Klown Korn Bread

Sketched the clown key tag last year and decided it would make a good recipe card. Slowly making a collection of sketched recipes for a postcard size album. The plastic pages protect the sketches. 3x5 inch watercolor.

Thought this sheer voile blouse was fun.

Villa Riviera

Long Beach's grand dame, Villa Riviera Hotel, built 1927 as coop apartments, on the corner of Ocean and Alamitos, faces downtown and acts as hostess to Shoreline Drive, access down to the marina and beach.

Sketched giant nasturciums that climbed my fence, then added the Villa a few days later, two skyscrapers.

Spring Time in the City

Springtime in an urban setting can be like a scavenger hunt, keeping an eye out for a bit of greenery. In this instance, it was some red blotchy leaves on the sidewalk that came home to be painted. Watercolor and pen in a moleskine.

Tabasco and Raisins

Still in the mood for red after sketching Cheetos and Cola. Watercolor on molesine.

Tea Cup and Paints

Watercolor in moleskine. This compact watercolor set has a clear cover that doubles as a palette. The layers twist together into a compact travel set. Will fill an empty set with my own tube paints, two colors to a circle so I'll only need one layer. .

Los Animalitos

That's a half pound brass belt buckle, a piece of sculpture found in a San Francisco thrift store. I've been looking at it for years, wondering what I was going to do with it. Sketch it of course!

The back of the buckle says "Capt. Hawks Sky Patrol" "1977 and Novelty Co." Like to think the Captain is still out there, making more art.

Chicken Salad

Good intentions, doing one sketch a day. The bento box was done 3-26, the salad 3-27. My art store got in a fresh supply of moleskines. But they only had the small ones with the perforated pages which takes the watercolor better. I'm not having any luck finding the book without the perfs.

The sandwich in the bento box is chicken salad. Minced onion, celery, dill weed, salt, pepper, mayonnaise, chopped pecans. Sometimes I add chopped green grapes or a pinch of yellow curry powder.

Bento Box

I bought an inexpensive stack of small bento boxes, very handy for storing and serving small food portions for picnic and New Year's Day. I only recently discovered bento box lunches have become popular in France, a way of portion control for dieting and as an edible art form. Just Bento by Maki has yummy recipes and photographs.

I enjoy arranging food most of the time. Sometimes it's just something to eat but a nice presentation makes it more of an occasion than a bowl of cat food. My cat never appreciated a cilantro garnish on her tuna but I did.