Pillar Point Harbor, CA

It was a spectacular first day of autumn at Half Moon Bay. Blue skies, offshore fog with a cooling breeze. Plus the pelicans were flying high and colorful kayakers were plying the harbor. Thanks to Pierre who shuttled us to our destination and back. As you can see we had a very productive visit.

Chen: Boats in the harbor 

Rizzuto: Mysterious Naval installation

Rizzuto: Buoys ahoy!

Wang: Half Moon Bay Kayakers

Wang: Half Moon Bay Kayak Co.

Wang: Quick boat sketch

Chen: Half Moon Bay Kayak Co.

Uszynski: Fishing boat 

Uszynski: Mess of Birds

Stanford Shopping Center

August 19, 2012
Stanford Shopping Center
Palo Alto CA

We had a relaxing time at the Center. There are comfy chairs throughout the main thoroughfare--inviting one to rest up for more shopping. In our case we took advantage to sit, sketch and enjoy one of La Baguette's delights. The flowers were in full bloom and created oases of color. Storefronts competed with one another for our attention and several were captured in our sketches.

'Vuitton's wild window dressing' by Wang

Storefront by Wang

Rizzuto: Satisfied muncher

Uszynski: Stanford Shopping Mall

World Wide Sketchcrawl #36

July 14, 2012
Palo Alto's Clay and Glass Festival
Rinconada Park 
Palo Alto, California
http://www.acga.net/

This yearly event is very popular. The park was filled with over 150 vendors whose artworks were wonderful. After walking through the booths, we settled down to try to  capture some of the festive spirit. 

LuLu's view of the festival

Rizzuto's sketch of Patrick Dougherty's, 
Double Take, a woven willow structure 
on the Palo Alto Art Center's grounds

Uszynski: The missing wing

Rizzuto: Festival close up

Sketchcrawl June 23, 2012 Shoreline Park

Two of us enjoyed the colorful kites at Shoreline Park's Kite Flying Area in Mountain View. George, a veteran kite flyer, explained the various types of kites that we saw gracing the brilliant blue skies. George's two delta kites, flying in tandem, sported 200 feet long tails! It was a spectacular sight as the kites' tails played with the crescent moon. The breeze was blowing steadily and the kites flew aloft at about 120 feet altitude for most of the afternoon.
We could not have asked for better flying weather. About 10 kites took to the sky--a sled, a dragon, a fish, a parafoil and a butterfly kite all entertained us. This experience whetted our appetites for more and luckily there is a major kite festival July 28 & 29, 2012 in Berkeley! Airship Venture's zeppelin (one of two in the world) from Moffett Field was also making short flights over the South Bay area. Its slow circling is the focus for the sketch below. 


Berkeley Kite Festival      http://www.highlinekites.com/

Uszynski: Jump Kite

Rizzuto: Zeppelin and plane over Moffett Field hangers

Rizzuto: George's delta kites playing with the crescent moon

Four kite sketches by Heng Hua

Sketchcrawl May 19, 2012

Sketchcrawl May 19, 2012
Redwood City 
We visited The Main Gallery and lunched at Alana's which is always a treat. We also ventured out to the surrounding areas. Wang captured the library which is housed in the old fire station--it has quite a history. Chen opted for trying to meet the drawing challenges of the city center area.

Wang: Redwood City Library

Chen: City Center Area

Uszynski: Heller & Cassia

Sketchcrawl April 21, 2012

Papua New Guinea Sculpture Garden

Stanford University

Stanford, CA

What a unique spot to enjoy nature and soak in the mysteries and myths of another culture! Four of us spent the afternoon in the shaded park that let us forget that we were in the middle of the busy Stanford University campus. The sculptures were highly graphic and colorful. It was a challenge to capture the hewn wooden pieces that were totemic in feeling. 

Uszynski: Spirit snake

Wang: Papua New Guinea Garden sculpture

Wang: The Thinker

Rizzuto:Mother Figure

Rizzuto: Wopasuee

Sketchcrawl March 17, 2012

On Saturday five of us converged on the Zymoglyphic Museum in San Mateo to get immersed in its wonderful mystical and mythical world. Jim Stewart, the curator of this unique space made us welcome and shared his enthusiasm for a project that has been almost 30 years in the making. We all enjoyed sketching something that was out of the ordinary!  We thank Jim and Judith for giving us a chance to sketch this collection of curiosities and oddities. 


Check out some of the collection at http://zymoglyphic.org/galleries.html


Mappin photographed some of the objects. See her results at
http://lauramappin.com/TPD/art/tales/zymoglyphic.php


Judith Hoffman captured our drawing process. See her photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/judithhoffman/

Zymoglyphic Museum: Photo by Laura Mappin

Uszynski: The Guardian Figure

Rizzuto: A Jenny Haniver 

Wang: Clock

Wang: Getting on

Uszynski: Ancestor Figure

Wang: Lizard & sculpture

Congratulations! Enrico

La Luna, written and directed by Enrico Casarosa, the founder of Sketchcrawl, was nominated for an Academy Award in the short animated film category. Although the film did not win the Oscar, we congratulate Enrico for the Academy's recognition of his work. Watch for a screening of this film in conjunction with Disney's new release Brave .

Listen to Enrico discuss his process of making this gem of a film for Pixar.

http://enricocasarosa.com/wordpress.1/

Sketchcrawl February 18, 2012

Several of us met at Stanford University's Cantor Art Center to take advantage of the beautiful day--sunshine with a cooling breeze. The campus is situated on land adjacent to Palo Alto, CA. There is so much to capture there, from the sculptures dotted around campus, to unique buildings, to the natural environment of trees and flora. 

At the Cantor Center Wang discovered the Asian and Oceania collections, while Rizzuto spent time with Richard Serra's monumental sculpture,"Sequence" situated outdoors at the side of the Center. At the end of  the session we met up to share our sketches at Cool Cafe located within the Center--the desserts were very tempting.

Uszynski: Homage to Balzac

Rizzuto: Richard Serra's 'Sequence'

Rizzuto: 'Sequence' line drawing

Wang: Qing dynasty vase 

Wang: Totem

Rizzuto: Statue

Wang: Bird totem

World-wide Sketchcrawl 34 Results

Two of us convened at San Jose State University's Martin Luther King, Jr. Library for this drawing event. The library has over 30 unique artworks by Mel Chin scattered around its nine floors. Locating them is a bit of a treasure hunt making it fun to explore the building. The upper floors have wonderful panoramic views, although neither Wang, nor I, took up the challenge. We focused on the artworks. Find out more about them at  
http://www.sjlibrary.org/melchin-art-list

Rizzuto: Minerva's Owl located in Philosophy and Psychology Section

Wang: Migration located in stairwell

Wang: Toys located in Children's area

Wang: Section of Babel located in Government Periodicals