I see something that inspires me to draw every time I take a walk. On this sunny winter walk, neighbors were out tending to their gardens, and flowers were blooming in unexpected places, like surrounding the fireplug above on a busy street corner.
Cactus Trimming Day, Ink & watercolor
There’s a house a few blocks from mine where the front lawn was replaced long ago by a hundred different kinds of cacti and succulents. I wondered how they managed to keep the various spikey things trimmed and on this day I found out: carefully, with very thick gloves and shovels.
They’d trimmed their enormous Nopales (or Prickly Pear) cactus and piled up the “paddles” in this old wheelbarrow. As the husband and wife worked they acted like it was completely normal for me to be standing in front of their house for 15 minutes sketching their wheelbarrow. I’m not sure what they ended up doing with the pieces of cactus. As I finished sketching, the husband piled a few paddles on his shovel and walked off down the street with them.
Ready to party
Later I passed this cheery scene in someone’s driveway. I didn’t see anyone around, but the brightly colored chairs and containers of (?) on a tray looked awfully inviting.
My next door neighbors were pruning their roses for winter so I asked them to save some for me to draw (they were going to throw the still perky roses in the recycling bin). I started by trying to paint them in oils but was having a terrible time mixing the right colors. I scraped off the paint and went to bed, planning to try again the next day.
When the cats knocked the vase over during the night I was actually relieved, thinking the roses would be too funky to paint since all the water was on the floor, not in the vase. But these were some tenacious roses, and were still fine so I decided to try sketching them in watercolor (above and below). I also consulted one of my books on flower painting that said roses were shaped like teacups, so I added a few of those tilted at the same angles to the sketch to help me understand their shape better better.
Blood Red Roses, Ink, Watercolor & Blood
I’d just finished the sketch (above) and was writing about how hard it is to mix the highlight color of “blood red” roses in oil paint. At that very moment, my nose started bleeding for no reason at all and it dripped onto my sketchbook! Now I feel like a real Avant-garde artiste, painting in blood!
P.S. A little pinching of the nose and it stopped.
Red Roses, Oil, 6x6"
Mixing a light red color in oil paints
It’s hard to mix a warm, light red in oil paint because when you add white to red oil paint, it makes a cool pink. This is because all white oil paint is cool (meaning it tends more towards a blue than a warm color like orange or red). But the color of these roses in bright, warm light was a hot pink. It’s easier to get a warm, light red in watercolor because you use the “white” of the watercolor paper to show through and “lighten” the red, not white paint.
To get help with the dilemma I sent an email to Diane Mize at Empty Easel since she and I had recently corresponded about color charts and she’d written an excellent article on Empty Easel about how to mix correct color in oils. She validated that mixing a light red is challenging and offered some good suggestions, including using Naphthol Red, which is a more intense red than the cadmiums (which quickly lose strength in white).
I tried making the lighter areas of the rose thicker, using a palette knife, since those raised areas will catch the light and reflect it making it appear lighter. I also intended to make the dark areas on the roses more neutral and cooler, so that by comparison the warm light area would look even more brilliant. But the roses finally died and that put an end to the painting. My favorite part of this painting are the leaves at the bottom left.
To finish the year off well, I spent an absolutely blissful day yesterday at Osmosis Day Spa Sanctuary. I arrived in Freestone (near Sebastopol) half an hour early so I could take a walk and sketched the old farm which is two doors down from the spa. When I returned to the spa and changed into a cozy Japanese style robe, I was taken to an ante-room with a view of the meditation garden where I was served special tea and had 15 quiet minutes alone to sip and sketch.
Tea Service at Osmosis, Ink & watercolor
Then it was time for my “enzyme bath,” the most profoundly relaxing experience I’ve had in my life. The bath attendant scooped out and molded the finely ground, fragrant cedar in a deep redwood tub into a perfect hollow to fit my body in a reclined position. The cedar is mixed with rice bran and “over 600 active enzymes that create natural soothing warmth through fermentation.” Once I was perfectly positioned in the tub, she covered me in the heavy, steamy stuff up to my neck. Every 5 minutes she returned with water to sip through a straw and draped a cool refreshing cloth over my forehead while I lay there going deeper and deeper into relaxation.
