Our house

So, I see everyone in the EDM (Every Day Matters) group is drawing their houses, so I joined in. It is fun seeing paintings of so many homes around the world! The first one is a re-post from November, soon after I started sketching and blogging. It was done on very thin paper (not watercolor paper) with my "little kid's" box of paints. I didn't dare use much water, and whatever paint I did lay down, dried instantly. Now, I am almost at the end of my first Moleskin= that I re-bound with Fabriana hot press paper. I used mostly Windsor Newton paints. I sat in a different spot this time, so I could paint the whole house. This would be a fun exercise to do every few months, but this is my last painting of this house since we are moving very soon. Next house painting will be of our new place in Texas!

Spring has sprung!

There is so much blooming in our yard...well.. actually all over the Bay Area. I will never get over how gorgeous it is here! I played around a little and painted a sampling of some of the "show-offs" in my yard right now. It smells FANTASTIC, too!

Farmer's Market

I will surely miss the many Farmer's Markets in California. You can find one pretty much any day of the week, in several communities, within a 20 minute drive of our house. Today I stopped by the one in Concord on the Todos Santos Plaza. I listened to the lady play the harp, watched an artist paint portraits, smelled the fresh flowers and brought home some beautiful artichokes and kettle corn. The colors of the tents, flowers and the sky were all so vivid, I really should have painted straight out of the tube. The way I see it, the scenary on a Tuesday afternoon doesn't get much better than that!

Sketchcrawl #18

I went on my second Worldwide Sketchcrawl yesterday http://www.sketchcrawl.com/. Can you imagine people in 50 cities all mobilized at the same time to sketch the world as they see it? I am so priviledged to have had the chance to enjoy sketching in the glorious city of San Francisco. And, WOW, the number of talented and experienced artists that show up is incredible! Me, I just bumble along with my amateur sketches, enjoying the heck out of it!

Martha http://www.trumpetvine.com/ and I could have spent all day in the lobby of the charming Argonaut Hotel http://www.argonauthotel.com/index.html I am glad I got to see it again, as it was the first hotel that Charles and I stayed in when we began the process of moving to the Bay area, fours years ago. We are moving back to Texas in April so it was nice to have a little farewell sketching of the hotel and the city. The lobby is a design feast--every detail is impeccable. The furniture is all oversized and makes the place feel fantasy-like.

Stop by every now and then. My sketches will surely change flavor, as I start sketching my home state of Texas. Plus, Martha and I plan to meet around the globe for our own mini-crawls. How lucky I am to have made such a good friend in this world of sketching!

These sketches are just a tiny bit of how I saw San Francisco ...

Napa Tulips

Martha and I designed our own sketchcrawl, visiting some Sparkling Vineyards in the Napa area. We got a real bonus on the way to Mumm. There was a private home that had thousands of bulbs in full bloom! Boy, did we want to trespass! We got pretty darned close, peeking in the gate--we could not believe our eyes! This is my only painting of the flowers, but I intend to try some more and can't wait to see Martha's sketches posted. Sketching and sipping in Napa--that's the life--that's HOW I SEE IT!

Ferry Building Views

My son, Chase, and I spent the afternoon at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. We had to eat at Taylor's Refresher one more time before heading back to Texas. Two words, Garlic Fries!

These are really quick sketches of what we were looking at from the sidewalk while eating. I wanted to remember a really fun day with my son in a wonderful place!

Pacific Grove White House

The Bad Girls were on the loose again. This trip was to Pacific Grove, California--within walking distance of Monterey. Truly, this is one of the most charming places imaginable. If you ever go, you can't miss the White House on the main drag. Depending on the color of the sky, it looked look peach at one time of day and lavender another. So pristine!

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.

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.

Ashland Restaurant

I need to figure out how to darken these things before posting. This is my favorite little sketch so far. Click on it, so you can see it better! What a charming little restaurant I saw on a girl's trip to Ashland Oregon with my Berkeley Bad Girls book Club!

Water Tower

This is where it all started when we took the short course and painted this cute water tower. Susie Long http://www.suzilong.com/classes.html is the delightful artist that lives and works in this Mendocino water tower. That little hour class is what got me crazy over sketching/watercoloring! Thanks, Susie!