Category: Places

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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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Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Other Art Blogs I Read Outdoors/Landscape Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Golden Gate Park with Laurelines and JanasJournal

Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Conservatory of Flowers, Golden Gate Park, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

When Laura Frankstone of Laurelines was in San Francisco for a long weekend I had the great pleasure of joining her for an afternoon of sketching in Golden Gate Park. Laura and I had corresponded and participated together in many art blogging activities since 2006, but this was the first time we met in person. She is a brilliant artist, a delightful person and great fun to sketch with.

Below are our sketches of the Conservatory. I added watercolor to mine (above) in the studio later since it was windy, foggy and cold sitting on the grass and so were ready to go explore the (way too hot) conservatory.

Laura's on left, Jana's on right
Laura's on left, Jana's on right (click to enlarge)
Photo of the Conservatory with my sketch
Photo of the Conservatory with my sketch

After getting all steamy inside the Conservatory of Flowers’ jungle-like atmosphere, and touring the Wicked Plants exhibit, we came back out to sketch people on the lawn.

Girls Picnic in Golden Gate Park, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Girls Picnic in Golden Gate Park, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

We agreed to paint these later too, since time was short and we wanted to keep moving. Below are our two sketches.

Girls in the Park; Laura's above, Jana's below
Girls in the Park; Laura's above, Jana's below

If you click the image above to enlarge it you can see how Laura even captured the girl on the left’s cheek bulging with her snack.

Our last stop was the Tea House in the Japanese Tea Garden. The garden is an absolutely beautiful place with incredible plantings, sculptures, buildings, ponds, trees, moon bridges and more. I wanted to live there.

View from Teahouse in Japanese Tea Garden, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
View from Teahouse in Japanese Tea Garden, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

While our tea was the most delicious jasmine tea we’ve ever had, our experience was not exactly the “meditative cup of tea overlooking the peaceful waters of the garden” because men were doing construction and running a small but loud and smelly bulldozer back and forth on the path behind what I sketched above. The combination of noise and exhaust were less than ideal but unlike me, Laura didn’t complain once.

Moments after we sat down in the Teahouse another woman sat down beside us and pulled out a sketchbook (before we had ours out). She was an art history student visiting from Boston and we all sketched happily together. The waitresses kept coming over to praise our drawings. I said, “You must see people sketching here all the time.” She said no, we were the first she’d seen.

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Berkeley Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Landscape Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketching Oscars Burgers, Berkeley

Oscars Burgers at Sunset, Berkeley, ink & watercolor
Oscars Burgers at Sunset, Berkeley, ink & watercolor

Now that it stays light later we can finally go outdoors for our Tuesday night Urban Sketching sessions. We met at the corner of Shattuck and Hearst in Berkeley and I sketched Oscars Charbroiler from across the street. They’ve been grilling burgers, hot dogs (and now vege burgers) over fire on that corner since 1950. It was sunset by the time I painted it, hence the pink sky.

Eating French Fries and Watching NBA Playoffs
Eating French Fries and Watching NBA Playoffs

When we went inside for one more sketch. There was a big screen TV on the wall tuned to sports. It was the end of an NBA playoff game and people were watching while stuffing their faces with burgers and fries like this guy who never looked at his food, just shoveled in the fries while watching the game.

Another guy came by and complemented our drawings and asked if we came there every week to sketch. Uh, no…maybe once a decade? Though I have to admit I’d skipped dinner, got hungry, and ate one of their burgers. It was good.

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Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Painting Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Middle East Market, Berkeley

Middle East Market Teapot, Berkeley, ink & watercolor 5.5 x 7"
Middle East Market Teapot, Berkeley, ink & watercolor 5.5 x 7"

When I read this interesting story about the owner of the market, “From Ecuador via war-torn Iran to melting pot Berkeley” on Berkeleyside, I thought it would be a good place to sketch. I was right.

It is bright and colorful with a large variety of Middle Eastern products and freshly made food. It was quiet there on a Tuesday evening so the gentleman manning the shop was fine with us sitting at the cafe tables in the back and roaming the shop to sketch. I got so drawn into the teapot that I only had time to do one sketch before they closed at 8:00. We usually sketch from 6:30 to 8:30 or 9:00 so it was a short evening.

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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.

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Drawing Faces Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Kensington Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketching at Kensington Circus Pub

Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

It was a cold and rainy night so we met indoors at the cosy Kensington Circus Pub (named for the traffic roundabout it faces in Kensington, on the Berkeley border. It’s a very pleasant place to sip a beer and sketch. After eating a delicious sandwich I spent most of the evening facing the bar and doing the sketch above. I wore my L.L. Bean flashlight hat to see to paint and it worked great.

Old friends plotting at Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Old friends plotting at Kensington Circus Pub, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

Then I turned to face the other direction and sketched these gentleman who were in a booth a few feet away but didn’t seem notice or care that we were drawing them. They were meeting to dine, drink and plot a business venture from what I could overhear.

