Category: Life in general

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Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

4th of July: Thoughts on freedom and time

4th of July

Bottlebrush tree and flag. Ink and watercolor in large watercolor Moleskine.

This is the view out my dining room window this morning. It’s the 4th of July, a day to celebrate freedom, but it’s also the last day of my annual birthday vacation so it feels more like the end of freedom to me. Of course that’s so relative–I’m incredibly fortunate to have as much freedom as I do, and I know that. It’s just that it always seems to take until the end of vacation to unwind and figure out how to enjoy it.

I had a lot of questions about art and life that I was pondering as I began this vacation and I’m glad I’ve found some answers. The biggest questions I’m still working on are about time. I’m increasingly aware of how precious each day is. There are so many things I want to paint, do, explore, and learn. I’m trying to make choices that allow me to feel satisfied with the way I’ve spent each day, whether it’s in the studio, out in nature, with friends and family, at the computer, or at work.

One of the answers I’ve come to is that I want to reduce my day job from 4 days to 3 1/2 (and see if I can afford it) in order to have more time for painting. Another thing I’ve decided to do is to make an art plan, setting some goals for the things I want to explore in the next 12 months with my art, and how I’ll go about it. Since I tend to avoid art business and marketing in favor of making art which is a lot more fun, I’m also going to include time in the plan for framing, marketing and other art business in order to show and sell more. Now if only my vacation was just starting instead of ending…

I’d love to hear how you manage your life and time in order to make time for the things that give you pleasure and satisfaction.

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Drawing Every Day Matters Life in general Sketchbook Pages

Beach at Tennessee Valley, Marin County – EDM #74

Beach at Tennessee Valley cp water

Ink & watercolor pencil in large Moleskine watercolor book (above)

Beach at Tennessee Valley cp

Watercolor pencil before adding water in large watercolor Moleskine (above)

Beach at Tennessee Valley pen and ink
First drawing: Ink in large watercolor Moleskine (above)

Today Michael and I went for a hike and picnic at the beach. As usual for the Bay Area in July, it was cold, windy and foggy. I wore two shirts, blue jeans, a bandana tied around my neck, a down vest, earmuffs and Goretex parka. I needed every single item for the beautiful one mile hike to the beach. We found a nice sheltered spot along the cliffs next to a tiny cave and were about to set up our picnic when I got a whiff of something that smelled more like a bathroom than a beach. It wasn’t going away so we did–we found another spot further down the little beach that smelled the way it was supposed to–like fresh sea air and seaweed.

While we were eating lunch we watched a young mother pushing a massive all-terrain stroller through the sand while carrying a baby in a front back with a toddler running along beside her. She set up camp, unpacking a folding lounge chair and deli sandwich for herself, and food for the little ones. After a few minutes her toddler, all dressed in pink, apparently needed to use the non-existent little girls’ room so the mom pulled out a white plastic, inflatable toilet seat which she carried over to the area we had so recently vacated. She laid it on the sand and held up a beach towel for privacy. When they were done, she folded up the seat and put it back in her bag and they returned to their lunch. We felt like we were watching a weird movie. Maybe all the regulars at the beach know that spot is the unofficial potty?

Once lunch was done, I got out my pens and watercolor pencils and enjoyed drawing the rock formations and sea in ink and watercolor pencils. I’d forgotten a brush so I added the water after I got home, but first scanned it to be able to show all three versions. These are Caran d’Ache Supracolor Soft pencils. I’d tried Faber-Castell first but they were too hard and unpleasant to draw with. These apply nicely, but I’m not happy with the colors they come in. I’d rather have colors more like my usual paint palette. Watercolor pencils are easy to carry and fun to use, and remind me of magic coloring books when I was a kid that had the color impregnated in the paper and you just painted with water. But they won’t replace my paints!

By the time we started the hike back to the parking lot, the fog was gone, the sun was shining, and I was down to an undershirt and jeans with all the other gear crammed into my backpack.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

A nice pipe by Target

Target pipe

When I was taking a walk the other day I spotted these very nicely painted and landscaped pipes at the entrance to the driveway to the new two-story Target store in Albany. I sat on a fire hydrant alongside the road and drew them in my watercolor Moleskine notebook. I finally added watercolor tonight to the original drawing but wasn’t happy with it so did this second version in my notebook. I might do a half-sheet painting of it too…there’s something about the image that I really like. It’s all so nicely organized.

