Category: Life in general

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Life in general Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Eight Dollar Eggs!

Eight Dollar Eggs, oil on panel, 6x6"
Eight Dollar Eggs, oil on panel, 6x6"

I’ve been trying to eat a healthier diet and choosing produce and meat that has been sustainably grown. Unfortunately, while the farming may be sustainable, often the prices aren’t.

I bought one dozen eggs from a Marin County farm at the local farmers’ market. The vendor explained how the chickens were totally free-range and so got to eat greens and bugs along with their organic vegetarian feed.

“In fact,” he bragged as he took my money, “the chickens follow the cows around and eat the maggots from their dung!” Yum! Protein!

Despite their fine, buggy diet, these eggs seemed neither fresher nor tastier than the free-range organic eggs I get at Trader Joes for less than half the $8.00 I paid for this dozen.

To try to get a little more value out of my investment, I made one of the pretty light blue eggs pose for a still life. I like the way that the lighting coming from below gives the painting a slightly spooky look.

Painting available here.

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Plants Sketchbook Pages

Baby Fig Tree Grows Three Leaves

Baby Fig Tree Grows Three Leaves, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Baby Fig Tree Grows Three Leaves, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

You might remember seeing my previous sketch of my baby fig tree here when it was just a little stick. Now it has three leaves. Yay! It was fun to sit on the sidewalk in front of my house and sketch (except for the occasional ant that tried to annoy me). That reminded me of being a little kid sitting on the sidewalk playing jacks for hours. I used to be pretty good at it. I wonder if anyone still plays jacks and if they’re still made out of metal.

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

A Tree Saved and How to Decide (Hell Yeah! or Why Not?)

Berkeley Rose Garden Tree, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Berkeley Rose Garden Tree, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

Trying to sketch while recovering from a migraine and dopey from medication doesn’t always work out well. While everyone else in my plein air group painted the Berkeley Rose Garden on a sunny Saturday morning, I sat on a nearby bench and focused on drawing one tree.

I liked how it looked until I added watercolor, which I thought ruined the effect. So I stupidly added more watercolor. And more. And a bunch of lines. And then I went home and took a nap. Today I washed off as much of the paint as I could, trying to get back to the original line drawing. Then I added some muted blue and grey washes and now I like it again. Tree saved! It was actually a sunny day, just not in my head.

And now for some interesting tidbits on making choices:

Hell Yeah!
On Derek Silver’s blog he explains that as a perpetually over-committed person, if he’s not enthusiastically saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, then he’s saying “NO.”

When deciding whether to commit to something, if I feel anything less than, “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” – then my answer is no.

Why the Hell Not?
Sid Salvera counters “Hell Yeah!” with the flip side on his post: Why the Hell Not? He asks:

Does this philosophy lead us to pass up opportunities we really should be saying “yes” to?

The most important thing I’ve learned about making choices is that if the word “SHOULD” appears in my decision-making thoughts (I should do that…) I need to swap it with “want to” or “don’t want to.”

Do you find it easy to make decisions? Do you get stuck in the “shoulds,” or say yes to things you don’t really want to do?

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Life in general Other Art Blogs I Read Painting

What She Said

Aletha Kuschan said something wonderful in her post, “There Are Bright Colors in the World”  (and in her painting below). She starts the post by saying:

“I like color. Color is what made me want to be an artist. Just looking at the color….”


Watercolor Painting by Aletha Kuschan
Watercolor Painting by Aletha Kuschan

And she says:

“I paint to look at things.  And if my paintings say things, it is “look at this!” and “look at that!”  The world is so amazing to look at.  We ought to be looking at it all the time.

I read that and said “Yes!” Her artwork always inspires me with it’s freedom of expression and brilliant colors and her writing does the same. Do take a look and a read!

