Astoria, Oregon

Another wonderful trip with Mari Le Glatin Keis in Astoria, OR. This time my sister was able to join me and we had a marvelous adventure. We met a great group of women and made new friends and new memories. There was even a great art store we just had to visit, twice. We had some interesting weather, cool and rainy with some sunny breaks, but it is Astoria, 96" of rain a year!

Three of the group lived in Astoria and one of the husbands took us on a motor cruise on his 40' sailboat. It was fun to sketch from the boat for an hour or so. I sketched things from the shore as well as thing on the boat. It was grey, cloudy, blue patches, grey, sun, rain, wind, cloudy, and we sketched away! We never let the weather detour us from our joy of sketching.

His boat was called the Pelican and we had our photo taken as we passed by Pier 39. There is a great little cafe and coffee place on the pier, Coffee Girl, where each group waited while the other cruised. We spend some wonderful times there eating, drinking, sketching and laughing. Their Chai Latte is grand. The old bouy floats were hanging in the corner.

After our motor cruise we met up at another gal's floathouse for our afternoon meet up and appetif. She has a wonderful place with a wrap around covered porch with great sketching opportunities. There was a steady rain so we couldn't sketch the floathouse from the road but we managed things from around the porch. It was quite peacful sketching and hearing the rain on the roof.

Robert Bateman 6" x 9"

Ink and Watercolor

A Week of Sketches

Last Friday I spent the day at the beach with friends. I did this one sketch of the happenings at the shore. It was a good place to work on my sketches of people. It was fun but looks like I need to keep working! The people are actually very small, only about an inch tall.

Wednesday, I went to Irvine Regonial Park with a couple of friends for sketching and lunch. It was another warm beautiful day with a wonderful breeze coming off the small lake. There was a summer camp group there, all wearing black t-shirts with the "Peace Camp" logo.

My friend, Yukon and I sketched a couple of pages of the same area of the park. It was fun to see the difference of style and technique and how we each captured the moment. While looking for one of Yukon's dropped watercolor pans in the grass, of course it was sap green, I found an interesting piece of broken branch.

Today my friend, Penny and I went to our local Armstrong Nursery to do some sketching. It is a great place to sketch and they were happy to have us there, even offering us chairs as we sat on the ground! We just strolled around and stopped to sketch when something caught our eye.

Not only are there beautiful plants and flowers but many interesting and fun things to sketch including exterior and interior decorations. We only sketched for awhile as it was a hot day but we will definately be going back.

Robert Bateman 5" x 7" Sketchbook

Ink and Watercolor

Balboa Island

Yesterday, I went to Balboa Island with my friend, Dori to meet up with Marj and her group. It was nice and cool and the sun never did burn through the clouds but I still got a little sun. I think there was about ten of us, sketching, pastels and watercolors. This is the Pavillion across the bay. As I was sketching the boat, I looked up and realized that my ship had sailed!
The bay is a great place to sail around in these little sailboats call Sabots. They were stacked all along the beach. The kids take lessons and sail back and forth and around and around. There were lots of kids running up and down the boardwalk and many stopped to see what we were doing and to comment on our work. All good! I couldn't resist the bright geraniums and their crinkley leaves.

Robert Bateman 5" x 7" Sketchbook

Pen and Watercolor

Arboretum Sketch Crawl

We enjoyed the Fullerton Arboretum so much last time, we decided to return yesterday for more sketching. There was a bigger group this time. Eight of us! Sketching, photographs, watercolors and Dori played with her pastels. (Played is an understatement.) Another beautiful day spent with friends.

I worked in my 5" x 7" Robert Bateman sketchbook. I threw some watercolor washes on a few pages, added the grids and was off to the flowers and veggies. I was going to put something different in each grid but this is what I ended up with.

Oh, the joy of just letting it happen! I really enjoy sketching the moment.

Fullerton Arboretum

Last Wednesday Eula, Yukon and I went to the Fullerton Arboretum for some sketching and painting. My mom was here and went with us with her sudoku book. It was a nice warm day with a cool breeze. We brought sack lunches and had a marvelous time. It's a great place with so many wonderful things to sketch. Architecture, plants, animals, ponds and lots of shade.

There are garden patches with wonderful veggies and flowers. I sketched the rhubarb for my mom, one of her favorites. The Cactus and Century plants were in bloom and were spectacular. They have quite the variety of cacti. We are going back on Weds. the 23rd if you're in the area. See you around 10 a.m. at the Victorian House. Just look for sketchbooks and join the fun!

Robert Bateman Sketchbook

Pen and Watercolor

Road Trip to Carmel

Road Trip! My kids and I took a road trip up to Carmel for a few days. Here, we are enjoying a great brunch at Casanova's. Of course this included Champagne as well as great food. It was a wonderful fun trip with lots of great food, wine, card playing and time spent together.

We also stayed one night right on the beach in Cambria. Here I am with the Harbor Seals. I would like to go back and stay in Cambria. The town and surrounding area is beautiful. More great food and wine, and massages before we started for home.

Wine tasting on Carmel Valley Road, Carmel. This lovely place has a large garden and patio area. Here is where we found the red table wine we drank at La Bicyclette restaurant in Carmel. It was a very nice close to the afternoon of wine tasting, followed by a great dinner at Wickett's.

Of course, we visited Hearst Castle on the way up. It was a nice cool day to tour the castle and grounds. We also hiked around Point Lobos and went to the Monterey Aquarium.

We were so busy having fun I only managed one sketch. I did this over two days at the Edgemere Cottages in Carmel.

We took my Prius and drove 930 miles on less than 25 gal. of gas. As J said on the way home, "The Prius is the perfect car!" Great trip and memories. Thanks guys. I love you!

San Felipe, B.C.

This last weekend I went down to San Felipe, Mexico in Baja California with my friend, Levana to help her with her new house. The first night we had dinner at an outside restaurant in town. We bought some souveniers from the locals. The stylized fish is a painted sand dollar and the little turtle and snail have boogalee heads. The blue fish is from the tile in her bathroom. I would have liked to get a postage stamp from town but too late. Oh well, next time.
This sketch is of the fireplace in their living room that her husband, Kelly designed. The weather was warm with a lovely ocean breeze so I went out on the patio and sketched some of the plants around the house. They have a very nice desert landscape.
The next day we walked down to the beach. As we walked along the shore I collected, sea shells, drift wood, feathers and even some crab legs. San Felipe is known for their seafood. Levana had never seen a sand dollar and I found a group of them left on the sand by the tide. We took the collection back to her house and I layed out a "sea life" still life. A very fun weekend.

Robert Bateman Sketchbook
Pen and Watercolor

Recent Sketches

When I was up visiting my sisters in Washington I did some sketches . I started with the grid and added the made up green vines. The dragon fly, sunflower plaque and bird or in this case the "squirrel" feeder were from her yard. I added the pussy willows to bring the whole design together. Artistic license I guess.
Lynette has some great Christmas cacti which were still blooming in April. It was a fun sketch with all the sections and blossoms. I started on the left side and soon realized I didn't have room for the largest bloom so I decided to add a box and move the bloom into view.
While I was drawing my nephew, Case got out his sketchbook and we worked on some contour drawings to help his skills. It was a pencil drawing so after I got back home I added the grid and then the flowers and beads to fill up the page.
My friend, Nancy and I sat one afternoon to play in our sketchbooks. Nancy sketched some of the plants out of my kitchen windows. I set up a still life with a couple of silk tulips and a ceramic tea pot. It was dark by the time we were finished. Time can pass so quickly when you are having fun with a friend.

Robert Bateman 5" x 7" Sketchbook
Ink and Watercolor