Rose Reverence, oil on Gessobord panel, 10x10" - SOLD
My riotously rampant roses were bursting forth from their bushes so I had to put other plans aside and paint them. Their fruity scent was as intoxicating as their vibrant colors. These were two different kinds of roses, both of which change colors and shape as they open so I had to work quickly to complete this painting in one session.
I left the still life set up just in case I needed to fix anything the next morning. But of course by then they were completely different roses. And the painting was complete.
Saturday was the 31st Worldwide Sketchcrawl and I joined the San Francisco group to explore the Mission District and sketch. I tagged along with my friend Pete Scully who had mapped out a route that included stops at two famous S.F. comic book stores.
Sketcher at a.m. meetup at Dolores Cafe
While waiting for the crawl to begin everyone sat and stood around drawing everyone else. See Pete’s sketch of me seriously sketching here.
Pete Sketching atop stairs
Later, while Pete climbed up a set of stairs to draw a Victorian house, I sketched him sketching and then picked up some lunch at a cafe up the street.
Fire Hydrant and Mission Dolores
Since I was sketching with Pete, of course we had to stop and draw a fire hydrant (see Pete’s fire hydrant series here). I was amused by the similarity of shapes in the tower atop Mission Dolores and the fire plug.
Mission Mariachis standing around
I don’t know what these guys were waiting for but they never did play.
Old "New Mission Theatre"
The theater is defunct, the sign peeling and is dwarfed by neighboring Giant Value big box store. I bet the theater was beautiful when it was new.
Below, some BART people on the very bumpy ride to SF. I’m finding that as much as I love my fountain pen for its smooth flowing, I have less control, especially when drawing on transit or when standing.
Warrior in full leather (and kilt), ink & watercolor
Moving on from the bagpipers in the last post to some of the other characters I met at the Scottish Festival. Except for the kilt, this guy could have been in Mad Max. I asked him about his metal cup since nearly every person in character either was carrying one or had one clipped to their belts. I asked whether drinking was an important part of the culture. He said no, that when you were served beverages you were expected to have your own goblet or mug, they weren’t provided.
Sitting in the Clan Cian booth
This old gent with the long white hair and beard was one of the most authentic-looking characters.
Mary Queen of Scotts
She behaved quite regally but seemed to be a kind sovereign.
Serving girl
She was hanging out and helping to serve in the beer garden. I added extra length to her skirt using Photoshop cloning after my sister pointed out she looked to be standing in a hole or missing feet because her skirt wasn’t long enough.
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A tent was set up to demonstrate how the lords and ladies traveled in style, with full silver settings, rugs, bedding and furniture. They could only travel (to visit other lords and ladies) very short distances each day in their wagons because of the weight and all the setting up required for their servants to create a home away from home each day.
Romans waiting by a small fire truck for a parade to begin
Along with Scots there were Romans, Vikings and even a couple of pirates.
Macintosh Pipe Band Woman, ink & watercolor in small WC Moleskine
When the Scottish Tartan Festival came to Ardenwood Historic Farm in Fremont, Cathy and I arrived at the start of the festivities to sketch. We were greeted by a royal retinue of people in full costume. They stayed in character all day, acting out scenes from Scottish history. Along with the re-enactors there was a bagpipe band, booths for clans, beer, food, craft vendors, demonstrations of kilt wrapping, and pole-tossing competitions.
Macintosh Pipe Band Woman, ink & watercolor in small WC Moleskine
I’d filled my last handmade sketchbook and didn’t have time to bind another so I was using a small watercolor Moleskine and my fountain pen. I wasn’t used to such a small page and it was a bit of a struggle with a too thick line on a very small page.
Sporran: Furry man purses worn with kilts (two sketchbook pages assembled in Photoshop)
All of the men in kilts were wearing frontal fanny packs made of fur or leather called “Sporran” (roll those r’s). I had to take a photo (pasted into sketchbook above) of one gentleman’s sporran made from an actual badger! People were very friendly and happy to explain things to us and didn’t mind us sketching them.
Macintosh Bagpiper and Drummer
I was fascinated by the bagpipes and drew them repeatedly until I understood what I was seeing. They looked like brown corduroy vacuum bags with a bunch of pipes sticking out of them. The bags are lined with leather or Goretex but used to be made from sheep or goat stomachs.
Bag pipe contestant
There were judging stations set up around the park where young pipers performed and judges carefully rated their performances. This guy (above) left before I’d finished drawing him but I like the sketch anyway. Most of the pipe band members appeared to be of retirement age. I asked one when he started playing bagpipes (glad my kids never wanted to learn bagpipe!). He said that he started in his 50s and most of the band had started playing as adults too.
Pipe Band and Dancer
There were some lovely young dancers performing on the stage while the pipe band played but I was so intent on drawing the pipers I nearly missed seeing the dancers.
I thought it was interesting that ALL of the bagpipers wore earplugs.
Next time I’ll post my sketches of the people in period costumes.
Capitol Corridor Amtrak Conductor, Oil on stretched canvas, 16x12"
When my Urban Sketchers group took the train to Sacramento for some sketching (posted here and here) I made a pest of myself taking pictures of our conductor, chasing him around the train and station. A train conductor for over 40 years, he kindly put up with me.
The painting above is my second attempt at painting the conductor (after working and reworking and eventually abandoning a previous canvas). I painted this in one day, intending to return and finish it after putting in my time at my “day job.” When I returned to the studio I realized that I’d said what I wanted to say with the painting and had nothing more to add. I was done.
