San Francisco Bay

After much cruising around the streets of San Francisco Bay, thanks to the Virtual Paintout challenge, I finally made a decision to paint this view of Beach Rd, Belvedere - a place I think I'd be happy to holiday in, if I was magicked away to S.F. by a sleight of some travel wizard's hand. There's some coastline and a lovely yacht basin just below this shady, winding road. I'm embarrassed now, to think I thought I'd 'seen' this city on an overnight trip there about 17 years ago. What we saw was Fisherman's Wharf, and a steep road which we descended in one of the famous trams, and the Golden Gate bridge - a tiny fragment of this enormous sprawling place.

The painting didn't turn out the way I had hoped - I can tell I haven't done much watercolouring lately. It's green and brown, which was not my intention, and the big strong shapes of dark and light got splintered into a jigsaw of details and fussery. I might try it again, with boldness.

Dam birds

This was one of my favourite sketching mornings last year, so I did it again, going down and just sitting amongst the geese, ducks and other water birds at the dam. They all get agitated and scramble into the water at first, then forget about you and amble back out and get back to their business. Today it was just a bit of preening, then lots of sleeping - obviously I caught them at nap time.

There was a Sacred Ibis, two little Mallard hens and a white faced coot and her hungry chick, none of which I've seen there before. The ibis kept his distance, but the little coot with her huge feet was quite sure I could help her out with some bread for her noisy child. I sketched first with a fat 'Furby' pencil, which was a bit too fat, then with the Pentel brush pen and added watercolour here and there.

Party Time!

Hooray! At last I've finished the illustration job that has taken a large chunk of my time over the last six or seven months. Here's a sketch of my friend Jill's lovely birthday party that happened back in November to celebrate. In fact, I didn't sketch at the lunch - I planned to, taking paper and pens - but, I just can't manage talking, eating, drinking, laughing and sketching at the same time, so I took photographs, and Jill's friend Jan took photographs and I drew from those.
It no longer is a sketch then, you start fiddling with arranging and moving elements around instead of composing on the spot. Some faces came out bigger than others, and some seriously didn't look like anybody there, so I had to scan and cut and paste, eventually printing out the manipulated line drawing on sketchbook paper and putting watercolour onto that. I'm aware that it resembles da Vinci's Last Supper arrangement of figures, especially since I had to stick my rather bemused face in, for the record, at the opposite end from where I was sitting. I suspect this is the only way you can fit so many people (13!) on one landscape format - so it was entirely unintentional and not meant to be sacrilegious, so don't start trying to work out who's who! But it was a GREAT party, so much fun - I put trees and windows in because soon after we'd sat down under the trees in the sunshine, clouds gathered and rain started bucketing down - we were herded under the roof and the tarpaulin sides were let down and the celebrations continued very happily.

Have I figured out how to post a larger size picture on here? I'll find out when I publish this! I hope it doesn't take too long to load. Let me know if it does and I'll make it the usual size.

Studio sketch

An oldie from my studio sketchbook - my washing line again (isn't it fascinating?) and an origami dove hanging in my window that I sketched, then tried out a watercolour combination of Naples yellow, Cadmium red and Indigo over. It's coincidental, but I rather like how the sweater looks a bit like origami too. I haven't been able to sketch or paint this week, not because of Facebook this time, but because my textbook illustration job has returned - the absolutely final last set of drawings, all of us who have been working on them dearly hope. It's been so hard to make myself sit down, concentrate and draw and digitally colour them, having mentally set the end of 2009 as the end of that job. Once I get going, it's not so bad!

Exciting though, is that I've just squeezed into a four day workshop with the wonderful Hazel Soan, in March, thanks to a cancellation. The Watercolour Society of South Africa managed to persuade her to lead two courses in Johannesburg and Nelspruit and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to learn from someone whose work I've admired for a long time. That should give my watercolours a shot in the arm, especially turning them from sketches into finished paintings, I'm hoping.

Bus stops & Soccer balls

Oh my, I have been away a long time - I'm ashamed to say I have flagrantly flouted my resolutions and all but disappeared into the bowels of the internet. The reason - Facebook, which I've been very nonchalant, take-it-or-leave-it about, has suddenly delivered up for me a whole bunch of old buddies from school, art school, old workplaces... and I've just been in a time-warp. It's wonderful, and I hope to carry on keeping up with them, but somehow I have to find a way to do it without never leaving this seat ever again!

