Mendocino, February 20, 2011

I arrived back in Mendocino around 9 on Friday night.  Tired of driving, but glad to be back.  Saturday morning, I took a walk down my street.  At the end of the street was this house.  I'll paint this and several other pieces from this morning's walk.  It was an incredibly beautiful morning.

See the white house in the center?  That's the house seen above.  That song from My Fair Lady kept running through my brain as I walked along..... "I have often walked down this street before..."

Ed Pillsbury's house

on Kelly Street... I was shooting "slices of the sea" from between houses

on this walk.  My new theme.  Think I'll do a series of these. 

Mendocino Keyhole, one of my favorite spots.  Very close to home.

Just a little farther along Heeser Drive around the headlands

is this view of the Cabrillo Point lighthouse.  See it on the horizon?

The water was SO CLEAN and fresh-looking.  Beautiful.

Back home, I finally unwrapped my paintings from my great adventure.  Here's the only large piece from the cliff overlooking the Santa Cruz Boardwalk (not shown on the right because I didn't paint it) at the San Lorenzo River mouth, and the wharf.  This painting is either 16x20 or 18x24, will need some finishing touches before it gets framed.

The left piece on the floor is from Loughlin, NV petroglyph walk; the one on the right is West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz.

two from Calico... the wagon, and over there leaning on the wall is a little building with hillside and a pepperwood tree.  All these pieces need finishing touches after their journey with me!  Hahaha!

Here are 4 from Sedona

and from the left, Wilder Ranch, SF, Mexican Hat and China Camp (San Rafael)

These 3 in on the window ledge are Sedona's Oak Creek canyon the left and center pieces and the old church door from Tubac on the right. A total of 23 paintings, and probably 6 pen/ink/watercolor sketches!  Pretty productive for 33 days on the road!

It feels great to be home.  I have a new attitude... I'm happy, relaxed, calm, dedicated to my painting, and project-oriented.  I have a job to do... and on my first day back, I sold 2 (older) paintings!!!!!

Last night I attended a production of the Mendocino Film Festival, and saw several short pieces that were very good, and mostly very amusing.  The best part about going to this film presentation was seeing many of my friends there.  Everybody was "You're BACK!!!" and there were lots of great hugs and laughter!  Fun Fun Fun!

February 16, San Francisco

On Tuesday, Jane and I went to the Legion of Honor to see the paper fashion show there, and after, we drove down the street and parked so I could do a quick sketch.   

Then we moved down to the southeast parking lot and I was able to do this sketch from the warmth of the car.  It was breezy, ahem, even for a San Francisco day!

then Wednesday, the 16th, we went to Baker Beach, a favorite place of mine.  I was captivated by the light on the bridge, the great tower shadow on the Marin headlands, the surf, the waves that were growing as we parked in Coco and Jane played SCRABBLE on her laptop and I was able to shoot more photos and almost finish a little pastel 9x12.

Then last night, Toyota SCION had a party with some art events happening in a place at 14th and Mission, and we dressed up and went to this function. 

On the way, Jane washed off the windshield

and I shot Mission Dolores through the overhead wires.

 Normally it would be $25 at the door unless you testdrove a SCION before, and then you got a VIP pass and a hand stamp.  We did that.  Jane signed up to drive, went around the block, passed her car and asked the chaperone if she could move her car and give me a ride back to the party where she would meet me.  Dave said "Sure!" so I climbed into the front seat.

Dave said he grew up in Sonoma.  Then waved at a friend and said that guy spent ALL his time at Sear's Point (raceway) and I said something about the Bob Bondurant School of Defensive Driving or something, and old Dave said he worked for them for years; cut his driving teeth there, was a stunt car driver for movies and basically made sure everything went well for SCION.  Well, was I going to just SIT THERE?  in a Stunt Driver's Carr?  Hell NO... I said... Well, Dave, Show me what you can do!

WOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  We did everything but spin around in the street like they do in the movies!  Zipped around in close quarters (parking lot) enough to have me squealing like the tires! Wheeeeeeee!  What a ride! 

Then we went inside

And there were lights and cartoon art projected around, a dj (when we first got there),  then they had this art event where visitors made a 3x3" drawing with crayons and I did this fingernail.(in the center of this photo) and I think the SCION logo was to be the uncovered surface.  Fun concept.  We left WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY before the party was over. 

This lady did some hootin' and a-hollerin' and shortly after that, we left.  The FREE FOOD part was... pretzel chips with some salsa; then we round some little tamales and some fried plantain.  Not exactly dinner! 

A really fun day.  Nice to be in SF.  Leaving soon for San Rafael where I hope to paint at China Camp for the day, then meet up with old pals for tonight.  I lived there 8 years back in the early 90's.

