. By time we left at 8:00 I was happy to go home, take my migraine meds and head for bed.
Scruffy Roses Instead of Ice Cream, ink & watercolor
Sometimes when I’m tired and grumpy it feels like the solution to all my problems could be found in a bowl of ice cream. I know I’m not alone in this because I’ve noticed that movies and TV often show female characters heading for the Haagendaz when they’re upset.
I’ve also learned that despite those crossed wires in my brain* that say tired = eat sugar, dessert is rarely the solution, and only creates other problems for me. So I try to do something else and it usually works. On this occasion I spent the evening sketching some scruffy little roses from my garden. By the time I finished, the nearby ice cream shop had closed and I was ready to go to bed.
*Sleep Deprivation and Carbohydrate Craving
In a Harvard Magazine report on sleep research they explain how and why being sleep deprived creates a physiological craving for sugar. In one study, healthy, male college students who were subjected to sleep interruptions over a couple of weeks became carb-loading sugar fiends and even developed pre-diabetes. In the article the Harvard researchers say:”It could be that a good chunk of our epidemic of obesity is actually an epidemic of sleep deprivation.”
They say that most of us now sleep less than people did a century ago, or even 50 years ago although our biological need for 8 hours of sleep a night hasn’t changed. “We are living in the middle of history’s greatest experiment in sleep deprivation and we are all a part of that experiment,” says Stickgold. “It’s not inconceivable to me that we will discover that there are major social, economic, and health consequences to that experiment. Sleep deprivation doesn’t have any good side effects.”
This cement plant/sand factory takes up a square block of West Berkeley and offers a wealth of sketching opportunities. We were there as the sun was setting and everything was glowing for about 45 minutes and then suddenly it was too dark to see.
The factory’s site on Second and Virginia used to be a white sand beach (not the desolate industrial area it is now) and First Street (now Highway I-80) ran along the Bay.
Berkeley Cement Plant #2, ink & watercolor
In 1855 the Pioneer Starch and Grist Mill opened in the same spot but later burned down. And that begs the question: what is grist?
While searching for more information about the factory I came across a railroad buff forum (Trainorders.com) where they describe watching trains deliver to the plant. I don’t understand most of their lingo but appreciate their enthusiasm for railroads:
One of my favorite memories was watching a flying switch drop at Crystal Amber back in the early 90’s. I used to bicycle from my house in North Berkeley to Aquatic Park next to the SP main.
The cab to cab SW1500’s were facing eastbound. They accelerated and then cut off the two hoppers, went into the pocket track and then the brakeman threw the switch. The other brakeman rode the two hoppers while the fireman flagged Virginia St. The switcher set then coupled back onto the hoppers, shoved past Cedar St and then pulled them down past Berkeley Ready Mix, then shoved them into Crystal Amber.
As the crew was walking back, I said to the brakeman “nice flying switch”. He was a bit surprised and replied “you liked my drop?”, to which I replied “Yeah, I liked your drop”. Ahh the memories.
I don’t know what they were pumping out of the ground but the name on the truck—”Environliners”—made me think I probably wouldn’t want to know. It was a gorgeous summer day and I was determined to get outside for a few minutes at lunchtime. I spent it eating a take-out salad and sketching in Snow Park across the street from our building in Oakland.
Our office culture is to eat with co-workers in the office kitchen and get right back to work since there’s always more to do than hours in the day. We’ve even been trying to figure out how to add a new month to the calendar to fit it all in. But some days you have to forget about all that and just enjoy the moment and the all-too-rare sunshine in the Bay Area this summer.
Mississippi Catfish and Smog Express, ink & watercolor
Would you eat dinner at a place that also offers smog testing? I didn’t take a chance on the food while my car was getting its smog test. Instead I stood out in front and sketched. The car was finished and certified in 10 minutes—before I could finish painting.
The mechanic couldn’t figure out what I was doing. Twice he stuck his head out of the garage and called out to me that my car was ready. Finally, he came over and asked, “Are you still doodling? Your car is ready.”
He looked at my sketch but still couldn’t really comprehend the concept that I was drawing his humble establishment. But he said, “Nice picture. Take your time.” And I did.
This lady carefully marked up her cheesy crime novel, “Guns Before Butter” with her pencil as she read. The train ride was really bumpy and so my ink line got pretty squiggly. I switched to drawing her after a big guy with a bike got on and completely blocked my view of the man above her.
Two guys in green, ink & colored pencil
I experimented some more with the brown craft paper sketchbook, drawing with a black brush pen on BART and (above) adding white pen and colored pencil at home.
More Brown Paper People
And below, some ink drawings done on BART with watercolor added at home later.
Waiting patiently, ink & watercolorElderly Asian couple, ink & watercolor
Fishing & Strolling Berkeley Pier at Sunset, ink & watercolor
It was the hottest August day in the history of San Francisco, smack in the middle of the coldest summer since 1975. So for our Tuesday night sketch-out we headed for the cooling breezes coming in off the Pacific Ocean through the Golden Gate Bridge (in the center of the picture above, to the right of the San Francisco skyline). We weren’t alone. The pier was full of people strolling and fishing and enjoying the rare warm evening.
Men's Bathroom on the Pier at Sunset, ink & watercolor
Although my sketch buddies selected a more scenic perspective from the same vantage point (which you can see on our Urban Sketchers Bay Area blog here), the men’s bathroom and shoreline rocks glowing pink and orange in the sunset attracted me instead. Apparently I was holding my sketchbook at a strange angle as I was drawing and painting (or else the world temporarily tilted) causing the wonky slanted horizon and bridge.
The sky turned indigo blue as we walked back down the pier towards land, and a huge full moon rose over the hills. Then a group of half a dozen kayakers with little headlights on their boats paddled right under the pier and out the other side below us. It is special sights like this that make getting out in the world to sketch so special.
Jana Bouc, Artist 