Painting by Aletha Kuschan
Painting by Aletha Kuschan
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Benicia Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Losers, Finders, Keepers: Sketching Benicia

Benicia Waterfront Street Light, ink and watercolor,7x5"
Benicia Waterfront Street Light, ink and watercolor,7x5"

I accidentally overslept so when I finally arrived at our Benicia paintout at 11:00 I was an hour late. I didn’t see any other artists around. The wind was blowing so hard that I sat in my car to sketch, listening to NPR on the radio. Everything was going great, I was drawing with my favorite Lamy Safari Extra Fine Fountain pen and then painted with my watercolors set up on the passenger seat.

Benicia Waterfront, Ink and Watercolor, 5x7"
Benicia Waterfront, Ink and Watercolor, 5x7"

I turned to draw a different view, but when I reached for my pen it was gone. I searched everywhere, inside the car, under the car, nearby on the ground. No pen. I retraced my path when I’d gotten out of the car to look around and take photos. Nothing. I asked people walking by but nobody had seen my pen. I returned to the car and searched every nook and cranny again, twice.

An hour later I gave up and used a Pitt Artist Pen to do the drawing and added watercolor. I was so sad. I’d really come to love that pen. When I finished the sketch I used my iPhone to look up and call all the stationary and art stores in the Bay Area, but nobody had a Lamy with an Extra Fine nib.

Just then fellow painters Carol and Ling drove up and I told them what happened. They insisted on helping me find the pen despite my whining, “It’s hopeless, it’s just gone.” Carol checked under the seats and in the driver’s side door pocket. She told me to check the passenger’s door pocket. It was the one place I hadn’t looked (why I hadn’t looked there I can’t explain) and there it was! Yay! Joy!

I went from a sad loser to a happy finder and now every time I use my pen I get that happy feeling again. Definitely a keeper.

Categories
Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketchbook Ate My Sandwich

Two Good Pots, ink & watercolor
Two Good Pots, ink & watercolor

My favorite two sketches the night we met to sketch at Fat Apples Restaurant in El Cerrito were the two “pots” on the left hand page above. The guy was the first thing I drew, the coffee pot the last. I wasn’t in great shape, having had little sleep the night before.  I just couldn’t get into the drawing zone, turn off the inner critic or relax into seeing, drawing, and enjoying the adventure.

Underneath the watercolor apple above are lots of messed up lines and the word “Grrrr” written all over the things that frustrated me. The waitress on the right kept returning to her spot and standing in exactly the same position each time and the counter beside her was even more stationary but I just couldn’t draw it.

Fat Apples BLT, ink & watercolor
Fat Apples BLT, ink & watercolor

When I added m ore watercolor at home to the BLT (left page above) I must have closed the book too soon because the pages glued themselves together. When I tried to separate the pages, part of my sandwich stuck to the other side. Not only did that ruin the sandwich but also a small ink drawing I’d liked on the other page.

I’d repainted the sandwich because when we showed our sketches at the end of the evening and I said it was my dinner, one of the sketchers innocently asked “what was it?” And she was right — it was so loosely drawn and painted that it wasn’t recognizable as a sandwich.

Categories
Albany Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketching at Target (?!)

Ladies Shoes, Target, Ink & watercolor
Ladies Shoes, Target, Ink & watercolor

Yes Target! Although we’ll be so happy when we can go outside for our Tuesday evening Urban sketching again, sketching at Target was a lot more fun than you might think. I had fun sketching the silly high heels and flip-flops on the wall behind them. Nobody seemed to notice or question why I was painting in the shoe department.

Left over Valentine Flowers, ink & watercolor
Left over Valentine Flowers, ink & watercolor

It was the night after Valentine’s day and there was the display of sad, wilting Valentines roses, on clearance, half off.

Remote Controlled Baby Swing, ink & watercolor
Remote Controlled Baby Swing, ink & watercolor

Whatever happened to sitting in a rocking chair holding the baby in your arms? This contraption had a touch pad remote control with 6 speeds and more. Someone told me he bought one of these only to discover it came in a million parts that was a nightmare to assemble.

 

Categories
Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Life in general Painting Sketchbook Pages

When Being Behind Is a Good Thing

Slowing Down With a Latte and Mini-Scone at Peets
Slowing Down With a Latte and Mini-Scone at Peets

Falling behind and worrying about catching up can be stressful when it’s about work not accomplished, tasks not completed. But in the case of my blog, being behind on posting is a good thing. It just means I’ve been doing lots of painting and sketching with less time for the computer (a goal for this year).