This was really thrilling as it helped to reinforce my recent discovery that the path I want to follow in oil painting is to work directly, alla prima (all at once). I find it so much more fun than fussing around with many layers, for many days, until everything is “perfect” (otherwise known as overworked, over-detailed and ultimately, boring to look at it because there’s nothing for the viewer’s mind to contribute).
Below is my unfinished, abandoned first attempt (scraped and repainted multiple times) from a dim, blurry bad photo shot with poor lighting inside the train.
Incomplete first attempt, oil on canvas 16x12"
I included way too much of the train in the composition because I was interested in the light and reflections on the ceiling. But painting all those seats was really boring. Eventually I figured out this version just wasn’t going to work and I started over with a better photo, cropped in more closely, for the painting at the top of the post.
I’ve been taking photos of people at work in my neighborhood that will be part of this series. Next up the butcher and the coffee barista.
Last week the Urban Sketchers Flickr group had lighting as their theme so our Urban Sketchers group focused on lighting too. When I walked into Picante the first thing I noticed was the way the wall sconces shined up at wonderfully bizarre masks all around the room.
Picante Mask Lights, ink & watercolor
Along with the great masks, the ceiling is festooned with row after row of vibrantly colored hanging Mexican cut-paper art work.
Several different diners and children stopped at our table to complement our sketches. The children were particularly enthusiastic. And (as usual) everyone told us they can’t draw. And as usual we told them that anyone can draw if they just practice and that it doesn’t have to be good, just fun.
Pointing the Way To...? Mountain View Cemetery, ink & watercolor
I had planned to oil paint with my plein air group at Mountain View Cemetery but there were just too many interesting sights to explore to plant myself in one spot with an easel. I switched to ink and watercolor which is so much more portable. I wonder what the statue above is supposed to be pointing towards?
Mountain View Cemetery Entrance, ink & watercolor
The entrance and central plaza is planted with thousands (?) of tulips. I hoped they would be in bloom but I only spotted one early bird. This cemetery is such a beautiful and historic place (as you can see in this photo slide show).
Weeping Willow and Pond, Ink & watercolor
This pond and little waterfall beneath a gigantic weeping willow tree (above) is one of my favorite spots in the cemetery, hidden just behind the entrance gate. I’ve tried to paint it before and have yet to get it right. Maybe next time.
Mountain View Cemetery Statues, ink and watercolor
After the group left I stayed behind to draw a couple more of the statues. The life-sized angel on the left was bunching up her robes, looking off into the distance. The one on the right is yet another female statue pointing at something in the distance.
I’m curious about how people chose or designed their statues in the 1800s. Were they built to order or were there standard designs they could buy? Why are they almost all women? I suppose in death, like birth, a mother watching over us is comforting, even if she’s looking or pointing at something else.
Capetown Company Gardens, South Africa, oil on panel, 9x12"
During a very rainy week it’s been wonderful to have this sunny view to paint from Google Street View for Virtual Paintout‘s March location of Cape Town, South Africa. It will be interesting to see how (and hopefully if) my winter practice with landscape painting in oil carries over to painting real landscapes outdoors. Now that the rainy season seems at last to be over I will soon find out!
A note about the color in the photo: despite my best efforts, I couldn’t get the foreground shadow on the path to perfectly match the color in the painting which is a little more purple and a little less bright.
Here’s the original Google Streetview image:
Google Streetview image: Capetown
If you’re interested in the actual location, just click here for the map. And if you’d like to purchase this painting for $100, just click here.
Playland Not At The Beach Museum of Fun is an amazing place created by a group of volunteers and artists who are passionate about the circus, history, carnivals, and a San Francisco amusement park (now long gone) called Playland at the Beach.
Laughing Sal, ink, gouache & watercolor
Hidden away behind a nondescript storefront in El Cerrito, Playland Not At The Beach is both a museum and a place to play carnival, penny arcade and pinball games (including historic and 3-D pinball machines), watch movies, see magic shows, have parties, explore the world of the circus and the world of Charles Dickens in miniature and much more, with room after room of visual delights, each surpassing the next.
Circus Diorama Detail, ink & watercolor (the actual scene had about 3 times as many characters, but with so much to capture in 2 hours, I picked my favorites for this sketch)
The circus dioramas contain 300,000 hand-carved and hand-painted realistic figures of every kind of person, animal and behind-the-scenes activity (even including the cooks carving up big fish for dinner and the separate men’s and women’s dressing tents with performers washing up or changing clothes) and all the acts under the big top, all created by a man who joined the circus at 14 and his father, who were both lifelong circus lovers. It took a month just to create one elephant, which were each carved from a separate block of wood and are about an inch tall.
The creativity and dedication to follow one’s passion that went into making the circus dioramas brought tears to my eyes and left me intensely inspired.
I know the title sounds like random word salad but since the still life objects are equally random I think it is fitting. The tin can in the painting is from a can of Trader Joe’s Split Pea Soup.
I was fidgeting with the can while the soup was warming in a bowl in the office microwave and in the process removed the label. I was struck by how pretty the can was and so to my office mates’ amusement, I washed out the can to take it home and paint it. It needed companions in the composition; an apple was handy as was a paint brush.
Apple Can Brush, drawn on panel with pastel pencil
I focused on seeing planes values, and putting the paint down and leaving it. The picture above shows the way I sketched out the composition with the planes on the panel with pastel pencil before painting.
I really enjoyed the process and the results. Can’t ask for more than that!
Jana Bouc, Artist 