A long-awaited meet-up

This week I got to spend some time sketching with friends - Suhita Shirodkar, Shari Blaukopf, Brenda Swenson, Gay Kraeger, and Elyse Fairweather. Some of them came from afar - it was a special treat and something we've been trying to pull off for quite some time! 

We went to the magical garden and forest in Santa Cruz Mountains to see Gay and Elyse and had a blast trying to fit a gigantic redwood in our sketchbooks. We listened to birds and water and looked for frogs in a fountain. We smelled flowers, played with materials, flipped through each other's sketchbooks, and drew oranges outdoors, and humans indoors. 

Chatting about life's big and small things, sharing some food, and ideas, and looking at the clouds. Below are my drawings and some photos from our adventures. And attached to them are some really good memories and a feeling of joy of friendships - and that is such a gift! Thank you to all who made this week special!

First page of a sketchbook that is almost finished

I am on the last spread of the current sketchbook (number 155) and just realized that I've never posted what was on the first page!  

The first page is where I usually record current sketching tools and notes on current themes and ideas. In this case, you can see that I was enjoying a stable pre-determined subject for daily drawing - my amaryllis! It helps me a lot during times when I have very little sketching time and during times when my capacity for making choices is stretched too thin by other parts of my life to have something that is reliably there for me to draw. That is a big reason behind my table garden too :) 

I will post a whole series of amaryllises that I got in this book next week!

I've got a people-sketching bug!

The #oneweek100people challenge which I participated in in March did what I wanted it to do: it gave me a bug to find opportunities to sketch people more often. Apart from the occasional everyday sketching, I am now trying to do some online events - and pencils4tea is the one I am enjoying the most at the moment: all poses are timed with interesting music, a lovely bunch of people, and a convenient time. 

Beware -  if you come to draw you might end up being drawn by a bunch of artists! Which is fun too (I ended up drawing myself blindly when it was my turn to pose :)

I will show you what I do with all of these stacks of paper soon :) 

Drawing Orchids - continuation.

After my initial attempt to draw orchids I tried to understand them several more times. Some of these are stages of the same page in my sketchbook - I rarely go back to "fix" things but these flowers were asking for it! 

Sketching a hill, looking at waves of grass.

I went back to the fruit tree orchard where I had a painting adventure/disaster before only to find that the trees are no longer white. They still look quite bare though! But before I painted that view (see below) I tried to tackle a grassy hill that had an Andrew Wyeth vibe. Below are two of my attempts to catch waves that the wind created. 

I had a wonderful company with me for this outing - here is a link to what @umapaints created with gouache. As we painted and talked about life, work, and the future, a mowing team waited to start clearing this beauty. I am glad we got to see it! Below are two versions: the color version done in gouache and the black and white version made with ink. And the look at the orchard is done in gouache too. 

Solar Eclipse 2024

An astounding number of people witnessed a total solar eclipse on April 8th! Many went to be "in the path of totality" and I hear it was spectacular! 

Here is Northern California I got to see about 30% of the sun covered my moon - well, I saw a shadow of the sun, 30% of which was covered by the moon. This time I did not draw people or progression - but I did draw my attempt at catching those sickles with a custom-made slotted spoon. And I watched shadows under the trees - that is the simplest and the most joyful way to see an eclipse for me!

See my other solar eclipse sketching outings: 2012, 2017, 2023

And more eclipse-related posts here. 

Blooming Orchard Painting Disaster.

Imagine a friend taking you to paint a blooming orchard. It is a gorgeous day and the view is spectacular - filled with white blooming fruit trees. And you sit down with your lunch and sketching gear and realize that... you forgot to pack white with you. Even your backup white (and backup to backup - which I usually also carry but that is a story for another post). 

I ended up making two sketches: one with the flowers colored pink :) And another with the naked trees - and I added white from my memory and photos when I got to my white :) I did not post these for two weeks. True story. With some continuation, I think.

I went to see the ocean and paint it too.

I went to see the Ocean on a perfect day - it was cool, sunny and the company was great. I tried to capture the same part of the beach with a watercolor+gouache combo and then with stencils. And had time for a little gouache after that. Scroll below for the process photos from the beach - wind tried to take some of my supplies and I got a little sand everywhere including my palette - but what fun! 

On My Table: Beginning of April 2024.

This month I took a very honest photo of the mess on my art table. When I need to work and come to a table that looks like this I have three options: put new stuff right on top of everything, clear a tiny spot in the corner and work there - or make a photo for the "first of the month on my art table" and then clean the table because it is a hazard to work on right now. 

My goal for this April is to paint on location (en plein air) a lot. So I am urgently reviving my gouache set-up so that I can paint quickly and anywhere. I will tell you how it went at the end of the month!

Comments and links to some things in the picture:
- My favorite White Pen - Uni-Ball UM 153 Signo Broad Point Gel Pen. 

- A pen I used a lot lately - Zig Memory System Calligraphy Marker (I almost killed it during the drawing trip to the zoo where I took a separate sketchbook - which will become part of this sketchbook soon :)

- Pencil Sharpener #1 is Swordfish The Triple 3 Hole Canister Pencil Sharpener

- Pencil Sharpener #2 is KUM AS2M (which makes some excellent long points and also has a side sharpener for sharpening mechanical pencils).

