Category: Life in general

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Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Halloween Candy & Earthquakes

Halloween Candy

Watercolor on Arches Hot Press paper in 5.5 x 7.5″ sketchbook
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Last night was Cody’s birthday party at Hunan Villa in Pinole.  There were 10 of us sitting around the table celebrating, with good food and good company. Halfway through dinner we all noticed the table seemed to be rocking back and forth and so did my chair. Everyone looked at each other trying to make sense of it.  At first we all thought it was someone bumping the table, but the floor seemed to be moving in a strange wavelike manner as well. Suddenly a painting flew off the wall two feet away from us and smashed to the floor, scattering glass everywhere. That’s when we realized it was a fairly good-sized earthquake. Fortunately that was the end of it (for now) and we all went back to celebrating, considerably more alert than before.

These candies are called “Gruesome Gummy Candy” (and one Hersheys Nugget) — all that was left at 6:00 P.M. at Longs on my way home.  I think they’re supposed to be spiders or tarantulas. I like to wait until the last minute to buy Halloween candy so I don’t eat it all, long before the trick-or-treaters arrive. Sadly only three groups came to my door tonight. In my old neighborhood where I lived on a main street, streams of cute little ones came by all night long, which I relished. Now what to do with all the extra candy? Hmmmm…..

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Art theory Faces Life in general Painting People Portrait Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Squinting to See the Light (funny story)

Squinting to see the light

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Watercolor in large Moleskine notebook

Today at work, 10 of us were sitting around the table in the lunchroom eating and chatting. I sat across from our director, facing the picture window and our 27th-story view of Oakland, the San Francisco Bay, Mt. Tamalpais and the huge, cloudy sky. I was thinking about what I learned in my painting class last Sunday about the importance of learning to see color temperatures and value. A good way to do that is to close one eye and squint, which helps to blur the details, so that you can see shapes and values. I decided to practice on a blue house and a large brick building that I could see in the distance. I tried one eye and then the other, curious if it made a difference between my left and right eyes.

Suddenly I realized the conversation had stopped, our director was asking me if I was OK, and everyone was staring at me. I burst out laughing realizing that I was sitting there making weird squinty faces and they were all thinking I had an excruciating headache or had suddenly gone mad. I started trying to explain what I was doing and they looked at me perplexed. They finally realized it was an “art thing” and went back to chatting about work and TV shows and travel.

When I got home tonight, I looked in the mirror to see just how funny I looked and had to do this quickie self-portrait in my sketchbook. Amazingly it actually looks like me!

Categories
Animals Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Cat Attack, Bomb Threat & Happy Birthday

90th Birthday Party

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Ink and watercolor in small Moleskine watercolor sketchbook

My mom’s visit started with a cat attack and ended with a bomb threat at the airport (which extended her stay an extra day). My sister picked her up at the airport and as they walked in her door, Marcy started to tell my mom not to touch her grouchy, unpredictable cat. She was a moment too late: mom reached out to pet him and Bob the Cat sunk his claws into her hand. Next stop was a visit to the hospital where the nurse there washed her finger and put a band-aid on it and gave my mom a tetanus shot. After that she proudly showed off her band-aid and told the story to anyone who would listen.

Today, my poor sister again did airport duty, since she lives near the airport. When they arrived at the airport it was shut down due to a bomb scare. Marcy brought Mom back home, where she decided to stay another night. Now she’ll have lots of exciting stories to tell when she gets home.

In between, we attended the 90th birthday party(pictured above) of my great aunt in a country club. There were about 75 people people who came to show their love and respect to this feisty, vivacious 90 year old. It was nice seeing my cousins for the first time in years and their grown kids and their 2 year old twin boys and all the lovely old ladies dressed to the teeth for this special day. I drew this surreptitiously at the table while people were making speeches about my aunt. The perspective is a little confusing as the man on the left was at my table and the ladies behind him were at the next table.

