thursday's walk

It's tooo hot in San Diego! Here's the progress of the pomegrante tree, and my experience with fava beans...
San Diego SketchCrawl this Sunday at Spanish Village, in Balboa Park. This is my week for drawing in the park!
watercolor moleskine

Balboa Park Wednesday

The last day of Irina's class. We sketched at the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages in Balboa Park. it was shady and quiet with lots to draw. I had to draw the Norway House, for my husb. The little images are the different chimneys of the hospitality houses.
watercolor moleskine

Balboa Park Sketching continued

Some of my sketches from Tuesday's "Keeping a Travel Sketchbook" class with Irina Gronborg.
Perspective is a real challenge, but with a lot of practice, I think I can get better at it. The last little image is from The Prado restaurant...salt shaker, candle, sugar and napkins.
And here we are, listening intently to Irina:

Sketching in Balboa Park for 3 days!!

I'm taking a 3 day class "Keeping a Travel Sketchbook" with Irina Gronborg [through the Athenaeum Library Art School in LaJolla.] We are spending everday, from 10-4 sketching in Balboa Park. Irina's a wonderful teacher and keeps us moving every 20 minutes to simulate the travel experience. I'm learning a lot from Irina, how to be concise, yet detailed where neccessary. And she reminds us, that when you're sketching, you really are THERE and really SEEING. It's great. HOT, though. Like 90 degrees!

balboa park palm

3 pair of sandals

Two pairs of red sandals and one pair of black sandals. San Diego summer wear (and spring and fall too!) I thought it would be cute to print my toes, using a inkpad. It wasn't.
watercolor moleskine

tools of the trade.

these tools and a moleskine, are all I need!
watercolor moleskine.

farmer's market purchase

Gerber daisies from today's farmer's market. watercolor moleskine.

Bullfrog oboe concert while woodpeckers play percussion.

Husb and I walked down to the Doane's pond about 9am, and sat on a picnic table to sketch. No bugs this morning, and such a beautiful spot. I've never seen or heard so many bullfrogs! (We looked at them with our binoculars, and they are soooo green!) The painting didn't turn out so great, water is hard to paint. I fooled with it when I got home, but decided to just let it be a record of the day, as it should be, and not a great painting. I cheated, by adding GLOSS matt medium to the pond, cuz I couldn't get it to shine with my painting skill! in my watercolor moleskine.

Doanes Pond, Palomar State Park

June 22

mt palomar campsite

Wonderful campground, but when I painted this, there were soooo many bugs, my left arm was flailing the whole time! Husb and I had a mini-vacaish in the mountains, camping overnite in our tent. It took about 40 minutes, in my watercolor moleskine.

Campsite #26, Doanes Valley, Palomar State Park

June 20

Teaching Art at Los Pen Elementary

Best line of the day: Last week, a third grader was interested in my artwork, so I gave her my website address. www.PlainJaneStudio.com. Yesterday she comes running over to me, "Miss Jane, Miss Jane, I forgot the name of your website!!!" She said, "I looked up 'Miss Jane' on the internet and couldn't find it." Cracked me up!!!

Portraits of me, by my kindergarten students. Hmmm. Love the grey hair on the one on the left. And the one of the right is pretty acurate! I am tall.

View from the Hubbell House

Hubbell House, near Julian, California

Visited James & Anne Hubbell's house, for a fundraiser for their non-profit organization www.hubbellandhubbell.com/foundation.htm
Their home and studios were destroyed in the 2003 San Diego fires, and they are rebuilding. It's a gorgeous, magical place, even with the blackened trees, a contstant reminder of the terrible firestorm. This was a quick watercolor, done on the spot.

My watercolor brush...for sketch crawls

It's called the Niji waterbrush. (I've been mis-spelling it.) It's perfect for 'on the go' watercolor painting!

My friend, Andrea, gave it to me, on the recommendation of Danny Gregory. (Okay, she gave it to my husb, and I'm borrowing it.)

June's Radio

Vintage radio? Nope, as I was drawing it, someone told me it was purchased at Target! Oh well, it's still funky and cute.
watercolor moleskine

Yahoo picks me....well sorta.

