Sketches from Istanbul

I just saw this sketch from a reporter in Istanbul. Gorgeous!

Sending handknitted socks to Japan

I packed up 9 pairs of socks to send to Japan for earthquake survivors, these are all socks I knitted but have never (or rarely) worn. I am sending them to a group called Socks for Japan that I found on facebook.

Another fun craft fair at Ft. Mason

Yesterday, I went to another craft show at Ft. Mason. I was about to leave when I noticed that one of the vendor's names looked very familiar--it was Leslie Lawton, a writer who worked with me at McAnn-Erickson Advertising in Los Angeles, many years ago! She was selling some gorgeous jewelry, so of course I had to buy one of her bracelets. What a small world!

Paper dresses at the Legion of Honor

Today, I saw the exhibit "Pulp Fashion: The Art of Isabelle de Borchgrave". It is fascinating to see up close all these historical costumes made of hand painted paper. There is also an excellent book about the exhibition, but nothing substitutes for seeing the actual dresses. Another artist, Anandamayi Arnold, was making a paper dress as a demonstration of how it is done, so I snapped a picture of her (no photos allowed inside the Pulp Fashion exhibit, unfortunately.)

The other photo is one of my favorite pieces in the Legion's collection. I walked past it on the way to see the other excellent show that is on display there now, miniature paintings by Arthur Szyk. I saw the book about his work at the recent Antiquarian Book Festival in SF, but had not seen any of his paintings until today. It takes a magnifying glass to see all the marvelous detail in his paintings, they are full of symbolism and humorous details.

My crocheted flower

Last weekend, I test-crocheted a vintage potholder/trivet pattern. I liked it so much, I made this one using some cotton yarn with long color changes from my stash. I love how it came out! Wouldn't it be fun to make a bunch of these to decorate your table?

A groovy new yarn with my name on it!

At the recent Stitches West event, I discovered a lovely pink and green ribbon yarn called Marina! It came with a free pattern to knit a ruffled scarf with just one ball, so of course I had to buy it. It was not the easiest thing to knit, since I had to pull the ribbon out to find the hole for my knitting needle on every stitch, but I managed to finish the scarf on one day.

Brunch at the Cliff House in San Francisco

I've driven past it a million times, but have never eaten at the famous Cliff House in San Francisco until a couple of weeks ago. The food and service were excellent, and the view is amazing! We went during the week, so it was not crowded and there was plenty of nearby free parking.

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.