WATERBABY'S CIRCUS

Acrylic, 11x14 inches So, I know you've been waiting with baited breath (ew). Bated breath? Whatever. Why there haven't been any new paintings here, and only a few sketches, is because I've been secretly experimenting with a different medium. For the past few weeks I've set the watercolors aside and tried to make acrylics behave. Well of course, they don't. But now that I've finally stopped treating them like watercolors, I see some limited success. I signed up for a series of plein-air classes with Deirdre Shibano and made a commitment to at least give it a try. The first few classes were awful, not the classes per se, but because I couldn't figure out how to approach the darn canvas. Plus, the acrylics en plein air dried quickly, and I was frustrated by having to unlearn how to do the flowing washes and transparent layers of watercolor. I likened my first day's experience to pushing wads of bubblegum around with a stick. While I won't go so far a...

Plein-air sketch of Keller Beach last week. This little pocket beach is on the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay, the contra costa . With a sheltered western exposure, the shallow water and sand stay warm when areas ten minutes away are foggy and cold. In case you didn't already know, I consider anything much less than 75 degrees to be miserable weather. I first discovered Keller Beach some twenty-something years ago when I worked a few minutes away in downtown Richmond. The Friday potluck lunch hours became an office tradition during the summer, with the doggies on the grill, tater salad, and a tall cool one to wash it all down. Good eats! Then back to work. Or at least, to try to stay awake til it was quittin' time! Googling around for more info on this spot, I discovered a Pt. Richmond newsletter that provided a little local history and old photos, as well as an image of an old Gary Carter watercolor showing Keller Beach's old fishing pier.

You know how it is, tourists and other out-of-towners often visit places that are right in your own virtual backyard, places you take for granted. But somehow you never quite get around to seeing them. Such was the case with Indian Rock in Berkeley. I must have driven by within a block of it a thousand times, vaguely knowing it was there somewhere, never curious enough to check it out. Kind of like your fourth toenail on your left foot. You know it's there, but unless it's called to your attention in some way, you're content to just let it be. Thanks to my plein air group, Indian Rock was called to my attention. The sketch above represents just a small bit of the much larger chunks of granite found on over an acre of park in the Berkeley hills. For years, rock climbers have practiced their skills there, along with courting couples, underage drinkers, and the occasional sketcher.

Yes! Today the local Sketchcrawl took place in San Francisco at the Presidio. This is an event that takes place every three months all over the world, well, not everywhere, only in about 90 countries. The last time, I was in Brazil, so this was my first in San Francisco. From the Presidio, the views are fantastic, everywhere you turn. A good time! To see more results, click here .

Our plein-air group returned to a favorite spot in Marin County, China Camp . We were joined by kayakers, sunbathers, and a fair amount of guys on bikes taking a break from the surrounding trails. A windy day, so just a quick sketch in the Moleskine.

Another foggy summer day in the Bay Area, but I went to the lake anyway. With school out for summer, the lake is now crowded with kids and moms and occasional dads whether it's sunny or not. The view above is looking across the lake to the non-swimming side. I'm still exploring the possibilities of my new Moleskine watercolor sketchbook, but I find it works great for making smooth washes.