Category: Outdoors/Landscape

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Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Sketchbook Pages

Santa Monica Morning Beach Walks

Before for the Lifeguard Trials
Before for the Lifeguard Trials, 4×6″

The best way to start the day is an early morning walk on the beach in Santa Monica. I love the wonderful air, the sounds and scents of the sea and the damp sand on bare feet for miles. My son, his girlfriend, their dog and I drove down there to visit my mom a few weeks ago.

After the Lifeguard Trials swim, lining up at the pier
After the Lifeguard Trials swim, lining up at the pier, 4×6″

We stayed at a motel two blocks from the beach so that each morning I could get out and walk the beach. One day they were holding lifeguard trials with hundreds of people lined up on the shore, all wearing green bathing caps, ready to try out for the first round of trials. After the big swim they lined up again at the pier.

Santa Monica Morning Beach Walk #1, ink & watercolor
Santa Monica Morning Beach Walk, ink & watercolor, 4×6″

My mother grew up in a house half a block from the beach. It would still be in our family if the city hadn’t claimed eminent domain to build fancy high-rise apartments and forced my grandparents out. Their wonderful old house had a great front porch and a backyard that was mostly sand. I always loved visiting them and spending the day at the beach. My grandparents fought the city as long as they could until their house was one of the last standing. Finally they moved about a mile from the beach to the house where my mother lives now.

Although I don’t care for the stereotypical L.A. lifestyle which is all about appearances and money, I miss the southern California beaches where I grew up. Northern California beaches are beautiful but they’re just not the same: rocky, cold, windy and foggy.

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Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Sketchbook Pages

Taco Bike at Fairyland and Japanese Garden at Lake Merritt

Taco Bike at Fairyland, ink & watercolor, 8x6"
Taco Bike at Fairyland, ink & watercolor, 8×6″

The $2.00 taco was delicious, made to order from the box mounted to Taco Bike. As I look at my sketch above I am wondering: there must have been a third wheel on the other side of the cart. Otherwise it would be impossible to ride and balance, no? And they did ride it in to the park.

My plein air group was meeting at Oakland’s Lakeside Garden Center, but when I parked at Fairyland across the from the garden I decided to start there. It is a small amusement park where children create their own amusement in storybook-themed play areas/structures.

Fairyland Parade and Sliding Hill, ink & watercolor 8x6"
Fairyland Parade and Sliding Hill, ink & watercolor 8×6″

I hadn’t been there since my kids were little; adults aren’t usually allowed in without kids but this day Fairyland was hosting the Childrens’ Hospital Anniversary celebration and everyone was allowed in. I tried to sketch a parade (above) as it zipped by. Behind the parade are children sliding on cardboard down a little grassy hill and balloons everywhere.

At the other end of Fairyland a radio station was emceeing the event over loudspeakers. They introduced a guy who performed annoying kids’ songs who was followed by blasting Latin music and someone shrieking “TURN, TURN, SHIMMY, WHOOEEE!!! WHOOP WHOOP! TURN, TURN!…” I later learned this was a Zumba demo.

Japanese Garden at Lake Merritt, ink & watercolor, 6x8"
Japanese Garden at Lake Merritt, ink & watercolor and white gel pen, 6×8″

All morning I’d felt a migraine coming on and the Zumba shouting was the last straw. I headed over to the Japanese garden in the Lakeside Garden Center. The peaceful setting and sound of the waterfall soothed my achey head long enough to sketch and paint the scene.

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Berkeley Drawing Gardening Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Painting Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Mr. Wong’s Giant Bonsai

Mr. Wong's Giant Bonsai, ink & watercolor sketch, 8x5"
Mr. Wong’s Giant Bonsai, ink & watercolor, 8×5″

The 90-year-old owner of this house on Allston and McGee in Berkeley has trimmed the bonsai trees in his garden for 50 years and they are beautiful. I enjoyed sketching from in front of his house while my sketch buddies took posts across the street and on the corner.

I have a whole bunch of paintings and sketches to post so I may keep my writing brief on some of them in order to get caught up. This is one of the brief ones.

Update: When Carol asked if “Giant Bonsai” is an oxymoron I looked it up. According to Wikipedia:

The purposes of bonsai are primarily contemplation (for the viewer) and the pleasant exercise of effort and ingenuity (for the grower).

Bonsai practice focuses on long-term cultivation and shaping of one or more small trees growing in a container. Bonsai does not require genetically dwarfed trees, but rather depends on growing small trees from regular stock and seeds. Bonsai uses cultivation techniques like pruning, root reduction, potting, defoliation, and grafting to produce small trees that mimic the shape and style of mature, full-size trees.

