Apple-Pine

After my initial attempt to draw orchids I tried to understand them several more times. Some of these are stages of the same page in my sketchbook - I rarely go back to "fix" things but these fl...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/04/drawing-orchids-continuation.html

I went back to the fruit tree orchard where I had a painting adventure/disaster before only to find that the trees are no longer white. They still look quite bare though! But before I painted th...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/04/sketching-hill-looking-at-waves-of-grass.html

An astounding number of people witnessed a total solar eclipse on April 8th ! Many went to be "in the path of totality" and I hear it was spectacular!  Here is Northern California I got to see...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/04/solar-eclipse-2024.html

Imagine a friend taking you to paint a blooming orchard. It is a gorgeous day and the view is spectacular - filled with white blooming fruit trees. And you sit down with your lunch and sketching ...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/04/blooming-orchard-painting-disaster.html

I went to see the Ocean on a perfect day - it was cool, sunny and the company was great. I tried to capture the same part of the beach with a watercolor+gouache combo and then with stencils. And ...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/04/i-went-to-see-ocean-and-paint-it-too.html

This month I took a very honest photo of the mess on my art table. When I need to work and come to a table that looks like this I have three options: put new stuff right on top of everything, cle...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/04/on-my-table-beginning-of-april-2024.html

Wisteria seed pods twist and open in the spring when the weather gets warm. If you ever brought a wisteria seed pod home (smooth or fuzzy - they are irresistible!) you probably experienced a loud...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/04/exploding-wisteria-pods.html

Some jobs leave your hands and nails dirty. Sometimes for hours, sometimes for days. Cleaning a fountain pen for example. Painting with your fingers. And many many more. Some people are completel...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/little-trick-for-protecting-your-nails.html

Some time in October Suhita and I drew a pumpkin patch at the Cosentino farm in San Jose and agreed to come back when the trees would be blooming - and that is what we did on one lovely March ...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/a-very-pink-farm-outing.html

The other day my friend and I took a long lunch hour and spent it in a place I thought I knew pretty well - a campus of Stanford University. But I was wrong: there was a LAKE I did not know about...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/grateful-new-hiking-adventure.html

Little things are a sure way to keep track of time with our nonagenarian . There are new leaf buds on the rose plant. Nasturtiums are out - she grows the fiery ones! I hope to get a small plant w...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/nonagenarian-update-spring-is-here.html

Recently I was stung by a bee. I am quite sure that it was a bee and not a yellow jacket - I see them by the side of the pool sometimes. I did not see this one - I reached out to take a breather,...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/a-bee-turned-me-into-grumpy-left-handed.html

I always avoided orchids - both as plants and subjects for my drawings. To thrive for a long time they require greener thumbs than I have. And to draw them I had to believe that they were real an...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/i-never-know-if-orchid-is-real-or-fake.html

This challenge (#oneweek100people ) was organized and curated this year (again) by Liz Steel  and Marc Taro Holmes . The idea is to give your people-sketching skills a little boost. There are ...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/one-week-100-people-2024.html

This year blooming schedules of magnolias are all over the place - many trees that used to greet me with the first flowers during Christmas-New Year time are just now getting the first flowers b...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/magnolia-season-is-upon-us.html

I was always a big fan of changing clocks twice a year. I voted to keep it in California (the opposing side won but we are still doing it!). I know the statistic and logically understand why this...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/daylight-saving-time-begins-and-i.html

This month the Street View World Tour  was traveling all over the world to draw boats! I've missed the wonderful company of this bunch of drawing people and will try to sketch with them more re...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/drawing-boats-via-street-view-world-tour.html

A little while ago I reported on some fungi growing on my succulents - well, those are gone (thought we had a lot of rain so they might be back). But I realized that the area near my place where...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/rogue-garden-and-ink-shopping-plans.html

We had some dramatic skies between rains and I kept hoping to catch either light or color or movement - sometimes with a camera, sometimes with pencils, sometimes with paint smudged with fingers ...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/painting-sunsets.html

February had an extra day this year but it did not help with the feeling that the time is moving too fast! A big illustration project supposedly got installed - but I am yet to see it in real lif...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/on-my-table-beginning-of-march-2024.html

This is Dad's third birthday during the war. His first birthday since arriving in California. My plans of a picnic in the park with a big sky and some interesting birds to observe fell apart beca...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/03/drawn-reports-in-form-of-portraits-dads.html

We are having a lovely wet winter so far and I found some rogue visitors in my garden: mushrooms are growing on my succulents!!! Internet was full of helpful suggestions like "may be a sign tha...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/02/rogues-in-my-garden.html

I read about this book from by David George Gordon  in a couple of different places (but forgot to write down where) and then Austin Kleon mentioned it in one of his posts and after a short ...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/02/reading-notes-secret-world-of-slugs-and.html

Above are all the portraits of my parents that I drew during the last two years of war in more or less chronological order starting on February 24, 2022.  It's been two years since the unt...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/02/drawn-reports-in-form-of-portraits-two.html

We visited a whole bunch of museums and historical sites on this trip, however museums of Madrid were the ones I spent the most time preparing for and where I drew the most.  In Prado , I was e...

https://blog.apple-pine.com/2024/02/winter-europe-trip-madrid-museums.html