The Ancient Art of Sake Making

At Takara Sake in Berkeley, a museum demonstrating the tools of the 1900's and earlier contains many fascinating relics of past, small-scale sake production. Takara Sake now has large stainless steel tanks and modern methods, but respect their past. A wonderful place to visit and taste sake!

These tanks are large, a co-sketcher stood nearby to show the scale, but I didn't sketch fast enough to get her in there! The one on the left is about 6' or so high. The pot on far right is actually the firepot, which is positioned below the tank. 

Gil Abides!

Buffalo Gil presides over the bar at Club Mallard, an Albany institution which has been serving customers since 1945!
Carrie McClish’s sketch (above) captured the place and Justin so well.  I focused on Gil being sketched by Carrie and Micaela (below). Thanks for the hospitality Justin!

Club Mallard—Homage a Buffalo Gill

A great old watering-hole in Albany, California. It felt homey and chill on a Tuesday afternoon. With pronghorn and moose antlers, a stuffed duck or two, and a large Bison presiding over the bar, makes you think it may have started life as a sportsman's hangout.

Buffalo Gill

 

Way Station Brew

Way Station Brew is a relaxing, inviting space for coffee, beer, and, going by the lovely smell: great eats. This decorative and possibly useful coffee roaster inhabits a corner.
In the late 1800's, Shattuck Avenue was established as the principal transportation route of both the Berkeley Ferry & Railroad Company and the Berkeley Branch Steam Line and one of the stations along the way was located at Dwight Way and Shattuck Avenue, hence the name of Way Station. The first stop here was served by a horse and buggy!

bierhaus doodle

Nice beer, nice food, big tables...what more could a sketcher want? Ok, I started doodling...

Tiny, beautiful, bonsai garden

It's a forest in a small space. Many of these trees look ancient, and yet only measured in inches—check out the Sequoia sempervirons—about 14" tall!

Destination: IKEA!

If there aren't enough things to draw at IKEA, I don't know where there would be!

The re-sized, re-sort-of-upped Spenger's

I was a little anxious to see what they had done to Spenger's Restaurant, the oldest restaurant in Berkeley, since it was halved to make way for yet another upscale shopping experience. I needn't have worried, they kept all of what made it feel like Spenger's, but just cleaner, and at least some change on the menu. The deep-sea-diving suit is still there, the great fishing boat models, the fish both fiberglass and real, and more. An addition of live music in the bar room was fun, and I had to add that guitarist to my drawing collage.

Public Night at Whole Foods

...the vegetables and fruits were very good models. I wanted to keep it short and loose so I used watercolor pencils and a waterbrush, and gave myself no more than 20 minutes per sketch.

Oakland Museum on a First Friday

It's a treat to visit the Oakland Museum on a First Friday, not only is it 1/2 off, but they host live music in an area accessible in- and out-side the museum, and with an entire block of food trucks, it makes for a lively event!
I visited the special show: Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture. The collaborations between fashion designers, sports and music figures and the industry, plus independent artist manipulations of shoes made it a very interesting collection. Many of these shoes came from the Bata Sneaker Museum (who knew such a thing existed?!), which has shoes dating back to the 1800's.

a really good right turn

Making a quick jaunt to Sebastopol on the way home from Mount Hood park near Santa Rosa, we made an unplanned right turn onto a local street to get off the busy thoroughfare. In two or three quiet blocks of modest, well-cared-for homes, a throng of sculptures peopled (or dogged, or birded) almost every yard, and the home of the sculptors had a multitude! While my husband went on down to the end to see every one, I stopped to sketch one of my favorites, a car salesman with toy cars for teeth, an odometer for one eye, and many chrome name details. I had to add a piece of paper at the bottom to include his "soapbox".

Goorin Bros Hats

One of our favorite places to visit and sketch: Goorin Bros Hats on College Ave. Hats for big and small people, stylish, and everyday. They recently bought their own factory, after only 100 years or so!
Here are two versions of a sketch I did in the shop, the first one in the original sepia ink and the second one colorized electronically. Which one do you prefer?

I'm not sure, but think I like the sepia-only one best!

travel sketches

On a painting trip to the country-side in 🇮🇹 Italy i stopped to sketch the Agriturismo itself. This is part of a 400+ year old winery and olive oil farm, in the same family for that long.

Venice

The church of San Simeon Piccolo, built in 1718-1738, was our abode during our stay in Venice. This was one of the last churches built in Venice, and was in one of the poorer sestieri (one district of a six-district town). It was modeled on the Pantheon, but has many other influences as well. Our room, off to one side, had a view of a tiny courtyard and many buildings one behind the other, with the classic red-tiled roofs.

Eid celebration at Sahara

We had a lovely evening cozily ensconced in a corner across from the musicians at Sahara, a Moroccan shop on Piedmont Avenue. Mostafa, the owner, played with Yasir (on a stringed instrument), and two other musicians, one of whom is also a dancer. This gentle music was aptly described by Yassir as "organic". Tea was served, and a delightful meal cooked by the owner. Thank you Mostafa for a wonderful evening!

Picante—Cocina Mexicana

They grind organic corn daily to make 

their own tortillas - enough said!

We had an appreciative audience!

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The Normandy Village in Berkeley is always an intriguing draw. It isn't as easy as you might think to capture its charm. Though you might call if "faux charm" it really draws you in. And, as someone said, everything is a copy of something else - even the ancient Romans copied someone! Here's my latest try. (the foliage is not complete, but destined to remain this way)

The amazing Bone Room

Always something wonderfully curious to be seen here! 

The Cane Toads were an all-over, even brown color, sort of like chocolate milk.
 Somehow, they looked a bit mean! Maybe the taxidermist saw them as a bad thing!

There were two skeletons, this one had an attractive coon hat! I tried sketching it in just one hour, a rather daunting task, and, I ran out of paper by the time I got to his feet. Shaded/colored in Photoshop.

In and around the Cheese Board

This great collective, selling wonderful cheeses from around the world, and making yummy, creative veggie pizzas, attracts so many enthusiastic customers we looked for quiet spots to sketch.
Emelia's Flowers, right next to Cheese Board, has been selling flowers since 1995.

I've always loved this simple, elegant stairway entrance to Walnut Square, off Vine Street. The original Peets Coffee is still here, and in this view you can see Twig and Fig, which specializes in custom letterpress printing.

We ended the evening at Books Inc, where author Helen MacDonald was giving a reading and talk about her new book. 

Longbranch Saloon - Public Night

It was a lively night, with our sketchers among the crowd. There are a couple of long, high tables parallel to the bar which gives a great view of the bar and the kitchen. They have an interesting selection of beer, and named drinks

Why sketch a beer? I don't know, but I do it.

Fellow sketchers left, cooks right.

Trader Vic's-a 60's experience

I love going to Trader Vic's, it represents for me a plunge into the days when hand-crafted art was collected as odd and intriguing keepsakes. This place has wonderful things in every corner.