Peet's Coffee after Manet, Graphite, ink & watercolor
When I walked up to the woman at the counter at Peet’s to order my coffee I started babbling that she looked just like someone in an Impressionist painting. She humored me and asked for my order. I ordered my latte, went back to my table, and Googled “Impressionist Bar Painting” on my iPhone. It didn’t take long before I found it.
Manet, Bar at Folies Bergère
I showed her the image on my phone and asked if she’d pose for me like the woman in the painting and she agreed. I don’t have permission to post her photo so all I can show you is my sketch, which is a study for a larger painting.
Needless to say, I left a good tip for my coffee (and modeling services). And fortunately there wasn’t a line of people waiting for their coffees.
I can see that I need to go back to Peet’s to sketch and take more photos so that I can replace the computer monitor on her left with something more beautiful. Or maybe it’s appropriate to be there? But it sure isn’t as pretty as Manet’s oranges and flowers in crystal.
If you are a fan of Maira Kalman as I am, and you’re anywhere near San Francisco, this show is a must see! It’s the first museum survey of her narrative art and it is absolutely wonderful. If you can’t get there, visit the museum’s website and click on the images on the upper right of that page to see bigger pictures of some of the treasures in the show.
The show includes many of her paintings and some of her collections of oddities like an onion ring collection (yes, literally), a box of small envelopes labeled “The Mosses of Long Island,” and other assorted items including the can of “Mushy Peas” in my sketch below.
Kalman's Mushy Peas and Linen Cabinet (that's a very large cone of twine on top of cabinet)
I did a couple of sketches at the show and took a few notes (above). The well-meaning docent leading a group kept referring to Maira in the past tense as if she were dead. It was driving me crazy so as soon as she finished I pointed it out, mentioning that Maira was very much alive. She thanked me and said she hadn’t realized she’d been doing that. And of course that she knew Maira was alive, as she’d been there for the opening.
You can find out more about Maira Kalman on her website here or on her amazing New York Times illustrated blogs here and here. I also wrote about her process of adding words to her paintings on my blog here (she adds them on a separate transparent sheet, not on the artwork).
Despite this being the coldest summer in the San Francisco Bay Area that I can remember, my tomato plants produced their first little, shiny, red tomato. Now if we’d just get some sun instead of wind and fog, the green ones might get a chance to ripen too.
Ironically, last February some news reports warned that due to global warming, fog along the Californian coast had declined by a third over the past 100 years; the equivalent of three hours a day, dropping from 56 to 42 percent of the time. Meanwhile another report came to the opposite conclusion, saying, “The Bay Area just had its foggiest May in 50 years. And thanks to global warming, it’s about to get even foggier.”
All I know is that this is the first summer that my down comforter and electric blanket have remained on my bed all the way through July. I wouldn’t want to trade for the extreme heat in other parts of the U.S. and the world, but it would be nice to have a little bit of summer before fall!
P.S. In case you have sharp eyes and noticed that the stem behind the tomato seemed to have previously held four tomatoes, you’re right. It was leftover from a purchased bunch of tomatoes on the vine but I thought it was cute and would look nice in this picture.
After work Tuesday night we met to sketch at Lake Merritt which is across the street from my office. I guess I drank too much coffee that day because I couldn’t settle down and focus. There was a fascinating parade of people walking by, all talking to each other or on cellphones, leaving bits of conversation in their wake.
Warmup sketches
I warmed up with some sketches of the local seabirds and passing people, noting a few conversation snippets. That’s an old Chinese lady with a pole over her shoulders carrying huge garbage bags on either side that were bigger than she was. I assume she was gathering cans to recycle for a few dollars.
Lake Merritt apartments, mixed media
When it got cold and windy we headed up to my office on the 25th floor and drew the view out the window. I liked my sketch of the building and tall trees at the bottom of the page but instead of stopping there, I kept drawing until the page was full. I didn’t like that so tried various ways to hide the rest and finally pasted ruled tracing paper over it.
Today is my son Robin’s birthday so I painted this cheery parrot to print on a birthday card for him. I brought the card to his party tonight at Pier 23 in San Francisco, a waterfront “roadhouse pub” where we celebrated on their back deck right on the bay. It got pretty cold out there after the sun went down but their steamed mussels and clams were warm and delicious.
I originally downloaded the photo from MorgueFile.com (a great site for finding copyright-free images) when a student asked for a demo of bird painting and we did some planning for the painting.
Drawing the bird was fun and interesting. I’d never looked that closely at a parrot (or any bird) before and made so many discoveries, from his long, segmented “fingers” to his funny tongue and the varied shapes and colors of his feathers.
I have a friend with an Amazon parrot and I think it’s time for a visit and some sketching in person!
Tuesday night we sketched at UC Berkeley’s Clark Kerr Campus. Built in the 1930’s as a residential school for the deaf, it now serves as home to hundreds of university students and 200 low-income seniors in a peaceful setting of mission style architecture, courtyards and sunny lawns, located just behind rowdy Fraternity Row.
Clark Kerr at Sunset, ink & watercolor
With the students gone for the summer and few of the elderly out and about, we had the place to ourselves. We met at Derby and Claremont and tried to stay in the light, moving west to follow the sun as it set. I enjoyed painting on site, trying to capture the light instead of making many drawings and adding color later as my sketching pals like to do.
