San Juan Capistrano Mission

Last Wednesday my friends, Ginger, Penny and Susan and I met at the Mission for a sketch crawl. It was a beautiful day, sunny, warm but with the most wonderful breeze. When we got to the mission we made a bee line for the center courtyard and didn't crawl very far as there was lots to sketch. After a few hours we left for lunch but Ginger and I returned for one more sketch.

I like to do composite pages of things that catch my eye but sometimes a funny secondary picture appears. Here the brick chimney looks like a cactus birdhouse. Isn't serendipity grand! It is fun filling the page with little bits of the day.

This is a section of the archways that go around the hole courtyard. My sketch is a little wocky and looks like a good old Santa Ana Wind would knock it all down but this mission is not going anywhere! The mission is famous for the return of the swallows each spring. The little blue swallow is the hand stamp for re-entry. When I saw the swallow on my hand we asked for one in our books as well. My ode to Mari, get a stamp whenever available!

More from Summer Lake with Mari

Here are some more sketches from my Summer Lake, Oregon trip with Mari and our band of happy sketchers. We really had just too much fun though we all grew individually as people and artist. What a wonderful way to discover the world around us.

The texture of these tree trunks was too good to not sketch. The little bird houses are for the Tree Swallows. There were mom and dad swallows who would time it perfectly and one would leave just as the other would swoop in to watch over the little ones.





The museum at Fort Rock was actually a group of structures which included the doctor's house, church, school and three or four other houses. We could open cupboards and drawers and handle the items in the houses. Just leave them as you found them, how fun is that, you could touch things.






One day is was very cold and windy and Karen and I decided there was quite a lot we could sketch around the lodge. We could sketch outside and then go back inside to sketch and get warm. We were expecting weather in the 80's. The sun was out but the wind was soooo cold that day.




The next day we spent some time at the hot springs and camp grounds. We took a dip in the hot springs to warm our bones and then sketched around the camp before heading into Paisley and then up along the ridge. The hot springs are inside the old barn and the stalls have been made into changing rooms. A slight smell of sulfur but, oh so relaxing!




When our stay at Summer Lake was over I drove back to Covallis with Karen and Janet. We stopped in Silver Lake to sketch and get one more postal stamp.
We stopped in the Klamath Marsh Wildlife Refuge where the marshes and water lillies were amazing. Standing there on the side of the road I was surrounded by the beautiful mountains. Who could pass up one more time to sketch a memory.

Summer Lake with Mari

I spent a marvelous time in Summer Lake, OR on a five day sketching trip. Our leader was Mari Le Glatin Keis, who is just great! She takes care of the lodging, food and plans for the daily outings. I have linked her web site here on my blog. Check her out, she also does trips to Spain, France and Mexico and she has a book coming out in July.




The wildlife in the refuge was amazing. There are 254 species of birds in the area. Sometimes it was like they were posing for us and other times we were actually sketching on the fly.










Views of the trails, marshes and around the grounds of the lodge. I really like these little grids and the small memories they can give you.

These are all in my 5" x 7" Robert Bateman sketchbook and are ink and watercolor. Mari had us prep pages each morning before setting out for sketch walks. I had never done this before and was greatly suprised to find that when it came time to sketch, the pages were almost perfect. I did add some extra color on top of the prepped pages.

Little framed windows are also a great way to sketch a postcard of the moment. The plants and foliage were also very beautiful. There were wonderful, large irises around the lodge in great colors.

We stopped at the small local post offices each day and ask for a cancel stamp to date our pages. I also added the population of the area on the page. Fort Rock was a whopping 34! We walked part of the Medicine Man's trail, visited Fort Rock, went in the hot springs, sketched in the wildlife refuge and shared our books and many laughs over wine and snacks every afternoon.

I can't wait for Provence in October!

