No those aren’t circus dogs stacked up in a doggie pyramid, I just drew them that way as dogs came and went, begging for scraps at the table where the couple was eating lunch.
I’d planned to spend the day in the studio today, but when Barbara called to invite me for a walk at Pt. Isabel, I couldn’t resist. Since it was sunny and not too windy (or so I thought) I also brought along my plein air gear, thinking I might set up to paint there after our walk. But we took a L-O-N-G walk on the Bay Trail with an equally long walk back, and then had a late lunch at the Sit Stay Cafe in the dog park.
The wind had picked up and I was getting cold and didn’t really feel like spending 3 hours standing in the wind (see top left picture with poor bent over tree from the constant ocean winds). So while I was trying to decide, Barbara took out her sketchbook and I decided to do the same. By the time I finished it was already 4:00 and another weekend was nearly over.
But a day with good solid exercise and a little sketching is a good day and it counts. (Unlike some days that just suck and don’t count.)
The weather is gorgeous in the S.F. Bay Area today, sunny and warm with a gentle breeze. It inspired me to drag my old bike out of hiding and go for my first bike ride in two years. Of course the tires were completely flat. I got my first bit of exercise pumping up the tires (while managing to get chain grease all over myself working from the wrong side of the bike.) Finally took off down the street and 3 blocks later realized that when the front tire pointed straight ahead, the handles bars were turned to the left.
Rode back home, called bike store, got directions to fix it, used wrong little L-shaped wrench thingee which got stuck in the hole, called bike store again, found the correct metric wrench they said to use in my son’s tools he left behind in my garage, got the stuck one out, tried again, but couldn’t loosen the bolt. Looked around to see if there were any men home on the block who could strong-arm it for me. No men home.
Called sons (both avid cyclists). Son #1 not answering. Son #2 was working from home and was so sweet, came right over and fixed it for me. Finally, two hours after I first planned to leave, I was on my way, down to the Bay Trail.
It was glorious! I rode through Richmond Annex, crossed over the freeway on the pedestrian bridge at Sacramento St., over to Central, down to the Bay Trail, and rode all the way to the Rosie the Riveter Monument and National Park in Richmond. I stopped to paint the ship “Amazing Grace” (above) in the Marina Bay Yacht Harbor.
Sit Stay Cafe at Pt. Isabell, ink & watercolor, 6x9"
My reward on the way home was lunch at the Sit Stay Cafe at Pt. Isabel. I was sitting under a bright red-orange umbrella there when I painted this and so all the colors came out really weird (that’s the bay and SF in the distance on upper right). I loved the body language of the people and the dogs. Pt. Isabel is an enormous dog park along the bay with spectacular views. The cafe is next door to Mud Puppy’s Tub and Scrub dog bathing shop, so the patio and cafe are dog friendly.
What a great day! The views of the bay, the harbors, the city, were spectacular, the sun hot and the breezes cooling. Doesn’t get much better than this! Definitely an Amazing Grace kind of day!
"Who Am I" according to Snoop Dog #1, Ink & Gouache
Continuing with International Fake Journal Month, and my (fake) search for my identity by listening to lyrics of songs titled “Who Am I.” Today my clues come from Snoop Doggy Dog’s (unlistenable, disgusting) song “Who Am I: What’s My Name.” According to his lyrics:
Now just throw your hands in the xxx air
And wave the xxxs like ya just don’t care.
I step through the fog and I creep through the smog
cuz I’m Snoop Doggy (what?) Doggy (what?) Doggy [Dog].
The Biggest Nuts, Ink & Gouache
Then he says:
“…with the biggest nuts and guess what?
He is I, and I am him, slim with the tilted brim.”
I listened to samples of Snoop’s catalog on Amazon while I was sketching and decided that he has an awful potty mouth, doesn’t make sense and therefore must discard his clues. Clearly, despite his claims, I am neither the one with the biggest nuts nor a dog. But I loved throwing my hands in the air and waving ’em like I just don’t care.
We’re expecting a series of big storms for the next week but the weather today was comfortable, no wind and in the 50s. Although I’ve been working on another painting and wanted to keep going on it, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to get outside and paint before the storm hits.
I headed down to nearby Pt. Isabel, an enormous park along the bay that is designated as an off-leash dog park. It has spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge but smog, fog and clouds made the visibility so bad that I picked a closer view.
I’m really excited about the breakthrough I had yesterday with oil painting, and how I was able to apply it to this little painting. Up until yesterday I’d been using various oil painting mediums to thin the paint and what I kept ending up with was thin, washed out, chalky, greyed, paint; stickiness and smell from alkyd mediums and smell (and toxins) from turpentine. I’d heard people say they used little to no medium and I couldn’t understand how that was possible. It seemed like the paint would be too thick and hard to manipulate without first thinning it down.
