Chinatown Alley

One of the things Martha, Cathy and I did on our Sketchcrawl was to explore the more quiet alleys in Chinatown. We went to the Fortune Cookie "Factory" which was so tiny, we had to stand single file to watch the one-woman process. Very cool....squirt...fold...cook. We resisted purchasing the "adult" fortune cookies and went for the chocolate ones! My fortune said, "Now is a good time for a new collection or hobby" :-)

Here is the way I saw the view of this short alley.

La Fonda Regular

Charles and I had a fantastic time in Mexico. We stayed at La Fonda, south of Rosarita, and it was absolutely charming. Although, we had a beautiful view of the ocean and I took tons of pictures of sunsets, I ended up painting a ROOSTER in the restaurant! This colorful character runs the place and was the only other living creature in there besides us. Everyone else wimped out because of a little dreary weather. Sure was cozy with the fireplace going while we listened to the waves crashing below. Highly recommended for a total get-away!

Mt. Diablo

I wake up every day to a beautiful view of Mt. Diablo. I did this little this little watercolor sketch while on a plane to Virginia last week. We are getting some glorious winter skies this month as a backdrop, and it may drop a little snow up there tonight.

I sewed some watercolor paper into a neat little leather sketchbook I picked up at Half Price Books. That's what the little hemp thread is that you see down the middle of the page.

Texas Doodles

Not sure what possessed me to start drawing Texas "things" while I was on a flight to San Diego. Some sub-concious home-sickness? I don't think so--I believe it was the SouthWest Airlines magazine that was taking my mind there!

Sketchcrawl in Chinatown

What a grand day we had--75 sketchers crawling through Chinatown in San Francisco! I met my friend Martha at the Montgomery station and we proceeded to meet the group at a park before breaking out our sketchbooks. Turns out Martha is quite famous in the sketchworld! I couldn't draw worth a flip yesterday, so I didn't even share when we all met back up after a day of drawing. There was so much talent there, it was fantastic to see what everyone had done. I added a little watercolor to a couple of my sketches and am going ahead and posting them. I don't want to forget what a great day it was! There is just no better way to enjoy a small corner of the world than to look at it as if you were an artist!

Here is one of the delightful lamposts on Grant Street--at least that's the way I saw it!