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...

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...

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...

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!

The annual camping trip happened last week. Every year, my sister and I go camping, accompanied by various children, grandchildren, friends and occasionally a husband/boyfriend. But mostly it's just us girls. And always it involves some kind of water to play in. This year we went to Scotts Flat Lake Campground in California. Hot, lots of trees and wildlife. Besides the usual birds and grey squirrels and ground squirrels, we saw deer and ducks and geese. The best part was the night that a baby bear ransacked our coolers and got away with some of our food. The worst part was he got into the Hershey's chocolate bars! Luckily, he either got scared off by my sister waking up, or he just had his fill and left, leaving a trail of food into the woods. We found most of the box of chocolate the next morning, but some bars were so full of disgusting bear slobber they were beyond being salvaged. The stump sketch above is posted especially for an artist whose blog today also includes ...

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.

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.

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.

Blake Garden in Kensington is a popular spot for plein-air freaks like me, with over ten acres of ever-changing gardens to paint. The water lilies are really beautiful right now, and I'm afraid I didn't do them justice. Above is a piece of a watercolor that began ambitiously enough, only to suffer a severe cropping when things didn't go as planned, what with some paths leading nowhere, a planted terracotta pot smack in the middle of the piece, and a vague tree-like presence looming above it all. I often fall into the trap of including everything I see in front of me while I'm painting plein-air. Need to develop the discipline of more preliminary sketches.

Photo Courtesy of Dunsmuir Historic Estate Gazebo at Dunsmuir House Watercolor, 11"x14" Last week's plein-air setting was the Dunsmuir House and gardens in Oakland. Even though I'd grown up in East Oakland, this was the first time I had been to see this beautiful estate since it hasn't been open to the public until fairly recently. The house, I should say mansion, is spectacular, and the grounds are just beautiful. You can almost imagine how it may have been 100 years ago if you can manage to block out the sound of the 580 freeway just over the hill. While we were there, friendly ducks came looking for handouts, and a flock of wild turkeys strolled leisurely through. I even spotted three deer. I chose to paint the gazebo, thinking it would be easier than tackling the mansion. Well, it might have been easier, but it wasn't easy.

Lake Anza, June 14, 2009 Sunday at the lake seemed a perfect opportunity to try out my new Moleskine Watercolour Notebook. The weather was sunny, if a bit windy, and I found someone sitting still for a while. Compared to the rough, unsized paper in my last sketchbook, the Moleskine is a dream and I look forward to using it.

Lake Anza Watercolor, 5"x8" I have been coming to Lake Anza for as long as I can remember. It is part of Tilden Regional Park, just east of Berkeley. Though this small beach looks deserted now, once school is out for the summer it will be jampacked with kids and parents. Probably even more than usual, since California will be closing most State Parks due to slashed budgets. Tilden, as part of the East Bay Regional Park District will not be affected. But for right now, the ducks and minnows, dogs and their walkers, and the occasional painter can all enjoy the calm of a foggy morning.

Last week my plein-air group went to this funky old yacht harbor, located to the northeast of San Francisco Bay. Although the skies were overcast and the breeze was nippy, it was a good day. I liked this old barge stuck in the mud, so I thought I'd give it a try. Here's what the Center for Land Use Interpretation has to say about San Pablo Yacht Harbor: "A remote, scrappy residential marina on Point San Pablo. Off the coast of the yacht harbor is the hulk of an old steamer, sunk for the filming of the John Wayne film Blood Alley in 1955 (the film also shot at China Camp, across the bay). The breakwater protecting the marina was made by sinking six schooners and a ferry boat." I'll have to check out that movie!

I visited my younger (and only) sister over the weekend in Grass Valley. She has a green thumb, although she tries to deny it; but she actually waters and feeds her plants. The weather was balmy, which I fully appreciated, coming from the gray, overcast Bay Area. Holiday traffic meant I arrived late, then had to leave early the following day, so I didn't get any painting time in. I wanted to do a watercolor plein air sketch of her house, but had to settle for taking a few snapshots to work from once I got back home. I think I figured out how to deal with the problem I've been having with the sketchbook paper. Unsized paper soaks up water and watercolor pigment like a sponge, so no blending on the paper, or lifting color out is possible. So I painted on a thin layer of acrylic medium first, then let it dry. This slightly sealed the paper's surface, and let the paint slide on. Now that I have just one page left in this sketchbook, I've solved the problem!

Sometimes I go out and paint outside (plein air). Most Thursdays when the weather is good enough, a loosely organized bunch of us meet to draw or paint or take photos. Usually in or around the El Cerrito/Berkeley area. Last week the Rose Garden in the Berkeley hills was our site. The roses are in bloom and San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge and Mt. Tamalpais in the background gave us a lot to choose from. This is a rose arbor with Mt. Tam in the upper right. I'm not real happy with it, but it's way better than last year's attempt. (The original is not so blue-ish.)

I painted this watercolor a few years ago. If I remember right, the original size is 18"x24". The painting was copied professionally, even so, the camera does not pick up the iridescent paints I used on her crown and mirror and tail. Iemanja' the goddess (or orixa') of salt water, was brought to the so-called New World via the slave trade, and is often addressed in the Yoruba language of west Africa. The next time you go to the beach and put your feet in the water, you can greet her with her customary greeting if you like: Odoia'!

A small bit of a larger still life setup, just a quick sketch of some humble sprouts. ACEO size, 2.5 x 3.5 inches.