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Animals Berkeley Drawing Gouache Ink and watercolor wash Painting Places Urban Sketchers

Sketching at the Teddy Bear Fountain

Teddy Bear Fountain, ink & watercolor on hot press paper, 6"x4"
Teddy Bear Fountain, ink & gouache on hot press paper, 6"x4"

Teddy bears hold hands in a circle in this wonderful, historic fountain* in North Berkeley on Marin Circle. We sketched there on a warm Tuesday evening as the sun was setting.

I did the one above very quickly at the end of the evening when just as I was about to pack up a worker came and switched on the fountain’s lights and adjusted the water so it sprayed up from the top. I had to give it one more try.

Teddy Bear Fountain, ink & watercolor, 5 1/2 x6 1/2"
Teddy Bear Fountain, ink & gouache, 5 1/2 x6 1/2"

This one was done first and I spent a longer time with it—more than I should have probably, as it began to get overworked. My friend Cathy did several wonderful sketches while we were there, which you can see here.

*An interesting bit of history about the fountain: In 1908, a real estate developer came up with the idea to make Berkeley the state capitol and lobbied hard for his proposal. The Circle and the fountain were to be part of a grand entry to the new capitol building to be built nearby. The California Legislature passed the proposal and the governor signed the bill, but Berkeley was a dry city and the liquor lobbyists were successful in convincing the voters to narrowly defeat the bill.

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Building Landscape Oil Painting Places Virtual Paint-Out

Le Clemenceau, French Riviera (Virtual Paintout)


Le Clemenceau, French Riviera, oil on board, 6x6"
Le Clemenceau, French Riviera, oil on board, 6x6"

Six inches is just too small! I chose a 6×6″ panel for this project because I thought I’d just do something quick for Virtual Paintout and then get on with my “real” painting projects. But I end up putting just as much work into this small painting as I would a big one.

When it was “finished” I kept seeing one more little thing to adjust until suddenly it was 7:00 p.m. and it was too late to go to my REAL paintout/sketch group. And I had paint all over my hands because I’d taken off my gloves when I thought I was done an hour before.

What’s important is that I had fun and as with every painting, learned something. And I got to spend some time “on” the Cote d’Azur. Wow is that place spectacularly beautiful and loaded with wealth, from what I could see wandering around on Google Streetview. Here is the original scene on Streetview.

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Bay Area Parks Berkeley Drawing Gouache Ink and watercolor wash People Photos Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Golden Gate Live Steamers Train Meet at Tilden Park

Steam Train Medley from multiple sketches
Steam Train Meet Medley from multiple sketches

A few weeks ago Cathy and I were sketching guests at the Spring Meet of the Golden Gate Live Steamers Club in Berkeley’s Tilden Park. The train people were as curious about us as we were about them, and they wanted to see what we were doing. I usually don’t care when people look at my sketches, but I was drawing their trains that they had lovingly built from scratch, designing and engineering everything from the wood-burning boilers to the screws that held them together. It was like drawing their children—one thing out of place and they would know it.

Train guys
Train guys

Many of their members maintain and operate trains that their fathers or grandfathers built and they are now apprenticing their sons in the craft. Over the years the club has built a complete course of tracks with trestles, tunnels, and small buildings to match the 1.5″-to-the-foot scale of the trains. You can see photos and videos on their website including this one below of me sketching at the meet (much to my surprise!)

Continue reading “Golden Gate Live Steamers Train Meet at Tilden Park”
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Berkeley Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Painting Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Inside Berkeley’s Maybeck-Designed First Church

First Church of Christ Scientist, Berkeley
First Church of Christ Scientist, Berkeley

The American Institute of Architects named this church one of the three finest uniquely American churches. I saw a picture of the spectacular interior and knew we had to sketch it. I contacted the architectural heritage group, Friends of First Church (see photos on their site), and one of their members was generously willing to open the church for our Tuesday night Urban Sketchers group.

She graciously gave us a tour and told us a little about the history and architecture and then we picked our spots and started drawing. The interior is sweeping and complicated, with “a pair of great crossed trusses spanning the central pace overhead.”

Interior photo from where I sat, First Church Christ Scientist
Interior photo from where I sat, First Church Christ Scientist

I tried to envision how I would get everything I wanted onto my page and then just started drawing in the left corner, working my way across the page, drawing directly in ink. I drew up until the last minute so had to add the watercolor at home.

That’s a pipe organ behind the choir loft. They’re trying to raise funds to restore it.  Everything is embellished with gilt so the room has a golden glow. The architecture and design includes many styles and periods, including Gothic, Romanesque Byzantine and Arts and Crafts.

Spending the evening in that beautiful, quiet, exquisite space was so special and we are very grateful to the Friends of First Church for so graciously sharing this jewel with us.