Read this brief, wonderfully scandalous “get-even” taleby one of the facility’s elder low-income residents about her earlier life as a mistress to a rich, powerful man who was a member of the Bohemian Club (as was Bush). What a story and how bizarre to find it while Googling for info about the campus.
After Barbara and I took a walk, she picked up her car at the Smog Zone (behind Gilman Auto in Berkeley) and I sketched the car repair shop. I got tricked by the angle of the overhanging roof on the right but I drew it in ink so there it is, wonky as can be.
While drawing I sat in the middle of a planting bed on something not meant as a seat in front of the fancy new McDonalds across the street. I wanted to hurry since I kept expecting to be asked to get out of there (plus the scent of their burgers frying always reminds me of the smell of the boys’ locker room at the high school gym).
So instead of messing with watercolor I used the watercolor pencils I’ve started carrying for quick getaways when it’s not convenient to use water. I was surprised how much brighter and more saturated the color was after I added the water later at home and so wiped some of it off.
Pyramid Brewery, ink & watercolor
That evening Sonia and I met at Pyramid Brewery for Tuesday night sketching. We were both a little out of sorts so it was great to unwind, chat over dinner and a beer, and of course, draw. These guys (above) were wonderful models. They barely changed position and didn’t leave until I finished them. When Pyramid turned the lights down at 9:00 we headed home feeling much better than when we arrived.
Hydrangeas Attempt #2; Painted directly without drawing and ink lines added after finishing attempt #3
During days of dismay at my disappointingly dismal drawing dexterity I determined to draw ’til I improved. But I was under the influence of migraine medicine which fixed the headache but left me drowsy. I actually fell asleep at the drawing table, dropped my brush on the page which woke me up, and had to go lie down for a spell between drawings.
Hydrangeas Attempt #1; drawn in ink, painted with ugly dark background which was then sponged off and a bit more paint added
My hydrangeas are bursting with vibrant blooms so I made them my subject. The first attempt got off to a decent start until I painted a nearly black background, probably due to my really dark mood and being too doped up to know when to stop.
I couldn’t stand the way it looked, so before scanning tonight took a soft, wet sponge and washed off the dark background. Then I dropped a little more color into the wet background.
Hydrangeas Attempt #3, ink & watercolor
I had the most fun with this last attempt, where I drew and painted more loosely, trying to capture the flavor and personality of the flowers.
…keep drawing! After feeling so rusty sketching at the county fair I was determined to get my drawing juju back. I knew the only way to find it was to draw more.
I tried sketching at the El Cerrito 4th of July festival (see below) but was all thumbs again. Since I couldn’t make a decent sketch myself, I bought a really nice one at the festival’s art show from my friend Ikuko who had a booth there.
I decided to try again on the walk home. The Hillside Garden Apartments (at top of post) is an ongoing renovation project and labor of love by the owner to convert an old rundown motel into beautifully landscaped apartments. He and the apartment manager were driving by and saw me standing on the corner sketching. They parked and came to see what I doing and we had a nice neighborly chat with much mutual admiration.
Can't Draw; Ink, watercolor, colored pencil (click to enlarge)
Back home I continued drawing. I was happy with this sketch of a rose from my garden (below) but lost focus and overworked the watercolor. So the next day I played around with adding gouache, not worrying about getting the colors “right” since the rose had completely changed anyway.
Love the (Artist) You're With; Ink, gouache & watercolor
Then I wrote myself a little pep talk around the rose, concluding that even if my drawing wasn’t all I wanted it to be, I could at least stop being so self-critical and, to re-phrase the old Crosby, Stills & Nash song: “If you can’t (yet) be the artist you love, then love the one you’re with!”
Judging the Poultry Presentation (left) and other fair items (right), ink & watercolor
The weather was perfect, Cathy drove us in her comfy car, and the fair wasn’t crowded so it should have been a great day of sketching. There were some fine moments: watching the serious 4H young ladies (above) being judged for their skills at Poultry Presentation was quite charming.
But the day at the fair just wasn’t what I’d hoped. First we discovered that the livestock barn was completely empty and that’s where I’d planned to spend most of my time. Apparently they’d completed the “market” phase the day before and those animals were gone; the animals to be judged wouldn’t arrive until the next day.
Tilt-A-Whirl, ink & watercolor
On top of that, I felt like I’d completely forgotten how to draw, having ignored my sketchbook for the past week or so while focusing on a couple of large paintings. And then there was the very loud music everywhere. We found a good spot to sit and draw the Tilt-A-Whirl (above) but the loudspeakers were playing the same 3 Michael Jackson hits over and over at full volume and I still can’t get them out of my head.
Lemonade stand, ink & watercolor
I prefer to paint on site: I try to get the colors right in one layer, putting them down as I see them and then moving on. That’s not what I did here. I sketched on site but painted it at home (when I should have been sleeping) and badly overworked it, putting paint on and taking it off, repeat, etc. I got a great photo of some cowboys in front of the lemonade stand that I will make into a painting later, so maybe this was just good practice of what not to do.
Bunny, ink & watercolor
The only animals at the fair were bunnies and chickens which didn’t interest Cathy. I can draw chickens at my friend Barbara’s house, so after a quick rabbit sketch, we wrapped up the day and headed back home in the rush hour traffic.
I have a couple of photos I’m excited to turn into paintings which made the jaunt well worthwhile, even if my sketching was less than wonderful.
Jana Bouc, Artist 