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Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

CalTrans trucks by racetrack hay stacks

CalTrans trucks

I visited the Golden Gate Fields Racetrack again this morning. After freezing in the foggy wind for a couple of hours doing gesture sketches of quickly moving horses, sketching horses by peeking through a 1/4″ hole in the barn fence anda blah little painting of the bay (none worth posting), I warmed up in my car and drew this little parade of parked CalTrans trucks in front of the racetrack’s piles of hay bales. As soon as I finished the sketch the trucks all drove away. I plan to return to GG Fields and do some more drawing soon. Ink & watercolor in 6×9 sketchbook.

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Drawing Every Day Matters Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Mailboxes: Everyday Matters Challenge #73

Everyday Matters’ challenge for this week is to draw or paint your mailbox. Below is a sketch of my front porch and mailbox (though I think I temporarily forgot everything I knew about drawing when I made it), plus photos of my actual painted mailboxes and a story about mailboxes and Art as Revenge:

Mailbox drawing

Below is my current mailbox (my crazy cats and I with address slightly blurred to protect the innocent):

Mailbox-real
Below is my old mailbox: (Notice the required opening of the jaws to insert mail.)
Molly-mailbox

Molly-mailbox Open

Back in the freedom-loving Berkeley days of the 1970s, leash laws weren’t enforced and dogs could go anywhere with their owners. You never heard about people being attacked and bitten by pet dogs. Our friendly old dog Molly loved to bask in the sun in our front yard and would lazily greet people who parked on our street while shopping for produce at nearby Monterey Market.

We had been waiting for an important piece of mail–a much needed escrow check. After a week of not receiving ANY mail or notice as to why there was no mail, I spotted our mailman (who looked very much like R. Crumb’s Mr. Natural) at the end of the block. I caught up to him and asked why we had no mail.

He told me he wasn’t delivering it anymore if our dog was outside. He wasn’t impressed by my saying she was gentle and harmless. I demanded he give me our mail; he refused. I begged him to give it to me and said he could just put it on the ground and I’d pick it up; he refused. So I climbed onto the hood of his jeep holding my toddler, Cody in my arms, and insisted I wouldn’t get off until he gave me our mail. He threatened to call his supervisor (but couldn’t get to a pay phone unless I got off his jeep in this pre-cell phone era). We both threatened to call the police (he was stealing our mail, I said). We went back and forth like this for quite awhile, and we both refused to give in.

Finally, Cody announced he was hungry (and I’m sure confused by his mother’s very odd behavior) and then the postman announced that actually, he had no mail in his pouch for me. At this I realized I’d lost, got off his jeep, and from then on had to make sure Molly was indoors if I wanted to get mail.

But ART IS POWERFUL and I got my revenge. I kept Molly inside but painted my mailbox to look like her so he had to put his hand inside the dog’s mouth each time he delivered the mail!

Of course, I later came to understand how dangerous a mail carrier’s job can be and know how often they actually do get bitten…so Mr. Natural…er, Mr. Postman… if you’re reading this, I apologize.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Gilman Grill Berkeley Breakfast

Gilman Grill Berkeley
Too bad about the little problem with gravity and the table but fortunately no coffee was spilled. (Might as well blame gravity instead of my drawing).

This morning I took my neglected car in for the “Wacky Wednesday” oil change and car wash special. Then I took a hike to breakfast through the industrial area where the car place is located, pretending I was in an unknown town. On the way to Gilman Grill (a mostly working man’s diner with a few artsy types thrown in–it is Berkeley after all) I saw lots of guys working, either inside dark cavernous buildings with noisy machines, or outdoors moving things on forklifts, or standing around with clipboards watching other guys on forklifts.

I enjoyed eating and painting while listening to the nearby table of off-duty cops or ambulance drivers (couldn’t be sure which) talking, laughing and drinking rounds of beers (yes at 9:30 a.m.) with their eggs as they unwound from the night shift.

After breakfast I walked down Gilman Street two blocks to the S.F. Bay. A cold wind was blowing in from the Golden Gate, carying the scent of sea, salt and manure (?!). The manure smell was from the Golden Gate Fields Racetrack barn located right there where Gilman meets the Bay. They wouldn’t let me come in and draw the horses. The guard said they have to be careful to not let reporters in because the next thing you know there’s a big news item about horses being mistreated. Seemed like a weird thing to tell me but he did give me the manager’s phone number to request permission. Maybe tomorrow…

Watercolor & Ultrafine Sharpie in Moleskine watercolor notebook.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Who Am I Supposed to Be?