Reading this was probably about as interesting as watching someone else’s vacation slides. I’ve got lots of exciting art stuff to share too, but most of my energy the past week has been devoted to family. Now it’s back to regularly scheduled programming: painting!

Categories
Drawing Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

Another Harassment & Discrimination Training

Paul at Meeting

Ink in moleskine sketchbook
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Men at meeting

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It seems like only yesterday that we had the annual sexual harassment and discrimination training for managers but it was actually last October which I was able to check by doing a search on my blog for the drawings from that meeting. At first I was annoyed since I had so many other things to do, but then I realized I could sit there listening and sketch–not a bad deal getting paid to spend the morning sketching.

I think the progression of the drawings above is interesting. The first one I did was the guy on the left in the picture directly above. It was a weak first attempt at the same guy next on the right. As I progressed to the right, each person’s likeness got a little sharper until I think I really nailed the last guy on the right. Then I turned to the next page and did the drawing at the top of this post. I was really pleased with it as I think it came pretty close to capturing the gentleman. The last thing I drew was the cup. There was a bad attempt at another face under it which I turned it into my coffee cup with some extra scribbling.

What was even more interesting was that at this sexual harassment training, all the men sat together on one side of the U-shaped table and the women sat on the other two sides. (There’s more women than men at this educational non-profit since most staff come from the female-dominated teaching field.) Maybe the men were just enjoying the rare opportunity to share a little male bonding at work.

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Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read People Sketchbook Pages

Yay! No School for Scoundrels Here!

School Board Meeting

Micron Pigma Ink in small Moleskine notebook
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I attended my first school board meeting tonight to join with about 70 people from my neighborhood association to speak out against the planned school for expelled students in a former elementary school in my neighborhood. Many residents, including several who are teachers and/or work with disturbed kids spoke passionately and persuasively. One of the five board members who’d attended our previous meeting spoke eloquently about why it was a bad location for these students (including the fact they’d be coming from the opposite end of the district and there’s no public transit within a quarter mile of the school).

When I first sat down a woman in the next seat who was there for another cause and was very experienced with the school board meetings told me it was a done deal–the school would be put there, period, the end. Fortunately she was very surprised and wrong — the board voted against putting it at this site. YAY!

Since my painting group was supposed to meet tonight, I invited them to attend the meeting and bring sketchbooks. Only my dear friend Judith (who I can always count on to be enthusiastic about joining me to do whatever kind of odd things I cook up) said yes. While I did the sketch above, Judith did the drawing below (I love her lines!):

Judith's Drawing at the meeting

Ink and watercolor pencils in large Aquabee sketchbook
Copyright Judith H.
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Except for my butt hurting from sitting in the metal folding chair for nearly two hours, it was a great night. It really felt like a miracle to have swayed the board and kept this scary, poorly planned school away from our humble but proud little neighborhood.

Categories
Drawing Life in general People Sketchbook Pages

No School for Delinquents in our Neighborhood!

Neighborhood-meeting

Ink in Moleskine notebook
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When I finished drawing these people at the neighborhood meeting, I realized I’d compressed the space so that people are crammed together much more than they actually were. I wish I would have thought to capture some of the angry expressions as people spoke instead of everyone just looking sort of bored.

Tonight there was a neighborhood meeting to protest the placement in my neighborhood of a school for “high risk” middle and high school students who’ve been expelled from public school. Many are on probation for committing crimes. They plan to stick the kids in a former elementary school just two blocks from my house that is currently used as an adult school for classes like Yoga, Spanish, Ballroom Dance and English as a Second Language. Nearly 100 neighbors showed up at the meeting and spoke out vociferously against the plan. It looks like it could go either way at this point. Somehow the district slipped this plan through without Board approval or community notification but now it will be on the next board meeting agenda.

