Sunflowers on Blue, oil on linen panel, 10×8″

It’s summer so it’s sunflower time again. This is yet another attempt (but not the last) at understanding these flowers. I got behind on posting oil paintings while I was doing the Every Day in May sketch challenge so I have a bunch to share. I’ve also gotten behind on posting in general, while planning my trip to New York in September.

I fell down the rabbit hole on AirBnB, looking for apartments to rent for the week I’ll be there. People offer their own apartments for rent while they travel or stay with their girlfriend/boyfriend or have more than one apartment in the city.  It’s fun peeking into the tiny closets that people have as their homes in New York. But it’s also a little frustrating. Some don’t know their schedules yet for September while available places get snapped up quickly.

Sam, A Dog Portrait in Oils, Oil on Panel, 8×8″

I wish I had a dog but since I don’t, at least I can paint them! This dog portrait in oil was commissioned by a woman as a gift to her father-in-law of his dog. I had to wait to share it here until I was sure the painting was in the gentleman’s hands. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Once I posted a watercolor commission in progress of a house, a gift from a wife to her husband. Their daughter was searching online for the Oakland Federal Building and it led her to my sketch of that building on my blog. From there she landed on a post about spilling my coffee on the nearly completed watercolor painting of the home. She was shocked to see it was the house she’d grown up in. She called her mother right away to tell her (not her father, fortunately).

It all worked out fine in the end but I don’t post gift paintings now until they’ve been given.

View from Oakland Museum Sculpture Garden, ink & watercolor, 8×10″

After my monthly workshop at the Oakland Museum, with John Muir Laws and his Bay Area Nature Journal Club, I stayed to sketch in the beautiful sculpture garden. There are lovely trees and plantings, colorful sculptures and interesting urban views. The building with the flag atop it is the County Courthouse on the next block.

I also visited the fabulous “Summoning Ghosts: The Art of Hung Lui exhibit.” The show features several rooms of her very large paintings plus early sketchbooks and painting studies completed in China before she came to the U.S. in 1984. The film of her painting with luscious juicy paint (and her signature drips) made me want to run to the studio and pick up a brush.

EDiM 24-25-26, Laugh (Fiona), Tote, Screw, ink & watercolor, 8×10″

I’m running out of days in May and pages in my sketchbook so here are two pages with 3 days each. First, “Something that makes you laugh” is watching my silly cat Fiona trying to catch a piece of cotton twine I swing around for her on my bed. It was interesting drawing her standing from the perspective of looking down at her (from a blurry photo of her in motion).

Next is “Draw a Tote Bag.” I was surprised how fun it was to sketch. For “Draw a Screw” I drew this big, rusty screw I found in the garden. It was hard to focus on each turn of the thread so I generalized. It might have been a good concentration exercise to draw each one.

EDIM 21-22-23, Last Thing Bought, Summer Joy, Map

For “Draw the last thing you bought” I sketched the New Wave Palette I bought at Blick’s with a 40% off coupon. I’d never used a hand-held palette before and I’m liking it. Next is “A Summer Joy.” I tried to draw the water drops on the window of the studio on a rare and surprising rainy day in May. I should have made the rain drops transparent instead of using a white china marker to create a resist. For “Draw a Map.” I made a map of how to get to the bathroom from the studio.

Only one more day in May but 5 more days of prompts left to sketch. That just means I get to keep going into June. Yay!

EDiM 18-19-20 Left Palm, Something Owned by Another, Favorite Drink, ink & watercolor, 8×10″

On my left palm above is a kitty toy owned but not loved by my kitties. Their favorite toy is a 2-foot piece of cotton twine that they chase and jump for and carry to bed with them or bring to me to play with them. They were never interested in this toy but since it “belongs to someone else” it fits the Every Day in May challenge.

The other sketch is my afternoon cup of coffee, sitting on a mirror. I only drink decaf now, with just a little stevia in it. I miss my lovely lattes and the energy they gave me, but not the insomnia or headaches when I didn’t have my coffee on schedule.

EDiM 16-17, Something that Scares You (Back Pain) and Something from First Aid Kit, ink & watercolor 8×10″

The Every Day in May cue #16 was “Draw something that scares you.” And I was mighty scared when I drew this because my back was in terrible pain. A couple times a year an old back injury flares up and I get really scared the pain will never go away. Fortunately it does, with good care and treatment. The funny crosses on my back above are special tape that my physical therapist put on my back to keep me from moving in directions that would make the pain worse. It really helped.

After a week of using the items in the drawing, “Something from the first aid kit” (pain relievers, ice packs including good old frozen peas) plus two appointments with my brilliant physical therapist Christine at Physical Therapy Innovations, my back was nearly back to normal.  I was able to go to my holiday weekend getaway in Santa Cruz and return home in good shape, even with two 2-hour drives.

Yay! Life is good again and now I can get caught up on the Every Day in May project and back to painting in the studio and plein air.

EDiM 14-15: Draw a Figurine, Draw a Pencil. Ink & watercolor, 8×10″

I thought the Buddha with the curly hair* was a nice match with this little poodle figurine  I sculpted years ago to be part of a chess set, with dogs on one side and cats on the other. The poodle with her little pink handbag and manicured nails is the last remaining piece (of the six I made before losing interest in the project). She she sits on my altar beside Buddha and a little plastic lamb I found in the street.