I did the sketch above on the day I was preparing to leave for a weekend painting workshop. I reminded myself that I was officially on vacation, which allowed me to slow down enough to stop and sketch while out walking to do errands instead of rushing back home to get packed.

This sketch came in handy last week at work, when I wrote and illustrated a blog post for our literacy organization’s blog. My post’s subtitle was: “Two birds with one stone” (intentionally leaving off  “kill”). Our clever editor suggested changing it to “Feed two birds with one scone.”  So then I needed a sketch of a scone to accompany my two birds. Since I always have my sketchbook with me I was able to scan the scone sketch. You can see the result on our Reading Apprenticeship blog here.

And I will get that backlog of artwork posted soon!

Categories
Drawing Faces Life in general People Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings Urban Sketchers

Mohawk Fashion Victim: Subway Drawings

Mohawk Fashion Victim, Ink & sticker, 8x5"
Mohawk Fashion Victim, Ink & sticker, 8x5"

You can imagine my glee when this gentleman in full Mohawk sat down across from me on BART. Entranced by his cell phone, he never noticed me sketching and held perfectly still. It must have taken him a long time to get his hair to stand up so perfectly–and why? Especially first thing in the morning? I awarded him a sticker (on his page) from National Geographic.

UPDATE: Larry Hatfield sent me this link to a great Mohawk at a crazy website: People of Walmart where photos of actual shoppers and products at Walmart make you laugh, cringe and/or swear never to go to a Walmart.

Sedate Subway Reader
Sedate Subway Reader

And above, bonus BART rider sketches, people reading actual books, not a cellphone/Kindle, etc.  And below some subway feet sketches.

BART rider feet
BART rider feet

I was amused by the variety of guys shoes, from super point to square toes to waffle soles.

Categories
Building Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Sketchbook Pages Sketchcrawl Stanford Urban Sketchers

International Sketchcrawl #30 at Stanford University

Rodin Sculpture Garden Trees, Stanford, ink & watercolor
Rodin Sculpture Garden Trees, Stanford, ink & watercolor

It was fun to meet the South Bay members of our Urban Sketchers SF Bay Area group Suhita and John, and to meet some of the members of Sketchcrawl Silicon Valley at the Stanford sketchcrawl on Saturday. Cathy and I made the hour plus drive down there and met at noon. We started with lunch at the outdoor cafe with a view of the Rodin Sculpture Garden (sketched above at the end of the day after everyone left and it is my favorite because I love those funny, imperfectly groomed trees).

Sculpture of "Faith" in front of Cantor Center
Sculpture of "Faith" in front of Cantor Center

My first sketch was the one above, of a statue called “Faith” in front of the Cantor Center for Visual Arts. Starting with “Faith” seemed good, since it helps to have a little faith that the sketching will go well.  By 1:00 there were about 10 of us and everyone went off to follow their muses with a plan to regroup around 3:00. I followed Cathy who knew her way around, since my muse, like me, has no sense of direction.

Stanford Memorial Arch, ink & watercolor
Stanford Memorial Arch, ink & watercolor

The sign on the building said “Memorial Arch and Court Erected by His Mother, 1898 in Memory of Leland Stanford Jr. Born to mortality May 14, 1868…” I ran out of room to record his year of death but he only lived until age 16 so his mother donated the land Stanford was built on to create a memorial for her son.

Chapel and courtyard
Chapel and courtyard

From a distance the front of the chapel appears to be glowing gold but when you get closer you can see it’s covered with a stunning mural made entirely in mosaic. Coming from an urban environment where things are crowded, noisy and grungy, Stanford was amazing. The Stanford campus is tremendously spread out (over 8,000 acres), with most buildings only one or two stories, but massive nonetheless. Everything is immaculately clean, with amazing gardens, gazillions of trees (well, officially 43,000), and quiet. At $51,000 a year for tuition, room and board I suppose one should expect a lovely environment!