Sketches 2016

I found some sketches I forgot to put into the last post. Then there are a bunch more that I have done this year.

I managed to make it to a lot of our First Friday Spanish Village Extra Credit sketchcrawls. This is a banana plant in one of the side areas of Spanish Village.

When I need something quick, I often do some of the blue pots that are outside of several of the studios.

Last March we celebrated Pi Day (3.1416) with what else but Pie? It was also the 7th Anniversary of the Scetchcrawlers group. My 5th Anniversary of sketching with the group.

I couldn't stay the whole time one day, so I just sketched some pods. I think they are from the Jacaranda trees.

One day last spring a few of us die-hard sketchers met in spite of the rain and sketched from under the gazebo.

Here are some plants and cactus outside of one of the studios.

I don't seem to have many sketches from the zoo this year - I didn't manage to go as often as I like, and wasn't sketching much I guess. This is Otis, who was at the Hippo exhibit one day when I was there. He was just chillin' with his back to everyone. I love his cute pink ears.

Even though this is the Bell Tower and Museum of Man, I made the sketch from one of the picnic areas of the Zoo.

This is a flower from one of the Sausage trees in the Childrens' Zoo area. After I did the sketch I realized that the flower is upside down from its orientation when it's on the tree - I had picked it up off the ground to sketch more conveniently.

And I did make it to the Wild Animal Park Safari Park in the spring. Don't get me started on what I think of how they are [poorly] managing the crowds for the tram and butterflies. Grrr!

 I did manage to go to a few other sketching. This is in the cactus garden across Park Blvd. from the main park.

And this is from the Old Cactus Garden that is behind the Balboa Park Club and Puppet Theater.

If you ever get a chance to go to the Queen Calafia Magic Circle at Kit Carson Park in Poway, do it! It is fantastic! There are so many kinds of wonderful, magical statues. Everything is covered in mosaics of pebbles, glass beads, and semi-precious stones. I did this with just watercolor.

I was lucky to be able to go to PyCon 2016 in May/June in Portland Oregon. I had a wonderful time, learned so much! I didn't have much time to sketch, but took a few minutes from a lunch hour to make this very quick sketch of a Japanese bell outside the convention center. I really enjoyed Portland and am looking forward to going there again in May 2017.

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Go make art!

Day 131 - Monkey Performing the Sambasa Dance

This little cutie is a sumi-e painting in the Pacific Asia Museum. Isn't he grand? I love this painting. Mori Sosen, First Day of the Monkey Year, 1800.
Photo, washi paper.
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Go make art!

Day 130 - Woman Playing a Lute

This detail is from a lovely painting we saw at the Norton Simon Museum. It is by Johannes Vermeer, painted around 1662 or 1663. It is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum, on loan to the Norton Simon. How wonderful to be able to see it up close! I probably spent 15 or 20 minutes just looking at this painting.
Brochure picture, scrapbook paper, embellishment.
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Go make art!

Day 129 - One Figure by Henry Moore

After visiting the Pacific Asia Museum, we went over to the Norton Simon Museum. This museum surprised me in the depth and quality of artwork in their collection. Before you go in, there are a bunch of Rodin sculptures in the garden area. They had 6 van Gogh paintings on display, 3 Rembrandts, a host of paintings from the Impressionist era, and over 100 works by Degas, many of them small bronzes. This picture is one of the 3 figures in a sculpture by Henry Moore; "Three Standing Figures" from 1953. Although my feet wore out by the end of the afternoon, I thoroughly enjoyed my visit there and hope to go again.
Photo, painted paper and embellishments.
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Go make art!

Day 128 - Eagle in Snowstorm

This is a detail of a painting by Katsushika Hokusai from 1848, from the Pacific Asia Museum. One of the many reasons why this museum is worth visiting is that their collection is better than many in much larger museums.
Photo, scrapbook paper, embellishments.
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Go make art!