Cold weather getting you down?

To any of my lovely followers who may be feeling miserable in this cold weather: Please feel free to visit me in my studio for a deeper appreciation of how cold it can get. You will leave (probably immediately) feeling that your life is warmer than you had imagined.

Trying to heat my studio in this old concrete factory is pointless - any heat generated just flies straight out of the single-pane metal-framed windows. So I bundle up and keep moving. I have re-invented the term "kinetic art": instead of the artwork moving the term describes the artist in perpetual motion.

Happy winter to all!

Great Drawing Evening

I'm part of a small group of artists who meet on Thursday evenings to draw from the model. This week's meeting was really fun - good conversation, plenty of snacks, and a great model who brought a lot of patterned outfits with her. The fabrics were crazy! Here are a couple of my drawings done with conte pastel on pre-prepared paper.

Thanksgiving in my studio.

I hosted a pot-luck dinner in my studio at Thanksgiving - for "orphan" artists, friends and partners. There were 12 of us and it was a LOT of fun. The food was great (thank you everybody) and the conversation was very lively. Here is a view of the table before everyone arrived. Once the light started to dim and the candles were lit it was quite magical!

LA - strange but fun!

My friend Diane and I have recently returned from a trip to LA. We went to get a feel for the art scene - I'm hoping that there's a place for my work down there somewhere. We checked out galleries in Chinatown, West Hollywood, Wilshire Blvd., Bergamot Sation in Santa Monica, and Culver City. It was hard work but a lot of fun - and because we stayed at the fabulous Avalon Hotel in Beverley Hills we felt wonderfully pampered at the end of each day.

I'm off to LA!

Tomorrow morning my friend Diane and I are driving down to LA for a few days. We're going to hit the galleries, well - as many as we can: Culver City, Santa Monica, Bergamot Station, Wilshire Blvd etc. We both need more gallery representation. It will be hard work but fun. We're staying in the Avalon Hotel in Beverly Hills so there will be a pool and people-watching opportunities to help us relax. More later.....

Back to work!

After taking it easy for a whole week I'm starting to think about my next painting. It's going to be another LONG piece which will incorporate images I see on my daily commute between Mill Valley and my studio in San Francisco. (You can see a previous painting called "Tony's Journey" on my post of September 13th - that one was 20 feet long!)
I think this new painting will be called "The Commute" but that could change. Watch this space.

Leisure Time! Day # 2....

I found some energy and went exploring on my bicycle, ending up at Fort Baker at the very southern tip of Marin. This is the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from behind the hotel at Cavallo Point.

I then cycled on the road which takes you under the bridge. Looking up I saw something my friend Roy had told me about quite a while ago: this lovely grid of faded, stained plywood panels. They cover an area the size of a football field - it's the underside of a work platform beneath the bridge approach. Thanks Roy!