New Painting - Port of Oakland

Port of Oakland. 40" x 48"

Port of Oakland (detail)

I've just finished this painting which was inspired by a visit to the Port of Oakland to watch a friend take part in the weekly summer evening bicycle training. (I understand that cyclists refer to this as the POO ride!) The painting is built from four horizontal wooden panels which were all prepared seperately. Once they were fixed together the painting was developed as one. The lower panel is pasted with yard tickets which I collected while walking around the bicycle route. The colored squares are collaged paper to suggest the freight containers. The upper panel shows the cranes drawn onto vintage wallpaper.

I had fun doing this one!

Puppets

The Senator and the Archbishop

Unfinished puppet

A few months ago I visited the work studio of my friend Bob who has been making wonderfully idiosyncratic puppets for many years. I was intrigued by the complex mechanisms he designs to make them move, and entranced by the personality each puppet exuded. Bob is very private so I kept my camera in my bag and did some quick sketches while he was telling his wonderful stories.

Coffee Time in the Studio

Old Mint SF (diptych). 60" x 72"

Today I thought I'd hang a painting I completed in 2007. I've always loved this one. It shows a space in the Old Mint building on Mission Street in San Francisco. Looking down into spaces gives you a wonderfully exaggurated perspective which is always fun to draw. And I love solitary chairs!
Note: The chair in the photo is not a real Eames chair - it's a fake which I found on the street in San Francisco back in 1996.

Draw-Your-Lunch event in the studio.

I gathered a dozen drawing pals in my studio on a rainy Sunday afternoon to draw and eat. Everyone bought visually satisfying food and we had great time sketching around the big table as the food gradually disappeared. The only rule was to check that no one was drawing what you wanted to pop into your mouth!
Here are a few of my sketches:

The last tomatoes off the plants in the garden.

Really tasty cupcakes!

Half-eaten chicken with colored pencils.

New Paintings - Stage One

My studio feels empty now that Open Studios is over and my Merida paintings have been shipped to New York. This is when new things start to happen. I've spent the last couple of days getting messy with paint, sheetrock compound, posters, wallpaper and glue - this is how I develop my underpaintings. All of these panels willl eventually turn into paintings or parts of paintings. I'll keep you posted.