Gouache Adventure on a Windy Summer Day

Recently I gave myself a gift of an afternoon of painting hills and water in the Baylands. It was windy (seasonally so) and pretty cold because of that. Everything was flying away. Gouache was drying so fast that I was having a hard time mixing it in the palette. But when I tucked my chair behind a wall, it was super hot (seasonally so), and my gouache was drying so fast I was having a hard time moving it on the page. And I missed that wind. But there were terns dropping in the water near me. 

I had a great time! 

Here are two sketches that came out of that outing.

On My June Sketching Calendar: Egret Rookery

I keep a sketching calendar - it is a simple table where each cell is dedicated to a month and where I keep a list of things I might enjoy sketching that month. My June so far was not how I envisioned it, and I missed a bunch of things, but here is what I did not: an Egret Rookery! It is a very strange place where egrets of all kinds put a few odd sticks between branches of sycamore trees and call them nests. There are snowy and great Egrets, and night and blue herons (though I've seen only one blue heron so far). They walk around the area on the ground and fly around the trees, all this is accompanied by hilarious sounds and growing evidence of the presence of wildlife: remains of uneaten fish and such. I recommend wearing a hat, stretching your neck, being OK with constantly moving subjects, and getting a low ground position if you want to sketch.

I took my friends to see it for the first time, and we sketched for a bit. I am hoping to go again soon - before all the younglings are off the trees. 

Bike and Sketch

I rode my bike and stopped to sketch along the path. It was a good day to be out. Some process photos below. 

This was a little more bike and sketch outing where bike works as a means to get to a sketching spot. As opposed to I go for a run or bike ride and sketch when I stop by for a quick rest / stretch. The inspiration for the expansion comes from Pedal&Paint outings by Mike Dutton, who is making very atmospheric and inspiring movies about his bike and paint process. 

Almost Green Hills of Pleasanton in Gouache

A wonderful trip to Pleasanton and a hike in the hills with sketching with friends. I had a plan to keep all my sketches of that day feeling like they were a series, and I think it almost worked. Gouache on all sorts of paper - one was a blotter page, I think - which is a shame - I like that sketch a lot.

Blooming Thundercloud Plum Trees

These days, there are so many blooming trees around me, I feel like there is no way to visit them all (and there is no way to visit them all) - but I try nonetheless :)

These thundercloud plum trees have beautifully shaped, slightly toothy on the edge, wine-purple leaves and small plums that are usually consumed by squirrels and birds before anyone else has a chance. But before all of that, out of cool-gray with red undertone branches come beautiful pink flowers. First they appear one at a time, and then an avalanche of blooms that gives a tree a cloud-like look. Leaves start appearing on the bottom of the tree first slowly closing in on the flowers. 

I did a portrait of one tree and then tried to capture what a street of them feels like to me from the shadow of a large coastal redwood. Process photos below.

Bike and Sketch

One of the best things to add to riding a bike is a sketching stop! 

Drawing at a Rally in Support For Ukraine

Another protest, another rally for Ukraine. Drawing in San Francisco on Sunday, while a very one-sided 28-point plan for peace is hanging in the air. So-called peace plan demands Ukraine give up territory (including not currently occupied), limits the size of its army, and agrees not to pursue russia for the war crimes. Nobody wants this war to end as the Ukrainians do. But this has to be a lasting solution made with Ukraine and not dictated by anyone! 

A Surprise New Garden

I have a new addition to my list of places where there is always something to sketch. I was introduced to it by a friend when giant purple candelabras of Pride of Madeira were in high bloom. I found some really interesting juxtapositions of plants in this garden and some amazing workspaces that I want to come back and draw. 

Later I had a chance to stop by to look at one part of the garden with two different sets of tools (dual marker with two purple colors and my modified parallel pen with black ink) and then a direct gouache. In both of these sketches, my interest was to show how many different foliages are there in one little space. 

Mary Cassatt as printmaking inspiration (and more!)

