Categories
Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Photos Places Plein Air

Fairmead Park, Richmond, Suburban (?) Oil Painting

View from Fairmead Park, Oil on Gessobord, 9x12"
View from Fairmead Park, Oil on board, 9x12"

Sometimes painting in a pretty park with views leads to painting surrounding suburbia (or is it “urbia”?)  instead of the park.  The scene I wanted to paint (a picnic area between big eucalyptus trees) was occupied by teenage boys smoking pot and I decided to leave them alone. I didn’t think they’d appreciate me setting up my easel and staring at them, and they were there first.

Fairmead Park in Richmond is a little, hidden gem of a park. It is almost at the top of a hill with interesting views, the sounds of birds and squirrels, and the wonderful scent of eucalyptus. I got a good start to the painting while I was there and took some photos so I could finish it at home. I tried to focus on values, color and getting the paint down and leaving it alone and I really like the way it turned out.

Here is the photo I used, taken from the edge of the park which goes up the hill behind where I stood:

Fairmead Park photo reference
Fairmead Park photo reference

So is this Suburbia or Urbia — it’s on the edge of a very urban area in the town of San Pablo but it looks pretty suburban, doesn’t it?

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Life in general People Places Sketchbook Pages

Baby Night at The Cerrito Theater; Hot Yoga; and Detoxifying Debunked

Baby Night at the Cerrito Theater, ink & watercolor
Baby Night at the Cerrito Theater, ink & watercolor

Before we met the others at Nong Thon on Tuesday night, Cathy and I sketched in the dark outside the restaurant by the Cerrito theater and El Cerrito Yoga. Tuesday night is baby night at the theatre and families lined up, loaded down with babies and baby gear, to see the Social Network. The Cerrito serves beer, wine and pizza (along with usual movie fare) while you watch the movie.

El Cerrito Yoga, ink & watercolor
El Cerrito Yoga, ink & watercolor

We could see into the warmly lit, crowded yoga studio and did some quick gesture drawings. This is one of those Bikram yoga studios where they say they crank up the heat to “increase flexibility and flush toxins.” I’m not sure I’d enjoy spending the evening in a crowded room full of people sweating out their toxins, whatever “toxins” are.

I know some people swear by sweating, fasting, or colonics to get rid of “toxins” and I wondered if there is any scientific evidence that tells what these toxins are and why releasing body fluids would get rid of them. I found this great article that scientifically (and hilariously) debunks the whole concept, as does this one on Wikipedia.

Categories
Animals Drawing Food sketch Ink and watercolor wash Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Sketching at Nong Thon Vietnamese Restaurant

Green Mussels at Nong Thon, ink & watercolor
Green Mussels at Nong Thon, ink & watercolor

We met to sketch at the new Vietnamese restaurant, Nong Thon, on the corner of Central and San Pablo in El Cerrito and we had a great time. The restaurant is large, open and has been completely redesigned. The food was delicious and the service was beyond fantastic.

Ox= FAIL; but some thoughts for next time
Ox= FAIL; but some thoughts for next time

In the entry there is an elegant, life-size statue of an ox standing in real growing grass (below a skylight). My friends made beautiful renditions of the ox but I got all snarled up on its proportions. I’ve saved a page in my sketchbook to go back and give it another try. The waiter told me that in Vietnam boys ride on the ox playing a flute to pass the time, as they till the soil.

I’d called ahead to make sure it was OK for us to come sketch and they generously reserved a whole section of the restaurant for us where we’d have the best views and could move around to sketch different scenes.

You can see some of my friends’ sketches on our Urban Sketchers blog. Micaela is going to India for a wedding soon so her ox looks very “Indian Water Buffalo.” Beth and Sonia both went in the direction of Babe the Blue Ox.

Categories
Art theory Drawing Food sketch Oil Painting Sketchbook Pages Still Life

It’s All About Strong Values

Summer Squash, Tired Carrot, oil on panel, 8x8"
Summer Squash & Tired Carrot in bright light, quick study, oil on board, 8x8"

When I was teaching my last session of watercolor classes I saw my students learning so much and was jealous. I realized that I wanted a teacher too! So I began a search for an oil painting mentor to review my work in progress, give me guidance and help me progress.