Maybe someday I’ll return to the chess set project, though I don’t really need one since I don’t play.

The pencil I drew is actually a chunky wooden lead holder. I like it more for its aesthetic value than as a pencil.

*I know Buddha didn’t have curly hair. According to legend the lumps on his head are snails who crawled up there to keep him cool and protect his head while he meditated in the hot sun all day long.

Every Day in May #12: Oldest in Refrigerator; #13: Pillow. Ink & Colored Pencil, 8×10″

“The Oldest Thing in Your Refrigerator” was the cue for May 12 and that was easy since there was only one old item in there: a bottle of red wine that was a gift from a vendor at work in 2010. I don’t drink red wine (a migraine trigger and I don’t like the taste anyway).  I can’t re-gift it to anyone since the label is all about the vendor, a printing company. I know red wine doesn’t belong in the fridge but that’s where it lives until I give it away or serve it to a guest who doesn’t mind a random Sonoma County chilled red wine.

May 13 was “Draw a Pillow.” These fuzzy/furry white pillows are a favorite of my calico cat Fiona who likes it when they’re stacked up so she can sit on the highest, softest place in the room like a princess.

EDIM 11-Gardening Gloves, ink & watercolor sketch, 8×10″

I received these wonderful half-rubber, half-knitted gardening gloves as a house-warming gift when I bought my home in 2001. They’re still in excellent condition and I think of the friend who gave them to me every time I prune my roses without getting wounded by the thorns.

I’m not sure if their excellent condition is because they’re such good quality or because I don’t spend enough time gardening. I set them on a roll of transparent packing tape on my drawing table to sketch them and let the paint mingle on the paper instead of mixing one color. Drawing gloves is fun!

EDiM 10: Something Creepy, ink & watercolor, 8×5″

The creepiest things around my house are snails and slugs. They creep along, leaving their silvery trails of slime. Yuck. My gardeners warned me that the big Agapanthus plants left behind by the former owner of my home were snail havens and wanted to remove them. But I like the crazy purple flowers and left them. To collect snails to sketch I knew where to go: I filled a plastic cup from two Agapanthus.

Most of the snails curled up in their shells and hid. One was very curious and climbed onto a leaf I stuck in the cup. I put the leaf and snail on the table to draw but he was a busy guy so I had to keep moving him when he reached the end of the leaf. Then I put him in the cup and he started climbing up and over the side, giving me a clear view of his face, which was just a little nub, with no apparent eyes or mouth. Extremely creepy.

EDiM 9-10, Draw a Lock & Something Creepy, ink & watercolor, 8×11″

The lock above is one I’ve had for many years. It lives in my gym bag and even though I sometimes go long stretches without using it, I seem to always remember the combination. I keep the combination in my iPhone’s contact list just in case I forget. I don’t want to be stranded in the locker room!  I struggled a bit drawing the lock so did it several times, starting with the one at the bottom.

More about snails:

Even though I didn’t see eyes or mouth it turns out they have them. Their weak eyes are on the end of their tentacles, the mouth is underneath the head. They don’t have ears and can’t hear but have a good sense of smell (though no nose). Lots more interesting snail facts on Snail World.com.

EDiM 7-8: Something(s) You Got For Free and Draw a Coffee Pot, ink & watercolor, 8×11″

“Draw Something You Got For Free” was May 7th’s cue and May 8 was “Draw A Coffee Pot.” Above is the black lacquer cabinet with carvings and gold decorations I found on the sidewalk in front of a brightly painted house in my neighborhood with a “Free” sign on it. On top of the cabinet is a microwave I got for free (my son left it behind along with the car parts featured here when I took back my garage to convert it to my studio.

And on top of the microwave are more freebies: a set of Russian stacking dolls a friend brought back from Sitka, a tiny bowl a friend made and inside the bowl is some lip balm from my dentist (he applies it before working in your mouth then hands it to you) and a packet of cut flower preservative free from Trader Joe’s floral department.

On the right above is the way I make my coffee, with a ceramic filter holder from Peet’s Coffee that drips the coffee directly into my cup.

Draw a Pine Tree and a Scented Product (perfume and cat litter), ink & watercolor 8×11″

I had fun with May 6: “Draw a Scented Product.” I sketched two scented “products” — one man-made and one cat-made. The man-made is a lovely (and expensive) room perfume (Vanilla, Bourbon and Mandarin) that I fell in love with at my dentist’s office and unlike most scented products doesn’t give me a headache. It nicely counteracts the scented product my cats produce on a  regular basis.

“Draw a pine tree” was the cue for May 5. Easy…found one in my neighborhood bigger than a house and sketched it and painted it sitting in my car on a cold, foggy, windy day.

I’m experimenting with an inexpensive ($13.00) Winsor Newton Cotman watercolor palette. I like the format, size and light weight very much and the way the paint easily re-wets. Although the colors aren’t as intense as their artist’s grade paints they’re all permanent/lightfast. But that might be fine for sketching since it might help me keep the sketches simpler and save fancy washes for real watercolor paper.