Fairyland revisited!

My urban sketching crew totally enjoyed our visit to Fairyland - after closing time. Here we are with smiles on our shiny faces.

An evening at Fairyland!

Thanks to local Urban Sketcher Sonia our sketchers visited Fairyland yesterday evening (August 20). No children were needed! But the little child within all of us were raring to go. Fairyland is - for the uninitiated -  theme park in the middle of Oakland. When it was created in 1948 Disneyland didn't exist, nor cell phones, video games or Nickelodeon or other means of entertainment enjoyed by kids today. According to Fairyland web site - Fairyland.org -Walt Disney himself came to check out  little world himself and "incorporated" ideas came for his "magic kingdom." I came upon this whimsical castle and just had to sketch it.

Sketch of Lincoln's head on Oakland monument

This is an attempt to draw statutes. I gave Abe Lincoln center stage at the Champions of Humanity monument in downtown Oakland. My Abe looks kinda spooky and it in no way resembles what I saw but I had fun trying to make this look like Abe.

Champions for Humanity

Yesterday evening (August 6) I joined the SF urban sketch group's public night. We met at what some have called Oakland's version of Mt. Rushmore. The faces on this monument include Maya Angelou, Helen Keller, Harvey Milk and other persons who  made a difference to the world during their lives. I was so caught up looking at this grand structures I almost forgot to draw and so I was in a hurry to put something in my sketchbook.

Strange plant

There are several plants outside the right side house of the house that look like this. I recall seeing other plants that looked similar as I was growing up. I don't know what they are called.

Rolling, rolling, rolling on the Napa River!

I took a day off May 27 and got into a boat with mostly artists as it made its way along to the Napa River. It was awesome - I traveled to a part of the Bay Area I hadn't been to before and I could paint or draw whatever I liked. I drew inside the boat and outside up on the deck in this beautiful place not too far from from home.  Yay, I didn't have to drive - four members of my USk sketch group carpooled!!!! The whole day was a blast. And it was a nice break from writing. I love writing, don't get me wrong, but I also love  sketching and I get the chance to enter a wonderfully peace place or zone and sketch and have no deadlines to make.