Category: Places

Categories
Art theory Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Photos Places Plein Air Pt. Richmond Sketchbook Pages

Lifting Fog: Painting at Miller/Knox Park

Lifting Fog, oil on canvas panel, 8x10" (plein air painting finished in studio)
Lifting Fog, oil on canvas panel, 8×10″ (Sold) 

When I arrived at Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline the sky was gray and cloudy but even in the fog the park had so many great views: a salt water lagoon, Mt. Tamalpais across the bay, a fishing pier, an abandoned ferry landing, beautiful trees, and across the road, a railroad museum and a squat yellow building that houses a motorcycle club.

Miller Knox thumbnail
Miller Knox thumbnail

I finally picked a spot and got started with the above thumbnail sketch. I set my ViewCatcher to 8×10 and looked through its “window” to choose the composition. Then I put the ViewCatcher on my sketchbook and traced around the inside of the window to outline a box in my journal of the same proportion. By the time I was ready to add watercolor to the thumbnail sketch most of the fog had lifted except over the hills, and the sun was shining.

After 2-hour plein air session, oil on panel
After 2-hour plein air session, oil on panel

Above is how the painting looked when I brought it home. The composition needed work: the picture is evenly divided in half with 2 trees on left, 2 trees on right and an empty center. The lagoon and bay should have been different colors. Too bad I’d ignored my thumbnail once I started painting because it had a much better composition.

I tried to continue the painting from a photo but the photo didn’t match my memory of the colors and light, even after Photoshopping it (below). But it did at least offer some clues for fixing the composition, like adding the sailboats (duh!).

Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline photo
Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline photo

Maybe I should add in the little “No Swimming” sign (only putting it on the left side as I did in my thumbnail). What do you think?

Categories
Art supplies Berkeley Book review Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash People Places Shop windows Sketchbook Pages

Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore: Mockingjay District 12 Window Display

District 12 at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore, Ink & watercolor
District 12 at Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore, Ink & watercolor

Since I’d read, and surprisingly enjoyed, The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins’ first book in her dystopian futuristic trilogy, I understood why this display was in the Mrs. Dalloway’s Bookstore window: it was advertising the third book in the series, Mockingjay.

The Hunger Games trilogy is about a boy and a girl struggling to survive an annual contest where teenagers from 12 impoverished districts are forced to fight for their lives in the ultimate televised reality show, with the winner bringing honor to her district. When a reliable friend recommended this young adult novel, I was highly skeptical on so many levels. But I found it to be a good read (or listen really–I borrowed the book on CD from the library).

Goorin Hats, Berkeley
Goorin Hats, Berkeley

Before sketching Mrs. Dalloways, this little brown craft-paper sketchbook from the UC Davis college bookstore (a gift from my friend Pete Scully) was perfect for warm-up sketches with a brush pen. College Avenue is full of interesting, upscale little shops like this hat shop.

This previous sketch of Mrs. Dalloway’s is one of my favorites. It’s a wonderful bookstore with a special focus on books about gardens.

Categories
Art supplies Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places

Early Morning at Kaiser Garden, Oil Painting

Early Morning Garden, oil on canvas, 20x16"
Early Morning at Kaiser Garden, oil on canvas, 20x16"

I think I’ve finished this painting (but then I thought that several times before). The last time I thought I was finished, I looked back at the notes I’d written opposite my journal sketch about what interested me in the scene and my goals for the painting. I saw I’d missed a point or two and worked on it some more.

Now I’d really appreciate some honest feedback:

Do you think it’s finished or does it still need something, and if so, what do you suggest to improve it?

This was painted with Holbein Aqua Duo water-soluble oil paints. It’s such a joy to oil paint without odor, to thin paint to a wash without solvents, and to mix water instead of turpentine with the Duo linseed oil to make painting medium. The pigment quality, drying time and consistency is identical to regular oils.

Categories
Drawing Life in general Places Sketchbook Pages

Where Did the Day Go?

Where did the day go? Ink & watercolor pencil
Where did the day go? Ink & watercolor pencil

Does this ever happen to you? You start off the morning feeling optimistic about everything you’ll get done today and then suddenly it’s evening and the To-Do list has only grown? Not only the day flew by, but given the date on this sketch, so has a week or two.

I sketched this sign while sipping an afternoon latte at Peet’s Coffee. Two women at the next table seemed so intrigued by my watercolor pencils and water brush that I said, “Here, try it!” and let them color and paint (on their napkins).

I’ve been so busy with working, teaching watercolor, and squeezing in a little time for painting and sketching that I’ve gotten behind on posting. But my number one priority today is finishing binding a new journal as I’m down to the last two pages in my current one and they’re reserved for my end-of-sketchbook self portraits.

Categories
Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Painting Places

Tuesday Night Sketching at CHORI

CHIORI, sketchbook spread, Ink & watercolor
CHIORI, sketchbook spread, Ink & watercolor

Micaela suggested the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) building in North Oakland for our Tuesday night sketching and it was an interesting challenge. The 1923 building with 80,000 square feet of space was once a high school. Abandoned in the 1980s, it sat disintegrating for many years, with boarded up windows and peeling paint.

When Children’s Hospital took over the building they kept the original design and built within a high-tech facility for the study of biochemistry, hematology, molecular biology, genetics, and more. The laboratory is backed up by emergency power and critical systems such as freezers and incubators are monitored 24 hours a day.

We could hear the hum and buzz of those systems (along with the loud passing BART trains on the overhead rail across the street) while we sketched. It was so cold, foggy and drizzly damp that Sonia sat in her car to sketch and Micaela and I wore multiple layers of down and fleece. Will summer ever come to the Bay Area?