Looking a little tired after a very full day!

February 16, 2011 San Francisco

Love being in SF and not just zipping through going some place else!  It was a beautiful morning and Jane and Toodles rode with me to Baker Beach where I got a really nice 9x12 pastel made of the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge with a great shadow of the tower happening on the Marin headlands.  It's almost the same view as this one from the Legion of Honor

where we saw the incredible Belgian woman's paper clothing show

the costumes were so incredible, down to the lace trims all done with lens-cleaning papers and acrylic paint, cutouts and stencils.  Truly amazing.

So.  when I left Princeton-by-the-Sea on Monday morning, I drove around the neighborhood and took these photos:

and as I got to ocean Beach in SF, I saw this hawk

and these tulips

and took Jane back yesterday for these shots! 

At the Legion of Honor was a woman who commented on my green scarf, then said... I know you... and it turns out she was a Sketch Class student of mine who had taken my drop-in class in Mendocino last year!  Small world!

Tonight is MindScapes, a special show in SF; then I hope to paint in Marin county tomorrow (Thursday) and visit another old pal, Dan O'Connor and hear all about his (hopefully) upcoming nuptials on the Big Island!  We'll see!

xoxo suzi

Val day

aargh.  I just lost 40 minutes of blog...


so Have a wonderful day! 

I'm leaving Pacifica heading to SF!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Incredible day today; incredible night last night at the Grimelli home in Santa Cruz on the SC side of the Harbor.  Wow.  What a generous and lovely couple, Ken and Jill and their dog Lorena, whose portrait I did some months ago.  Teresa and I had a beautiful guesthouse to ourselves, and Vache pinot noir tasting, not to mention the Limoncello and other goodies.

oops... time for dinner.  I'm in a very chilly Half Moon Bay with the incredibly talented artist Christine Hanlon.  Google her!  and I'll pick this up later!

ta ta!
suzi

Saturday, February 12, 2011

SURF'S UP!  Santa Cruz is BEAUTIFUL!  I did a really nice BIG painting yesterday and can't wait to show it off!  I'm not using my own computer today so no pictures, but it's been really fun for me to be here in my home town for the past few days.  I've visited Marcella Selzer a couple of times (she's about 97) and sharp as a tack.  She was able to see the 2 body shapes of me and Teresa when we stopped by yesterday to visit her.  It was interesting that she could see shapes.  She has macular degeneration.  What a shame.  I think I would probably become a Sculpy sculptor if I lost my sight. 

I'm heading north to Davenport this afternoon with Teresa.  We've got today and tomorrow; then she goes back to Stanford for more medical tests for her issues; I head to Half Moon Bay to visit the great artist Christine Hanlon.  From then, SF and then Walnut Creek then ... wind my way up to Mendocino by the 20th.  How nice to not be zoom zoom zooming around "must get to ..." and feel like I can actually enjoy the process of GETTING THERE!

We're having a lunch party today at El Palomar with several highschool buddies!  Should be fun!  Donna, Kathy, Susan, Joann, Nancy, anyone else?  Can't wait for all the hugs!

See you later!
xoxo suzi

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Tuesday evening: 

Avila Beach... Avila Hot Springs, to be exact! It's wonderful! big pool 80 degrees and smaller 2' deep 103 degree pool holds 20. It was so nice to swim more than 14 strokes and not run into the far end! Wow! It's the most expensive place I've stayed, so far $45 (and I could have left w/o paying because they never checked me in, but my conscious wouldn't have let me live with that).. .the pools make it very worthwhile. I hope to swim again tomorrow morning and then do a painting at the beach. nice little piers here, and the SLO harbor, but I could just as easily hit Hwy 1 and head north for Morro Bay or Cayucas, or email Hearst Castle for reservations. Since I've never been there... this is the perfect time. I can probably hang around and paint all day! Hmmm. We'll see when I get online in the morning.
It was a lovely but long drive today from Tehachapi on Hwy 58, all the way to 101 South at San Luis Obispo. I did get a small pen/ink/watercolor done out there near Santa Margarita... nice litte bedroom community for SLO. I stopped at a winery to ask some questions and ended up with a bottle of very nice Sauvignon Blanc. Maybe I'll drink it with Teresa? Hopefully we can meet up in Santa Cruz this weekend.

Then to Half Moon Bay for Christine; then to SF for Jane and Toodles; then to Walnut Creek for Linda.

Wednesday morning.  It's beautiful here at the beach.  I had a great swim this morning, feel like I've done something really good for myself.  A Japanese lady was at the hotspring filling her 5 gallon bottles and said she drinks the sulfury-smelling stuff.  She looked pretty good.  maybe I'll get some at Harbin on the way back to Mendocino!