Value study 1, ink washes
Value study 1, ink washes

First I tried advertising on Craigslist, describing what I needed. But the artists who responded weren’t a good fit. I wanted a mentor whose work excited and inspired me AND who was a good teacher. Then Rebeca Garcia Gonzalez sent me a postcard announcement for her show of portraits of undocumented immigrants and I fell in love with her paintings. I knew she also taught at a local art school so I emailed her my proposal, we met, and she agreed to mentor me.

Value Study 2, ink wash
Value Study 2, ink wash

At our first meeting she reviewed a dozen recent oil paintings and knew right away what I needed to work on. She said that I needed to focus on my values (the range and contrast of light to dark) and I knew she was exactly right.

Value study 3, ink and wash
Value study 3, ink and wash

She asked me to sketch using ink and diluted ink washes and to start paying close attention to values in everything I see, when I’m out walking, or just looking out the window.

Value study 4, ink & ink wash
Value study 4, ink wash

She suggested I ask myself, “Is this shape darker or lighter than that shape,” noticing the value relationships in everything I see to strengthen that ability.  For example, a black object in bright sunlight might look lighter, relatively, than something white that is in shadow.

So much of learning to paint is learning to see, and so much of learning to see involves a kind of “peeling layers of the onion” off of our eyes to see the relationships, shapes, colors, and values in the current light and atmosphere, which can be shockingly different from what we think they are.

Categories
Building Landscape Mexico Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Virtual Paint-Out

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (Virtual Paintout)

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 9"x12, oil on panel
San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 9"x12, oil on panel

It was so wonderful traveling around sunny San Miguel Allende, Mexico (virtually via Google street view and my paintbrush!) while it was cold and rainy here. I tried “driving” around to find the church at the end of the road, but just like I do with real driving, I got lost and never found it.

Once I’d adjusted the image in Photoshop to straighten the walls, crop to 9×12″ and warm the color a bit, I used the “gridding-up” method to create a drawing first. I displayed the image in Photoshop using”View/Show Grid” set to overlay a tic-tac-toe like grid). Then I drew a matching grid on my paper and started drawing, one square at a time.

Using the grid makes it easier to accurately see and draw the shapes in the image, section by section. Drawing first instead of going directly to paint helped me to understand what I was seeing and to notice interesting patterns like the pipes sticking out of the buildings and the circular motif of the windows in the building on the left as well as the church in the distance.

What a gorgeous little town! I’d love to visit there sometime!

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

Cancun Restaurant: Tuesday Night Sketching

Cancun Fajitas, ink & watercolor

Now that it’s dark by the time we meet we’re back to scouting out indoor sketch sites. We met up Tuesday night at the Saturn Cafe (to carry on from last week’s sketching at Jupiter). But we found the atmosphere at Saturn kind of sterile, gray and sad despite their vibrant Barbie-pink soda fountain theme so we headed across the street to the vibrant, warmly lit Cancun restaurant.

Cancun kitchen area, ink & watercolor
Cancun kitchen area, ink & watercolor

I enjoyed drawing all the odd angles and perspective in the multi-level ceiling and light fixtures. But when I finished I wondered why’d I’d chosen to draw the least colorful area of the cafe which has wonderful Aztec-themed murals on all the walls.

The young woman taking orders asked to see my sketch at the end of the evening, wondering what we were all doing and why I’d been looking in her direction so carefully. I was embarrassed by how poorly I’d drawn her face (drawn in ink there was no fixing it) but she smiled and said they were nice sketches.  (More sketches from Cancun by my sketch buddies on Urban Sketchers Bay Area).

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

Jupiter Pub: Tuesday Night Sketching

Jupiter Pub, Pitt Artist Brush pen & watercolor
Jupiter Pub Sketch #2 with little boy, ink & watercolor

Last week we met up at Jupiter Beer Pub for sketching, pizza and beer on their outdoor patio. It turns out to have been the last warm night of the year and the place was packed. It was quite dark where we were sitting at the beginning of the evening, the last  table way at the back of the courtyard (at top of sketch above) so my Pitt Artist’s Brush Pen with a thicker line made it easier to see what I was drawing (barely) than my fountain pen and I added the watercolor at home.

Jupiter, Ink & watercolor
Jupiter sketch #1, Ink & watercolor

As it got later and the crowd thinned out we were able to move to the main area of the patio where I sat in a wonderful Adirondack chair and sketched the courtyard where we’d started the evening (sketch #1 at top).