I sure hope we’re successful in fighting it since just last month the board approved (against the neighborhood association’s vote) to allow a public alternative high school to move into what has been until now a small private elementary school with a focus on Japanese language (and well-behaved children) that is just two blocks the other direction. Even though that high school’s brochure claims to be all about group hugs, yoga and community service, the idea of 150 teenagers just a block away is not at all appealing.

When I was house hunting I was always a little wary of neighborhoods that the realtor claimed had strong neighborhood groups because I figured there was a reason they needed one. But in the Bay Area, with some of the most expensive housing in the country, I feel fortunate to have been able to buy my own home at all. And this is a wonderful neighborhood with the best neighbors I’ve ever had and now I’m glad for the strong the neighborhood association.

Categories
Life in general Painting Plants Sketchbook Pages Still Life Watercolor

Remains of the Day

feather

Watercolor in Moleskine large watercolor notebook (Larger)

I picked up this feather and some sort of dingleberry/pod that fell from a tree on a walk by Lake Merritt (which has a bird sanctuary). I actually collected several feathers of different sizes, textures and colors that I wanted to draw. But trying to keep the cats away from the feathers got to be too much trouble so I put the others away. After repeatedly removing the cats from the drawing table I gave up and put this one away too, switching to drawing this little pod thingee.

Tonight my painting group got together at my studio after several weeks of not meeting and it was so nice to see everyone again and catch up on each other’s art, work, life, and families while we all painted. We’ve been together for at least 10 years (nobody can remember when we actually started), and though we’re all very different we’ve become a wonderfully close, supportive, loving little family. Together we’ve survived divorces, deaths of loved ones, romances (failed and successful), surgeries, cancer, teenagers, empty nesting (and kids who won’t leave home) and more. And all the while we’ve kept painting, learning, and growing as artists and friends. I’m so lucky to have their support and friendship.

Categories
Art theory Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings

Art Shows on TV & Subway Drawings

BART26

Above, on the train to work in the morning, 5 minute drawing.
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All are ink in Moleskine sketchbook

BART27-El Cerrito Plaza Station

Above, waiting for the train on the platform, 3 minute drawing

Bart25

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Above, people on the train to work, probably 3 minutes each (my trip is only 13 minutes)

I’m sooooo tired tonight. I think I used up all my brain juice at work today which seemed more intense than usual, multi-tasking, solving problems, meeting needs, responding to questions, ticking one thing after another off the bottom of my to-do list as more things piled on top of it. At the end of the day I had 48 work email messages I still hadn’t dealt with yet, some left over from Monday. I get about a hundred a day, most needing me to do something. Thank goodness tomorrow is Thursday and Friday starts my weekend. How did I ever manage a 5-day work week? It’s only 8:15 and it feels like 10 p.m. so I’m going to go watch some mindless TV and then go to bed.

Art History Shows
I’ve TiVo’d and have been gradually watching the Simon Schama series, The Power of Art, on PBS. It’s really weird. Each week a different seedy-looking British actor portrays another famous artist (most of whom weren’t British) while Schama narrates bits of history, trying to make everything sound as lurid as possible. The actors dramatize the artists’ darkest, most desparate moments of depravity, criminality, mental illness, illicit affairs, and bizarre behavior, focusing not on their most famous work, but the work they were most infamous for. It’s kind of like the Jerry Springer/National Enquirer/tabloid TV show version of the world of art. Some of the scenes are really disturbing such as Van Gogh squeezing tube after tube of brilliant oil paint into his mouth and swallowing it. Yechh!

I’ve also TiVo’d a CPB show, “Art of the Western World” with another British guy narrating the history of art, period by period, with just the opposite approach–a bit on the “good for you” but boring side. It was originally made as a college course, I think. I love my TiVo, by the way. It’s easy to use and I can set it to record every episode of a show with one click of the remote, and search for shows about art and painting and click to record them (which is how I found these programs). One more excellent program is American Masters on PBS. Recent episodes have featured David Hockney: “The Color of Music” and John James Audubon: “Drawn from Nature.”

