Tag: Art

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

Emeryville Marina Chevy’s Sign at Sunset (Updated)

Emeryville Marina Chevys Sign at Sunset, ink & watercolor
Emeryville Marina Chevy's Sign at Sunset, ink & watercolor

(Apologies for posting twice–forgot to include all three images the first time).
I noticed this palm tree-lined street when I was exiting Highway 80 in Emeryville and suggested it as a place for our Urban Sketchers group to meet. I guess the directions I provided to the spot weren’t very good because everyone else went down to the end of the marina and I sketched alone all evening.

Photo of sketch before I painted it
Photo of sketch before I painted it

I knew we’d meet at Chevy’s Mexican Restaurant at 8:30 so I wasn’t worried. This was one of those really fun drawings where I started by deciding what I most wanted to fit on the page (the lamp post, palm trees, Chevy’s sign and water). I started with the lamp post because I could use it to figure out where other things lined up to it. And then I just kept seeing and drawing more and more until it was all in there.

photo of the scene
photo of the scene (slightly different angle)

I painted the sketch just as the sunset was at its brightest and everything looked so pretty, pink and yellow. It’s such a lovely spot, and yet so urban, within a couple blocks of two major freeways and the entrance to the Bay Bridge. You can see Cathy’s sketches of  the bay bridge and the freeway on our Urban Sketchers Bay Area blog.

Categories
Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Life in general Painting Photos Places Sketchbook Pages

Port Costa Post Office and Bikers

Port Costa Post Office, ink and watercolor, 5x7"
Port Costa Post Office, ink and watercolor, 5x7"

Port Costa is a strange, tiny, rundown town and a popular destination for motorcyclists out riding the winding roads in herds on noisy Harleys. At the end of  town, by the railroad tracks and behind their cracked and crumbling Post Office I sketched above, is the Warehouse Cafe, a seedy bar in a ramshackle warehouse with cheap, stiff drinks, a funky outdoor deck, and a surly female bartender (perfectly described in this collection of hilarious Yelp reviews).

Port Costa Bikers Saddling Up
Port Costa Bikers Saddling Up in Front of Post Office

The bikers roar into town, have themselves a breakfast beer or two and ride out. While they seemed like a bunch of  tough, old burn-out guys with beer guts and women who looked “rode hard and put away wet,” they were very polite when I asked them questions about their (very expensive) bikes.

Bikers Lining up to Leave (Arrow is where I was sitting to sketch)
Bikers Lining up to Leave (Arrow is where I was sitting to sketch)

It turned out that the corner where I was sketching (red arrow in photo) is where they line up before tearing out of town in a caravan of ear-splitting noise, leaving behind a cloud of flying dust and gravel from the barely paved road. I had to pull my sweatshirt over my face and plug my ears every time a group tore off. My friend Beth Bourland posted some great pics of the day here including one of me so focused sketching I didn’t even know she took the picture.

Besides the bikers, it’s a fun place to paint so my plein air group meets there once a year. And then same thing always happens: we set up for our critique on the patio at the Warehouse Bar and just as we start to talk about the day’s work, they crank up the music on the outdoor speakers so loud that we can’t hear a thing and have to move all our stuff down the street to a quieter spot. Is it a coincidence? Does their music always go full blast at 1:15? Or are they trying to keep away the wrong sort of customers (us)?

Categories
Berkeley Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Painting Places Shop windows Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Cafe Rouge, 4th Street, Berkeley

Cafe Rouge at Sunset, Ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Cafe Rouge at Sunset, Ink & watercolor, 5x7"

We were all a little late for our Tuesday night sketching. We met by Peet’s Coffee and then wandered off to sketch what caught our interests. It was cold out and the sun was setting but Cafe Rouge looked warm and inviting with their red chairs and umbrellas.