Guard
When I was leaving Blake Gardens yesterday I spotted this life-sized statue guarding a gated entry to an enormous but otherwise uninteresting home just past the Carmelite Monastery down the road from Blake Gardens. Today I went up there to draw him in my sketchbook. It was cold, foggy and windy so after about an hour of drawing I took a photo and finished it from the photo at home. As usual I think I should have stopped sooner before it got overworked–I’ll learn someday.

I can’t figure out who he is supposed to be or why someone would want two of them (he had a twin on the other side of the rock wall. His outfit has lots of ribbons and bows–very fancy and rather feminine–maybe that’s why he needs this fierce warrior-like glare and helmet and sword. Actually, he was missing his sword and just had his hands in sword-holding position. I gave him his twin’s sword since he looked so silly without it–sort of like he was playing rock, scissors, paper. I also thought it was funny the way the ivy was growing between his legs.

If you know who he’s supposed to be, or have seen these statues and this property and know what it is, please tell me!

Categories
Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Birthday Flowers from Michael

Birthday flowers

This morning Michael stopped by on his way to Trader Joes to drop off this pretty bouquet of flowers he'd given me last night and I'd forgotten to bring home. I was still in my new purple pajamas. He said I need a doorbell (I don't have one and I didn't hear him knocking) but I kind of like not having one. Besides, he doesn't even have a front door, let alone a doorbell (it's a long story).

He was going to take me out to dinner for my birthday (which was a week ago) but I decided my favorite restaurant was his house–better than Chez Panisse Cafe where we'd planned to go. I ordered his chef's special: grilled fresh wild salmon from Monterey Fish Market, creamy mashed potatoes, baked mushrooms stuffed with garlic and salsa, steamed broccoli and carrots and Acme bread. He used to make that for me every Friday night before things got different. He even sang Happy Birthday and brought out a piece of cake with a lit candle for me to make a wish. Then we settled in to watch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang which I thought was hilarious but he thought was irritating. I still have a couple more birthday celebrations to collect from my sister and sons. I like stretching my birthday out as long as possible.

Ink & watercolor in my sketchbook.

Categories
Drawing Every Day Matters Gardening Life in general Plein Air Watercolor

Plein Air Painting at Blake Gardens (EDM: Someplace New)

Blake Garden

Plein air painting done at Blake Gardens, the 11 acre botanical gardens and University of California President’s Residence in Kensington, CA. (Open to the public weekdays.)

The Everyday Matters challenge for this week was to go someplace new and paint it. I’d never been to Blake Gardens before and I’d never done a complete watercolor plein air painting before except little sketchbook pictures, so I went to Blake Gardens and did this painting on a 9×12 Arches watercolor block.This scan actually looks better than the original, which was a little washed out.

I’m very fond of working in my studio from my photographs, with excellent lighting, comfortable temperature, a stereo playing my favorite music or audio books, and a comfy window seat when I need to sit back with a cool drink from the nearby fridge and rest.

Plein air (outdoor) painting is different! It was very HOT out so I picked a spot in the shade, but as the sun moved it was soon shining directly in my face. My white paper was blinding me. I’d look up at the scene and could barely see it–all I could see was white. My paint kept drying too quickly and I’d brought a too-small brush which was making icky streaks. I had to give up on wet-in-wet painting entirely and had trouble mixing colors because they looked much brighter than they really were. I spent the first hour just doing thumbnails, trying to figure out which part of the scene to put in the picture. It’s much easier to compose a painting from a photo than looking at the wide world in person!

I’m glad I pushed myself to try something new and will go back again soon, with bigger brushes, an umbrella and better snacks.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Summer Solstice at Albany Bulb

Eucalyputs

Instead of my painting group meeting in my studio as usual tonight, we met at a little nearby beach on San Francisco Bay to paint until sunset. I did these quick watercolor sketches of the giant eucalyptus tree we sat under and  the beach with San Francisco in the distance (it's further away than I drew it) on the other side of the bay. This area is known as Albany Bulb because it's a little piece of Albany in the shape of a bulb that juts out into the bay. Albany is next door to Berkeley.

Solstice beach

People brought drums down to the beach to celebrate the Solstice and it was fun painting to the sound of drums and cymbals. Tonight is the longest day of the year which surprises me, since it seems like it just barely became summer here. I'm only four days into my two-week vacation and already I'm worried that it won't be nearly long enough.