Painting How-To Shows
Another show I’ve been enjoying is Your Brush with Nature. Each week the host, Heiner Hertling, paints a plein air oil painting on site in different locations. It’s not corny like some painting shows and he’s a good teacher, thinking out loud as he tackles the challenges of painting outdoors. There are two watercolor painting shows I record: Terry Madden’s Watercolor Workshop and Gary Spetz’s Painting Wild Places. I’ve gotten a little tired of Spetz because he does SO MUCH detailed masking with masking fluid, but both Madden and Spetz make attractive paintings and demonstrate techniques worth knowing about. For acrylics, Jerry Yarnell demonstrates how to paint what look like traditional oil paintings but using acrylics. I was having a really hard time figuring out acrylics and watching his show really helped to understand. I tried watching the ubiquitous Bob Ross oil painting shows on PBS but just couldn’t stomach them because they were way too gimicky and not at all about painting what you see (“here’s how to paint happy little trees”). I do love his voice though.

I’ve recently discovered an art video rental company like Netflix only for art videos called Smartflix. I haven’t rented from them yet (it’s a little expensive–$10 a video rental) but it seems like it might be worth it–cheaper than taking classes (though without the teacher feedback on your own work) –to see masters at work whose books I’ve read but seeing them work adds another whole dimension.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Outdoors/Landscape

Sausalito Sailboat Birthday Party for Robin

Sausalito Palm Tree

Ink in Moleskine sketchbook
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The short version:
It was very crowded on the sailboat and there were many interesting people to talk to, so I even though I brought art supplies, didn’t get to draw anything until we left. My sister parked at a nearby upscale grocery store to grab a cup of coffee for the ride home. I pulled out my sketchbook and did this quick sketch while Sophie and I chatted and waited. I’d realized I’d never really “seen” a palm tree until I drew this one.

Continue reading “Sausalito Sailboat Birthday Party for Robin”
Categories
Landscape Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Painting Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Towata Park, Alameda

Towata Park, Alameda

Ink and watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor sketchbook
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Thursday night was a 2-hour plein air paint-out on Alameda Island that was part of the Frank Bette Art Center’s annual invitational weeklong event that culminates in a show and a fund-raising auction in the park Saturday. Susie and I went there straight from work and had a very enjoyable time looking at all the accomplished plein air painters at work spread out over about a half-mile square area. It was warm, very windy and the sun was setting on the water, creating glare amidst views of a marsh, the bay, a small boat harbor, San Francisco across the bay, and a huge old concrete bridge with rush hour traffic flying across it a very short distance away. Despite all these challenges, the artists were doing some amazing work. After we’d admired all the interesting styles and techniques we found a spot where we could sit and draw too.

We’d both been attracted to the funny little boat to the left of the picture so we both drew and painted the same scene (but quite differently) in about 20 minutes. Then we took another walk around to see the finished pieces and left as the artists were setting up their paintings in a circle so that they could vote on the winning painting. While we were there, I got to see Ed Terpening, a fellow blogger, in action (the painting he was working on last night can be seen by clicking his name), and met Tom Zephyrs, a fantastic artist who is the brother-in-law of a childhood friend. Susie and my favorite was a large pastel in brilliant colors of the imposing bridge by artist and blogger Ann McMillan. She won first prize at last year’s event and that pastel is featured on the Frank Bette’s website page about the event.

Two nights in a row of painting inspiration and two nights in a row of dreaming about painting…until the earthquake hit at 4:42 this morning, putting an end to lovely dreams for the night. Fortunately it didn’t create any problems and was short enough that I didn’t even have time to do my usual earthquake reaction: panic and try to remember what it is I’m supposed to do during an earthquake. It felt like someone had taken my one-story, rectangular house that is much longer one way than the other, and picked it up at one end and snapped it, like you do with a sheet when you’re opening it and laying it on the bed.