Next it was time to brush off, shower, and head upstairs for my massage. It was the best massage I’ve ever had; more of a spiritual experience and a healing than bodywork. My massage therapist, Weegi, saw the blissed-out look in my eyes when it was over and recommended that I go sit and watch the creek and walk in the meditation garden before getting into my car.
She was right. I sat by the creek and watched the water flow and hawks soaring above and then walked slowly through the Japanese zen garden and around the Koi pond a while longer. It was nearly an hour before I was ready to return to the “real” world and head home.
Osmosis Koi Pond
I don’t think driving while blissed out is exactly illegal but it definitely wouldn’t have been a good idea. I didn’t even want the radio on in the car; I just wanted to stay in that incredible place of total relaxation. I think the car and I floated all the way home a foot above the road.
To my wonderful co-workers: A huge thank-you for the gift of this spa day back on my birthday in June. It took me some time to get around to using it, but I picked the perfect cool, foggy day in December to use it to finish off my year feeling great and grateful.
Photos of Osmosis used with permission from their website.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
10,000 Days Art Project
As the year was coming to an end I was feeling sad. Since I’m usually a “glass half full” kind of person I did some writing to dig deeper. I realized that each year that ends brings me closer to my own end. Then my practical side kicked in and I calculated how many years I probably have left. I multiplied the number of years by 365 days which came out to 10,000 days.
Wow! 10,000 days feels like it might just be enough to do all the painting, drawing and other art projects in me to do. Now I don’t feel so bad about the end of one paltry little chunk of a year and can even look forward to resting when those 10,000 days are done. But I’m having way too much fun to stop any time soon!
Found on a walk #1, Ink & watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor book
One of the advantages of a semi-urban neighborhood is the wealth of detritus that can be found on a walk to bring home and draw. Near the end of my daily walk is the “cat house”: a mossy, old cottage on the edge of small “urban park” (empty lot with grass). The homeowner is a kind soul who feeds the cats who live in the “park”. She also puts out bags of unwanted “free” stuff.
My first find of the day was one of those “free” bags—full of books in great condition. I selected the above, a 1963 edition of “You Can Draw” with dust jacket intact, Joan Didion’s “Year of Magical Thinking” which I’ve been wanting to read, and a funky old edition of “Everything that Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor. I appreciated the title’s nod to perspective drawing and a quick browse of the book intrigued me to read more.
The little symbols around the edge of the sketchbook page above were my experiments to create a little signature/date symbol after seeing the marks that some of the artists in “An Illustrated Life” used in their sketchbooks.
Found on a Walk #2, Ink & watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor book
When I’m walking I’m attracted to shiny things and remants of life I find on the ground. These bits include the seemingly racist “Pancho Lopez” wrapper for a pre-paid phone card, a losing lotto ticket, a claim check for “Latham Square” and a piece of a dog-walker ad.
Found on a Walk #3, Ink & Watercolor in large Moleskine watercolor book
Lastly, some holiday remains: a bit of an already abandoned Christmas tree, a piece of fluff from a Santa hat or stocking (?), fall foliage and some little seed pods.
It was a great walk; a bit blustery and it started to sprinkle as I reached home, ready for a hot cup of coffee and the drawing table.
I dreamt I was being harassed by a peacock who wanted my antique beaded bag that Steve’s mom gave me 33 years ago (where is that bag now?). In the dream I was carrying the little bag inside a big purse. The beaded bag is in peacock colors and that bird was determined he (?) would get the bag. I finally stood up to the big bird and said “Go home!” and he went to the house across the street.
I followed him and knocked on the door, prepared to ask them to keep their dangerous peacock at home. A lovely Persian woman opened the door and I could see the house was full of Persian women and children having some sort of daycare cooperative. I know that Persia is now Iran, but in my dream they were Persian.
I can’t even begin to fathom what this dream was about!
Bedside Table with Coffee & "An Illustrated Life" - Morning
DeLuxe Parked - morning walkPoodle Waiting at Trader Joes, El Cerrito - Midday Busby Annoyed, Trying to Nap - After DinnerFiona "As Seen on TV" (literally) - Evening
Messy Desk - Late Evening
I challenged myself to do a sketchcrawl of my day, making a 10 minute drawing (almost) every hour, wherever I was at the moment. I was surprised by how many times during the day I saw things I’d like to draw. But I waited for my timer to tell me, “Now!” and then started drawing. If I was out and about, I added the watercolor at home in the evening.
