Fremontia at Google Campus

I ventured to the google campus to draw this beautiful sprawling Flannelbush also known as Fremontia. It is a native plant (Fremontodendron) within the same family of plants as Mallow and Hibiscus but also Durian! (Malvaceae)

It was a very bright and warm day (again - where did spring go??) and yellow flowers surrounded by dark green foliage and branches played amazingly well against California blue sky - in fact, I think this scene is made to be painted in gouache! I am working in Lumia sketchbook from Pith - and enjoying it a lot. This sketchbook is almost completed, and I will make a flip-through with some comments on the paper and what I like about it soon.

Yellow Chrysanthemums

I believe this was a potted flower destined to celebrate the Chinese New Year (Happy New Lunar Year of a Flaming Horse to all who celebrate!), but when I got it, it became a bright reminder to experiment with my art supplies! I have a whole bunch of small and large sketches of it already - and here is a first batch I wanted to share:

Yellow Chrysanthemums and managing expectations.

I got this beautiful bright pot with yellow chrysanthemums to brighten up a series of gray days when we had non-stop rain (which I loved by itself but it does not mean that I can pass by an opportunity to bring home chrysanthemums!). And I thought that I will paint them every day. In reality, I did not sit down to paint them even once! They appeared in a bunch of "I have two minutes" sketches though :) I did not crop one of the sketches so that you can see that some of these are done not in my sketchbook but in my pocketbook (or on scrap paper) :)

They are still in full bloom - so I might get more serious (or not :)

100 Views of Silicon Valley: San Jose / Mustard Fields

Mustard Fields in spring are all over the valley and San Jose has an amazing contrast of the urban and developing landscaped with these bright yellow flowers all over the place!

Sketchbook #96: Treasures