Mate con Pan Dulce

Mate de la Tarde, dip pen and ink, watercolor pencils, 9x12in.

There is nothing better than Mate with Pan Dulce at 5 in the afternoon. Pan Dulce is the italian Panettone and Mate is an infusion that people drink instead of coffee or tea. Our Panettone was not great but it turned perfect when we decided to double bake it.

San Isidro, Buenos Aires

San Isidro, dip pen and ink, 9x12

I visited the neighborhood where I went to secondary school and spent some minutes sketching the cathedral  and a beautiful building in the back. I will have to go there again. The ornamentation of the buildings was overwhelming and it requires a lot more time.

Wells Fargo Artists (not Agents)

When we went to the Wells Fargo History Museum we all got Wells Fargo Agent badges. Micaela said they should be Wells Fargo Artist badges.

On the way back to BART we went up to the terrace of a building on Market Street and sketched the views of the building next door and the traffic on Third Street.

Wells Fargo History Museum

We took a post-Christmas expedition to the Wells Fargo History Museum in S.F.'s Financial District.

The old stagecoach in the window was decorated for the holidays.

Several displays used life-sized photos to explore women's roles in banking . . . 

. . . with some sense of irony.

Pigeon Point lighthouse

Going to Pigeon Point seemed like a peaceful and restorative place to relax and get the city and urban noise out of my head, so I went for 2 days. It was overcast/sunny weather with storm clouds and high seas. Very beautiful. The lighthouse is in desperate need of repair—they've had to dismantle and remove the Fresnel (prounounced fre NEL) lens and house it separately. They are 10k short of being able to fix it.
I wanted to work bigger than I usually do, use pen and ink, with only a little watercolor. This was fun, and I even threw a little paint at the paper just for fun.

Happy Holidays !

I hope you all find some time to rest at the end of the year. I wish you all, and especially all fellow urban sketchers in the Bay area,  time to gather energy and strength for new sketching adventures in 2013!

Happy Holidays,

Your visual flaneur
www.visualflaneur.com

Urban Angel Under the Power Lines

Angel under the Power Lines: Holiday Display on Moeser Lane, El Cerrito

Sundar Shadi was born in India but moved to the Bay Area to attend college in 1921. In 1949 he put up a holiday display on the large empty lot next door to the home he built in El Cerrito.

Sundar Shadi Holiday Display (at sunset between rainstorms)

Every year until he was 96 he added to the display, building figures, animals and a whole village. He passed away but his family and volunteers continue to assemble the display each year. Sundar Shadi was a Sikh not a Christian, but created the display as a gift for the community.

BART to SFO

It was a quiet ride on December 24th to SFO. After a big storm the day was bright and quite warm.

BART, pencil, pen and ink.

Happy Holidays!

Seven years ago my wife and I decided to decorate this old Greek column for Christmas instead of the usual tree. We wrapped lights around the column, put a blanket of cotton snow at its base, and selected a pig lamp to adorn the top. We loved it, and have decorated the column like this every year.

Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season and a Happy New Year!

Christmas Fantasy at Tilden Carousel

The Merry-Go-Round and decorations

The carousel in Tilden Park is beautiful; even more so at their special Tilden Christmas Fantasy  evenings-only event. It was fun trying out sketching in the dark on an iPad though I wasn't thrilled with the results. I get so overwhelmed But every time I try to sketch there I get overwhelmed by all the sights and sounds at the carousel I always seem to have trouble sketching there.

My sketch buddies posted their terrific sketches previously: Cathy's colorful merry-go-round here, Ceiny's coverage of it all here, Cristina's bold drawings here, and Micaela's lifelike digital sketches here.

Photo of the actual scene

Oakland Chinatown

Chinatown, Oakland, ink & watercolor, 5x8"

Early on the morning after Thanksgiving our Urban Sketchers group went to Oakland’s Chinatown for some sketching. It was business as usual in the busy produce markets, herb shops, meat and seafood stalls, and Chinese restaurants, with no sign of Black Friday.

I started in pencil because the scene seemed so complicated. It’s easier to get it “right” with an eraser but it takes so much longer to draw it twice, in pencil and then in ink and it looses some of it's verve. Plus I had to add the watercolor at home from a photo because by the time I chose my spot and did the drawing, it was time to meetup with the group.

While I drew, local people stopped to watch and give me encouragement, whether in excellent or broken English. My favorite was the plump, elderly lady who said something in Chinese, grinned, and gave me a big thumbs up. The amazing thing about sketching in public is that no matter how good or bad you’re doing, people always say nice, encouraging things.

You can see more of the group's photos from our morning in Chinatown by Sonia here, by Cathy here, and Micaela here.

Pyramid Brewery

Another evening of drawing and beer--this time at Pyramid Brewery & Alehouse on Gilman Street in North Berkeley.

This patron reminded me of Brian "Fear the Beard" Wilson of the S.F. Giants.

You can look through the back windows of the alehouse and see the brewery vats. . . 

. . . and the computer control center.

Wild Flour Bread Bakery

The area surrounding Freestone, a tiny town just west of Sebastopol, is home to more sheep, cows and goats than human residents. But when Wild Flour Bread opens its doors, the human population likely doubles.