So apparently I was wrong to call these trees Bonsai since they are growing in the ground and while shaped like Bonsai trees, actually are full-sized trees. So it’s not an oxymoron, but I wonder if there is a word to describe this situation: “A full-sized tree cultivated to look like a miniature tree that is cultivated to look like a full-sized tree, only in miniature.” ????

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Berkeley Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketching the Northside While Chevron Refinery Burned

Northside Sketch - U.C. Berkeley University Library, ink & watercolor 8x5"
Northside Sketch – U.C. Berkeley University Library, ink & watercolor 8×5″

Last week Gail Wong, Urban Sketcher from Seattle was in the Bay Area visiting and we had the privilege of sketching with her. You can see Gail’s sketch, story and the photo she took of us that evening on the Seattle Urban Sketchers blog here. I loved getting to see her amazing work and it was fun sharing sketchbooks all around even though I was a bit distracted all evening, because….

As soon as I sat down to sketch I got an emergency auto-dial call on my cellphone from the county with this terse warning: “There is an emergency situation at the Chevron Refinery! Shelter in place. Close all doors and windows and turn off heaters and air conditioners. Do not go outside until further notice.”

There was a huge fire at the Chevron refinery and while I thought it was at least 20 miles away, my house is actually only 5.5 miles south (I checked Google maps). The air was clear where we were so I decided to worry about it later. Friends seeing the smoke or the news kept texting and phoning to make sure I was OK. The smoke could be seen from all over the Bay Area, but not where we were.

Fortunately, when I arrived home the air was clean with the usual fresh sea breeze and everything was fine. The smoke stayed very close to the refinery which was really fortunate (except for those living close by and people who buy gas since the price is going up for the West Coast area supplied by the now damaged refinery).

The county called me back at 1:30 a.m. and again at 2:30 a.m. to let me know it was now safe to open windows or go outside. Gee thanks, county! I would have rather slept through the night!

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Gardening Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Plein Air Pt. Richmond Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Secret Pt. Richmond “Wave Garden” With Spectacular Views

Pt. Richmond Secret Garden View, Watercolor, 9x12"
Pt. Richmond Secret Garden View, Watercolor, 9×12″

One of our Urban Sketchers, Susan Ford, is a landscape designer who discovered this amazing secret garden in Pt. Richmond that overlooks the bay. The owners of the property,  whose home is just above the garden, recruited concrete artist/sculptor Victor Amador (photos: concrete work) to create winding paths, walls and little nooks with seating areas, all with views of the Bay. They hired Kellee Adams (photos/video about the plantings) to fill it with  colorful, abundant plants. And then the owners opened the property to the public.

I painted the larger watercolor above by working from my on-site sketch (below) as well as from memory and a funky cell phone photo.

Pt. Richmond Park Sketch, watercolor, 5x8"
Pt. Richmond Park Sketch, watercolor, 5×8″

We sketched until sunset, and the evening felt like a truly spiritual experience. It was so peaceful to be surrounded by sky and sea and the sounds of birds, bees, breezes. Although we were only blocks from the freeway I felt like I was far away on a distant island.

Here is a video from a local TV station about the park and its creators when it was first opened in 2008. It doesn’t do justice to the planting which was new then, but is fully grown now.

The Wave Garden is located at the end of Grandview Court in Point Richmond and parking is limited. If you visit, please be quiet and respectful of the neighbors.

Categories
Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air Sketchbook Pages

Bull Valley Barn and Cow Studies

View from Bull Valley Trail Staging Area, Crockett, ink & watercolor 5x8"
View from Bull Valley Trail Staging Area, Crockett, ink & watercolor 5×8″

On the road home from the Port Costa adventure in my last post I spotted this barn and pulled off the road (this time actually managing to stay on the pavement!) into the Bull Valley Staging Area parking lot to sketch it.

When I finished I noticed a herd of cows grazing on the hill beside the parking lot and walked over to the fence to sketch them.  As you can see, I know nothing about cows and these gals weren’t holding still for me.

Bull Valley Cow Scribbles, ink 5x8"
Bull Valley Cow Scribbles, ink 5×8″

Then the strangest thing happened. A very old Asian man with very long whiskers and long hair, wearing only loose pants and flip-flops appeared in the cow pasture, walked up the hill through the cows and just kept on going until he disappeared. A guy with a camera was taking pictures of the cows and we looked at each other confused. We tried to figure out his story but could come up with nothing.