Categories
Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Painting Places Sketchbook Pages

Sketching Berkeley’s Northside

UC Berkeley Library at Sunset, ink & watercolor
U.C Berkeley Library at Sunset, ink & watercolor

The past two Tuesday nights we’ve taken advantage of the absence of U. C. Berkeley students to sketch in the area known as the Northside on Euclid between Hearst and Ridge Road. The first week I wandered onto campus a bit and sat on the balcony of the Asian Studies building with this great view of the library. I spent the entire evening there on this one sketch, having a blast with all the details as the sun was setting.

Northside Berkeley (Hearst & Ridge), Ink, watercolor, colored pencils
Northside Berkeley (Hearst & Ridge), Ink, watercolor, colored pencils

Since I was so late getting there last week after going home from work for dinner first, I went directly to the Northside this week. But I still only managed to get in these two sketches. I was intrigued by the window above on the left and the view of all the signs stacked behind each other looking straight down Euclid towards campus.

The highlight of the evening was hearing Cathy’s tales from the Urban Sketchers International Symposium last weekend in Portland and seeing her sketches, notes from the panels, and how inspired and excited she was by the event.

Categories
Berkeley Colored pencil art Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting Sketchbook Pages

Elinore’s Birthday Mimosa

Elinore's Birthday Mimosa; mixed media
Elinore's Birthday Mimosa; mixed media

Last Sunday I went to a lovely birthday brunch at Elinore’s favorite restaurant, Liaison Bistro in North Berkeley. The food was absolutely fabulous, the service was excellent, even with the large group, and the company was delightful.

After we ate and the plates were cleared, the waiter walked around the long table with a big rubber stamp, printing the dessert menu on the papers covering the tablecloth. When he came to me, I said, “Wait!” and pulled out my sketchbook, asking him to stamp the book instead.

The stamp became the frame for my drawing of Elinore’s mimosa. I had my mini-sketching kit with me so used a couple watercolor pencils and a waterbrush for color. Then people wanted to see the book, passing it around and looking through it, but being polite about not reading the personal stuff (I hope).

Later I used a gold gel pen to title the page and pasted in the wrapper for the little chocolates they put at each place.

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Peet’s Coffee after Manet’s Bar at Folies Bergère

Peet's Coffee after Manet, Ink & watercolor
Peet's Coffee after Manet, Graphite, ink & watercolor

When I walked up to the woman at the counter at Peet’s to order my coffee I started babbling that she looked just like someone in an Impressionist painting. She humored me and asked for my order. I ordered my latte, went back to my table, and Googled  “Impressionist Bar Painting” on my iPhone. It didn’t take long before I found it.

Manet, Folies Bergere
Manet, Bar at Folies Bergère

I showed her the image on my phone and asked if she’d pose for me like the woman in the painting and she agreed. I don’t have permission to post her photo so all I can show you is my sketch, which is a study for a larger painting.

Needless to say, I left a good tip for my coffee (and modeling services). And fortunately there wasn’t a line of people waiting for their coffees.

I can see that I need to go back to Peet’s to sketch and take more photos so that I can replace the computer monitor on her left with something more beautiful. Or maybe it’s appropriate to be there? But it sure isn’t as pretty as Manet’s oranges and flowers in crystal.

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Places Sketchbook Pages

Just Can’t Settle Down: Lake Merritt Sketches

Lake Merritt, ink & watercolor pencil
Lake Merritt, ink & watercolor pencil

After work Tuesday night we met to sketch at Lake Merritt which is across the street from my office. I guess I drank too much coffee that day because I couldn’t settle down and focus. There was a fascinating parade of people walking by, all talking to each other or on cellphones, leaving bits of conversation in their wake.

Warmup sketches
Warmup sketches

I warmed up with some sketches of the local seabirds and passing people, noting a few conversation snippets. That’s an old Chinese lady with a pole over her shoulders carrying huge garbage bags on either side that were bigger than she was. I assume she was gathering cans to recycle for a few dollars.

Lake Merritt apartments, mixed media
Lake Merritt apartments, mixed media

When it got cold and windy we headed up to my office on the 25th floor and drew the view out the window. I liked my sketch of the building and tall trees at the bottom of the page but instead of stopping there, I kept drawing until the page was full. I didn’t like that so tried various ways to hide the rest and finally pasted ruled tracing paper over it.

Categories
Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Painting Places Plein Air Sketchbook Pages

Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Campus (aka School for the Deaf)

Clark Kerr Campus Building 14, ink & watercolor
Clark Kerr Campus Building 14, ink & watercolor

Tuesday night we sketched at UC Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Campus. Built in the 1930’s as a residential school for the deaf, it now serves as home to hundreds of university students and 200 low-income seniors in a peaceful setting of mission style architecture, courtyards and sunny lawns, located just behind rowdy Fraternity Row.

Clark Kerr at Sunset, ink & watercolor
Clark Kerr at Sunset, ink & watercolor

With the students gone for the summer and few of the elderly out and about, we had the place to ourselves. We met at Derby and Claremont and tried to stay in the light, moving west to follow the sun as it set. I enjoyed painting on site, trying to capture the light instead of making many drawings and adding color later as my sketching pals like to do.

Read this brief, wonderfully scandalous “get-even” tale by one of the facility’s elder low-income residents about her earlier life as a mistress to a rich, powerful man who was a member of the Bohemian Club (as was Bush). What a story and how bizarre to find it while Googling for info about the campus.