I absolutely had to leave it today, to do a few essential things, and took my sketchbook along for the much needed outing. The Joburg skyline has been slightly altered by the addition of a soccer ball to the Hillbrow tower - a little reminder to us that this is the year of the Soccer World Cup in South Africa, of which I'm sure we'll all be hearing much more about. I passed two women sitting at a bus stop on the way home, and remembered that 'Buses and bus stops' is the theme for this weeks Urban Sketchers Flickr discussion group, so did a turn around the block so I could sketch them. Their bus took a long time to arrive, lucky for me but not for them, as, feeling very out of drawing practice, I had time to do two sketches. I added a bit of colour later at home to the top one, which improved it - this one I posted on Urban Sketchers, just as I did it on site. I have a soft spot for bus stops and their patient occupants. I did this bus stop painting some years ago, and had people clamouring to buy it, the only time that's happened to me!

Reflections

Its not that I've been completely put off plein air painting after the last icky trip, but the weather has been a bit wet and wild, and I had taken some photos of reflections in the small dam I was sitting next to - so I painted from them, trying to keep a similiar sort of looseness as when sitting out there. But it is just a completely different thing working from a photo - a lack of urgency to get it down, a more orderly approach when I have all the elements already laid out in 2D... it just doesn't have that edge, somehow. There are some areas of this that I'm pleased with - the reflections in the left foreground, the tops of the reeds, but I want to try it again and get more abstract, rhythmic and colourful. This rough sketch is the kind of feel I'm looking for, though obviously its on the far side of 'loose'!
I have just discovered the work of Adrian Berg RA (that sounds like a South African name - but he's not) and would love my newbie landscapes to develop along those lines - do I see hints of Hockney in his work, or should that be vice versa?

When it comes to dedicated plein air painters - Adam Cope is right up there, out in the beautiful Dordogne. He has done a very nice thing for the New Year - a French tradition - paying homage to some fellow art bloggers and I am so honoured to be included on his list. My regular sketching habit, as well as plein air watercolouring began on a fabulous Chateau painting holiday that my sisters and I went on three years ago - merci Adam (and that is still about the extent of my French!) Plein air on the Dordogne (too big for the scanner so I had to photograph it) - I really sloshed the paint around on this one - had a wonderful time, and see how I stopped before it got overworked. In fact I think it was Adam who said "Stop"... a lesson to take note of!

Plein gross

Oh! Oh! How one suffers for one's Art... you may remember a sketching trip some weeks ago at Emmarentia Dam, where I and my sketchbook were enthusiastically bounced upon by a muddy-pawed Staffie... well today was a way more shocking encounter in the dog park.... I had sat myself down on a cushion in an idyllic little spot under a tree, fields of wild flowers, a rushing stream nearby... laid out my paints, my water, palette and sketchbook, when once again a kerfuffle of canines, an owner's anguished cry..."Noooo!"... and then a warm, wet, creeping feeling down my back! I turned to see the offending leg descending and the awful truth dawned on me - I had been peed on. By a large, delirious young Ridgeback. On my back. Me!! The owner and I looked at each other in utter horror, he mumbled apologies and took off, head down, while I spluttered and swore and tossed my painting water down my back. Thank heavens its summer.
I almost packed up and left, but having spent days trying to get out to sketch, decided it was all part of plein air and I must tough it out like Vivien does on her expeditions. I gathered up my stuff and went to find a seat above dog leg level, passing the owner on the way to a park bench. He came across and apologised again most profusely, and I forgave him and his stupid mutt, who was happily chasing hadedas behind us and not the slightest bit repentant.
I eventually did this sketch - over two pages which I've posted separately as they come out so small in doublespread - and it was quite lovely out. The grasses and reeds are sprinkled and shaded with flowers. Drums were beating in the background hills - some African churches meet there in the Melville Koppies on Sundays and dance and sing.
Finally I went home and showered and washed and scrubbed but I'm still sniffing strains of eau de dog - I think some got on my sketchbook.