Categories
Art theory Oil Painting Painting People Portrait

Quinceanera Party Boy and When to Stop Painting

Quinceanera Party Boy, oil on panel, 14x11"
Quinceanera Party Boy, oil on panel, 14x11"

When I saw the photo I’d taken of this boy at the Legion of Honor where he was posing for his sister’s Quinceanera party photos, I knew I had to paint him (see my original blog post about that day). He is such a beautiful boy.

When to Stop Painting
Lately I’ve been focusing all of my art time on oil painting, and discovered something that might be of interest to other painters.

One night I’d been painting into the wee hours, trying to “fix” a painting. I’d put on paint, step back, then scrape it off. When I realized I didn’t know why I was doing anything I was doing, I went to bed, frustrated that after hours of painting I’d accomplished very little and in fact, probably just made things worse.

The next day I was driving to a plein air paint-out using my GPS to get me to cross streets near the destination (a little park with no address). Once I passed those cross streets, my GPS began scrolling the words “Driving….driving….driving” on the screen because it no longer had any directions for me—I’d passed the target with no further plan.

That’s when it hit me: When I’m at the point with a painting where I am just driving….driving…driving (or dabbing, scraping, dabbing) I need to STOP.

Without a conscious and specific intention (make this area cooler, warmer, darker, lighter, bigger, smaller, sharper, softer, etc.) and an overall goal, it’s just like trying to reach a general idea of a destination by driving mindlessly and randomly, hoping I’ll get there. Not too likely.

Categories
Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Roof Garden Lunch at the Cathedral, Oakland

 

Lunch in the Cathedral Garden, ink & watercolor
Lunch in the Cathedral Garden, ink & watercolor

 

Every now and then I manage to get out of the office at lunch time long enough to eat and even sketch for a few minutes. Across the street from our office building is a huge modern cathedral that looks more like a concrete prison with an upside down glass ship on the roof.

Their roof garden follows the concrete theme, with a sort of maze of square concrete planters with benches that force you to sit straight upright on them. But there are trees, shrubbery, and perfectly maintained grass (a delightful treat to pull off sandals and enjoy on bare feet).

I keep wondering why I never see any birds in the roof garden even though it is across the street from Lake Merritt which is a bird refuge, full of pigeons, waterfowl, pelicans, egrets and more. And it is kitty-corner from Snow Park favored by huge flocks of Canadian geese and pigeons (and always covered in big slimy goose turds). Do the guards chase the birds away? Are pigeons Catholic?

Update: I wrote to the Cathedral’s contact person and she explained why there are no birds: “With regard to the birds, I think the main reason for the lack thereof is the cleanliness of the facility. Birds will congregate wherever there is food. Our janitorial staff is always sweeping and keeping the grounds neat and clean.” It’s true, the place is very clean.

Categories
Book review Flower Art Painting Published work Watercolor

“How to Paint Watercolor Flowers” (I’m in the book)

How to paint watercolor flowers: Create Your Own Masterpiece in 6 Easy Steps
My work in the book: How to Paint Watercolor Flowers

A year ago the English publisher Quarto commissioned me to do a series of paintings for a book (working title) “Must Paint Watercolor Flowers” and at last it arrived in the mail! Now named How to Paint Watercolor Flowers: Create Your Own Masterpiece in 6 Easy Steps, it features my paintings and those of 15 other artists, along with step-by-step instructions showing how we made our paintings.

The book has 160 pages and at 11″x 9.5″ is much bigger than their “Watercolor Artist’s Bible” in which I also had several paintings. It is laid out with a beautiful 8×10 photo of the flower subject on the left side and photo-illustrated step-by-step instructions for creating the finished watercolor beside it. Hard-cover spiral binding allows the book to lay open flat for artists who wish to try the techniques while painting from the photos.

I loved seeing the beautiful work of the other artists and the many ways they approached the wide variety of subjects and techniques. The flower photos are superb, with permission granted to use them for your own paintings. The book also has excellent sections on watercolor technique, color, value, and photographing your own flowers for painting.

I haven’t read all the step-by-steps, but I’m guessing that like me, few of the artists actually created their work in just the six steps that we were limited to when writing up and photographing our work. Instead the editor highlights the key techniques that were especially important to each particular painting.

If you’d like to see my work in the book with more steps than were published (on pages 41, 65, 131), you can see them on my blog (Sunny Serenade Part I, Part II, Part III; Pink Orchid, Becoming Begonias).

Disclaimer: I have no financial investment in the book; I was paid per painting for the publisher’s right to print my work, but receive no royalties or other benefit from sales of the book itself from the publisher or via Amazon links.