San Francisco Legion of Honor hosted a wonderful retrospective of Mary Cassatt "Mary Cassatt at Work" and it was a fantastic experience. I wanted to see in-person works that I knew from books and they as usual elevated my relationship with the art piece because of the level of details that one can see in person and by the experience of looking at an artwork on the wall, in space and imagining the process of making it. I specifically enjoyed looking at the brushstrokes and colors on the edges - away from the well-defined features. 

I did not know what to expect from an announced section of prints but was excited to learn more about printmaking recently and had a companion who was willing to explain and discuss all the intricate nuances of what is innovative in her work, how she did this or that and what we can deduct from these prints and what is still a mystery. Legion of Honor put together a comprehensive article about it with lots of visuals: How-To with the Conservators: Mary Cassatt’s Color Prints by By Christina Taylor, paper conservator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art

And a great video about the process:  Demonstrating Mary Cassatt's Color Printmaking Techniques

It would be unfair not to mention some wonderfully colorful and free pastels. And a lot of information about Mary Cassatt: a woman impressionist, the only american in their circle, human, artist, feminist. 

It was so good that we did two takes!

Here are some of my notes from the show.

Sketching Historic San Jose

Last week I jumped at an opportunity to learn more about the history of San Jose and sketch it too! An "after-work mid-week" event was organized by Creekside Socials. The historical part was led by a wonderful urban sketcher Ben Leech - a leader of the Preservation Action Council of San José and the sketching activity was led by Suhita Shirodkar whose sketching energy and teaching brought together a lovely group of all levels in a united urban sketchers front!

We looked at the San Jose Diridon Station and several buildings in the area - places I would normally just pass but now have names and context and I know how to point you some cool little details about them! 

Below are my sketches and photos from the event and you can see more photos at this instagram post - one of the images from this post is screenshotted below. 

Google Orb!

I had a great time sketching the Orb installation at the Google Headquarters / Google Experience in Mountain View. This sculpture was created by Marc Fornes @theverymany - and we chose it for our sketching outing with @suhitasketch this week. 

I saw the sculpture in different light conditions and with a crowd of people around and by itself - and it was wonderfully intriguing every time. The building in the background is the famous Gradient Canopy and deserves a separate sketching outing by itself. I sketched its brother - Bayview last year - in black, white and pink and in gouache. 

We had a little over an hour to work on this and I feel like there needs to be another attempt (or several) but I am happy to share these black-and-white versions.

There is a little video with the process:

I encourage you to visit Suhita's version on her instagram - it is so colorful and textured - when I look at it I can feel how sunny the day was and how the shadows of the surfaces created cool areas!

Urban Sketching Workshops Around the World and in the Bay Area - I am teaching on April 22nd!

This is an exciting year for Urban Sketching! Urban Sketchers is 10 years old this year and they’re celebrating with year-long workshops all over the world. Excited? Click this link to see where all the workshops around the world are. Each city lets you pick from 10 workshops being held throughout the year.

Workshops in the San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Urban sketchers is excited to be holding it’s own series of 10 workshops all over the Bay Area: 10 teachers you’ve been wanting to take a workshop with, and workshops geared towards all levels of sketchers! To read more about those workshops, go to this link. If you’re interested in a Bay Area workshop, get in touch with Suhita at suhita@gmail.com and tell her what classes you’re interested in. She’ll walk you through the registration process. 

I will be teaching a workshop titled
"Creating collections of everyday moments" in Los Altos on April 22nd.

Level of difficulty: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced. 

Strategies we will work on: 

• finding time even in hopeless situations 
• being quick and ready to start at the moment’s notice 
• unifying drawings on a page 
• appreciating both subtle changes and consistency in the collection we create together. 

To register for any of the Bay Area workshops, contact suhita@gmail.com and put “San Francisco Bay Area 10×10” in the subject line of your email. Let her know what workshops you want to sign up for.  Suhita will let you know if there are still spots open and she will help you through the registration process.