Garden

Inside, outside, Princess Plant? Do not know the answer to any of these questions. Mystery, savor it.

Little Chicken

This is a little chicken from H made of pieces of nut shell (?) wired together and painted--it opens up its wings to reveal hidden treasure.

Herkimer

Western Painted Turtle took the place of a baby for a while.

Tags: chelonian

Toy Rabbit

This is a big picture of a tiny rabbit with carrot. He has delicate little clothes. In general, he is delicate, but happy.

Tags: carrot

Yard at Ft Mason

During the long transition of Ft Mason from base to park, there are vast cleared spaces, concrete slab abutting roads and the landscaping cared for long ago by prisoners of war holds on in the nooks and crannies.

Tags: landscaping

Maybeck

This foray into Pacific Heights isn't an unqualified success, but the building is a pleasure to look at. This sketchbook is an example of what not to do, and that means you, aspiring real estate and architectural sketchers.

Tags: religion

Patti Seated

A simple blue robe on a new morning. Someone said this would make a great painting.

Tags: kimono

Golden Gate

The Golden Gate, a body of water that is deceptively serene is now mainly a bridge. Well, there's a lot of it. Lovers rejoice.

Tags: tidal

Vegetable Box

At one time, the raised bed vegetable box was a stack of 2x12 rough redwood. It grew vegetables just fine, and the bed lasted for years after active cultivation, mostly in chives. An earlier year, BC Paws grew pumpkins and had a great carving party. Hot holiday. In back is one of the first houses in the neighborhood dating from 100 years ago, a little over. It has a fine rail fence behind it and an addition made with great care by a former owner. For weeks, he mixed concrete in his mixer. Then he finished it, and there was a garage downstairs. But the driveway was too steep, so he took the garage doors off and abandoned that aspect of the project. It was just a real expensive basement down there, and he moved away. Notice the lawn. Domestic bliss is all BC Paws's and his.

Stair in Ft Mason

It is dark and heavily forested on the northeast side of Ft Mason, behind the row of houses above Van Ness. The paths are edged with cut stone, and a stair leads down the back way.

Tags: trees

Teddy Bear

Teddy seems to be wearing shells and maybe a scarf. He's still around, one kid later.

Three Boats

It looks like someone knows how to sail--the ones in the boats, and bonus there's a fishing boat going by.

Tags: yacht

Angel Island

Angel Island looks all natural--we know better--with a little bit of Alcatraz on the right and hills deep in the North Bay in the background. Sailing paradise.

Two Boats

It's good to get past this one. It had great potential, but the ship was too long! Here it has been adjusted somewhat.

Tags: long

Patricia Seated in the Den

This one was retouched a bit when it was drawn, and it never quite worked as well as now. It conveys some of the beauty in a relaxed moment in a room dedicated to TV.

Tags: TV

Marin Headlands

A tiny boat moves beyond the Golden Gate on a day with low clouds and fog.

Marimekko Kite

Kite matches Marimekko fabric, red on white, that used to cover the closet. A green sheet metal watering can stands beside. Who knows what's in the background. Foreground, a stainless steel vase holds pussy willows.

Tags: stilllife

Blender, Toaster-Oven and Coffee Grinder

The appliances occupy a $2 Parson's table from Thrifty. Who knows what lies behind the ironing board door. The black skirt of the Chambers stove appears on the floor.

Tags: $2

Crissy Field

This is from the time before they fixed the field. Don't recall more, but found this nice heavily watermarked image of the buildings.

Tags: Presidio

Blue Chip

When a Western Painted Turtle named Herkimer came on the scene, he lived in a Blue Chip lettuce box with a light and a bowl of water until his tank arrived.

Tags: Herkimer

Public Health Hospital

This hospital has a majestic presence from a distance. At the time of the drawing, apparently it was still in use. From this view, it seems to be in splendid isolation with dramatic site above Land's End, but its isolation is only relative.

Tags: cliff

Golden Gate from the Presidio

The overlook road in the Presidio provides a quiet place to look at the bridge during lunch, here drawn in all its pre-Paul Madonna glory.

Orange Electric Clock

This clock used to live on the floor outside the bedroom so that when it rang, I'd have to wake up to turn it off. It didn't last very long, however, compared to battery clocks since. Can't say what the plant is. The cork floor disappeared in a vast housewrecking project twelve years ago when a carpenter strengthened all the house's supports in a project that involved sawing holes in the floor and diving into the crawl space for hours at a time.

Tags: drawing, domestic

Patricia Seated

This is one of the less successful drawings, but what's a sketchbook without a few of these?

Han-Shan 寒山

Every Zen household has Han-Shan on the wall. Not so easy to draw, and there's the Cold Mountain Poems to consider as well. Homework. This scene does have a broom like Han-Shan's. There's a painting by Larry Sisk on the left, tall and thin like a speaker, and Heidi's lttle rooster thing that opens up on the mantle. It looks like the Christmas Plant is in bloom. We still have it.

KPIX Mezzanine

Security camera watches visitors as an editorial plays on an ancient console on the mezzanine of the old KPIX, Van Ness and Greenwich.

Sea Scout Clubhouse

Not sure if "clubhouse" is the right term--it's the base where they meet or used to meet in Aquatic Park and take care of their yacht. They're not an especially friendly lot under artistic scrutiny ("fag!"), but the result is worth the pain, a sketch of little shacks on piers in the bay, the rim of the esplanade winding round to the pier beyond. This is in the days before the seawall.

Alcatraz

It's amazing to see the detail from a distance across the bay. Of course there is more to see, but somehow this has a clarity few other drawings from the book achieve.

Off Brand

The matter of the stereo is one of some difficulty. First Judas says that he can come up with a stereo and he does, this. Years later Michael says the same thing and the same thing happens: Big Box rules. This scene also features a mushroom lamp, a Parson's table from the dime store and flokati rug. These days, this space looks rather more occupied. The just-get-it-done junk truck would have a field day in this very spot.

Den

Life as a young couple with a house free and clear is good. We have a den (Bedroom 1) outfitted with Trinitron from Top of the Hill in Daly City, a bookcase made of particle board Patti painted with sticky white paint, a pedestal from Lero, some sort of wood balustrade sand blasted so the grain shows and dyed blue, Indian ivy, a designer soft red plastic stool with a designer blue plastic coffee cup, a designer red painted steel tube sofa/trundle bed with yellow fabric from Joe Molloy--what's not to like? Youth, uncluttered white, modern, no kids and chaos yet.

Tags: designer, free-and-clear

Palace of Fine Arts

For a while, the Palace of Fine Arts was being completely rebuilt. The Dead have a short history, and there is a good Wikipedia article with a link to a longer history.

Tags: Dead, history

Numero Uno

I started this sketchbook during my lunch hour several lives ago. Credit Bud Thon and Nick Hamill for not being overly strict about what constitutes a lunch "hour." Dates will come as we find them, but they'll be rare. Cats are timeless. This looks like a picture of a woman waiting for the bus under trees. Location San Francisco. The streetlight has a particularly graceful curve to it. The Black Cat developed this simple method of linear shading and followed its lead.

Tags: woman, streetlight, greenery