Hortense Miller Gardens

Yesterday, I met up with a new group of gals at the Hortense Miller Gardens in Laguna, CA. The day was set up by Tania from ArtPlantae as a botanical sketching class. First, we got a tour of the gardens and after a quick "get to know ya" lunch we were off sketching.

These hanging garden ornaments were made by Hortense, who is now in her 90's. They caught my eye as soon as we rounded the first corner on our tour.



I was the only non-gardener in the group so I don't know the names of many of the plants but I do know a begonia when I see it. The stringy stuff in the top corner is my poor attempt at Spanish Moss.

As you can see I did make a stop in the potting shed where I also took some photographs of the eclectic shelves.




I should have ask someone the name of this plant. These are not peppers but the buds (I think) of the plant. None of them were open so I am not really sure.

It was a beautiful and fun day with a great group.
Thanks Tania!

All of these are in my Robert Bateman Sketchbook with pen and watercolor.

Flowers and Bowers

EDM Challenge #76 Flowers

This are my Mother's Day Flowers. The beautiful hydrangea will be planted in my tea garden. The peonys are gorgeous and huge! The flowers are six inches across and a very deep burgandy color, which I had trouble mixing the same color. I thought the grid was a great layout for the flowers.

Pen and Watercolor
Robert Bateman Sketchbook

Bowers Museum
Santa Ana, CA

I met two friends at Bowers Museum for a day of art, lunch and sketching. These are from the Shanghai Exhibit. There were pieces from 5000 years of China history. The pieces were beautiful, detailed and in amazing shape for their ages.
Pen and Watercolor
Robert Bateman Sketchbook

Ansel Adams Exhibit

There was also a great exhibit of Ansel Adams photographs. We took our time looking closely at all the photos and even managed to do some sketching. This is my ode to Ansel.

Water Soluable Graphite Pencil
Robert Bateman Sketchbook


There is also a wonderful Egyptian Exhibit at the museum but we spent so much time on lunch and the other two that we ran out of time. We didn't make it to the gift shop either but the up side is we get to go back!

Aquarium of the Pacific

My mom was visiting this last week and we took a drive to Long Beach to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific. It is a great place to view the wonders of the sea. I managed to sketch a few interesting bits here and there. This turtle was resting in a corner and posed for me the whole time I was sketching him.

Sea Dragons are the weirdest but coolest little guys. The Weedy Sea Dragon looks like twigs and brown leaves. The Leafy Sea Dragon just looks like a bundle of green leaves. They move around like sea horses, almost a floating dance. Jelly fish are always a favorite, as long as you are not in the water with them. I love watching the beautiful ballet they perform.

Pen and Watercolor

Robert Bateman Sketchbook

EDM challenge # 7

Tins or bottles from the kitchen.

I chose some tins from the pantry and although I liked the drawing it looked a little plain so I poured out some of the mulling spices to give it a more finished look.

Pen and Watercolor

Robert Bateman Sketchbook

EDM Challenges 3 and 35

Here are a couple more EDM challenges.

I was hoping to catch up but I seem to be falling more and more behind. I guess that's okay as I will always have something to draw. The rusty tricycle is in the art room at the college and looked interesting. I then added the gear/sprocket of a bike.

Pen and Watercolor

This is my favorite ever red leather wallet from Brighton. It is a great little size and can hold a lot.

Pen and Watercolor

The Kokeshi dolls are from an exhibit at the Riverside Metropolitan Museum. They are a form of traditional folk art dating back to about 1830.

Pen and Watercolor

Robert Bateman Sketchbook

Recent Monoprints

Here are a couple of monoprints I have done recently.
The train image is titled, "Midnight Express. This print is the result of inking and printing the plate and then manipulating it and printing again without cleaning it and manipulating and printing a third time. The train, leaves and furrows were cut from file folder and then inked and moved around with each printing.

The flower plate was painted with water based inks. I let it dry completely and then painted it again in different colors. I painted it a total of five times. As prints are pulled from the plate the colors come off in layers, giving me a variety of colors and textures.