WATERBABY'S CIRCUS

Yes, it has been awhile. Nearly three months in Brazil, where it isn't always samba and sunshine. Winter storms, mindboggling bureaucracy, and a public transportation system that doesn't always go where you want to go; everything seems to take at least twice as long as it should. It all balances out though. There's lots of great stuff too. Like the art supply store and gallery that's not far from me here, Arte Cedraz . I've met some wonderful artists that I paint with every Friday. I decided to leave my watercolors back in the States this time, since it appears no one in this area works in this medium and quality paints and paper are hard to find. So it's been acrylics for awhile. The painting above was a small warm-up piece I did there. This represents a fairly typical rural scene, more commonly seen in the interior states like Minas Gerais.

Aaaaaaaaaaaah . . . . That's just me heaving a great big sigh of relief. Even though I know that that year-end blitz of too-much-to-do, too-little-time is coming, and try to downsize and minimize the stress factors, I still get caught up in it. Cards never got sent, packages didn't get mailed til after Christmas (it's in the mail, no really, you know how the Post Office is), and now I want to finish decorating, while everyone around me has all their assorted holiday crappage thrown out/packed away/put out on the curb. I guess I just move to a different (slower) beat. On a lighter note, after two months of eating like a sumo wrestler caught in a burning marijuana-field downdraft, I've lost three pounds since Sunday, after starting to eat more sensibly. No ice cream, no cookies. No white flour stuff, pasta, pizza. Just wanna lose another seven pounds. Time to get in shape for the annual migration to Brazil. Gotta dust off the old bikini. Figuratively speaking, of course...

Acrylic, 4x10" This is a small piece I did over the summer. The Bay Trail runs along the east side of the San Francisco Bay, and this part of it lies between Berkeley and Richmond. The marshy area has been pretty much restored and is home to all kinds of birds and other things that like Bay wetlands. I miss the warm weather, I want to go outside and paint.

The annual jaunt to Mexico is going smoothly, Hurricane Rick made his threat and passed on, fizzling out into a "tropical depression". Glad I didn't do something sensible like cancel. Sometimes my gut instincts are right though mostly they just get me into trouble. There were clouds and light sprinkles when we touched down late Monday afternoon. The wind picked up in the night, and waves were crashing. Sandbags were waiting just in case, and in the morning, there wasn't a surfer or jetskier to be seen. Not even a cruise ship. I stayed inside, tracking the storm, catching up on some reading. More showers off and on, by Wednesday, it appeared that Cabo was out of Rick's path and bits of sky were appearing. But the storm had left Cabo with colors I hadn't seen here before: the clouds were purpley, and the water ranged from ultramarine blue to turquoise to almost a citrine green. And Cabo's famous rocks, instead of being rock-colored, had a blanket of gr...

Just a quick sketch from the Blake Estate garden last week. A foggy day, muted colors, sketched with a non-waterproof pen. Kind of gave it a rained on look.

Teasels in Fall Watercolor, 24x30" The El Cerrito Art Association's Annual Show went off without a hitch last weekend, with a record number of entries and healthy sales. The above watercolor was recognized by the El Cerrito Chamber of Commerce with a very nice award. I'm so happy, because this one was a struggle and almost went into the recycling bin. But as other artists have noted, the process of creating your work is similar to raising kids, in that there's a really ugly phase they put you through before you can see the fruits of your labors. So glad I stuck with it! Then, another surprise - a Second Place in the Acrylics division for one of my plein aire paintings! This one: Kellers Beach Acrylic, 11x14" Too much good stuff! And it only got better - this one sold. Sorry to see it go, but there's more where that came from! The past two weekends have found me out painting in the Napa Valley wine country and I'll be there again this Saturday. The fall co...

El Cerrito Art Association 33rd Annual Art Show & Sale Reception & Meet the Artists Friday, October 2, 2009 7:00-10:00 pm Champagne will be served Art exhibit and sales Saturday, October 3 12:00-7:30 p.m. Sunday, October 4 10:00-4:00 p.m. El Cerrito Community Center 7007 Moeser Lane in El Cerrito, CA I'll be showing my acrylics: as well as three new watercolors. I'll virtually see you at the reception!

Yes, I have been remiss in my postings lately. But for good reason. I've been painting my tailfeathers off! As well as matting, framing, hanging and everything else that goes with it. I'm finishing up 6 pieces (3 watercolor and 3 acrylic) that will go into the annual El Cerrito Art Show & Sale next weekend, and now have paintings hanging at Jack London Square, Oakland, the El Cerrito Dept. of Motor Vehicles (a captive audience for sure), and at the Oakland Chamber of Commerce. And trying to squeeze in some actual painting once in a while. So this was one I did over the summer: Acrylic, 11x14" This little church is the first thing you see as you come into the tiny town of Nicasio in Marin County,located about a halfhour drive north of San Francisco. It's a favorite of artists of all media, a scene that probably hasn't changed all that much in the past hundred years.

At China Camp Acrylic, 11x14" So I've been doing a bit of plein air painting over the summer, both in watercolor and acrylics. When I returned to China Camp on the San Francisco Bay, it was only with the intention to continue learning how to handle acrylics, but after many hours of struggle, the painting above began to take shape. So much so that I decided to frame the resulting small exercise, and then submitted it into a show. Imagine my shock when I learned it had won first place in the acrylics division at the Napa Town & Country Fair! It looks like there's no turning back now. Onward!

Here we are, enjoying the end of summer vacation before school starts for all of us. Koko and Jasmine and Lily are in the water on their floaties. Poor Auntie M will have to go back to work for another year - feh! She's the one that looks washed up on the shore. Camping takes a lot out of you!

Sunrise Beach Park, Gig Harbor, WA 8"x8", Acrylics When I went to Washington a few weeks ago, I looked for artists who also liked plein air painting, and after a few googles, discovered there was a group located very close to where I was staying on Fox Island: the Peninsula Art League. Anne Knapp let me know that members would probably be at Sunrise Beach Park, located a little to the northeast of Gig Harbor. Although the weather was unusually hot, I found a cool place to sit under a tree that gave me a great view across to Vashon Island. I really enjoyed my first visit to Washington and look forward to next time.

Acrylics, 8"x8" Sitting across the road from this ranch on a sunny California day, painting plein air. I wanted to add some of the great oreo cows they have at this ranch, except my cows look more like dogs, and vice-versa.

Last week while I was in Washington, we took the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle. It moves along pretty quick, so my sketches had to be fast too. Spent a few hours in the Seattle Art Museum. Would have liked to loiter a bit longer, but there was still a stop planned for Pike Place Market. Too much good stuff to see there, but the day was moving to a close. So we decided to stop a few blocks away at the Ipanema Grill for a caipirinha (the official cocktail of Brazil) and appetizers before catching the ferry back. You know I love my caipirinhas! Just one complaint though. They make them the Martha Stewart way, using simple syrup instead of plain sugar. Feh! It's just not the same without that gritty undissolved sugar at the bottom of the glass. Then back to the ferry to Bremerton. A very good day!

I've been visiting my friend Abby this past week. She moved to Fox Island, Washington a couple years back and this was my first time seeing not only her beeyootiful home, but also a bit of the state of Washington. She took me for a whirlwind tour that included not only Fox Island, but also Gig Harbor, the Hood Canal, Sequim, Port Townsend, Bremerton, Tacoma, Seattle, and much more! I squeezed in some time for a few sketches. The view above is of an old pier near where we stopped for a snack on the deck of the Nifty Fifty's Soda Fountain . The weather was mostly in the 90's during the week, so I enjoyed being out of the foggy Bay Area for awhile.

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.