I missed the start of the Nature Journal Club's field trip to Peters Creek Falls (near Saratoga, California), so M. and I set out to find the waterfall on our own in the afternoon. We parked at the Peters Creek trailhead on Skyline Boulevard, and M. brought along his mountain bike. Unfortunately I didn't research the actual location properly so we hiked the length of Peters Creek trail not realizing we should have turned off on another trail. No cell signal to look it up en route = no sighting of the falls.

Instead of hiking all the way back, I turned up a side trail to the main road and got a quick sketch in of the hillside while waiting for M. to bike back to the car and pick me up.



The dark line work was done with my much-loved (but neglected of late) Lamy Safari fountain pen, filled with Noodler's Lexington Grey. It had started leaking a bit after airplane trips, so I'd put it away intending to clean it. Recently I brought it out and topped up the ink. Glad I did -- it has such a lovely, responsive line quality. Before the next refill I'll flush it out with pen cleaner.

A friend organized a painting session at a nearby cemetery. It was quite a peaceful place, with stately mature trees and weathered headstones. The day started off sunny, but the clouds (and wind!) rolled in after lunch.



I was sitting in the shade, so my work took a long time to dry. Of course I also got impatient and dove into the wet areas too quickly. Consequently, mud -- and some overworking. It was a challenge to leave all the white spaces for the headstones, too.

Saturday evening we went to see the Cambrian Symphony's concert "Metamorphosis," featuring soloist Julio Elizalde playing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3. I sketched some of the musicians as they warmed up while waiting for him to take the stage.



It was a treat to hear Elizalde. He was visibly tired after the performance -- not surprising, as the Rach 3 has been called the equivalent of K2 for pianists.

On Sunday, we took a day trip to Sacramento. I didn't have a chance to sketch in the city, but we did have a lovely lunch at Skool and went to the Crocker Museum for some inspiration. What a gem! I especially enjoyed the E. Charlton Fortune exhibit. It's there till April 22, so go see it.

On the way back, we took a meandering route along the Sacramento River. I sketched vignettes from the passenger seat while listening for updates on the Super Bowl score - #FlyEaglesFly.



I'm not much of a football fan, but I did enjoy the "Museum Bowl" on Twitter put on by the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Did you follow it? Even the Franklin Institute and Boston's Museum of Science got into the act! Mad props to their marketing departments!