Last Sunday my wife and I waded through a sea of pastry enthusiasts as they gathered out front to drink coffee and eat fresh baked goods. Once inside, the warm air smelled of cinnamon. A crowd sampled sweet breads, cheese breads, crusty breads, and scones, all the while juggling hats, mittens and wallets. We ordered the Egyptian, a sweet bread of pear, ginger, and fig.

After filling up our coffees, we strolled into the garden next door. Surrounded by lavender, broccoli, lettuce, and kale sprouts, we sat on a wood bench beneath a tree, keeping company with garden sculptures nestled in nasturtiums. Peeling back the paper covering our bread, we found a sticky sweet, buttery, ginger glaze loaf, that warmed our hands and bellies, as we devoured it in the crisp morning air.

Christmas Tree Lane in Palo Alto

A wonderful street to visit this time of the year :)

So much light - it's easy to draw!

We will be back there - not all trees were photographed and now all drawn :)

Airstream Coffee Kiosk at Flowerland Nursery

Flowerland Cafe, ink & watercolor, 6×8

This is the first vintage Airstream trailer food truck I’ve seen and it doesn’t travel. It’s set up on blocks inside Flowerland Nursery on Solano Avenue in Albany (California–next door to Berkeley).

I can’t think of a better place to enjoy a good cup of coffee than in a lovely garden. The lovely folks at Flowerland put interesting chairs and tables throughout the nursery, turning the whole place into a sort of garden café. You can get your coffee and then sit among the palms, the native plants, fruit trees or climbing vines to enjoy it.

And when you finish your coffee, you can take home the chair you sat on or the plant you sat beside (for a price of course).

Good Food, Good Beer, Good Sketching

As Ceiny said below, we had a nice evening at Gaumenkitzel on San Pablo in Berkeley

Gaumenkitzel

We sat at the big center table at the colorful German restaurant, Gaumenkitzel, on San Pablo, a certified green business offering homestyle food and featuring an ample selection of Teutonic beer and pastries.  The staff was really lovely to us, appreciating our creativity and recommending their favorite brews.

Christmas tree in the corner and poinsettias on the tables

A fellow beer aficianado

High ceilings and a loft-like feel

Holiday sweets in the pastry case

12 things on 12/12/12 from 12:00 pm to 12:12 pm

12-minute drawing

I tried to get to the 12th floor of my building, but they wouldn't allow it, so I went to another tall nearby building — they said go ahead, go on up to the 12th floor. When I got there it was a tiny hallway with locked doors on all sides! It was getting close to 12 o'clock so I went to a garden, arranged my tiny objects and did this 12-minute drawing. It's not easy to get much into such a short session!

12 Things on 12-12-12 at 12:12

12 Things on 12-12-12 @ 12:12, ink & watercolor, 5x16"

Today is 12-12-12 and here are 12 things painted and posted on 12-12-12 at 12:12 P.M. Lined up on my kitchen table and sketched in Moleskine Watercolor notebook. For bigger images of the sketches, please visit JanasJournal here.

Happy 75th Birthday Cerrito Theater!

Cerrito Theater, ink & watercolor, 6x8"

The Cerrito Theater is having its 75th birthday celebration this week. It originally opened on Christmas Day in 1937 as an art deco "motion picture palace." It closed in the 1960s and was used as a furniture warehouse until a community group worked to bring it back to life as a theater in 2006.

More about the theater, the sketch and the town on JanasJournal here. 

Cable Car museum in San Francisco

Some of us joined the SF Sketchers Meetup group for an afternoon of sketching.

PiQ Cafe in Downtown Berkeley

PiQ Cafe in Downtown Berkeley, Ink & watercolor, 6x8"

 

PiQ Cafe (Pane Italiano Qualita) serves espresso, pizza and Italian pastries near U. C. Berkeley. It’s a busy place in the evening with lots of sketching opportunities. I enjoyed a decaf Americano and drew the pastries instead of eating them.

Half Price Books from PiQ Cafe

Cathy and Cristina sat at the outdoor sidewalk tables and drew the bookstore across the street but it was too cold and dark out there for me (Click links to see Cathy’s sketch and Cristina’s sketch.). I drew the bookstore too, but from inside the café.

Spenger's Night

Now that the night starts so early a warm place with marine paraphernalia is a perfect sketching place. Maybe Hemingway or Clark Gable payed attention to the woodwork in the back of the bar.

Spenger's, Pen and ink, 9x12in

Molly B's and Imperial Tea Court, Berkeley

Molly B's Shop Window in Berkeley, ink & watercolor 8x6"

Molly B’s is a shop in North Berkeley’s Walnut Square with great window displays. The window dresser was just leaving when I was sketching and watched me draw for a couple of minutes which made me a bit nervous.

Display at Imperial Tea Court

We met at the Imperial Tea Court for tea and sketchbook sharing at the end of the evening.

Tilden Park Merry-Go-Round

More sketches from the Christmas Fantasy at the Tilden Park Merry-Go-Round in Berkeley