Here's some mistletoe berries.  It's really beautiful but so destructive!

Avila Beach.  Beautiful!

Have a nice day!  I'm heading north on Hwy 1 today.  Hope to paint, and will try to share with you if I do. 

xoxo suzi

Monday, February 7, 2011

Wow.  A year ago I was recovering at Orah/Steve's from my horrible accident.  Thanks you guys, and Ed, and everyone, for helping me out on SuperBowl Sunday 2010. 

I'm now again in Tehachapi, full from the BEST Mediterranean dinner... falafel, dolmas, babaganoush, hummus, lentel and rice and I'm about to finish up this blog and go see the King's Speech.  not sure yet where I'll park overnight, but I'm pretty well ok without a hookup.  Last night was Calico Ghost Town and I made 2 paintings this morning, and a watercolor last night before dark of the little schoolhouse

Clinton Smith will probably recognize this because they do Civil War reinactments here and I'll betcha he's been here!  There's a May bluegrass festival, and all kinds of other events to bring people to this adorable western-style ghost town during the year.  I'd love to be their artist in residence, but doubt I could stand the 122 degree summertime heat.  I imagine I'd be REALLY cranky in that!  GAK!  I wouldn't mind having a few classes here... pen/ink and pastel.  The landscape is very rugged, but the buildings are adorable.  More on this when I upload those photos.

Here's a recap for the past few days:

Friday, February 4, 2011
Laughlin, NV
This is a different place. Casino strip along the river and I might take in TRUE GRIT or go see Diamond Rio tonight. Windy as heck; I left Karen and Bob Budan's lovely graciousness this morning around 9 and arrived here 2:30 AZ or 1:30 NV time to go to the DMV to figure out the paperwork on CoCo. Turns out this is a mess, so it's time for the detective Suzi Drewalot to get to work. I pulled into the Riverside parkinglot, made up a soda/Stevia root beer, and tried to get online... funny parking is practically free (8 hrs to start free), rooms are $25/night or less, but 8 hrs of WiFi is $8.25. So... I spied a Starbucks not far and will meander that way soon.
Wind buffets again; can't turn to face into it, but hope to take my camera out for a stroll in a few minutes to see what the river looks like in both directions. I will definitely make my way to the Hoover Dam on Saturday or Sunday, since I'm really quite close, and maybe spend a little time in LV tomorrow. I'm thinking MAYBE I can find something to paint here today. We'll see.

The nice dentist gave me 3 gift cards for Starbucks... turned out to be $10 each! so that was awesome nice, (but I can't find them in Coco!  They've disappeared!!!!)   and if anyone is coming this way or wants his name, I'll be happy to provide that. Very nice, capable dentistry.
If I catch a movie now, I can get out in time for sunset. Tata!

Saturday morning, 2/5/11
Yesterday afternoon I saw TRUE GRIT - liked it - then went out to the rv for a little cash and returned for a 7:00 p.m. Diamond Rio show.

Less than $40, big name many years ago. 6 old dudes (but probably all younger than moi) up there on the stage; the drummer was behind a lucite screen... guess he was too loud. I felt like a youngster! Lots and LOTS of "OLD" people here, in this audience and in the casino; I sat with 2 couples, one lady next to me had NOTHING to say to me; the other couple across the table were very nice, from Wisconsin, out to beat the winter, 4 days including air for $279. I asked if that was apiece or for both and he said yes. Pretty unbelievable! but certainly a nice break from winter. If we Mendonesians were closer to an airport, I'll bet we could fly out to Laughlin for oh $697 EACH for 4 days in July. But I speculate...

Then I wandered through the casino, upstairs and down. The lights everywhere, the dinging and din of slot machines,

This one is for Chris...

talking and drinking, smoking and laughing, fat people, skinny ones, mostly appearing over 75. A lot like Wal-Mart shoppers! I watched people win a few, lose a few, saw one guy make $65 on a penny machine while I sat there eating some stir-fry veggies and having a glass of water. Maybe tonight or tomorrow night in Vegas I'll have a steak in some casino for oh probably $12.

The casino noise is still reverberating in my ears. I managed to drop a couple $20s in slots because I didn't find the blackjack tables until I was on my way out; free rv parking for 8 hours and my time was almost up and I didn't want to drycamp in their parking lot, so I left for a hook-up park across the river for $14 for the night.
I drove through the riverside park and found an empty slot next to a long 5th wheel with a checkered carpet, and matching Harleys. Here's a picture from this morning; See CoCo reflected in the gas tank!

