charlie's own composition, age 17, in utah on usa road trip, july 2009

my field trip slide show ~3 mins

No, not decals. No stencils. Yes, followed my pattern on other side.

come paint with us on Thanksgiving Day in the Delta Meadows State Park!

Another Locke Meetup from Martha Esch: Delta Meadows Hike 'n Sketch on Thanksgiving Day from 10 a.m. to Noon.
The hike: We'll do "The Gunkholer Hike," a very easy, level hike, about a mile round trip. We hike together as a group and make three stops along Railroad Slough at scenic views to do quick ten-minute quick color sketches. Bring lightweight, field paint kits and an old towel or lightweight fold-up camping chair to sit on - think "less is more." You're welcome to bring any mediums and canvas or paper sizes. Postcard size papers or canvas boards and watercolors or small acrylic kits are the most portable and easiest for hiking, in my opinion. I have several extra basic field watercolor kits to share if anyone would like to try one. After our group hike, you're welcome to go back to any of the painting spots on your own or with a buddy and give them more time and effort.

Then, after the hike, we'll eat, if you're up for joining me for Thanksgiving dinner at Tony's Bar & Restaurant a mile down the river in Walnut Grove. They put an awesome and fun turkey feast last year, open to all. I think they're doing it again. If not, I know a great truck stop restaurant in Lodi that never closes.

IMPORTANT: the Meetup map may not be accurate: just find Locke's Main Street and follow to the end. 1258 Levee Street at intersection of Main Street in Locke, CA, 20' away from the Chinese restaurant. Google maps has Levee Street shown to be 1/8th of a mile further south.

Rain, heavy fog or high winds will cancel. Hope you can make it. Call me if you have any questions. Thanks! Martha (916) 776-1000

Mary and I ran away from home today

Here are our hobo paint kits and 10-minute paintings of views we stopped at along Railroad Slough while waiting for a train to go by with an empty boxcar. None ever showed up, so we came back home.

The World's Greatest Orthodontist ~ Dr. Daniel Haberman

Mary, two years ago at age 13, during phase 1 "The Expander Treatment." This gap was done on purpose, to make room for the braces to push the other teeth around...

Mary at age 14, during phase 2 ~ first day wearing braces...

Mary at age 15 on "Braces-Off Day"...

1 hour later ~ What a Beautiful Smile!...

Dr. Haberman,the World's Greatest (and nicest, too) Orthodontist, taking Mary's braces off...

Her first look at her new smile...

"Abracadabra, voila!"...


If you live in the south Sacramento, CA region, we highly recommend you get your braces done by Dr. Haberman, too! His office is in the Greenhaven-Pocket area, just off I-5 and his e-mail address is greehhavenbraces@gmail dot com.

My Art Classes ~ Grades K - 6 at DECS in Clarksburg, CA

Meadows Hike 'n Sketch

Guided Painting Tours into the Meadows State Park, behind Locke. Come join me! Today, Sonya, Alex and I had a blast! I'll be hosting another one soon.

Funny Youtube video of Charlie, my multi-talented son

one of my Delta Meadows watercolor 30-minute sketches

and a second one i did of my son floating in his upside-down cargo carrier boat:
I'm hosting a Hike 'n Sketch this Sunday from 10 'til noon into the Delta Meadows behind Locke. Come join me!

The (almost) finished products...

Crisp October Weekend at Wilbur Hot Springs

1988 and now

This was in the Black Hills of South Dakota in August 2000. It's one of my favorite old photos I took of my daughter at age 6 during one of our three USA coast-to-coast car trips my son, daughter and i have taken so far.

Amphibious car in front of our shop:

Video: Locke Boathouse Jam L-R: Charlie, Raphael, George, Noah

just off my easel

our music jam last night in my studio was FUN!

and here's a quick video of it:



and a little longer video:


Open Music & Art Jams on most Thursday nights in Locke 7 - 9 p.m. Call ahead to make sure it's on. (916)776-1000.

3 years ago since maynard's passing ... still so sad he's gone...

Locke makes a great backdrop for wedding photos ...

My Wilbur Hot Springs August 2009 art workshop participants

L-R:Cynthia, Dan, Elizabeth, Ana (model), Nancy; below: Angela, Martha (me)

charlie, my talented son, at age 17

Cute kids on my front porch

a boat without a name is bad luck, so... i named it...


for my own little mary...



now it's a landmark on google earth!
http://maps.google.com/maps?t=p&utm_campaign=en&utm_medium=ha&utm_source=en-ha-na-us-sk-gm&utm_term=delta%20map

Two biker dudes with the watercolor sketches I painted of their respective bikes:

Jim Reeves' article about the Delta, Locke, (and my shop, "The Tourist Trap" )

How NOT to park parallell in Locke, California

My car is the red victim.

