31 Days to Spain - Week Three Wrap Up

October 28, 2014 in Sketchbook

I'm still feeling behind on this daily project. I keep meaning to catch up, but I'm still working on it. I think the hard part is when you feel like you did a great sketch, you don't want to follow it up with a weak one. I am trying to let that go though. This project has been fantastic for preparing for the residency. I think when I started, I thought I would have time to paint all day this month. I have had many things to do in this time though. I'm basically doing spring cleaning in the fall, working on my online shops and website, reorganizing my shipping and packaging area and the list goes on. I'm really looking forward to arriving in Cadiz and spending more time on one project.

October 15th - Portrait with flowers and water sketches

I was contacted to create a portrait that must include water and flowers to benefit clean water technology for families and individuals. Here are a few sketches for a piece to contribute to this project.

October 16th - El Pato bilingual cans

This one was a big hit! A kitchen staple for many. I do love that El Pato cans are bilingual! Each side looks as you see it here. I've been through many cans of it in my life.

October 17th - Traveler's Tree

Traveler's Tree aka Traveler's Palm aka Ravanela madagascariensis. Named because up to a quart of water accumulates in the leaf base, which is shaped like a cup, and may be used for emergency drinking water. Native to Madagascar.

October 18th - Bill Nye

We scored free tickets to see Bill Nye at De Anza College. It was so great! I love hearing interesting people talk about their lives and share their knowledge. I sketched his face a few times and noted a few interesting things about him here.

October 19th - Donuts

The owner of Makeshift Society, Rena Tom, requested for artists and illustrators to make donuts for her Creative Mornings talk. I am sad I will be missing her talk live in San Francisco, but CM are really good about filming these. Rena wants to have the donuts flashing behind her during her talk. It worked out perfectly to paint it during my open studio sale, especially since there's a donut shop almost across the street from my studio.

October 20th - Clipboard of Insanity

Yes, that's the official name of my clipboard. It features handwritten to do notes, print outs of spreadsheets and checklists, shows to apply to and more. I keep trying to minimize it, then it grows, then I minimize it. I am more of a hands-on visual person, so this clipboard has worked quite nicely in addition to using the computer for organization and productivity.

October 21st - Persimmon

Ah, my favorite fall fruit, specifically Fuyu persimmons. Nature's candy. The perfect shade of orange. It was hard to not eat it while painting it. I may even have taken a bite.

Weekend in the North Bay - Pt. 2 Cazadero

October 27, 2014 in Adventure & Hiking

The day after we were in Bolinas with our good friends Chris and Claudine, we went to Cazadero with our good friends Nate and Lucia. What spawned this trip was Lucia messaging me about an open house for an A-frame in the redwoods. How could I say no?! Of course I would drive 3.5 hours away to hang out with these guys!

If you know me, you know I love an A-frame. When I was a kid, I had a book on houses and homes that had all kinds of unique dwellings in it. I still have it (pictured below). It has the most interesting homes, like roundhouses, A-frames and more. I also loved looking at architecture magazines and would draw up my own designs.

The cabin is in Cazadero, one of the best smelling towns I've been to. The air is so fresh and smells of forest and calm. It sits among redwoods and has a nice sized property, although the neighbors are still visible.

I really loved the kitchen. From the front of the house, it is on the left-hand side when you walk in. The angled ceiling made it very cozy. The dark area to the left in the photo above is a large freestanding cabinet that houses a pantry and refrigerator. Such a great design!

I always thought my home style was more artsy, rustic vintage, but after seeing this cabin, I may need to seek out some mid-century modern style furniture. Look at that fireplace! Isn't it stunning! Notice the outlets angled on the wall/ceiling.

Lucia in her new bedroom (not really, but she can dream!)

To access the upstairs, you climb an angled ladder. This is the view from the bedroom. The realtor told us the house comes with the authentic lamp. Imagine waking up to this view.

The loft bedroom has windows on the flat wall, as well as windows built into the angled walls on either side. Waking up to redwood trees sounds good to me.

The rear view of the house. There's a separate deck to the side.

As you can see above, the property is filled with trees, though there is an open grass area as well. I pictured some tents or tiny houses for other guests to stay. Nate's out on the deck, making himself at home.

Another plus with Cazadero is that you are only about 15-20 minutes from the sea. It's fairly close to Jenner, a tiny town with a population of 136. I've always wanted to kayak in this area.

After exploring Cazadero, I realized I need to come up this way more often. I have been to the Russian River, Jenner and other places nearby, but not Cazadero. The North Bay and North Coast of California is so incredibly beautiful. With farms, forest, ocean and friendly people, it remains one of my favorite places to go.

Weekend in the North Bay - Pt. 1 Bolinas

October 24, 2014 in Adventure & Hiking

I like doing wacky things sometimes, like driving up to the North Bay coast two days in a row, with two different sets of people. The drive is maybe 2.5 hours to Bolinas and 3.5 to Cazadero. Let's start with Bolinas.

