Return to the Light!

Sue Johnson Lamps is a really fun place to visit — pieces of art, textiles, craft are combined in to these lovely, lively and interesting one-of-a-kind lamps. This shop has been in this location for almost five decades, though the history is best seen in the back shop repair and creation area. Neither of these is quite finished, but this may be as far as they get.

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. 

socks socks!

So much fun to sketch friends' socks and try to punch it up a bit! Thanks Viv!

collectibles

Surrounded by antiques — all sorts of interesting objects I can't even describe! I had to focus, so chose art and perspective.

Return to Children's Fairyland

Children's Fairyland is a magical place for all.  A visit transports you from the everyday to other times and other stories, some familiar and some new.  I treasure my time at Fairyland. Thank you C.J. Hirschfield, Executive Director and Shannon Taylor, Director of Art and Restoration for having us and for all that you do.

Destination: IKEA!

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

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.

Hats Off to Goorin Bros

I love sketching at Goorin's our neighborhood hat store. The only downside is that I often cannot leave without buying a hat! Thank you for crafting such wonderful hats, creating intriguing displays and letting us sketch in the shop.
Please see other Goorin sketches in our blog.

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)

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.

more from Spenger's

Spenger's has so many wonderful objects from maritime activity, both actual items and models. They also have mounted fish and hunting trophies, a deep sea diver suit, life-preservers, many pieces of equipment from boats and ships, and a pistol & rifle collection. I tried again to sketch the divers' suit, and of course the people during happy hour are more lively than they look here.

Fun and Funky Crockett, CA

Crockett's main drag, view from deli, ink and watercolor 10x8 in

Inspired by a wonderful urban plein air painting workshop and demo by one of my favorite artists, Randy Sexton, I sketched the main street in the funky little town of Crockett that houses his studio, Epperson Gallery and a tattoo parlor. Randy is one of the nicest gentlemen I've ever met, as well as a highly skilled and talented painter, and a gifted teacher. (More on JanasJournal.com)

Oscar's Burgers

This venerable quick-fry burger joint is closing after 65 years of serving up great greasy-spoon. We had to go give it a last celebration. I can't wait to see everyone's sketches!

The Tennis Club beneath the Claremont

How can you resist drawing the hotel? 

Return to Sue Johnson Lamps

Sue is in the store late while her annual sale is on, and so we were able to drop in with our sketchbooks to capture some of her beautiful hand-designed, and made lamps. There is something wonderful everywhere you look. I loved this bear lamp, which strongly reminded me of the Northwest Indian art of British Columbia. It is a ceramic lamp with an experimental "snowflake" glaze making unusual patterns. I tried to capture the evening feel with the African mask lamps, modifying it a little on the computer to get the lamps to really "glow".

the bear lamp

my co-sketchers thought this was fine as a line-drawing.

constellation of lamps

By Hand

It was so great to be able to sketch in the lovely peace and quiet of the store after-hours - Thank you Paula! I was happy to hear she is not closing the store out of duress, but because it's time to have fun! I'm trying out some new watercolor pencils, actually called "Inktense" pencils.

 I changed up the colors of this umbrella collection a bit,
as many are basic black, evidently preferred by most!

Piedmont Yarn Shop

 We visited a sweet yarn shop on Piedmont! Their collection of yarns is lovely, samples of knitting and felting are beautiful, and they even have cones for weavers. They have classes, and will help you out with your knitting problems.

These Rabat yarns are so various in their variables that they look individually dyed.