Oakland’s Loring Cafe has the most eclectic decor and architecture I’ve ever seen in a restaurant. In addition to the arches, pillars, sculptures, palms and vibrant lighting, the restroom is like a brick-covered Hobbit house with no sink. To wash your hands you step out of the restroom where there is a large, round, stainless steel, multi-user industrial sink with little signs explaining how to turn on the faucets and get soap. Quite a unique washroom experience!
I’m glad I had my jumbo Moleskine watercolor journal with me since there was so much to capture in one drawing (above).
Sketched at Starbucks on Starbucks Pastry Bag
As my note in the sketch above says, I was just recovering from a bad cold and was so tired after my walk to return movies to the video store I had to stop at Starbucks to sit before I could walk back home. I’m always grateful there are still video stores to provide entertainment during an illness. The only good thing about being sick is the opportunity to catch up on movies. Fortunately I don’t get sick often, and this sketch was done back in April. I think I’m caught up now on old sketches.
Tuesday Night at Cafe Trieste, ink & watercolor, 8×10″
We’ve been going to Caffe Trieste in Berkeley for our Tuesday night sketching once or twice a year and each time we’ve been lucky to be there when the Randy Craig Trio is playing. I love their assortment of classic jazz and swing with piano, standup base, guitar and two women singers.
They seem to have a regular following because each time we go I see many of the same people in the audience.
Rosie the Riveter Museum (left) and Craneway Pavillion (right), ink & watercolor & National Park rubber stamp, 8×10″
When my plein air group met at the Rosie the Riveter Museum alongside Craneway Pavilion (a former auto factory where “Rosie’s” riveted during WWII) on the San Francisco Bay in Richmond, everyone else painted the bay view on the other side of these buildings.
But as soon as I drove into the parking lot, this industrial backside grabbed me. From the row of street lights to the giant smokestack and thousands of windows, I was sold. I set up, sketched and painted in the parking lot. Then I toured the museum. My mother, RivaLee was a “Rosie” and worked in an airplane factory in L.A. where she was known as “Riv the Riveter.”
Singer Sewing Machine circa early 1900s, ink & watercolor & gold pen
I don’t know what happened to my sense of perspective when I sketched this early 1900s Singer sewing machine in a warehouse full of antique industrial equipment. It was very heavy, almost impossible for me to move, so I guarantee it wasn’t lifting off the table or sliding downhill like it looks in my sketch.
As I drew I was struck by the beautiful decoration and the rounded shapes that seemed to echo the curves of the women who used them. What a lovely tool it is compared to the sterile, boxy, plastic computerized sewing machines of today.
John Muir Home and Orchard, ink, watercolor & gouache, 8×10″
After I filled the jumbo Moleskine watercolor journal I discovered I forgot to post several pages. From March! So here are a few of those sketches from early spring. Above and below are the John Muir home, with a bit of the fruit tree orchards and redwoods on the property. I sketched and painted these on site, with a little gouache added to the fruit tree blossoms at home.
John Muir Landscape, ink, watercolor & gouache, 10×8″Spring at Blake Gardens, watercolor, 10×8″
Above is another spring sketch, painted directly with watercolor, of magnolia trees and the pretty little flowers planted around the tree.
“Lily White on White,” oil on Gessobord panel, 8×8″ (AVAILABLE on DailyPaintworks Auction: CLICK IMAGE to visit auction)
I spent some time sketching and painting a calla lily that sprouted in my garden and while I was at it, tested a palette of Winsor Newton Cotman paints. Several of my friends have this clever, inexpensive Winsor & Newton Cotman Sketchers Palette and I thought it was worth a try so I ordered one.
I started by testing the colors, listing the pigments to match them to artists’ quality pigments I normally use (click to see larger with pigment numbers) and making notes about which ones to swap out (at that point assuming I’d continue using the others).
Test of WInsor Newton Cotman pan paints (FAIL)
I was very frustrated with the results I was getting when painting and in the end, took ALL the Cotman pans out of the palette and replaced them with pans filled with artist quality paints from tubes. I put the Cotman pans in a large jar of water to soak so that I could empty and reuse the empty pans. After dumping and refilling the jar many times I ended up with a jar of tinted water with a lot of white sandy junk at the bottom: the nasty fillers and binders added to the pigments to make it cheap.
I know that for the same $17 that this palette AND crappy paint costs, you can only buy one or two tubes of full strength, high quality paint. But I’d rather have only a few colors than use junk. Most of the following sketches lack vibrancy, richness in color, and paint application was difficult and unattractive. Here they are in reverse order of completion:
Lily sketch #6, watercolor, 8×10″
I liked the drawing above, but not the grayed colors.
Lily sketch #5, ink & watercolor, 8×10″
I liked the shape of the leaf above.
Lily sketch #4?, gouache, 8×10″
I painted over an awful sketch with gouache (above), just loosely trying to get the shape of the flower.
