Sketching and Bicycling in Los Angeles

In the previous post, we visited family in San Clemente. We biked down to the Metrolink station and caught a train up to Union Station in Los Angeles. We got on the Purple Line all the way as far as it goes to Wilshire and Western. We got on our Bromptons and peddled down 4th Street to our motel. Los Angeles is a great place to ride a bike as long as you stay off the busy streets.

We were only a short bike ride from my Mom's apartment, the Los Angeles County Museum and the La Brea Tar Pits. I did a sketch of a bubbling, oozing pit with pen and colored pencils in my small, Strathmore toned paper journal:

My sketch of the La Brea Tar Pits.

 Another fun place to sketch in Los Angeles is the Farmers Market. Roberta did a fun sketch i watercolor in her Strathmore Hardbound 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal:

Roberta's sketch in the Farmers Market.

Another Farmer's Market sketch in my small journal.

Another fun place to sketch is in front of Trader Joe's.

We wished we could spend more time in Los Angeles sketching and biking, but we had to leave. Here is a sketch I did of the beautiful palm trees in the Park La Brea community in my big journal:

The Palm Trees of Park La Brea.

Sketching and Bicycling in San Clemente, California

Last week, Roberta and I escaped the icy grip of the Polar Vortex and visited family in San Clemente in sunny, Southern California. We took along our Brompton folding bikes. We stow our journals, art supplies, water, suntan lotion and other stuff in Brompton S-bags attached to the front  bike frames:

Roberta & I peddling around San Clemente on our Brompton folding bikes.

Roberta and I sketching in front of the Beachcomber Motel.

Roberta captured the transition from the frozen farm fields of Minnesota to the blue skies and warm sea breezes of San Clemente (watercolor and Faber-Castell Albrecht Dürer watercolor pencils on Strathmore Hardbound 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal).
Click on the sketches to make it bigger:

Sketches from the plane and on the ground in San Clemente.

San Clemente is a fun place to bike. There are a bunch of good bike lanes on on roads to the beach from where we were staying. We were staying way up in the hills. Here's a sketch I did of the view using watercolor on Strathmore Series 500 Mixed Media paper:

Sketch of the view from a hill in San Clemente.

The late January chill and cold water doesn't stop the dedicated surfers of San Clemente. Roberta sketched a wetsuit hanging from a tree in a front yard up in the hills:

Roberta sketched this tree and wetsuit.

We did a bunch of sketching on and around the San Clemente Pier, a popular place for tourists and surfers:

Roberta sketched surfers on a cool. grey day.

My sketches in my small toned paper Strathmore journal –  La Gallette Creperie and the pier.

My sketches in the small journal of surfers from the pier.

My sketch of the umbrellas & heaters at the Fisherman's Restaurant on the pier.

Some sketches Roberta did on the pier.

We had a great time sketching and bicycling in San Clemente and we look forward to returning to the warm breezes, sunny days and dive-bombing hummingbirds:

Lots of hummingbirds in San Clemente.