Gospel Flat Farm - This is a family farm. We live here so please smile and say hello.

We started by heading to Gospel Flat Farm, a family run farm in Bolinas. I had never stopped here before, usually because I beeline for the beach and on the way home, it looked closed. I learned they have a 24 hour farm stand that operates on the honor system. I love Bolinas even so much more now.

Look at all that kale! Their farm was beautiful. So many good things growing here.

The reason we came to visit the farm was because of an art show title Nature Babes. I knew of one of the artists from Instagram. Chris and Claudine came along with us and as you can see, they had a blast. We were lucky to spend their 5 year wedding anniversary with them. I enticed them with the following question: "Wanna go to an art show on a farm with wood-fired pizza and wine in a small beach town and have a killer dinner and pie at the Coast Cafe afterward?"

Who could say no?

Wood-fired pizza with toppings from the farm

It was nice to meet Maria Schoettler in person. We follow each other on Instagram and I must say, these kinds of things make you love the internet. Her work is so lovely. The textures and colors are pure bliss.

Lindsay Stripling, part one of two of one artwork

Linday Stripling, part two of one artwork

Aren't these pieces gorgeous? Lindsay Stripling created this diptych of an invasion of a campsite. Looks like the wolves and turkeys took over everything.

Emily Ritz created highly detailed watercolors with ink details. You can see the scale of this one by looking over at that window sill. The work is really insane closeup. So much detail!

You know I love a good A-Frame. Another one coming in Part 2 of this weekend:)

31 Days to Spain - Week Two Wrap Up

October 15, 2014 in Sketchbook

Well, this week had a couple hiccups in the daily art project. That's okay though, since I don't like following rules anyway. I've been swamped with work between projects and preparing for the trip. I am trying to make 2015 awesome and fresh so I am cleaning out the house and studio as well. I put waaay too much on my plate, but that's how it goes sometimes.

October 8th - Moonrise

In my last blog post, I spent the day with a lovely friend in SF. We watched the moonrise. I actually painted this on the 9th, so it was the start of getting off schedule with this project.

October 9th - Fern Block Printed Tote Bag

I got started with this fern print Friday morning with the help of Oscar, my sweet coworker (his paw seen here). I had been mulling over making these for awhile since I've had the bags for a screen printing project. A fundraiser for a friend was the catalyst for getting them going. I made 10 block printed bags total.

October 10th - Bags on the wall

Here are some of the 10 bags I made for a fundraiser for a friend battling cancer. They are printed on organic cotton totes. I hope to have screen printed versions in the new year with new designs. I love our neighbor's garage wall. The peeling paint and varying color make a great backdrop for photo shoots.

October 11th - Sketches from a post on a weekend in Bolinas

Here are a few sketches from a day spent in Bolinas. My next blog post will be about my awesome weekend in Bolinas and Cazadero. Keep your eyes peeled for that one. We saw a fox on a hillside on the side of the road, an amazing art show in an A-frame room on a farm and of course, the bay and hills.

October 12th - A-Frame in Cazadero Sonoma County

Another sketch from the Bolinas and Cazadero weekend. I saw this mid-century modern decorated home during an open house. It was on a nice sized property. Again, the next blog post will be covering this amazing weekend.

October 13th - Plant Art

I call this my meandering plant project. The pieces are for a small works art show in SF. I really liked the simplicity of the plants and the white background, but I figured it needed something else.

October 14th - More Plant Art

I painted another plant sketch for a small works art show in SF. More leafy greens here!

I'm having so much fun with this project so far! However, I am noticing my perfectionism creeping in. Each day, it should be whatever it is, yet I am trying to create clear outcomes. It's a work in progress. Literally.

Pattern Inspiration in San Francisco

October 10, 2014 in Adventure & Hiking, Inspiration

On Wednesday, I went to see a friend in San Francisco. We didn't have much of a plan, but we were thinking something like lunch and checking out the sunset at Land's End. My friend Gabby is a crazy-inspiring person. She has a lot going on in her life right now and actually kind of always does as a traveling, swimming (she just swam to Alacatraz!), pilot who is starting a company with her man. The day was like a breath of fresh air for the both of us. I won't write too much since the pictures speak for themselves.

More mussels... and look at that hole pattern in the sand too.

Fractals, dude. It always amazes me how this pattern exists so commonly in nature. Blood vessels, trees, lightning, snowflakes, this repeating pattern occurs everywhere.

The view of the Golden Gate from Mile Rock Beach. You can see the mussels on the rocks here.

We ended the night at Top of the Mark, the 19th story bar and lounge at the top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel. We wanted to sit with a view of the moon and at first we couldn't see it. After a few minutes, we saw it peek out from behind this building. We drank martinis while a jazz pianist played. Of course, the picture doesn't quite do it justice.

Such a good day and night.