Duckie on Wheels

I don’t really want to own a wooden duck on wheels but like the idea of one. A muse meant to make pleasant memories.

Sonoma Hills

The coastal fog keep the hills in Sonoma County lush. In February one starts dreaming about flowers, the purple Lupine in Placer County above Sacramento. Sunny Daffodils and pink Naked Ladies in Sebastopol.

Shambhala

Some believe Shambhala exists physically, hidden in the Himalayas. The more enlightened believe the potential for the kingdom resides within.

White Lily

San Francisco views into private yards, so different from the proper public street faces.

Face the sunset

View from my window. Hurry to catch it by the light of the street lamp. Wide and thin felt markers.

Paper Collage

Created for a friend's 5th grade show and teach art class. Wanted the kids to know art could be made from throw away materials or supplies from the 99 cent store.



The Census of Marine Life study brings us images of beautiful delicate creatures. This was after a visit to the Long Beach Aquarium. Brighter colors came out of an interior design magazine.

Tropics in Downtown Long Beach

World Trade Center, downtown Long Beach. Something tropical in a sea of cement.

San Francisco Trolley

The attraction of making sketch journals is the private pleasure. It belongs to you only until you share it.

Un-still life

This was the last yellow rose and morning glory for the year. The watercolor began with good intentions until a Chinese red silk pillow caught my eye and the brocade took over.

Construct on 3rd Street

Love watching the energy of construction. Good design could be had at the same expense as medicore. Bauhaus still looks elegant and fresh. But I enjoy gargoyles perched on buildings. Who doesn't?

Sketches,

a way of collecting things without the work of owning them.

The bird's nest was a huge soup tureen, reminded me of the 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie nursery rhyme.

The egg cozy almost made me think I needed to sew this but putting clothes on an egg seemed complicated. The crocheted easter egg making friends with the first egg has a crocheted yellow chick inside, something I did make when I was mommy.

Tea time late at night, in someone else's kitchen, always makes things feel up in the air.

Casual Friday

Lovers of Flowers

Sebastopol. Front porch of a hundred year old former school house.

Petaluma. Alyssium, humble and reliable, fills in without asking for much.

Nasturtiums in Long Beach

feel different from nasturtium in La Jolla.

Between the clouds

Watercolor. Sun between rain and clouds.

View from my balcony

Acrylic on paper. Mind's eye view of summer in the city. The birds cover the skies above Hotel Rivera's copper roof, Godzilla guarding the corner of Ocean and Alamitios before it runs down to the water.

Another day

11th floor of the AMC theatre in San Francisco. The roar of the Blue Angels zoom by into my sketch. They had to cancel the classical program at Fort Mason. But the noise didn't penetrate into the last Star Wars episode.
Miriam's Beethoven and Bach. An amazing woman. I rented her downstairs apartment for a year. Esmeralda Avenue, Bernal Heights, San Francisco.
Miriam's View. From the Golden Gate Bridge east to the financial district. We celebrated the new millenium looking at her city below. Like being a spaceman above a black sea of winking and glittering lights.

Still day 1

Buddhas at Chiang Mai, Thailand. A treasure of beauty and prayer in a salvage yard. Land of 1,000 temples.



Journeys seem to start off with coffee. Passport Cafe in downtown Long Beach.








Cambridge, England. Martin Wells' den full of memories. Newspaper clipping of his parents' 1927 wedding announcement sits above a boxed Nautilus shell.

Day 1

First day. First blog. Beware of potholes.
My stacks of sketch journals, my bus stops. Sketches done waiting to go somewhere else, waiting for someone to arrive, waiting for a meal. Sometimes in the waiting, things happen.



Watercolor 4 x 6. Red light at the end of the freeway. Quick hop in and out of the car with my big black Pentax.


Thanks for stopping by.
aiko sumida
long beach, california