field sketching

SLO’s Southern Pacific Water Tower

The view from my front door of my San Luis Obispo digs was a looming symbol of SLO’s railroad history. This is Southern Pacific’s 65,000 gallon water tower.

The tower was built in 1940 for the sum of $2,130 (about $50,000 in 2026). It solved a problem at SLO because steam locomotives that needed watering would have to leave the station and head down track for about a half a mile, to the water tower near the roundhouse. Now with the new tower, locomotive’s tenders could be watered while at the station, saving much needed time.

At the time that the new Mission Revival station was built in 1943, ten passenger train stopped at the station including the iconic Coast Daylight with the classic GS locomotives on point sporting the black, orange, and red livery of this premier passenger service. At SLO a helper would be added to assist the Daylight up Cuesta Grade and the helper would be cut off at the top in Santa Margarita.

With the end of steam at the hands of less labor intensive diesel-electric locomotives, the water tower stood unused and time took its toll. In the 1980s Southern Pacific planned to demolish the tower and the city stepped in and bought the water tower.

The water tower was saved and restored, starting in 1989, by the city of San Luis Obispo as a landmark of the deep Southern Pacific history. The full restoration was complete by 1998. Railroads have been part of SLO since 1894.

The SP Watertower as seen from the station platform. My front door is just behind the low palm tree.

I had sketched the water tower before but not from the up close and personal perspective from the front door of my apartment.

My 2021 sketch of the water tower. This is from the station platform.
The water tower and my front porch light.
Plein air porch painting.

SLO Coast Starlight

The AMTRAK route that parallels the west coast from Los Angeles to Seattle is the Coast Starlight, a journey of 1,377 miles.

In those 1,377 miles the only place that both the northbound and southbound (Trains 14 and 11) meet at a station is San Luis Obispo.

Northbound 14 arrives from Los Angeles at 2:50 PM (if on time) and waits for southbound train 11 (due at 3:24) to descend the single track down Cuesta Grade. And I planned to be there to do some sketching.

Both Coast Starlights at the station in SLO. Train 14 to the left and 11 on the right.

My plan was to sketch the northbound Train 14 at SLO station. In the age of steam, the Coast Daylight (SF to LA) stopped for only three minutes at San Luis Obispo in order to keep to its timetable.

During this short stop the Southern Pacific GS (Golden State or General Service) steam locomotives would be serviced and tender topped off with water. A helper locomotive would either be cut in or cut off depending on the direction of the Daylight.

My sketch of one of the most famous steam locomotives in the world, Southern Pacific’s GS-4 No. 4449. This has been deemed “the most beautiful passenger train in the world” and SLO was one of her stops.

Now the AMTRAK train would stop for about 15 minutes, allowing passengers a stretch break, for some passengers this is also known as a smoke break.

The Superliners at San Luis Obispo under beautiful January sun.

I figured 15 minutes was more than enough time to get a quick sketch in of the train at the platform before the locomotive’s loud retort announced its continued journey up the Cuesta Grade towards Seattle.

I took up my sketching position a little before the Starlight’s arrival. I penciled in the foreground and the trees in the background, not knowing which trees would be eclipsed by the double decker Superliner cars. The answer was: most of them.

When the train pulled into the station, I switched to pen. I love sketching without a net!

Train 11 heading towards Los Angeles with the AMTRAK’s new motive power, Seimens Charger on point. On the right is the Surfrider train on a side track.

While waiting for the northbound Coast Starlight, I found a bench and sketched the statues near the station called the Iron Road Pioneers, with Bishop Peak in the background.

The statues are a monument to the Chinese immigrant workers who built much of the railroads on the central coast as well as other seminal railroads such as the Transcontinental Railroad.

Neighborhoods: Lincoln Park and the Legion of Honor

In the northwestern corner of the San Francisco is a patch of green and an art museum.

The museum is the Legion of Honor and I headed over on a rainy Friday to see the current exhibit: Manet & Morisot. I also love to look at the museum’s permanent collection.

The museum is a 15 minute drive from my Sunset Digs and being a member means I can visit the museum as many times as I want.

One of two lions framing (or guarding) the entrance to the Legion. I sketched the other lion.

Looking at the masters: Rodin, Van Gough, Picasso, Monet, and others always inspires me to sketch. What I love about looking at the real deal as opposed to a facsimile is that you can really see the hand of the creator on the canvas or board. This was very true of the expressionists as they lay paint on in heavy patches. Step a few feet back to see what emerges!

