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!

Tip Top Bike shop

This bike shop is close to Oakland and Berkeley bike commuters. They have a great team, and wonderful bikes of all kinds, including folding and motor-assist (e) bikes. I for some odd reason thought I would "warm up" on a drawing of a row of bikes, but this turned out to be silly as it took a long time and was pretty complex. Next time I will start with something simpler!

...one ninja turtle says to the other...

as previously noted: visitors from the past...

Before heading in the the newly re-built Bear's Lair, I stopped to sketch "A Musical Offering" — a wonderful, intimate, classical music shop which has been on Bancroft for decades. Glad to see it's still there!

Sunday @ Jack London Square

I managed to get outdoors today and drove to Farmers Market for a couple of hours. I found a sweet place to sketch behind two musicians. I could've been more comfortable with a chair instead of the cold, hard ground. Sometimes discomfort works. I rejected a couple of early sketches until I finally did these two. Each sketch has something I was satisfied with and wanted to keep.

Playland-not-at-the-beach

Playland-not-at-the-beach is slightly hard-to-find — on San Pablo Ave just over the border into Richmond going North. The warren of rooms meandering around leads you from one set of marvels to another. Hard core pin-ball players can be found in one of the several rooms filled with interesting antique machines from the mid-1900's and beyond.
See some more features of Playland not at the beach: 1 minute video

between two pinball games from the 1940's.

where they love...for a living

She is on the phone and does her nails as we sit down next to them. We are waiting for a bus to leave San Jose airport. She and the other girl next to her are also waiting for something. They look bored and hardly talk. They are friendly to each other, but aren't friends. After a while, two middle aged men approach from the airport terminal. One in shorts and a polo shirt, the other in slacks wearing a baseball cap -  'Betty Ford clinic' .  The men grin and excitement is apparent in their eyes as they approach. The girls put on a professional smile as they welcome their foreign visitors. 'Let's go and get a car.' 

More on www.visualflaneur.com

 

Oliver, your visual flaneur

 

Pre-Sketchcrawl presentation at Oakland Public Library

Oakland Chinatown

Hing Wah Chinese Product on Webster Street - a bustling place with many shoppers any day of the week. A number of people stopped to see what I was doing. The mechanism on the roll-up door looked like it would be good into the next century!

AT&T Ball Park Opera

Rigoletto at the Park! You can see earlier (and more timely) posts by Cathy and Jana.

The Actual Cafe Welcomes All

I love the Actual Cafe.  It is truly a community gathering place for all.

The 2nd Presidential Debate at the Albany Library

A community room at the library filled with community-minded people who care—the best! This debate was moderated by Candy Crowley, who did seem that - moderate. Commentator George Lakoff discussed the debate and took questions from the crowd.

Berkeley Ace Hardware

Berkeley Ace Hardware, owned by Bill and Virginia Carpenter, may soon be moving about 1/2 mile down University Ave to the old Andronico's. It is the oldest business in Berkeley, except for the University, and has been in it's current location at the top of University Avenue for 50 years. We wanted to draw it before it moved. It has a cool, old-school interior too, it's a warren of aisles and off-axis shelving sections, and has a steep stairway to a lower level where they keep model making stuff. One of the features that parents & kids have enjoyed for many years is the model train they keep in the window, which is definitely on schedule right around Christmas time each year!

Berkeley Ace Hardware at 2145 University Avenue in Berkeley, of course!

NYC, Washington DC Aug 14-26

Some sketches from my recent trip.
New York City — Times Square   A summer storm started up and I wasn't able to color it. 

One of the streets at Times Square, from the top of some steps

The Main Library, one of the pair of iconic lions on either side of the steps.

The New York City Public Library, main branch

 Grand Central Station — there was a small group of people promoting peace, prompting the police to stand around making sure the peace didn't escape? ("keepers of the peace"?!)

Grand Central Station, New York City

Tarrytown, NY — I took my daughter out of town on the northern light rail. We visited the historic Rockefeller house, Kuykuit. It sits high on a hill overlooking the Hudson River. It was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is operated by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Their religion is what initially drove their generosity, and they started many worthwhile projects in many communities worldwide. Kuykit means "hill top", Scottish.

Kuykuit - the relatively humble mansion of four generations
of the Rockefellers, some of whom still live on the property

Philadelphia — I was hoping to see the Barnes Collection, opened earlier this year. Purchase tickets in advance if you want to go, it's been sold out every day! The Rodin Museum, recently renovated, is now open — I spent much of the day there.

One of the works at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia

The Three Shades by Rodin

Washington, DC — The National Postal Museum

An early mail plane. There was a mail train, and the mail sorters had a mascot, Owney, who accompanied them all over the U.S. along the various mail routes. The National Postal Museum

The National Natural History Museum – this bird is now extinct

This poor bird, of course they killed the last one. Related to the Mud Hen.
The National Natural History Museum relegates it to a poorly-lit downstairs hallway.

Brennan's

Since it was a cold night, we headed over to Brennan's. It's now in the old train station and has great dark-green walls. Eating is cafeteria-style, hearty food, irish coffees are a mainstay if you don't mind a wobbly line! (I didn't participate in that this time...). 


I started with the woman in the distance on the right, I had no idea if I would ever get to the other side of the page, much less the other side of the OTHER page, but I did. It took up the whole evening but I enjoyed every minute of it.
Here's the panorama—

and the right page first then the left if you want a closer look.

Meet the Sketchers - Oliver the visual flaneur

Hello fellow sketchers and thanks for having me on this platform!


Let me start with my pen name - visual flaneur. What is that about?

F l a n e u r describes someone who wanders and observes aimlessly, who roams, who travels at a lounging pace.

The figure of the flaneur emerged at the beginning of 19^th century Paris. As a detached observer he found inspiration by walking and observing city life.

I embrace both mindset and approach of the flaneur when I go for a walk with my eyes open, ready to draw what catches my attention. I am sure many of you can relate to that!





Sketching relaxes me. It focuses my mind on one thing and connects me to the moment.
I am inspired by people, everyday objects and situations that I encounter. Sometimes I go for larger visual reportages,



For me sketching is a way of capturing life as it happens in front of me. I may include writing in my sketches: a fragment of a conversation, a quote or a description that can turn a sketch into a little story. I am Austrian so the captions can be in English or German - I hope you don't mind. ;-)






These are some of my recent attempts. If you like what you see It'd be lovely if you said 'Hi' at www.visualflaneur.com.

Thanks for your time!

Playland Not At the Beach is

filled with so many colors and lights and sounds, I'm still reeling. This self-proclaimed "Museum of Fun" in El Cerrito more than lives up to its billing. Some of the artifacts and memorabilia, like the pinball machines, can be touched, not just looked at and admired. I caught this guy in an epic battle of human vs machine.