Categories
Bay Area Parks Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Lake Anza Life Guard On Duty

Lake Anza Lifeguard, ink & watercolor, 5x7"
Lake Anza Lifeguard, ink & watercolor, 5x7"

I took my two favorite 12-year-old girls to Tilden Park for a Friday afternoon outing on a rare sunny day in this horrible summer of fog and wind. My plan was to relax and read on the beach while the girls played in the water and then take them to the carousel and the Little Farm Nature Area.

Sketchy people, Lake Anza
Sketchy people, Lake Anza

After a little picnic the girls gleefully headed into the water, I reached for my book and discovered I’d forgotten it. Fortunately I had my journal so instead of reading a book I drew in one.

More sketchy people
Wrong lifeguard stand and more sketchy people

My first attempt at drawing the lifeguard stand got the perspective all wrong so I used that page for more sketches of people.

The girls were having so much fun in the water, swimming, chatting, and fooling around that I couldn’t get them out until 5:00. I promised that if we have another sunny Friday this summer I’ll take them again. But this time I will remember my book and, if it’s warm enough, my bathing suit!

Categories
Gouache Landscape Oil Painting Outdoors/Landscape Painting Places Sketchbook Pages

Here Comes the Fog

Here Comes the Fog, Oil on Panel, 5x7"
Here Comes the Fog, Oil on Panel, 5x7"

“Here Comes the Fog” is an all too common saying around here. It can be a hot, sunny day like this one at Linda Mar Beach in Pacifica. Then the fog comes rolling in, the sun disappears, and you need your jacket instead of your bathing suit. It was one of the first things I learned when I moved to the Bay Area: never leave home without a jacket, no matter what. (Painting available here).

Watercolor & Gouache preliminary study
Watercolor & Gouache preliminary study

This was a quick study in my sketchbook from the photo I took when I visited the beach in June. I used watercolor and gouache to ease back into that day at the beach.

Original photo reference
Original photo reference
Categories
Berkeley Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Painting People Places Sketchbook Pages

Tanks and Tipplers at Pyramid Brewery

Pyramid Brewery Tanks and Tipplers, ink & watercolor 7x5"
Pyramid Brewery Tanks and Tipplers, ink & watercolor 7x5"

We’d sketched at Pyramid in the evening before, (here and here) but this was the first time it was light in the brewery area. We could see the network of pipes and vessels where they brew the beer through the giant windows.

I’m not sure why I decided to do two sketches on one page that night. I guess I was feeling a little stingy with the paper. I did a couple more scribbly sketches of people that weren’t worth posting.

Our waitress was so kind and patient, not minding that four of us took over a large booth for two hours only ordering a few things. We left a good tip and thanked her. She said she was a musician herself and understood.

Categories
Building Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Landscape Painting Places Pt. Richmond Urban Sketchers

Point Richmond: Sip and Swim

Richmond Plunge (AKA Natatorium), ink & watercolor 5x7"
Richmond Plunge (AKA Municipal Natatorium), ink & watercolor 5x7"

It was so cold, cloudy and windy the morning my plein air group met to paint in Pt. Richmond I decided to start out by sketching from my car. The old Richmond Plunge, now completely and beautifully restored, is the first thing you see when you drive into Pt. Richmond. After I finished the sketch I crossed the street and explored the building and pool. Wow! I’m inspired to start swimming again.

Little Louies, Pt. Richmond, Ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Little Louies, Pt. Richmond, Ink & watercolor, 7x5"

After my tour of the Natatorium, I headed to the main street of this little town, looking for a spot out of the wind to sketch. But I was seduced indoors by seeing my friend Sonia sketching at a table sipping a warm cup of tea. I joined her at the window table with a huge tray of apples on it and ordered a cup of coffee.

I started by drawing the apples on our table and then just kept going, drawing each next thing I saw. I was a little worried about getting the wonderful patterned floor tiles right, but took it slowly and they came out ok.

I liked Little Louie’s so much I returned the next morning with a friend for breakfast. I had a fabulous spinach, mushroom, bacon and cheddar omelet that was so big I had to take half of it home for lunch.

