St. Joseph Parish, San Mateo

I saw the morning light of early fall casting shadows on St. Joseph's Parish on the way back from dropping my son at school. I realized, wait a minute, I am freelance... I can just grab my watercolor pencils and sketchbook and run across El Camino and paint this right now!

   I took the sky in between the steeple and chapel too dark , if it was the value of the was on the left of the steeple, basically "just" there, it would have read much better. Live and learn. Used Ultramarine blue, Light Ocre, and burnt sienna.

A couple of sketches from last months trip to Europe

A church just inside the western wall of Dubrovnic's old town. (AKA King's Landing)

A canal in Venice. You have seen a scene like this a thousand times no doubt, but being there in person for me, still shocked me with its mystery and beauty. Often things seem like they have been overhyped when you finally get there, but Venice, I could have spent much more than the 48 hours we had to see as much as possible.

Burlingame Post Office - 94010

Got a 1 hour study of the Burlingame Post Office sketched out. Every time I look at this building, it serves as a reminder of how much times have changed. In most small towns, the Library, City Hall and Post Office are some of the nicer looking buildings and symbolize the might of the government and its ability to provide services at the local level.

Burlingame is a fine town and looks well kept in most regards, but the Post Office has fallen into a state of decay. Since I have lived in the area, I have watched the chipped and cracked exterior lose even more of its paint and the sewage has been leaking on the rear lawn facing Lorton street for a couple of years at least, resulting in a patch of lawn that stinks and can be unsanitary for kids to walk through.

The worst thing is the Colors that fly on the flag pole are tattered and wind whipped so that the ends of the stripes are frayed and separated. I think this has been replaced at least once, but not enough.

The interior has nice features and if restored would be quite nice, but the need for this large of a building has passed with so many of us using digital media.

I am sure the city or a private developer has eyes on the property, and I hope that it will continue to have some public space no matter what they do with it. Perhaps it can continue to honor the spirit of it's former use and let people have a patch of grass and some benches to enjoy the rest of what the town has to offer.

sketch-a-day - 001

There you have it. my attempt at creating more images, regardless of how they look. I had a weird dream as I was awakening today and thought I would try to capture it as best I could.

I am giving myself a 1 hour max timelimit on these so I can hopefully stick to doing 1 a day for as long as possible.

I am aware of how hard it is to commit to that, but I think if I do my best, I will at least get better at composing images and not being too attached to each one.