Field sketching with Sutro Tower in the background. This tower has a way of appearing in many of my San Francisco field sketches.

Vertigo and Gallery 6 (1958)

The Legion of Honor was used as a filming location in Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Vertigo (1958).

It was featured twice, both the exterior and one of the museum’s galleries, Gallery 6.

Detective Scottie Ferguson (James Stewart) is on a case and he follows Madeleine (Kim Novak) to the Legion of Honor. She sits for hours looking at a portrait of a lady. Scottie finds out it is a portrait of a lady named Carlotta.

Looking into Gallery 6. James Stewart stood next to the column on the right and in the background Kim Novak sat on a bench toward the left wall.

While Gallery 6 still looks much the same as when filming took place here in 1957, the paintings on the wall were not here. The Carlotta portrait was painted for the film by John Ferren and removed once filming was completed. But what about the other paintings?

This view shows the wall in Gallery 6 where the portrait of Carlotta hung. Kim Novak sat on one of the benches that have not changed since 1957 although the paintings in the gallery have changed.

Now it was time for a painting goose chase and I didn’t have far to go.

In adjacent Gallery 7 I located two paintings that James Stewart stood in front of during the Gallery 6 scenes. Two pieces of San Franciscan cinema history!

This is French painter
Nicolas de Largillière’s Portrait of a Gentleman (1710).
The other painting seen behind James Stewart is by French painter Carle Vanloo and is titled Architecture (1753).

For my sketch of Galley 6 I sketched in a continuous-line technique to get the shape of the room and then lifted my pen to add details. So it’s continuous-ish.

Mendocino Headlands State Park

Sketching the Mendocino Headlands calls for my panoramic journal to capture the wide views. So I did.

In the early morning I headed out to the Headlands and sketched a rock form with two arched tunnels. I think I’ve sketched this rock before but from a different angle.

The rocks within the bays have become islands that offers a protected roosting spots for birds such as western gulls, black oystercatchers, brown pelicans, Canada goose, and turkey vultures.

I sketched three vultures, affectionately known as TVs, warming up on such an island.

One of my favorite sketches at Mendocino Headlands State Park was from the beach where the Big River enters the Pacific just south of the historic town of Mendocino.

The beach was covered with driftwood and I found a large former tree to sit on and I started to sketch the scene before me (featured sketch).

A sketchers in Paradise!

Watertower Controversy

The residents of Mendocino are concerned with preserving the heritage of the town and keeping Mendocino, well, Mendocino.

This means keeping buildings as they are, restricting construction in historical areas, and preserving the town’s watertowers.

There is one watertower on Main Street that has been slated to be torn down so I thought I better sketch it while I can.

The 1904 watertower has been deemed unsafe and it is not cost effective to repair the tower so once again the battle between heritage/history and money rears its ugly head.

I saw lots of “Save the Watertower” flyers in shopfront windows. Time will tell if Mendocino can save this historic structure.

McDonnell Douglas F-4C Phantom II

I returned to the Pacific Coast Air Museum in northern Santa Rosa to sketch one of my favorite airplanes: the F-4 Phantom II.

Throughout my life I have been fascinated by things with wings: birds and airplanes. Growing up in Sunnyvale, California, my bedroom window looked out towards the flight path on final approach to Moffett Field, US Navy base.

During my childhood, the most common aircraft that flew by my window was the submarine hunter P-3 Orion. The patrol aircraft were stationed at Moffett.

Every summer, we headed up to the roof during the annual air show to watch the Blue Angels. At the time they flew A-4 Skyhawks but in the year of my birth they, and the Air Force performance team the Thunderbirds, flew the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II.

This airplane is a beast. At the time it was one of the most powerful fighters in the air reaching speed just over Mach 2. It had earned the nickname the “Flying Brick”.

A docent at the museum who was stationed on an aircraft carrier said you new when you were in the mess when an F-4 took off because you coffee cup shook with power of the fighter’s thrust.

A pre-museum sketch of an aerial beast.

A childhood hobby was building scale model airplanes and my favorite was an F-4 hand painted camo livery.

Looking head on at the F-4C.

I was now going to Santa Rosa to sketch a full scale fighter with a similar camo paint scheme.

The iconic vertical and angled horizontal stabilizers of the F-4. This jet is an absolute beast.
A continuous line sketch of four planes at the museum. The plane on the left, F/A 18 Hornet is what the Blue Angels currently fly. The camouflaged F-4 is on the right.

Sonoma Bits & Bobs

These are a collection of sketches that are related in their location, the Sonoma Coast.

