It was 86 degrees but quite comfortable in the shade of an umbrella, on the patio at Peets Coffee in Pinole, where I sipped my iced latte and sketched this view of the parking lot and hills behind it. I’d dropped off a key at my son’s house nearby and then done my grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s and decided I deserved a delicious icy reward next door at Peets.
Mr. Fidget keeps moving
This guy never stopped moving, feet up on a chair, knees up, leaning sideways, feet under chair, flip-flops on, off. I was so happy when he put his feet back on the ground so I could finish the sketch. It felt good to slow down on a busy day and sit and draw, but when I checked my watch I realized my groceries had been baking in the car for nearly an hour. I packed up and added watercolor at home.
4th Street Jazz Festival- by Jana4th Street Jazz Festival-by Casey
Casey Toussaint and her son Paul are visiting from France and I had the pleasure of spending Sunday with them. After a quick visit to my house and studio, we headed down to the Berkeley Marina to cool off on an unseasonably hot day.
Casey & Paul on Berkeley Pier
We walked to the end of Berkeley’s long pier on San Francisco Bay with views of the Golden Gate Bridge (which Paul wanted to see) and there was a wonderful cool breeze coming in off the ocean. Then we had a delicious lunch at Skates on the Bay, where we had a window seat and watched birds nesting under the eaves and sailboats tacking back and forth on the choppy bay.
Casey & Jana @ Skates
On the way to our next stop (Dick Blick Art Supplies to pick up a large sketchbook to bring to the afternoon session of the figure drawing marathon sponsored by the Bay Area Models Guild at Merritt College in Oakland) we passed Berkeley’s Fourth Street boutique/foodie shopping area. We saw that the street was blocked off with a sign, “Fourth Street Jazz Festival” and decided to nix the figure drawing and sketch at the festival instead.
Casey sketching at Peets Fourth Street
We strolled the street and then settled at Peets Coffee for coffee and sketching where we did the two sketches at the top of the post. Casey works quickly, with wonderfully expressive lines, and got in a few more sketches from Peets:
4th Street people by CaseyMore 4th St people by Casey
After an hour or two we connected with Paul again, walked over to Blick’s for Casey’s art supply shopping and then headed to Telegraph Avenue and the University of California campus. Casey and I found a spot we wanted to sketch on campus so Paul headed back down Telegraph to Amoeba Records, a huge used CD/record store.
UC Campus building by JanaJana's sketch and buildingCasey's sketch of the building
When we met Paul back at Amoeba a couple hours later, I was hungry and we decided to head out for dinner. We all felt like Mexican food so I took them to Solano Avenue’s Cactus Taqueria. Paul was quite impressed by the size of the burrito he was served, and took photos of it. I learned that servings are much smaller in French restaurants and that it takes 5 or 6 years of serious study before someone can become a baker. He was surprised that here all one need do to beome a baker is to open a bakery and start baking.
Casey at UC Berkeley
As the sun was setting I drove them back to San Francisco. The fog had rolled in, ending the heat wave, and as we traveled across the Bay Bridge we had amazing views of San Francisco rising up out of the fog bank, sillouhetted by the setting sun. I drove really slowly across the bridge so Paul could take pictures and he got some great ones.
On the last dayof vacation before returning to work, the world outside my windows looked raw, blustery and wet after a frost-covered morning. Hibernating sounded good, but I was feeling uninspired and blah and could tell if I stayed home I was just going to mope around. Since I needed to pick up my my sunglasses from the optometrist, I decided to walk up there.
I almost turned back after the first couple of blocks. My ears were cold and my feet were complaining. But I kept going and eventually began to perk up and enjoy myself. By the time I got to Peets Coffee (a mile later and across the street from my eye doctor’s office in El Cerrito Plaza) I was feeling enthusiastic and cheerful. With a hot latte in my hand, I sat at a cafe table outside Peets and sketched this odd chain restaurant across the street.
I ate there once when it first opened (I was curious about the new restaurant in my neighborhood) and enjoyed it, but have never been able to get anyone to go back there with me. With so many unique and trendy restaurants in the Berkeley area, I suppose there’s really no reason to go to a “big box” version of an Italian restaurant, though people do seem to pack the place on weekends.
But I’ve always had an aversion to stupid business names, and the name “Macaroni Grill” irks me. I keep picturing the chef trying to grill slippery macaroni and cheese, with all the noodles falling through the grill grates. When I was a kid I remember being annoyed by a hair salon named “Lipstick Beauty Parlor,” which I thought made no sense.
New Sunglasses
While I was waiting at the optometris’ts office, I started sketching a stand that holds many pairs of eye glasses. There were too many tiny, overlapping details and I wasn’t really interested. Fortunately the optician arrived with my glasses so I stopped. When I got home, instead of leaving a partially messed up page I turned the page 90 degrees and added a quick sketch of my sunglasses (from memory) and then stuck myself in them.
Coffee & White Socks, 8x6", pencil sketch in sketchbook
Trying to recover from a caffeine hangover headache this morning, and completely out of coffee at home, I walked (slowly) to Peet’s for a latte and a bag of beans to replenish my supply. While I was sipping and sketching this lady, two clerks from the nearby Trader Joes sat at the table next to me and held a training session that provided an interesting behind-the-scenes look at the grocery business for the always curious (and eavesdropping) me.
They took turns reading aloud from a document contained in a bright blue cardboard folder. I learned that the average checker completes about 200 sales per day and that that number is used to compare the productivity of workers. I learned about when and why they have to declare goods unsellable and that they then donate them to food banks, including flowers.
They pondered that one for a while, trying to figure out who would actually want unsellable flowers and what they would do with them. They concluded that food banks probably don’t need flowers so they must go elsewhere. But I was thinking the flowers would be nice to brighten the homes of the needy people getting the food.
After taking a huge load of stuff to Goodwill and the recycling center (that came from three days of reorganizing the studio, which led to cleaning out my closets, cabinets and the garage) my reward was a latte at Peets (and what feels like a fabulous new, spacious studio!).
Now that I’m nearly done with this organizing/rearranging project it was great to relax and just draw what I could see out the window while I sipped my coffee.
This is another sketch inspired by Pete Sculley’s drawings with incorporated overheard snippets of conversation. (overheard: “I know you can’t make any decisions.” “My parents are here and I can’t just send them home.”)
Next time I’ll post photos of my newly organized studio.
Jana Bouc, Artist 