Hey, look, we're famous! Mary and I made it in the Sacramento Bee Pear Fair video...

i'm doing the watercolor of the cowboy and mary is the closest cheerleader to the camera (about halfway through). steve and autumn, thanks for sending me the link.

my kids are braver than me.

charlie, 17, (has arms up), and mary, 15, sitting on railing, just before she jumped off the walnut grove bridge last week.

me, in my swimsuit with my kids - two weeks ago

How I spent Memorial Day

pics from my May 2009 Wilbur Art Workshop

Turn your head sideways to view this...

I just stumbled upon one of my son, Charlie's drawings he created two years ago at age 15. He calls it, "Vertical Village." Here it is:

In my painting studio

>My painting of our model, Yumi.

This is How Dogs Parrallel Park in Locke

I shot this photo yesterday in front of Strange Cargo, here in Locke, Ca.

My first artist workshop at Wilbur Hot Springs

On Saturday morning, we began with a still life watercolor painting lesson and my two participants, Rebecca and Sai did quite skilled jobs on their preliminary thumbnail sketches, then their watercolor paintings. Both saw the antique vase quite accurately and successfully left some of the white of the page for the reflections on it. They also mixed a close matching green and layered it to achieve the three or four shades we determined was on the object in addition to the reflective whites.

Here's Rebecca behind her painting. My painting is on the right. (BTW, Rebecca might return to model for us! Isn't she beautiful?!):



Here's Sai's painting. Sai has an Avionics Engineering degree - surprisingly not an Art degree:




On Sunday morning, I led a lesson in small, "plein air" (open air and light)watercolor sketching done "alla prima" style (all at once), and included a few impressionistic figures by the pool. We began each small color sketch with a sand hourglass egg timer for a 2-3 min light and loose pencil sketch, then 6 - 9 min water coloring with two to three turns of the egg timer. Our 90 lb. watercolor paper measures 9 x 12" and the individual color sketches on them are 3 x 5" and 4 x 5". Here's mine:



Todd is an Engineer by trade, and these are his first-ever watercolor paintings. He did a great job! I liked his bright colors and especially his Van Gogh-styled texturing on the last two. He also did well with another first for him - sketching and painting a human figure. His model was one of the sun bathers who was sitting about thirty feet away.


My next of eight Artist Workshops I'll be hosting at Wilbur Hot Springs is scheduled for Friday through Sunday, May 22 - 24, 2009. I'll be giving a watercolor lesson on Saturday morning. On Sunday, I'll demonstrate a small landscape in oils, using a palette knife. If we get at least five participants who wish to have a friendly competition with the paintings they produce, we'll have a cash pot split for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. $5 entry fee per painting, no size or medium restrictions, no limit to the number of painting entries per artist, although one prize limit per artist. Judging will be done by one vote per every Wilbur guest we can find to cast a vote for their favorite three paintings. Please come join us for the fun if you're able.

Cris Anderson took this pic of my latest painting in progress of the old 1930's Foon Hops Grocery sign with my "Tourist Trap" store and home in the background, up the hill on the right.

My 14 year old daughter in front of her paintings at the 50-50 show in Sacramento

My son in front of my paintings of Locke at the 50-50 show

How should I have felt? Please take my survey.

click here

Locke is Going to the Dogs

When I finish painting this copy of the famous painting, "A Friend in Need" I'm going to cut flaps in two of the dog's faces, just like I did with my Mona Lisa painting, so the men tourists can stick their heads in them for a photo.





And if you haven't seen it, here's my Mona painting...


...and my son, Charlie with TV reporter, Kelly Chapman as Mona (taken in 2007)...

The view from my front window last Saturday

Some of the paintings of Locke scenes I did for the "50 - 50 Show"

Artists, Please come join me at Wilbur Hot Springs for some fun art workshops & painting competitions...

scroll halfway down this linked page for all the info:

Richard, the owner and bartender of "Al the Wops" saw me painting this and said he wanted to buy it from me. Woohoo! Sold!

I painted this in January 2009, two months ago, during an incredible warm spell.

Channel 3's Walt Gray came to Locke last Friday at 4:30 in the morning. I painted a pic of him.

my latest of three maynard portraits...

A woman wanted to buy the painting I'd made of my son, playing guitar, because she said, her son also plays guitar. Sorry, I can't sell my paintings of my own children... but bring me a picture of your son and I'll paint him for you... She returned the next weekend with a pic of her son in a guitar magazine! Here's my painting of him - he's a handsome kid and he must be a good guitar player, too!