From Mammoth Rock to Fort Ross to the north and into the Russian River Valley to the former lumber town of Duncans Mills.

Fort Ross

One morning I drove half an hour north from my digs to Fort Ross State Historic Park. Fort Ross is a sketching touchstone for me and I have returned here with my sketchbook many times. This time I chose a different angle sitting on a rock outside the fort looking towards the Russian Church. I had wanted to sketch from a similar perspective on a previous visit, but I was foiled by rainy conditions.

Duncans Mills

I have wanted to sketch the train station and caboose at Duncans Mills for a while but I had not found the right perspective. There were always cars parked in front and around the station so I sat on the end of the caboose with the back of the station in the background. The narrow gauge line was to the right but is name a paved parking lot.

The narrow gauge railroad came to the lumber town of Duncans Mills in the 1870s and rail, both passenger and freight, until train service was discontinued in 1935.

North Pacific Coast Railroad Caboose No. 2. This narrow gauge caboose was built in 1877.

Sonoma Coast SP: Mammoth Rock

From my digs it was a short drive north to Goat Rock State Beach- Sonoma Coast State Park. My hiking/ sketching destination was Mammoth Rock. It was a blustery 30 minute hike to the large Mammoth Rock.

Wintery and windy weather is never an impediment to a good sketching experience. Driving, windy rain is another monster.

I found a perspective and started my sketch.

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Bowerbirds

Australia is home to ten species of bowerbird and I saw half of them.

Bowerbirds themselves are a beautiful and varied group of birds. What makes them well known around the world is the bowers that the males build to attract females. And we thought humans are the only artists on the planet.

All the bower designs are different depending on species and each female of the species seems to be attracted to different colors. For instance, female satin bowers birds prefer blue while great bowerbirds go for white and light gray.

Female satin bowerbird prefers blue decorations like her eye color.

Once the bower had been constructed, the male finishes the bower off with decorations purloined, or foraged, by the male. Many of the decorations are human made plastics.

I was able to see and sketch two bowers on my Australian trip. Bowers constructed by the male golden and great bowerbirds.

I was in Australia during their winter and so it was out of breeding season but some bowers remain standing year round.

One such bower was in a cemetery and our guide showed us the bower of the great bowerbird.

The great bowerbird paints in a palette of whites and grays including a set of plastic toy handcuffs.

I did a spread about the bower and the bird that created it (featured sketch).

Our next bower was in the rain forests of north Queensland at an elevation above 2,000 feet.

We hiked up a short way to the bower. But we also wanted to see the male that the bower belonged to. This required waiting.

This is a where being a sketcher has its advantages. Waiting means, “Time for a sketch!”

I sketched the impressive bower that was constructed of two tall towers. In the off season, the bower was a work in progress with one tower being about five feet high and the other was under construction. Between the towers was the “stage” lined in green moss.

Now we had to wait for Australia’s smallest and most sought after bowerbird.

After about 15 minutes, I saw a flash of gold cross from left to right which caused me to write a haiku:

A bower waiting

Flash of gold across the bow 

Leaves us wanting more

The bower bird flew into a tree out of view, in this case the North Queensland endemic golden bowerbird.

In the darkness under the rainforest canopy I realized another benefit of field sketching, you don’t need a lot of light to sketch but as my shifty photos of the bowerbird proves, you need light to paint with light.

A blurry photo of the male golden bowerbird.

After another wait, the male bowerbird returned to his bower with some green moss to cover his stage. The group all got great looks at this most sought after Queensland endemic.

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Sketching a Masterpiece: Sydney Opera House

There is one Sydney building that I wanted to add to my sketchbooks more than any other: Sydney Opera House.

There are few structures in the world that are instantly recognizable whether you’ve seen then in person or not: Stonehenge, Eiffel Tower, Machu Pichu, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Pyramids of Giza, the Taj Mahal, and the Sydney Opera House.

One of the best views of the Opera House is from the Harbour itself, in this case aboard the Manly Ferry.

The opera house was designed by Danish architect Jorn Utzon after a 1955 completion with 233 entries. Utzon’s innovative design was chosen and construction started on March 1, 1959. After many set backs, budget overruns, and redesigns, including the firing of Utzon, the opera house was inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth II on October 20, 1973.

After his firing Utzon never returned to Sydney to see his completed masterpiece.

I was captivated by the Opera House and I did a total of six sketches of the masterpiece and with each sketch, I began to understand the structure a little more.

