Monterey Museum of Art

Yesterday, I explored the Monterey Museum of Art La Mirada for the first time. There are actually two locations for the museum, one has traditional art and I visited it two weeks ago (sorry, no photos!)

The La Mirada location is a few blocks away and focuses on contemporary art. The building itself is interesting, it was one of the original old adobe houses that was added onto over the years by various owners. (The art is shown in a large, new addition.)

The show by Ingrid Calame was very interesting. I am posting two shots of her work--one is a painting and the other is a "site specific" piece that will be painted over at the end of the show. A crew of helpers used a crane to "pounce" dry pigment onto the wall using full-size stencils.

The tree photo was taken from the outside garden, which is also very nice.

Angel and orchids from the Allied Arts Guild

Last spring, I visited the Allied Arts Guild in Menlo Park for painting and photography. This scene was in a corner near the plant shop. Today I finally got back into it--eventually, I will add more shadows and depth.

King's Mountain Art Festival 2010

Today I took a quick trip to the King's Mountain Art Festival, one of my favorite craft shows. The weather was gorgeous, sunny but not too hot, but I didn't stay too long, just long enough to eat a chicken and apple sausage for lunch and buy another wonderful vase made by my favorite vendor, Foxlow Pottery. I didn't have any of his work with the deep red glaze, and I also liked the movement of the birds flying around it.

Saturday painters in plein air

Today, the Saturday Painters got together in a neighbor's garden (one of the few times we have painted outside). I did these 4 ink and watercolor cards of various plants in the garden. It was a lovely day.

Last botanical art class of the summer

Last botanical art class today! We sketched a person in the class (I chose Betty), a seed pod in my larger sketchbook, and the final hour was spent drawing something of our choice. I brought along a dried bird of paradise flower. I was also pleased because the teacher used the drawing I brought in last week as an example of good composition. She didn't even know it was mine (I had not signed it).

Hand painted garden signage

Just thought I would post the plant signs I made for the San Mateo Garden Center. These are scattered around in the patio and gazebo where there are plants for sale. I made about 25 of the signs altogether.

Seed pods homework

Our botanical art teacher gave us each three seed pods to bring home and draw, for our homework assignment. I just finished my sketch, using black ink plus several colors of the Nexus "bleeding" pens.

More botanical art

I have been busy with botanical art class! Still need to do more drawings outside of class, though. The teacher used one of my plein air flower sketches (Marigolds) on her class handout this week.

Presidio Watercolor Show 2010

Today we went to the California Watercolor Association show at the Presidio in San Francisco. I could not take photos of the actual paintings in the show, so the pics you see here are some of the student displays of sketchbooks and a really nice unsigned sketch of a cat that was in the classroom. We also ate lunch at the Presidio Officer's Club, which is nearby. I have not eaten there before, we all really enjoyed it although the service was slow (not quite enough employees to handle the number of customers, probably). Excellent food and an interesting menu for brunch.

Poppies and marigolds

The poppy pod was completed in botanical art class today, using Nexus pens for the shading. The marigolds were completed last week (I posted a group of ink drawings, this is one of them).

A plethora of ink drawings

The eucalyptus nuts were the "quick draw" at the beginning of my botanical art class yesterday, and the two dried leaves was a much longer project (one hour) at the end of class. I used the Nexus pens and a waterbrush to shade the dried leaves. The drawings of trees were done at Filoli last week, and the four flower cards were all done at the Nebia winery today!

Ink sketches galore

I made some of these drawings at botanical art class yesterday, the others were done with the plein air painting group today. We went to the winery on highway 92.

Flea Market goodies

Okay, I scored at the flea market today. Big cotton crocheted bedspread, a bunch of crocheted potholders, an alligator soap holder (also crochet), and two crochet booklets. Plus 2 containers of buttons, a gold metal chain for a purse, a little kit complete with silk thread to mend silk stockings with, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting.

Just havin' fun

A better shot of my Mandala II shawl, and a sock monkey hat for Baby J that I whipped up this morning. It is what it is.

Another big round lace shawl

This pattern is Mystery Shawl 2010, also called "Mandala II" by the designer. I finished knitting on Friday and blocked it Saturday, so it's fresh off my needles.

Poplar Beach plein air

I finally got back outside to paint today, this is one of the windswept pines along the edge of the blufftop near Poplar Beach in Half Moon Bay.

Started a new painting

I took a photo at Allied Arts earlier this year of a little angel statue next to a vase with artificial orchids. They were inside a wooden box with a fancy painted interior and a mirror. I loved the still life look of this, and decided to try turning it into a painting. This is what I got done on the first day of work.

finished cyclamen painting

Today, I figured out what my cyclamen painting was lacking--a background! We met at a friend's house overlooking the ocean, and sat in her tiny patio surrounded by roses. A warm, sunny day on the coast at last.

San Francisco Fine Art Fair

I'm so glad the Fine Art Fair is back in San Francisco! I saw tons of great art, and here are a few shots of some of my favorites. The 3D photo collages were amazing, the embroidered organza shopping bags were fun, and there was another excellent painting by Joseph Raphael, one of my favorites. I also liked the row of clay sculptures drying outside, from one of the art classes that are held at Ft. Mason.