Categories
Life in general Oil Painting Painting Still Life

Eight Dollar Eggs!

Eight Dollar Eggs, oil on panel, 6x6"
Eight Dollar Eggs, oil on panel, 6x6"

I’ve been trying to eat a healthier diet and choosing produce and meat that has been sustainably grown. Unfortunately, while the farming may be sustainable, often the prices aren’t.

I bought one dozen eggs from a Marin County farm at the local farmers’ market. The vendor explained how the chickens were totally free-range and so got to eat greens and bugs along with their organic vegetarian feed.

“In fact,” he bragged as he took my money, “the chickens follow the cows around and eat the maggots from their dung!” Yum! Protein!

Despite their fine, buggy diet, these eggs seemed neither fresher nor tastier than the free-range organic eggs I get at Trader Joes for less than half the $8.00 I paid for this dozen.

To try to get a little more value out of my investment, I made one of the pretty light blue eggs pose for a still life. I like the way that the lighting coming from below gives the painting a slightly spooky look.

Painting available here.

Categories
Animals Drawing Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages

Barbara’s Chicks All Grown Up and Bye-Bye Tate the Bunny

Barbara's Chickens All Grown Up, ink & watercolor 7x5"
Barbara's Chickens All Grown Up, ink & watercolor 7x5"

The first time I got to sketch Barbara’s chickens they were these cute little chicks. Now they’re full-grown laying ladies and hilarious to watch as they run about with their tiny bird brains. Barbara has built the most amazing Chicken World for them in her yard, where they can run free and eat bugs and organic greens, safe from predators (raccoons are a big problem here), or snuggle in their cozy nesting house.

Gertie and the Bunny
Gertie the Dog and Tate the Bunny

The last time we sketched in her garden I sketched Gertie from the front. Here she is from the back. She is a wonderful, loving, and very furry pooch. Then I started trying to sketch the bunny Barbara was babysitting for her daughter. The bunny was so twitchy, didn’t hold still and so fluffy as to be seemingly amorphous. But I knew there were some basic shapes in there somewhere so I kept trying to find them.

In the sketch above I finally did find the basic shape of a bunny. In the first attempts below, not so much. (I love that phrase “not so much” even though I’m sure it’s become passé by now, along with “Really?”, “You think?”, “How’s that working for you?”  and “Meh.” Don’t know where those came from but I still like them for their sarcastic yet humorous tone.)

Bunny first attempts; completely at a loss
Bunny first attempts; completely at a loss

Above are the first attempts at the bunny, in which I became totally frustrated but didn’t give up. I’m glad I got to draw him since shortly after our sketch night he passed away from a recurrence of a serious illness he’d fought several times before. I hope he has found a home in bunny heaven as nice as the one he had with Barbara’s family.

Categories
Art theory Flower Art Oil Painting Painting Rose Still Life

Blowsy Rosies

Blowsie Roses, oil on Gesobord panel, 6x6"
Blowsy Roses, oil on Gessobord panel, 6x6"

Blowsy. [Adjective: (of a woman) Coarse, untidy, and red-faced.] That’s just what these roses were when I picked them from my poor neglected rose bush: brightly colored but messy and past their prime; yet they were just fine as my model.

It seems like once I gave myself permission to work on a painting as long as I wanted to, I’ve started being able to finish them more quickly. And it’s not just the small size;  I’ve spent hours and days on other 6×6″ paintings in the past.

It could have gone even more quickly than the three hours I spent on it, had I left some of my earliest brushstrokes alone. I just find it hard to believe they were right the first time, even though that was my goal with this painting: to put down the right strokes with the right color, temperature and value and then leave them alone. (Or scrape off the stroke immediately if it’s wrong and replace it with the “right” one, rather than adding more and more paint, which eventually leads to making mud.)

I also tried to focus on using warm and cool colors to shape the form, along with the dark and light values. I’d also like to cite my inspiration for this painting, Kathryn Townsend, whose flower paintings mesmerize me.