Notice, my artwork on the Moleskinerie site. Cool!

Los Penasquitos Elementary Front Views

I'm channeling Velvetina she's got work on Moleskine: One page at a Time and I really like her style, though mine isn't nearly as delicate as hers. She does the little boxes thing so well.

Watercolor Moleskine.

kitchen project

My spring/summer project is refinishing our kitchen cabinets. It's hard work! Since it's too hot to work in the garage today [stripping and staining the cabinet doors] I stayed inside and sketched the view from my kitchen table.

sunflowers at los penasqutios elementary

Time between classes. My 'usual' group of mini-art critics gathered. A kindergartener announced, in an adorable lisp, that "I was the best draw-er he'd ever saw." A tiny rabbit lives somewhere below these sunflowers, because I saw him come out, and then disappear behind the plants.

5 things

I saw this little 'quiz' on someone's blog and decided to do it. FIVE things 1) in my fridge 2) in my purse 3) in my closet 4) in my car and lastly 5) in my life. Just for fun in my moleskine. ink and color pencil.

cheryl tall sculptures

I have my artwork in a small studio/gallery in Escondido. June 10 was my evening to hang out there, and I did this watercolor of Cheryl Tall's clay sculptures.

Happy Birthday Rick Tucker!

Passion Flower

Picked this flower on my morning walk, from the RB Winery. It's an amazing flower---sort of space-age and yet gynocological... Also, picked the first cherry of the season.

watercolor in my watercolor moleskine.

kindergartener backpacks

I painted this today, in my watercolor moleskine, at my break between teaching art classes. These back packs are bigger than most of the little kids who carry them!

abstract art (artist age: 6)

One of my kindergarten students did this today. I love his signature! He worked hard and was so proud.

Another View from the Los Penasquitos Elementary School Playground

I had time between classes, (I teach art a few days a week), and this time painted the hill of houses north of the playground. The sketch took only 20 minutes, but the watercolor painting took over an hour. So many different greens to mix! As usual, a gaggle of kids surrounded me with comments and questions, and even compliments on my earrings.
In my Watercolor Moleskine journal.

Mystery Fruit

I'm keeping an eye on a neigborhood orchard, on my daily walks. I drew the white flowers from this tree on June 1, and already there are the beginnings of fruit.
In my watercolor moleskine journal.

SketchCrawl in San Juan Capistrano

Twenty of us, from the So Cal DrawingRoom met up in San Juan Capistrano to sketch and paint the nearby mission and its beautiful gardens. A group of us rode up on the train from San Diego. A lovely day, and the weather was perfect.
I'm loving my Moleskine Watercolor Journal!

Matilija poppies in the historic area behind the San Juan Capistrano Depot. I stood up, in the sun, to paint these. The white petals are like crepe paper.

These terracotta birds were a fountain in someone's front yard, near the San Juan Capistrano Depot. Sitting in the shade, painting, I could hear windchimes, a hint of classical music, and a group of people playing croquet on a nearby lawn.

#7. Ralph's Letters

I'm methodically encasing each of Ralph's letters and envelopes in organza. Stitching, reading, stitching. Just 3 more letters to go, and then I will work on the composition of all the pieces together. My plan is a large quilt, that will hang in the center of a gallery, so viewers can see both sides of the piece. I've got to rig up something in my studio, to hang the piece while I work, so I can see it as a whole. I haven't laid out the whole thing, so I really have no clue of the finished size.
By the way, I found Ralph. He teaches High School English in So. Cal. Here's a link (entitled Lowe Down) to his writings as an English Prof. As you'll see, he still writes beautifully. I'm exciting about being in touch with him after 30 years.....

I was on CNN today!!

Yup, that's me, on CNN!!!! Today at 2pm. No, I'm not singing, just talking. A reporter stopped me in Oceanside today. She was asking for opinions on the latest news from Iraq, regarding the Marines. (Oceanside is home of Camp Pendleton.) This cracks me up! I'm on CNN!!

Neighborhood Orchard

A very quick watercolor from my walk this morning. I'm really enjoying this Moleskine watercolor journal. I forget that I am a watercolor painter, first and foremost. It's so easy to get distracted by fabric and collage and everything else!