- Little yellow bottle - is a part of Kuretake Water Brush - Petit Set. 

I am searching for a red that is simultaneously a little pink and a little orange has a glow and works well when diluted (goes to transparent well even if it is opaque when applied thick) and I want to find a color that I can reproduce with pencils too. Any suggestions are welcome :) Current front runners are Pyrol from Daniel Smith and Sennelier Orange or vermillion Schmincke gouache. 

Exploding Wisteria Pods

Wisteria seed pods twist and open in the spring when the weather gets warm. If you ever brought a wisteria seed pod home (smooth or fuzzy - they are irresistible!) you probably experienced a loud explosion and dispersion of the seeds firsthand - as I did. The very first time it happened late in the evening and it was scary loud! (and I think the last seed was never found). This year I witnessed how a whole large boosh went into a burst mode. For a few hours, the same sequence repeated: a loud POP, then the sound of an empty pod falling on the ground (they covered the ground completely!). And just in one evening most of the pods were gone and wisteria began showing buds of this year's flowers. 

I learned that Both Wisteria Frutescens (American wisteria) and Wisteria Sinensis (Chinese wisteria) twine in a counterclockwise direction but Wisteria Floribunda (Japanese wisteria) twines clockwise. 

Little trick for protecting your nails against ink stains

Some jobs leave your hands and nails dirty. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for days. Cleaning a fountain pen for example. Painting with your fingers. And many many more. Some people are completely fine with it. Some are not. Some are one thing one day and another on another. Whichever camp you are from - here is a little trick that I (sometimes) remember to do: 

A very pink farm outing

Some time in October Suhita and I drew a pumpkin patch at the Cosentino farm in San Jose and agreed to come back when the trees would be blooming - and that is what we did on one lovely March morning. These peach trees have one of the most pink flowers I've ever seen and I was overwhelmed with the pinkness so much that I started using pieces of torn pink paper to map out some of the bloom on the page! It was one of the brightest days this year after lots of rain and all the sun just made everything pop up more! The bees were all over the place, farm workers were doing their thing, and Suhita and I followed the adventures of two little lizards on the trunk of a tree in front of us. 

Below you will find some process photos as well as a portrait of the lizards and a version of a sketch that I digitally altered - I wonder if it is better or worse - let me know!

As I was looking at the scan and all the pinkness on the page I tried adding some whine digitally - version on the right. What do you think - it is better?

Grateful: a new hiking adventure!

The other day my friend and I took a long lunch hour and spent it in a place I thought I knew pretty well - a campus of Stanford University. But I was wrong: there was a LAKE I did not know about and a bunch of hiking paths that I'd never seen and some jackrabbits, wildflowers and an amazing view! We found a good spot to eat and sketch and then hurried back to work - what a gift!

I taped this drawing into my sketchbook next to some drawings I've done from memory after a little hike on the other side of the hill. 

Nonagenarian update: spring is here!

Little things are a sure way to keep track of time with our nonagenarian. There are new leaf buds on the rose plant. Nasturtiums are out - she grows the fiery ones! I hope to get a small plant when it gets to the viable stage as one of my spring-summer plans is to draw so many Nasturtiums (Tropaeolums) that I would feel like I had enough. I have yet to track different colors but even if I manage bright orange ones out of nonagenarian favors it would be great! The fig tree put out lots of leaves and there are 8 fruits (actually they are inverted flowers) and more are coming. Herb plants keep her salads fragrant and I plan to introduce an idea of growing some green onions. We try to stay on top of getting the correct cheese selection stocked in the fridge and take care of the appointments for her eye health and I've been tasked with finding new books - the request was for "something modern". 

A bee turned me into a grumpy left-handed human for a bit.

Recently I was stung by a bee. I am quite sure that it was a bee and not a yellow jacket - I see them by the side of the pool sometimes. I did not see this one - I reached out to take a breather, felt fire take over my pinky, and heard myself curse. It's been a while since my last bee-stinging experience was personal. I've been around many cases when my little Benadryl+pain management pen helped others and I knew how to talk someone through what is happening when it might stop hurting this much and how a promise on some ice cream helps. But I did not have the medicine with me this time. Self-talk quickly turned into self-observation. I was surprised by how outraged I felt at this act of a fair case of self-defense, how I cataloged all the tingling and swelling and numbness and pain, and how much time I spent checking if the bulge was gone and if I could fold my finger. How much I knew that this is blown out of proportion if taken in any sort of perspective. And how real it was at the same time. And I ended up drawing it. But since it was the right hand that was affected - I drew this whole page with the left one. 

And while I drew my shirt I realized that it needs to be patched - which is something that I decided to draw next :)

I never know if orchid is real or fake.

I always avoided orchids - both as plants and subjects for my drawings. To thrive for a long time they require greener thumbs than I have. And to draw them I had to believe that they were real and not plastic - they always look artificial to me :) 

But recently I was exposed to a different approach: think about orchards as a long-lasting bouquet / composition - not as a living plant. And with this thought in mind, my parents got two lovely orchards as presents. Personal exposure to the roots and leaves allowed me to believe that these are real plants and not fake ones and I ended up drawing them :) With real pleasure - not a fake one :)