Category: Painting

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Drawing Life in general Sketchbook Pages Subway drawings Watercolor

Palm by Lake Merritt

Palm

I took a walk along Lake Merritt to the Oakland Public Library at lunch today to return some books and walked under this huge palm tree on the way. I snapped a quick picture and after dinner tonight, when I felt like plopping in front of the TV, I printed out the photo and did the drawing with a Pigma Brush Pen and then painted with watercolor. I had fun doing it while listening to a digital book from Audible.com. I’m glad I made the commitment to posting a drawing a day because this was a lot more fun than TV!

bart1
I also did these little sketches in less than 10 minutes on this morning’s commute to work. The guy sitting next to me on BART (SF version of subway) was watching me draw and halfway through said, “These are amazing!” as he saw the guy standing near the door take shape on my page. Usually nobody says anything when they see me drawing and I try to ignore them so I don’t get self-conscious. Since he spoke up, I asked if he drew or painted and he said no, but he does stained glass as a hobby. He said he was in the military and traveled a lot and liked that he could easily bring his stained glass work with him, which suprised me, as I’d think it’s fragile and heavy and would be hard to drag around. But then I was at my stop so I didn’t find out anything more.

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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 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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Illustration Friday Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Illustration Friday: Sticky

Sticky

This week’s Illustration Friday challenge is “Sticky” and I thought of lots of things less icky than this, but I couldn’t resist. Sorry. Ink and watercolor in 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.

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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.

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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!

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Drawing Every Day Matters Plein Air Sketchbook Pages Watercolor

Reflecting Pool at Blake Gardens

blakegarden-2-web.jpg
Watercolor on Arches 9×12.

I returned to Blake Gardens today, much better equipped for painting outdoors and did this 2-hour sketch of the pond from a different angle. I brought my new lightweight Winsor Newton watercolor easel and put all of my supplies into my granny cart (one of those tall wheeled mesh carts that you usually see old ladies pulling to the grocery store. I’d bought it a year ago to use like a janitor’s rolling cart and pulled it around the house with my cleaning supplies hanging from it and a trash bag in the middle–now it can do double duty since I paint way more than I clean!). Setting up, I clamped a sheet of foamcore on top of the cart which turned it into a handy table beside the easel.

When I arrived I had a delicious picnic on the grass under the tall trees. My back got tired halfway through painting so I laid in the grass for a while and watched the sky like I used to love to do when I was a little girl.

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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.