I arrived a little late but found many sketchcrawlers already in the park. A kid was astounded to see all this art on the hoof. 10 years old with the face of a man. His name is Gabriel.
I found Gary on crutches but his sense of direction was intact. He led us right into some sort of a celebration involving dancing lions with giant heads. And an eardrum assault by a longrope of firecrackers accompanied by a crash and drum band.
There is a drawing of a kid named Gerard playing cymbols and a lion dancing and a lion's head. Chinatown has these magnificent streetlamps. Everybody had to draw at least one. And it seems each block had a draping of paper lanterns.
After lunch I came out into bright sunlight and deep shadows; the jumble and bustle of a chinatown street.
This guy was playing a two stringed instrument called an ERHU. He quite happily played and posed while puffing on a cigarette. After a while he came over to spell the name of his instrument on my drawing.

I’ve heard it said that Drawing is a jealous muse. She ‘ll punish you for any neglect. I went to a figure group last night for the first time in a long while. The model couldn’t have been better. Every pose was a gesture of beauty, strength, grace, dignity. And all I could manage were scribbles! At least that’s the way it felt at the time.

I spent Thursday painting a couple watercolors at China Camp with the Marin County Watercolor Society. What a lovely group! The morning started out all grey with a heavy mist and ended up a mixture of sun and clouds. I worked on the same scene twice from under the shelter of a covered porch at the little store. The second time to simplify the work I’d done in the first. I moved out to a better view of my scene as the weather cleared. Oh there were extraordinary clouds that day! After a while, I noticed a photographer making his way down the beach with an extraordinary lens on his camera. Obviously some pro equipment. When he came back toward my station I gave him one of my chips and asked if he’d send me a copy of the photograph if I was in it. He very kindly agreed to do so and offered to take another from close by. Here you see the two photos he sent. His name is Rick Pringle who turns out to be quite a nice guy.

Squid at Board of Supervisors

I just removed my watercolor painting “Squid” from an exhibition. The painting hung just at the entrance to the offices of the Marin County Board of Supervisors. The offices are located in a beautiful building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

One Man Show -- One Night Stand

I took 16 paintings and a pile of small prints over to San Rafael tonight. Bente Licht from Riley Street Art Supply invited me to exhibit for a single night as part of the San Rafael Second Friday Art Walk. They had live music, a feast of finger food and some pretty good wine. Not many people showed up because we had a bit of (much needed) rain all through the evening. I had a good time though and the Riley Street gang was great; the musicians "Diamond Ortiz" were a lot of fun to listen to. And hey, I sold one of my prints!

Rodeo Beach

I’ve painted at Rodeo Beach before but only on the north end. I got an email from Ed Terpening that he would be painting at the South end of the beach painting on Saturday with two other painters. So I packed up and headed out. I had seen a picture of his looking out over Bird Rock from up high on the trails so I thought that’s where they’d be. I found them down on the beach instead. The tide was coming in and Ed staked out a place by the rocky outcroppings that tumble into the ocean to the north. I turned to face the south and saw a couple of surfcasters with high bluffs behind them. The land rose above them like an immense wall not yet illuminated by the morning sun. As we passed noon the grasses that lined the rim caught more and more light. Eventually it skimmed down the surface catching turf on the wall that stuck out just enough to grow some vegetation. Waves lapped at the lower right with emerald water but the fishermen packed out to go watch the SuperBowl. I didn’t have a camera to catch them so they never got beyond a small scribble to show their scale and location, and a spot of color. That got wiped out in favor of pure landscape.

Model Cars

I never drew cars very much as a kid so this was kind of fun. Here’s the story: I took our car to have it serviced and told the service manager I’d wait for it in the dealership. He told me it would take about an hour and a half. As I walked down the hallway of the dealership I saw a nice toy car on the desk of an office with an open door. I asked around to see if I could take a photo of the little car and was refused at first. But then someone came around and told me he would escort me into the office for the purpose of taking a photo. As I walked in he pointed out a car on another display surface that I hadn’t noticed. I took pictures of both. While I waited for my car I started to draw the little race car in my sketchbook. After I paid up and started to leave I noticed the general manager had arrived and was in his office at the desk with the little race car. A very smart, meticulous guy. Well dressed. I tapped on his office door and asked for “just a few seconds.” He invited me in and when he saw the sketch I did of his little car, he lit up entirely. He launched into a lengthy explanation of all the details of the toy cars and the history of the real cars they were modeled after. Here’s this grown man in a pressed shirt and dapper tie who turned into a little kid before my eyes. I guess he was just very happy to have discovered someone else who could appreciate his toys. He loved it that I did the drawing and I promised him a print made from it.

Salsa PINata

Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the North Bay have an annual fund raiser. They give used bowling pins to artists all throughout the county and ask them to put a work of art of the pins for an auction. Here's my contribution. You can see all the other pins and bid on them at bfks.org. Last year they raised over $150,000. You can see their website at bbbsnorthbay.org .
I wish them all good luck!

Sketchcrawl 21 San Francisco

I didn't calculate the mileage so ended up walking more than drawing.  I started out over by the free parking near Crissy Field. With such great weather, people were everywhere. Here's a couple and their dog soaking up the sunshine and a guy with his bicycle enjoying a fresh air read.

Then I walked over to the Exploratorium which is a great place to draw. Lots of kids, lots of different kinds of activity. People of all sizes and shapes ages and colors focused on one repetitive activity or another.  Here's a kid working on a roller skate table learning how sailboats are pulled by the wind.  Here's a man with a large ring at a soap pool trying to make huge bubbles float in the air. 

There was construction blocking access to the Palace of Fine Arts so I could only see it from the duck pond. What a fabulous building.

Then I headed out for Golden Gate Park.  I thought it would be a quick trip, but I walked and walked and walked. . . . it turned out to be three and a half miles each way.  Whew!  But it was good and much needed exercise. And a great view of the city, block by block.

We were close to a hundred at the San Francisco Sketchcrawl this time. A great group of talent all gathered together at the De Young Museum Café. It was a real  pleasure to be there.  

After we traded looking at each others sketchbooks to see the work done that day, someone took a group photo then I started the long walk back to Crissy Field.  I saw the moon full and rising enormous over the city glittering with streetlights and still warmed in pinks, pale orange and lavender by the lowering sun.  I finished my trek in darkness. 

What a great day.