Crazy Chickens 1 at Poulet, ink & watercolor, 5×8″
The night we sketched at Poulet, a mostly chicken café in north Berkeley, I was feeling out of practice with drawing. So instead of trying to sketch the architecture or people I just drew their collection of chickens displayed on shelves, counters and walls.
More Ceramic Chickens at Poulet, ink & watercolor, 5×8″
I didn’t bother with the shelves they sat on or perspective or anything serious…just allowed myself to be as playful as the silly chickens. That helped me get over my insecurity, warm up my hand and get back to sketching again after a brief spell of doing everything but art at the beginning of the year.
Poultry Panorama (2-page spread in my sketchbook).
Pest Control at Pastime Hardware, ink & watercolor, 5×8″
When we made our annual sketching pilgrimage to Pastime Hardware on a cold winter evening I picked the Pest Control department. I was attracted by the big, ugly, inflated hanging rat and the artificial owls who seemed to be discussing who was going to nab the rat.
The names of the products seemed inflated too: Pest Chaser Pro and Sonic Pest Chaser (both made me imagine cartoon critters that jump out of the box and chase critters away). And then there’s the Tom Cat Mole Trap (contains cat? that chases moles?) and Cat Stop (do you need Cat Stop after you’ve released the Tom Cat Mole Trap?)
I know someone who is courting real owls by putting up owl houses in her yard. That solution might be worse than the problem. My son has a family of screech owls living in a tree across the street from him and they keep him awake, screeching all night long.
When I see my neighbors at my door holding a covered plate I get excited because they are fantastic cooks who often bring me treats. Except this delicacy was not from their kitchen; it was deep-fried take-out fish from 99 Ranch Market’s seafood department where they scoop live fish out of a big tank, “dress” them (euphemism for remove guts and slash the skin) and toss them otherwise whole in the deep fryer.
I gratefully accepted the gift and sketched it instead of eating it since I prefer my fish grilled, not deep-fried. Then I gave the fish to my tenant who enjoyed the nice dinner.
Photo of thank you card on returned plate
Today I returned the plate with a little thank you card featuring the fish.
Mira Vista Country Club Putting Green and Golf Carts, ink & watercolor, 5×16″
My plein air group held our annual season kick-off meeting at the Mira Vista Country Club on Saturday where one of our painters has a membership. Afterwards, I sat on a bench in the sun and sketched the clubhouse, putting green and all the cute little golf carts.
Mira Vista, left side of spread, 5×8″
Although I prefer jeans to dress up and agree with Thoreau’s quote: “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes,” the club has a dress code that prohibits denim. So it was fun seeing how nicely the paint-spattered artists I’m used to seeing at our painting sessions can clean up, even if it meant I had to dress up too.
Mira Vista, right page, 5×8″
Our plein air schedule starts up again next month. Last year I only sketched at our paintouts but this year I’ve committed to dragging my oil painting supplies again and giving actual plein air painting another try. But if I still find it too frustrating to stand in one spot instead of exploring the locations, I’ll go back to sketching.
I headed first to the fish department and we ended the evening at the Ten Ren Tea Shop (sketches above) where there were so many interesting and colorful items to draw but for some reason I chose instead to sketch the very nice shop girl.
Poultry and Pork on the Hook at 99 Ranch Market, ink & watercolor, 5×8″
After the fish, I went where the Peking Ducks hang and was surprised to see a small pork carcass hanging there too (on the right above). I drew it first, and then found myself in a race with a woman taking down the ducks to clean up for the night. She won the race and I ran out of ducks so I copied the menu instead.
Could that carcass be Pork Bung Gut? Or is it what it sounds like (ew) and just wasn’t on display?
It’s interesting how different cultures are squeamish about different parts of the animal. I grew up loving my grandma’s roasted beef tongue, the chicken feet in her chicken soup, and my dad’s gribenes (pronounced “gribnis”)—like pork rinds except made from chicken skin. After removing the delicious crispy skins from the hot chicken fat that he’d rendered from them, he put the fat in the fridge to harden and then spread that “schmaltz” on his rye bread instead of butter.
