Tag: Berkeley

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Berkeley Ink and watercolor wash Outdoors/Landscape Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Top of the Top of Solano Avenue, Berkeley

Top of Solano Ave, Berkeley, Ink & watercolor, 5x7.5"
Top of the Top of Solano Ave, Berkeley, Ink & watercolor, 5×7.5″When we

When Cathy said, “Let’s sketch at the top of Solano Avenue Tuesday night” I chose to  literally sketch the top of Solano: looking up and drawing the tops of streetlights, buildings and trees.

It’s common here to refer to the “top” and “bottom” of streets when they’re on a hill, and 2-mile long Solano is on a slight incline as it runs from the start of the Berkeley Hills at The Alameda (just a street, but for some reason called “The Alameda”), down almost to the bay. I sat at a table outside a café and sketched the view at sunset. There are so many beautiful trees in Berkeley!

 

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Art business Oil Painting

Invite and Sneak Peak of Art Show Reception Friday August 9

My wall in the group show at the Collector
My wall in the group show at the Collector

Here is a peek at my wall in the Collector Gallery in Berkeley’s Elmwood district showing 12 oil paintings. I have more small paintings displayed off the wall in the gallery. The largest painting on the wall (Happy Boy Farms Tomatoes) is 12×12 inches and the smallest is 6×6 inches.

If you’re in the area please stop by for music, refreshments and to see these and the interesting work by the other four artists in this show. And for further enticement, it doesn’t hurt that Berkeley’s most popular ice cream shop is right next door.

August 9 2013 reception flyer
August 9 2013 reception flyer

Above is the postcard for the reception Friday night from 6-8 at the The Collector Gallery in Berkeley at 2950 College Avenue.  (Download Collector reception flyer pdf).

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Berkeley Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Sketchbook Pages Urban Sketchers

Swingin’ at Caffe Trieste, Berkeley

Tuesday Night at Cafe Trieste, ink & watercolor, 8x10"
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.

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Berkeley Ink and watercolor wash Landscape Outdoors/Landscape Watercolor

Teddy Bear Fountain, Berkeley

Teddy Bear Fountain, Berkeley, ink & watercolor, 8x11"
Teddy Bear Fountain, Berkeley, ink & watercolor, 8×11″

I was excited to sketch Berkeley’s 100-year-old Teddy Bear Fountain again. We found the perfect viewpoint, I sat down on the carved stone bench, pulled out my pen, opened my bag and discovered I’d forgotten my sketchbook! DUH! Fortunately Cristina had a 9×12 watercolor block with her and she let me use it.

When I sketched the fountain before I wasn’t happy with the results so I decided to start with pencil on the complicated scene this time. There was an odd optical illusion; it appeared that the water was only falling behind the fountain so that’s how I painted it. I also intentionally shrunk the width of the base of the fountain.

The sun was setting when I finished drawing so I added paint at home. Please check out Cristina’s comprehensive sketch of the scene and Cathy’s previous sketch that is now featured on Berkeley Library cards. Below is the photo I took before I started drawing.

Teddy Bear Fountain Photo
Teddy Bear Fountain Photo
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Berkeley Ink and watercolor wash Sketchbook Pages

Crazy Chicks at Poulet: A Poultry Panorama

Sketch of Crazy Ceramic Chickens 1 at Poulet, ink & watercolor, 5x8"
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.

Sketch of Crazy Ceramic Chickens 2 at Poulet, ink & watercolor, 5x8"
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).
Poultry Panorama (2-page spread in my sketchbook).

On our Urban Sketchers blog you can see Ceiny’s sketches of the café, starring some of the same chickens and Cathy’s sketches of the scene.

Categories
Berkeley Ink and watercolor wash Interiors Sketchbook Pages

Pyramid Plates and Brew

Ale and Ale Drinkers, ink & watercolor sketch, 5x8"
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, 5x8"
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!

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

Tickle Your Tastebuds: Gaumenkitzel

Sketching German Cookies, ink & watercolor, 5x8"
Sketching German Cookies, ink & watercolor, 5×8″

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.

20121222-Gaumenkitzel

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.