Reading Danny Gregory’s book, An Illustrated Life, inspired me to get back to my sketchbooks which I’d been neglecting while I focused on oil painting this past year. As a result of that neglect, I had half a dozen unfinished sketchbooks that I’ve challenged myself to complete by the end of the year. Hence the sketchcrawl above (and more to come as the year draws to a close, or should I say, “as I draw the year (and my sketchbooks) to a close!
My sister has great parking karma. She deeply believes there will always be a parking place for her, and there is. She gave me this little wind-up “parking karma angel” that I keep on my dashboard, along with my Boy Scout “Finding My Way” badge (that I bought at a Boy Scout store I happened upon) since I’m notorious for getting lost. The angel has a knob on the back and if you wind it up, her wings flap and she grants you a parking space.
Perhaps she can also grant New Years or Christmas wishes. Send me your wishes and I’ll wind her up for you. Be sure and let me know if they come true!
About the painting:
I placed a turquoise cloth beneath her and draped a red one to her side, making her silvery gown and wings reflect all that color back. I wanted to paint her in oils but decided to do watercolor first. Since I still haven’t gotten around to replacing my masking fluid (which had turned into a solid lump), I tried preserving the whites but didn’t completely succeed. So I tried recapturing them with gouache (came out greyish), then acrylic (too cool, too bright white) and finally used some latex interior house paint that I’d previously had matched to the color of my Arches watercolor paper. It worked well and matched the preserved whites.
I took photos of Angel Baby (what I call her) with different colored cloths and some of them were quite dramatic. I’m going to try painting her again with some of those other colored cloths.
This used to be my favorite sweater but I hadn’t worn it in a few years. When I discovered it hiding in my sweater drawer I decided to wear it out to dinner last night. I put it on and was surprised how short the sleeves were. I couldn’t remember whether they were originally 3/4 length (a stupid style I’ve never understood) or if they just shrunk. The rest of the sweater fit fine so I tried lengthening the sleeves by pulling on them which didn’t create a truly attractive look. One stretched longer and one stretched wider for some reason.
It was a cold night and I figured it would mostly be covered with a jacket so I left it on and went off to dine. Within minutes of leaving the house I started itching. First there was a scratchy tag tickling my side. Then it started feeling like a circus of tiny tickle bugs with little claws were dancing around inside the sweater, tickling me everywhere and driving me crazy. I didn’t want to scratch myself constantly so tried raising and lowering my shoulders which sort of rubbed the sweater against me and was better than doing nothing.
I couldn’t wait to get home. Fortunately, after a short postprandial stroll, my dining companion and I parted ways. I pulled that hideous sweater over my head, put on my pajamas and hung the sweater over my drawing table for its good-bye painting and a little illustration of those pesky (usually invisible) sweater tickle bugs dancing around as they do.
Then I put it in the to-be-donated bag. I’m not sure whether donating it is a kindness or a crime.
Salad Remains with Danny's Book (ink & watercolor)
I was feasting my eyes on Danny Gregory‘s new book, “An Illustrated Life” while I was eating a delicious salad in my big yellow salad bowl for lunch today. When I finished eating I had to sketch the colorful remains. The first drawing didn’t work (partially seen on the previous sketchbook page above), though I took it as far as I could and then drew it again and painted it (happily using up two pages in this sketchbook I don’t like).
I love reading about all the other sketchbook artists in Danny’s book and the way they think about sketching and their sketchbooks. It inspired me to finally finish off all of the random sketchbooks I have going. I have at least half a dozen unfinished sketchbooks, some that I’ve made (like the one used above) and some that I’ve bought. I keep them in a special open box and grab the one that calls to me.
There are several that I don’t like for a variety of reasons (e.g. don’t like the paper, don’t like the dimensions, don’t lay flat, don’t scan well, too fancy…) and they’ve been partially used and abandoned. I’m making it my goal to fill them all by January 1 so that I can put them on a shelf and start working in one book at a time in a chronological order. I like order.
I found these taking a walk (I was walking, not these thingees) which I thought might be called Wood Roses…but I looked it up and learned that Woodrose is “a parasitic plant endemic to New Zealand.” Since these fell from a pine tree in Berkeley, they’re definitely not woodrose, but they do look like Wood Roses!
Jana Bouc, Artist 