Plein air by the beach

Today I did two sketches with the plein air painters at Poplar Beach in Half Moon Bay. The other sketch is from my botanical art class, we did a lot of experiments with colored pencil.

More recent drawings and paintings

This is a mix of ink drawings and watercolor sketches done at my botanical art class and during the plein air group at Farmer John's Pumpkin Farm in Half Moon Bay.

Pacific International Quilt Festival

On the same weekend as the Pumpkin Festival, I went to the huge Pacific International Quilt Festival in Santa Clara. Here are just some of the wonderful artworks on display there. An "evil" cat face quilt (sorry, I didn't get the artist's name), a wonderful 3D beaded frog made by Thom Atkins (about 15 inches tall), and a layered pumpkin wall quilt made by Sarah Roberts.

Pumpkin Festival 2009

Last year, I was in Atlanta during the Pumpkin Festival. So this year I really enjoyed it (it's good to take a break from the madness). Just two photos for you: the little tie dyed shirt I got for Baby J, and a guy wearing a very scarey mask at the Half moon bay Yacht Club's calamari booth. I also got two fimo-clay switchplate covers for our house, on sale for $5 each. The weather was perfect and the craft and food booths were not too crowded.

Finally, some artwork

Several things happened this week to get me drawing and painting again. First, our little local Saturday Painters group got together again, and I did a quick "flower vase" painting in watercolor, from a photo I took during the summer of flowers from my garden. Second, I began an 8-week Botanical Art class at the SF Botanical Gardens, and made a quick ink sketch of holly and berries from the gardens. Third, I joined the Half Moon Bay Plein Air painting group at Farmer John's Pumpkin Farm and did some quick watercolor studies in my sketchbook. Tons of fun!