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Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Plants Richmond Annex Sketchbook Pages

Dangerous Wildflowers on Carlson Boulevard

Wildflowers on Carlson Boulevard, ink & watercolor 5x8"
Wildflowers on Carlson Boulevard, ink & watercolor 5×8″

When the two-year long repaving project on the one-mile stretch of Carlson Boulevard from El Cerrito to Richmond Annex was finally completed, someone planted wildflower seeds in the dirt-filled center dividers. The ugly, urban street took on new life as the wildflowers bloomed into a gorgeous riot of color. There were little white ones and fluffy yellows, brilliant orange California poppies, and my favorites, the blue bachelor buttons and tall lavender lupines that stood (note past tense here) three feet high.

I’m glad I spent a lovely hour enjoying sketching them because the next day work crews came through and HACKED them all down. The neighborhood email newsletter was abuzz with people horrified at the destruction.

Then we found out why. There was a serious car accident and a couple of near misses because the flowers grew so high that you couldn’t see oncoming traffic on the other side of street when crossing or making turns.  It was true; even in my sketch you can’t see the street on the other side of the center divider because the flowers completely hid it.

Happily, new, completely different wildflowers have now sprouted, and hopefully they won’t be so dangerous and will be left to bloom in peace.

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Art theory Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages

Dawn in Scottsdale and Notes from Portrait Class

Dawn View from my Scottsdale hotel window, ink & watercolor 5x8"
Dawn View from my Scottsdale hotel window, ink & watercolor 5x8"

I was too excited to sleep much during my week at the Scottsdale Artists School, despite my quiet, comfortable hotel room. One morning I woke as the sun was coming up, with the moon still shining brightly. Everything outside my window was glowing so I immediately grabbed my sketchbook and paints. What a great way to start the day, even if on only a few hours sleep.

I promised to share what I learned from Rose Frantzen but after typing up 5 pages of notes, I’m not sure they will be helpful to anyone without having been there and seen her working and guiding us. That said, here is a bit of my notes:

Continue reading “Dawn in Scottsdale and Notes from Portrait Class”
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Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages

The New Oldie But Goodie

Matthew's New Old Car, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Matthew's New Old Car, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

My neighbor Matthew who lives in the house across the street with three teenagers. I think this new old car must belong to one of them since he already has a car and a truck of his own. What interested me about the scene was the way the light was glowing on the car on this very bright early afternoon. And also the crows’ nest in the tree.

I sat on the little concrete porch outside my kitchen door looking down the cement path towards my front yard garden ahead on the left. I drew the basic shapes with pencil first, to get the drawing started with things where they belonged.

Why do I feel I have to apologize or confess when I draw in pencil instead of starting directly in ink? I like using both and sometimes I want things to be a little less wonky than they are when I just go for it in ink.

Categories
Animals Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Plein Air Sketchbook Pages

Earthquake Weather Sketching

Miller-Knox Park Sketches, Journal Spread, 11x7"
Miller-Knox Park Sketches, Journal Spread, 11x7" (see enlarged individuals pics below)

We are having the most glorious Indian summer this October, with nicer weather than we had during the real summer. I always think of this hot, dry weather as Earthquake Weather because of the earthquakes and fires during other hot Octobers. And sure enough there have been several earthquakes the past week.

The little tree, from my car, sketch #1, ink & watercolor
Little tree, from my car, sketch #1, ink & watercolor

When I arrived at Miller-Knox park for a plein air group paint out at 10:00, I decided to sketch the first thing I saw: this little tree. I sketched from where I parked my car. At the end of the paint out, when we returned to the parking lot, everyone was laughing at the dope who parked their car all wonky and it was my car they were pointing at.

Apparently in my enthusiasm to get sketching, I managed to park at such an angle that I went around the cement parking stop blocks, ending up half on the grass and half in the next space, none of which I’d noticed doing.

Lagoon view, geese in the shade
Lagoon view, geese in the shade

I took a walk and found a nice spot in the shade with a view of the lagoon and lots of white geese and Canadian geese. I lost the white geese when I repainted the shaded area so later added some white watercolor (which never quite works) to try to get them back. Since they’re in the shade, it’s OK that they’re not super white.

Lagoon and bridge view
Lagoon and bridge view

In the Bay Area you can be in a stunningly beautiful park but have views of freeways or bridges in the background that remind you you’re still in an urban area.

People Picnicking in the Park
People Picnicking in the Park

My last sketch of the day was of these folks setting up a picnic under the trees. This was one of those days when the weather was perfect, the scenery beautiful, and my pen and paint just worked.