 I heard their truck pull in around midnight. If I couldn't hear the occasional freeway noise now, it would be extremely quiet here. Last night was calm and quiet, and it's much warmer than AZ. It's probably almost 70 out there now, at almost 7:30 a.m.

Made my coffee and got back into bed to catch up on my ejournal blog. No WiFi here but I'll download pictures to share later.

It's like a mini Las Vegas here, the "strip" has casinos along the street only on the river side; parking lots or empty lots on the opposite side. For about a mile. Then about 2 miles away is a shopping mall next to the housing developments. I'll try to reconnoiter today or tomorrow as I drive toward Henderson and the Hoover Dam. Actually, I'll probably leave today but after a whole day of driving, it's nice to take a whole day of rest and if I settle in to a painting, well, I'm stayin' right here!
Well, it's 8:30... let's go see what's happening outside! See you later!

I went to see the Petroglyphs and met Andy and Rita, nice folks from Big Bear.  They were into their 3rd year in a 21' sprinter.  Having a blast.  She's a writer and might just use my painting/photo for one of her articles!  Never know who you'll meet out on the road!

Big sign said DO NOT CLIMB ON THE ROCKS so I got a picture of this woman's butt and asked for their email... but didn't get it!  Hahahaha!  See the petroglyphs?  VERY interesting!

Sunday, 5:50 p.m. February 6 2011


I found the Ghost Town at Calico, CA, and have decided to hang out here for the night. Checkout isn't until 1:00 p.m. tomorrow, and if I do decide to leave tomorrow, I hope to have at least ONE great painting of something at this fun little place. They do Civil War reinactments here, and have a May bluegrass festival, and several other events during the year to get people to come here. In 2001 there was a big fire that destroyed much of the uphill buildings, but what's left is pretty cute. I took several photos today and managed a quick sketch of the little schoolhouse on the hill. At first I thought it was a church because of the bell tower on top, but it's up there on the hill by itself. Very "western" theme-y town, nice people, lots of shops... leather, quilting, gifts, pottery, and a live-nearby artist who does work like this:

I think it would be fun to be here for a week or two and paint during the spring or fall, before/after the heat, because I imagine it gets mighty hot around here in the summertime. It's about 30 miles east of Barstow.
I did alot of driving today from Boulder City/Lake Mead/Hoover Dam all the way to here, and rather than push on, I thought a painting day was in order. It's $25 to stay the night with water and electricity, and rather than dry-camp (no amenities) I went for the whole enchilada. Woowoo! I already had dinner (corn tortilla quesadilla with Pace salsa and a Tbs of watery sour cream and a little pile of sliced lettuce and red cabbage) at the "restaurant" here while watching the Black Eyed Peas do whatever it was they were doing for the SuperBowl half-time show. I've never seen them, and wasn't particulary impressed except by the youngster from the only other occupied table, about age 4 or 5, doing a moon-walk and singing along to words I couldn't understand from the performers OR the little kid. His mommy knew the words too! Look Folks! A whole new generation!
I skirted Las Vegas, with no desire to stop and gamble,

I did think about stopping to do this, but I never passed East Tropicana Street/Avenue/Blvd/Rd/etc.  boohoo  :0b

 or see a show or do anything other than get through Nevada. I got a photo of their highway trim, granite rock about 3-4" diameter, (reading over this, it's so booooooooooring I'm NOT uploading the photo) completely different from Arizona highway overpass art, but interesting, and very tidy. No litter around here, surprisingly, but LOTS of Daly City-type housing that all looked boring and brown.

Here's something that passed me by, for you, Linda:

And for Chris' sister, Jean:


And the town of Primm (possibly formerly PrimaDonna, because that's what my map said) was an amusement park out there in the desert complete with roller coaster, and Whiskey Pete's Casino. I didn't stop there, either. *** The road looked alot like this ***, another great perspective lesson, and the roads had great names like this: ***
and the only difference here was lots more traffic than anywhere else on my journey so far. I guess Sunday LA residents returning from a wild weekend in Vegas.
As I was returning to CoCo, I came across a woman in long skirted costume dumping out packages of oatmeal and said it was for the CHUKKERS. She said it was a bird larger than a quail, smaller than a chicken, that walked like a woman holding up her skirts! She gave me 2 packs!!! Can't wait to see them tomorrow morning! I'll take pictures!


Well, I saw the chukkers... and I didn't have my camera with me!  They were very odd larger-than-ringneck dove-size birds, and they didn't stay around very long.  The chipmonk liked the oatmeal, however!

Wonder where I'll be writing from next time! Hope you're enjoying my trip! 
xoxo suzi