Juicy Wild Blackberries

A few weeks ago, after I posted a watercolor of wild blackberries, several people recommended creating another painting using the juice of the berries. I liked the idea, so this morning while my wife and I were out picking wild blackberries for a cobbler, I created a sketch using berry juice as paint.

I sketched the blackberries in pencil, then ink, until I got a drawing I liked. Then I crushed a few berries, watching their vivid, rose-colored juice collect in the corner of a small, flat-bottomed container. The berries gave off a sweet fragrance and I imagined how great that cobbler was going to taste.

After selecting an old brush to guard against damaging my good sable brushes, I began to paint. Dipping my brush into the juice, I applied the first layer and watched as it soaked into the paper and turned a grayish purple color. But when I applied additional layers, the juice kept its beautiful pink color. The final painting looked deceptively like two different colors. I have no idea how long the pigment will last without fading, but with a scan or photograph, I’ll be able to enjoy the colors forever.

With the painting complete, we headed home to make cobbler.

We didn’t realize how many berries we’d picked and were surprised to measure out 10 full cups. We created two cobblers, enough to share with friends. I sketched the cobbler right out of the oven because I had a feeling it wouldn’t last. I was right.

The recipe I used can be found on Jean’s wonderful recipe blog Delightfulrepast.com.

(My) eBook on the iPad

After much work I’m excited to announce that my book The Artist on the Road: Impressions of Greece is finally available as an ebook! (I was even able to include my handwriting font so it looks more like the original sketchbook design.~ iBooks doesn’t display my handwriting font at the present time.) I love the way double tapping an image expands it to the entire screen. It’s now available in the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Canada, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Replublic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portgal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland. Check it out!

Click here to see it on the Apple iBookstore.

Ebooks maybe the future but sometimes it’s still nice to have a paperback. The paperback book is available on Amazon.

Peanuts Statues at Charles M Schulz Airport

Bronze statues of Charlie Brown and Linus. I added the kite in the kite eating tree just for fun.

The Snoopy sculpture was part of the Peanuts on Parade fundraising event.

The Sonoma County Airport is located on the northwest side of Santa Rosa, and is named after one of the city’s most famous residents, Charles M. Schulz, creator of the long-running Peanuts comic strip. Although the airport is small, it has popular direct flights to and from Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Portland, and Seattle.

Schulz was born and raised in Minnesota, but in 1969 moved to Santa Rosa and lived there until his death February 12, 2000. Bronze statues of Charlie Brown and Linus were dedicated to the airport in 2007 and funded through Peanuts on Parade Sculpture Auctions. I was lucky enough to paint one of the five foot tall Charlie Brown sculptures for display as well as for the fundraising event. The Auction raked in about $300,000, with my entry fetching $15,000. The bulk of proceeds were used to fund artistic scholarships.

Wings Over Wine Country Air Show takes place adjacent to the airport, each year in late August. While attending last weekend’s event, I chose to paint this red Stearman biplane. It was the closest thing I could find resembling the triplane of Snoopy’s arch enemy, the Red Baron.

Wings Over Wine Country

Sunday was my first time watching the annual Wings over Wine Country event in Santa Rosa. I was excited to see a large number of planes that were on display and the one that impressed me the most was the C-17 Globemaster III. This enormous machine towers above all the planes parked on the field. We queued up for a tour and as we entered the aircraft, Master Sargent Christopher Whittely, who is a Loadmaster, gave us a few particulars: the weight of the loaded aircraft can reach almost 600,000 pounds; its cruising altitude is ~33,000 feet, its cruising speed ~500 mph and it can also be refueled in flight. It’s difficult to imagine this airplane landing and taking off right here at Sonoma County Airport.

 

 

Then we climbed a ladder into the cockpit. I was impressed with the number of controls required to fly the plane. Switches, dials, and monitors line the interior. In the cabin, Amy, a Major in the Air Force Reserves, fielded our questions. The plane is primarily used to bring medical supplies and humanitarian aid to both Afghanistan and Iraq. It’s also used for returning wounded soldiers to the US for medical attention. But the aircraft has also been used for non military purposes, such as transporting Keiko the killer whale (from the movie Free Willy) to its new home in the Icelandic waters of Klettsvik Bay.

Tucked away in the back of the cabin is a narrow bed where one pilot can get some shut eye while the other pilot flies. As Amy spoke, I imagined what it would be like to sleep on this giant airship in the pitch black night, cruising at an altitude of 33,000 feet, listening to the hum of the engine making its way across the Pacific, and into the middle of an Afghani war zone.

The Seagull at Doran Beach, Bodega Bay

If you’ve ever seen Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds” then you’ll probably understand the experience my wife and I had today at Bodega bay. While enjoying a pick-nick lunch on Doran beach, seagulls showed up one by one and surrounded us from all sides. They stared. They glared. And when we looked away, they stepped closer. The first bird to arrive (sketched above) told me mater-of-factly that he was sick to death of seafood and wanted to eat my turkey sandwich.

Windsor Town Green

Early last Sunday morning, I sat in the park with my sketch buddy Phil to draw Windsor’s “old town” section. Families were already strolling the Town Green with their dogs, enjoying the crisp morning air. This part of town is great for sketching because of the eclectic architecture and decades old oak trees  populating the area.

Originally lacking a central gathering place, the town of Windsor several years ago built this downtown green lined with bookstores, candy stores, antique shops, and restaurants. Directly behind the spot where I was drawing lies a large grass park hosting live concerts and outdoor movies throughout the summer months.

Picking Wild Blackberries

With a bag over my shoulder and a sketchbook in hand, I walk down the fire road near my house to a hidden blackberry bush bursting with ripe fruit. After a long week of working indoors, it feels good to get outside and breathe in the fresh air. Even with this summer’s strangely cool weather (10 degrees below normal), blackberries are in abundance and tastier than ever. As I face the bush, a shapeless mass of green, a sweet aroma lures me closer.

Today I plan to paint the blackberries before filling up my container with fruit. I walk around the bush looking for a good place to draw, and find a good spot under a shade tree. I reach for my paints and study the berries in their various stages of ripeness, colors ranging from inky black to brilliant red, glowing in the afternoon sun. A couple of bees check out what’s up, but soon buzz off to more important matters.

While letting the watercolor dry, I pull a bowl from my bag and pick the ripe fruit, berry by berry. Pigment from the juice stains my fingers as I loosen each piece of fruit. Carefully, I try to avoid the bush’s sharp thorns but inevitably one will poke me, reminding me of the pain that often accompanies life’s pleasures and keeps the easily intimidated away. I eat some berries right off the bush, enjoying each one’s distinctive taste. Some are soft and sweet, and others are firm and tart. But what I love most is the inviting fragrance that smells like a sweet perfume.

Returning home with battle scars of pokes and scrapes, along with a bowl full of blackberries, I imagine how good they’ll taste topping off homemade ice cream and tomorrow morning’s breakfast cereal.

Twisted Roots

Recently, I attended the Picasso exhibit in San Francisco, parking along John F. Kennedy Dr. to admire this beautiful tree across the street from the De Young Museum. It reminds me of when I first moved to San Francisco and used to mountain bike through Golden Gate Park every day after work, one of the more pleasurable things I remember about living in the city.

One day while riding past the Museum, I spotted this amazing tree at roadside. For months I rode past it and told myself that one day I would bring my sketchbook along to draw it. Back then, I hadn’t spent much time sketching in public places and was leery of trying. Finally one Sunday morning I got up the courage to set up a chair along the busy road and draw the tree. Passersby stopped to watch me as I drew, and some even thanked me for bringing their attention to the tree, which they had never noticed before.