San Juan Capistrano

...is an easy train ride away from Los Angeles...but such a different world!  I've visited there several times lately, to sketch not just the beautiful, graceful Mission, but also the area around the train station, which feels like a quiet, unhurried small town...

These are the ruins of the "Great Stone Church" on a bright August day...built in Roman style, and only lasted a few years before tumbling in a major earthquake...I was transported to Italy that morning...

 One of the long corridors that line the central courtyard...






















A last quick sketch before leaving Mission San Juan Capistrano that afternoon...

Some quick vignettes at the Mission, and over lunch...

A last view of the the train station before leaving...

Sketching on the train..

And, then a return trip in September with my sketching friends Shiho Nakaza, John Banh and Chris Ruiz-Velasco...

Some thumbnails at the Mission mixing water-soluble chalk and gouache...
























...and watercolor...

A final sketch at the Mission...the mystery of the entrance...feeling a bit like a time portal somehow.  I was struck by the words of the doorway, "RESURGAM".  I had to look it up to discover it means "I shall rise again"...

Some last sketches that day, over lunch and waiting for the train to take us back to Los Angeles...

Sketching in Black and White...

When planning workshops I go back to what are for me, the basics--like quick line studies, and value studies in black and white--I never get tired of doing these!  I love watching classic black and white movies of the 30's and 40's made by the masters of lighting.  They understood the dramatic power of beautifully composed shots of dark and light, and all the gradations in between--something I always aspire to!  I also believe that it's key to working in color as well...





A quick study in late afternoon in a Los Feliz parking lot...I can never resist a view of my favorite Los Angeles building, the Griffith Observatory...

 Quick sketching over coffee on a Saturday morning...

From a recent train trip down to Mission San Juan Capistrano, with my sketching friends Shiho, John and Chris--to meet Gail Wong and Frank Ching here from Seattle to do a workshop.  This has to be the loveliest of missions!  I wanted to study the light that day--and now look forward to returning to do more work in color...

A quick sketch waiting at the train tracks for the trip back to Los Angeles...

The Sketchbook Habit

...is something I preach to anyone who wants to draw, and I try to practice it myself.  I don't go anywhere without one!  There are always opportunities--whether it's a few minutes or the luxury of several hours--to practice the kind of observation that sketchbook sketching is all about for me...

at a Pasadena car wash...

at lunch at Gordon Biersch in Burbank...

in parking lots in and around 

Los Angeles...

at Huntington Gardens...

















or a corner coffee shop in
Los Angeles...

a trip to the Getty Center...
































and a mini-vacation day traveling with sketching friends to San Juan Capistrano--a perfect day!