Lily sketch #3-4, watercolor, 8×10″
Two previous attempts at the leaf, on 2 other kinds of paper I taped into the 8×10″ Moleskine.
Lily sketch #1 with Snail, watercolor, 8×10″
The first sketch. I like the composition but the colors and application were yuck.
I’m still using the Cotman Palette. I think it’s a great for sketching because it’s light, compact and holds enough colors (12). And at $17 I don’t mind the price, even after throwing away the colors it cane with. It’s handy to have the now-empty, extra half-pans which usually cost about 50 cents each. So really, I got the palette for $11, and 12 empty pans for $6. Not too bad.
View from Oakland Museum Sculpture Garden, ink & watercolor, 8×10″
After my monthly workshop at the Oakland Museum, with John Muir Laws and his Bay Area Nature Journal Club, I stayed to sketch in the beautiful sculpture garden. There are lovely trees and plantings, colorful sculptures and interesting urban views. The building with the flag atop it is the County Courthouse on the next block.
I also visited the fabulous “Summoning Ghosts: The Art of Hung Lui exhibit.” The show features several rooms of her very large paintings plus early sketchbooks and painting studies completed in China before she came to the U.S. in 1984. The film of her painting with luscious juicy paint (and her signature drips) made me want to run to the studio and pick up a brush.
I’m running out of days in May and pages in my sketchbook so here are two pages with 3 days each. First, “Something that makes you laugh” is watching my silly cat Fiona trying to catch a piece of cotton twine I swing around for her on my bed. It was interesting drawing her standing from the perspective of looking down at her (from a blurry photo of her in motion).
Next is “Draw a Tote Bag.” I was surprised how fun it was to sketch. For “Draw a Screw” I drew this big, rusty screw I found in the garden. It was hard to focus on each turn of the thread so I generalized. It might have been a good concentration exercise to draw each one.
EDIM 21-22-23, Last Thing Bought, Summer Joy, Map
For “Draw the last thing you bought” I sketched the New Wave Palette I bought at Blick’s with a 40% off coupon. I’d never used a hand-held palette before and I’m liking it. Next is “A Summer Joy.” I tried to draw the water drops on the window of the studio on a rare and surprising rainy day in May. I should have made the rain drops transparent instead of using a white china marker to create a resist. For “Draw a Map.” I made a map of how to get to the bathroom from the studio.
Only one more day in May but 5 more days of prompts left to sketch. That just means I get to keep going into June. Yay!
EDiM 18-19-20 Left Palm, Something Owned by Another, Favorite Drink, ink & watercolor, 8×10″
On my left palm above is a kitty toy owned but not loved by my kitties. Their favorite toy is a 2-foot piece of cotton twine that they chase and jump for and carry to bed with them or bring to me to play with them. They were never interested in this toy but since it “belongs to someone else” it fits the Every Day in May challenge.
The other sketch is my afternoon cup of coffee, sitting on a mirror. I only drink decaf now, with just a little stevia in it. I miss my lovely lattes and the energy they gave me, but not the insomnia or headaches when I didn’t have my coffee on schedule.
EDiM 16-17, Something that Scares You (Back Pain) and Something from First Aid Kit, ink & watercolor 8×10″
The Every Day in May cue #16 was “Draw something that scares you.” And I was mighty scared when I drew this because my back was in terrible pain. A couple times a year an old back injury flares up and I get really scared the pain will never go away. Fortunately it does, with good care and treatment. The funny crosses on my back above are special tape that my physical therapist put on my back to keep me from moving in directions that would make the pain worse. It really helped.
After a week of using the items in the drawing, “Something from the first aid kit” (pain relievers, ice packs including good old frozen peas) plus two appointments with my brilliant physical therapist Christine at Physical Therapy Innovations, my back was nearly back to normal. I was able to go to my holiday weekend getaway in Santa Cruz and return home in good shape, even with two 2-hour drives.
Yay! Life is good again and now I can get caught up on the Every Day in May project and back to painting in the studio and plein air.
EDiM 14-15: Draw a Figurine, Draw a Pencil. Ink & watercolor, 8×10″
I thought the Buddha with the curly hair* was a nice match with this little poodle figurine I sculpted years ago to be part of a chess set, with dogs on one side and cats on the other. The poodle with her little pink handbag and manicured nails is the last remaining piece (of the six I made before losing interest in the project). She she sits on my altar beside Buddha and a little plastic lamb I found in the street.
Maybe someday I’ll return to the chess set project, though I don’t really need one since I don’t play.
The pencil I drew is actually a chunky wooden lead holder. I like it more for its aesthetic value than as a pencil.
*I know Buddha didn’t have curly hair. According to legend the lumps on his head are snails who crawled up there to keep him cool and protect his head while he meditated in the hot sun all day long.
Jana Bouc, Artist 