A sketch from the forecourt. Many concerts have been held in the forecourt perhaps none more famous than Crowded House’s last concert on November 24, 1996. The free concert was attended by about 250,000, which was way more than the forecourt could hold.
A look at the tiled sails of the opera house from the inside while on a tour of the building.
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SFO From the Bay Trail

My Tuesday after work sketch took me to the San Francisco Bay Trail which parallels Runways 28R and 28L and Taxiway F.

These are the two runways that handle most international traffic at San Francisco International Airport. In my two hours there, I saw planes landing or taking off from airlines such as Cathay Pacific, Condor (German), Lufthansa, SAS, Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic, Qatar, Iberian, Swiss, TAP Air (Portugal), Turkish Airlines, Zipair (Japan), and British Airways. San Francisco is really an international destination.

This trail and Bayfront Park are a well known location for plane spotting as you have unobstructed views of planes taxiing, taking off, and landing.

I was here to see the large passenger jet that largely replaced Boeing’s 747 on long distance international routes.

In an uncanny coincidence a Lufthansa 747-8 was on Taxiway F headed to Runway 28R when I was driving down Millbrae Avenue toward the airport. After I parked and walked up to the Bay Trail the 747 was throttling up for takeoff. Only four airlines currently have 747s in their fleet: Lufthansa, Korean Air, Air China, and Rossiya.

One of the few Boeing 747s throttling up for takeoff on Runway 28R. This is a 747-8, the largest 747 and Boeing’s largest passenger jet. This “stretched” 747 was designed to compete with the A380.

I was here to see the big boy that competed with the 747, Airbus’s A380. Two airlines fly A380s out of SFO, British Airways and Emirates. BA flight 284 was scheduled to depart at 16:20. But the flight was running a little late, which seems to be the norm.

The Bay Trail in the foreground and British Airways A380 is pulling away from Gate A11. This is one of 12 in BA’s fleet.
Flight 284 on the Taxiway F for Foxtrot. This airplane is so large that the suffix “Super” is part of its call sign.
This photo shows the scale of the world’s largest passenger plane compared to others on the tarmac. The aircraft in front of the A380 is an Air Canada Boeing 737 Max 8.
A380 on its way to line up for takeoff as a much smaller United Airlines jet lands.
Gear up with the South San Francisco sign below and San Bruno Mountain above.

Sketching Notes

I found a tree stump seat with the taxiways and runways in front of me. I first sketched in the fill as the runways are surround by the bay on three sides. In the background I penciled in the East Bay hills and mountains including Mt. Diablo. The tide was low when I stared sketching but was slowly filling in during the two hours of my visit.

Later I would add two planes on the taxiway, based on photographs taken in the field.

To my left and in the distance I could see the red, white, and blue tail of the A380 at Gate A11.

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Loma Prieta Bell’s Sparrow

In late May I made my annual pilgrimage to the birding hotspot Loma Prieta (Upper Saddle).

I left my cabin at 6:40 AM and 35 minutes later I pulled into the dirt parking lot on the ridge that straddles Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties.

It can be very windy and hemmed in by dense fog up here but not today. I could look down and see fog covering Monterey Bay. Today it was clear and warm without much of a breeze. In fact it was already getting warm.

My target was the pair of Bell’s sparrows that had recently been seen here since mid May. This would be a Santa Clara County bird for me.

I walked down Mt. Madonna Road and aside from singing spotted towhees and wrentits, and a far off babbling California thrasher, it was pretty quiet. I did not hear or see any black-chinned or Bell’s sparrows.

On my way back to the parking lot I first heard and then saw a blue-grey gnatcatcher.

Blue-gray gnatcatcher.

As I headed to the parking lot there were now six other birders in the area, looking for the Bell’s.

As I reached my car a pair of birders had just spotted a pair of Bell’s sparrows right from the parking lot. So I figured I’d stay a bit longer.

I was rewarded about five minutes later when a bird flew towards me and perched on a nearby bush in front of me. Bell’s sparrow! A new county bird!

Bell’s sparrow.

Sketching Notes

Loma Prieta Ridge is one of the best panoramic views in Santa Cruz County. So I took a pause in Bell’s sparrow spotting and opened my panoramic watercolor journal to capture the scene.

What a view, best in the county!

I left the lower left side blank. I initially was going to add a Bell’s sparrow but I hadn’t seen one yet. So I thought I would add a blue-grey gnatcatcher to that corner, based on my field photo.

After seeing the Bell’s from the parking lot, I returned to my original plan and the result is my featured sketch.