None of those foods sound gross to me, nor does caviar, raw oysters (yum!), or rump roast, but please don’t offer me brains or intestines, thank you very much.
You can see my friends’ great sketches from the evening on our Urban Sketchers blog here: Susan’s, Micaela’s, Cathy’s, and Ceiny’s, and my sketches from previous visits to 99 Ranch in 20012 and 2010,2010,2007.
Ale and Ale Drinkers, ink & watercolor sketch, 5×8″
Before being seated at Pyramid Brewery in Berkeley some of us went upstairs to sketch. I enjoyed the perspective challenge of drawing these guys below me, sitting and standing with their pitcher of beer.
The menu recommended their Apricot Ale with the Blackened Salmon dinner (fruity beer a bit odd but tasty). The beer came before my food so I sketched it. I was too hungry to draw my delicious dinner.
Plates at Pyramid Brewery, Ink & watercolor, 5×8″
After dinner I drew what I could see from my corner of the booth where I was kind of wedged in. And that should finally be the end of December and beer sketches. Now on to posting more interesting stuff than beer and dishes!
When we visited Berkeley’s very colorful Gaumenkitzel Restaurant, they offered us a large “community” table where we could sketch and snack all evening. After most of the other customers had left, one sketcher pulled her chair right up to the pastry case to get a better look. Gaumenkitzel means “Tickle Your Taste Buds.” Just saying the name feels tickly on the tongue.
I sketched the back of Susan’s beer while she drew the more decorative front. Click their names to see more sketches from the evening by Ceiny and Cathy.
My January and February have been swallowed up by a ton of organizing and business chores which I’m hoping to declare completed tomorrow (YAY!). Then I can finally get back to a life centered around art instead of on spreadsheets, file folders, computers, and tax forms.
I love the way the big guy seems to be looking at the pretty girl’s butt in her shiny black tights. In reality they got in line at different times, but my drawing took on a life of its own.
One of the things I love about living in the Bay area is the wide variety of people you see, dressed however they please, with either no concern about fashion or a style all their own. I fit right in!
While I was in Walnut Creek to take photos of an industrial park for a painting commission I stopped at the Shadelands Ranch Museum to sketch. They were hosting a ladies’ tea that afternoon in the downstairs drawing rooms that looked quite charming. I explored the rest of the house but sadly they told me I couldn’t sketch inside.
I would have loved to draw the Walnut Creek Historical Society volunteers serving in white aprons, the fancy table settings, and most especially the gang of Red Hat Society ladies seated in one of the rooms. I waited outside and sketched the building, hoping to capture them coming out after the tea but they dawdled so long I had to leave or get stuck in rush hour traffic.
Shadelands Ranch water fountain, ink & watercolor 8×5″
I drew this water fountain on the property to warm up before tackling the massive Penniman home. Then I did the three sideways thumbnails on the left to try to figure out how much of the house I wanted to draw and how I’d fit it in on the paper.
Ticket Machine and Street Lamp, ink & watercolor, 8×5″
We rode BART and a cable car to the Cable Car Museum in San Francisco to sketch. I had to first draw some of the antique street “furniture” on display—an old Cable Car Ticket Machine and a street lamp with cable car line sign on it (California St. Line). The tickets were only 25 cents then. Now they are $6.00 a ride!
Cables that still power the cable cars, ink & watercolor, 5×8″
I was surprised to discover that the museum was built around and above the massive cable system that still runs the cable cars. The guy in the sketch above stands on a platform about 20 feet up to supervise (?) the cables that run through multiple sets of huge gears in the basement level of the building and then go out under the streets to pull the cable cars up the steep hills.
Cable Car Museum, ink & watercolor, 8×5″
It was extremely LOUD in the museum since it’s on a second floor mezzanine completely open to the cable machinery (see picture) so it felt great to get outside again and sketch the brick museum building from across the street. It was a grey, drizzly winter day but never outright rained so we had a great walk back to BART up and down the hills.
Jana Bouc, Artist 