I finally tried it and was shocked to discover it works! Of course it means using a lot more paint, especially on this coarser canvas, but I was able to put down one layer of paint, and leave it. If I made a mistake I could scrape the paint off of that section and repaint it, no problem. Before when I tried to do that, there wasn’t really anything to scrape off because my paint was sooooo thin.
I did this painting in about an hour. I know the dogs look a little dorky, but it’s just a little oil sketch, so who cares. Then I was able to go home and continue working on the painting in progress in my studio. That painting is almost finished and I’m just so excited that after all the work and study I’ve put into oil painting it at last feels as if I’m getting somewhere. And I still have 5 more days of vacation!
Barbara and I were taking a walk across the University of California’s Berkeley campus a couple of weeks ago in a drizzling rain. As we turned a corner we heard barking and then saw this little dog barking at a stone bear (the U.C. mascot). His owners were laughing as the well-dressed pup gradually inched his way closer, barking all the way. I barely had time to get my camera out of its case and snap a picture before they moved on.
Tonight I started to draw the scene from my photo in my watercolor Moleskine with an .01 Micron Pigma but it just wasn’t happening — just couldn’t get in the flow. So I abandoned the drawing and switched to the Raffine sketchbook and an .03 Micron Pigma. Somehow the fatter line worked better and let me be more playful with my lines as I drew. Meanwhile, my painting group and I were listening to some good music, chatting, and drinking Bengal Spice herb tea.
Last night I had a brief and ugly night’s sleep that was cut even shorter by my cats at 6:00 a.m. Busby came crashing into my room, his head stuck in the handle of a brown paper grocery bag. He managed to break free of it with that grand entrance, but that was the end of my fitful sleep. So I’m off now to try for better luck tonight!
Watercolor and Micron Pigma Brush Pen in Raffine 6″x9″ Sketchbook
Yesterday I’d planned to spend the day in the studio but it was such a surprisingly nice day that I decided to go sketch at the dog park which is only about a mile from my house. Pt. Isabelle is a 23 acre park where dogs are allowed off leash and can run, swim and play. It’s on the S. F. Bay with stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge. I sat on a bench along the path and watched the passing parade of canines and their owners. One very large dog turned out to be a miniature horse, the size of a Great Dane, and she caused quite a stir. I overheard her owner telling the gathering crowd that they take her places in their mini-van and that she sleeps outdoors but comes in the house and hangs out with the family. That brought back fond memories of my favorite childhood book, Pippi Longstocking, whose horse lived with her indoors.
Every dog that passed by took a turn peeing on the post beside my bench but none would hold still long enough for me to draw them. I filled several pages with partial dogs and then switched to doggie stick figures, just trying to capture their gestures and shapes. It was a hoot eavesdropping on the conversations I heard with owners and their dogs: “Now, Isis, I told you not to do that…stop it now Isis or else you’ll be sorry when you get home, Isis, stay, no, stay, I told you to stay….” It reminded me of the Far Side cartoon that goes:
What you say: Oh Ginger, that was a bad thing. You’re a bad, bad dog, Ginger. What a dog hears: Blah Ginger, blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah, Ginger.
After I’d finished the second picture it got really windy and foggy so I headed home, happy to be in the studio having enjoyed what may have been the last nice day before winter hit. Today it rained all day.
This is a picture of a special dog named Kip when he was still a pup. He used to belong to my wonderful neighbors who named him Bingo. (They will sound not so wonderful here, but they really are the most loving family I’ve known–they’re just not pet people.) With three children under 5 and no experience with dogs, Bingo was soon relegated to a life alone in the backyard. He cried a lot and ran in circles, but relished every moment he had with the children when they visited him in the yard.
I took him for walks when I could, gave the family a book on housetraining, and tried to help them understand what it meant to care for a puppy. Then I helped them understand that they’d made a mistake getting a dog, since winter was coming and the dog would not be allowed inside. I couldn’t bear to see him alone all the time, with ants in his food, and no place to poop but the patio. They agreed, sadly, but knowing it was right.
That’s when my friend M. decided to adopt him. She renamed him Kip and they became best friends. She took him to puppy school, and she loved him even though he ate her socks and had to have one surgically removed from his stomach. She treated him like the special little prince he is and I got to join them on walks at the Pt. Isabelle dog park near my house. Then they moved to a small town in Oregon and I haven’t seen him for a long time. I’m trying to plan a visit to them next month.
I painted this from a photo I took of him when he was just six months old. It’s watercolor on 8 x 12 watercolor paper. I stopped before it was overworked (yay!) or even finished — something I’ve been trying to do for a while. The background in the photo was entirely green grass. I wasn’t sure that’s what I want for a background so I decided to just stop and think about it and maybe experiment in Photoshop with some possible background compositions and see what works or just decide to leave it white. I think it needs something–shadows at least–so that he’s grounded and not floating. Any suggestions would be welcomed. You can see a larger version by clicking on the image which will take you to FLickr and then clicking on All Sizes and then Large.
Jana Bouc, Artist 
