Michael + Michael + cake.

This past week has been a blast! I spent some time up in upstate NY in the Adirondacks with Michael Schoenig, a great painter and one of my old studiomates from San Francisco – what a gorgeous landscape up there, between Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains themselves and all the rural goodness in between:

Essex, NY

More tranquil Essex loveliness

Michael at High Falls Gorge. As advertised, the falls were high.

 

More of High Falls Gorge, in all its majesty.

Me with lots and lots of gushing water.

Lovely cloud formations seen from the ferry riding across Lake Champlain.

  Michael 's house! Haha, actually, no.

Wee duckling at Mirror Lake in Lake Placid, snacking on algae.

Moon over Lake Champlain

After that I came back down to NYC to take a week-long drawing workshop focusing on the portrait and structure of the head at the Janus Collaborative. As I mentioned in my previous post, the workshop was taught by artist Michael Grimaldi. Here’s a demo from the class, done by the instructor:

Portrait demo by Michael Grimaldi

And here’s the drawing I came up with over the week - we had a great model:

  

Portrait of Tram, by me

Here's an absolutely adorable and amazingly friendly cat in one of the apartments I stayed in while in NYC - it's the awesome cat of super-awesome photographer Gavin Thomas:

 

 

Here's a view of the East River from the Roosevelt Island tramway, wheeeeeeeeee:

Also: in honor of some recent birthdays, there was some cake with friends, at a great little place in Harlem:

NOM NOM NOM

YAY FOR CAKE!!!!

..and YAY for the great state of New York. HURRAY!

Summer in the City.

Hey Internet, I'm going to be up in NYC all next week, taking a drawing workshop with Michael Grimaldi at the Janus Collaborative. Summertime in the city! Admittedly, not my favorite time of year to be in NYC, but studying with Michael Grimaldi will be so worth it - of this I am certain. My internet access will be limited during that week, so while I may not be able to post immediate updates -  hopefully I'll be able to post a recap soon. I can't in any way guarantee it will be a coherent or well-written recap, however; for that, I turn to my friend Sadie, who is far more adept at processing and articulating what she has taken in from workshops than I will ever be; see this link on her blog with her thoughts from a Michael Grimaldi drawing workshop she took a couple of years ago out at BACAA, out in the the San Francisco Bay Area...  and see below for a painting by Michael Grimaldi (incredible, no?):

Painting by Michael Grimaldi

Manayunk.

Hey there, just wanted to let y'all know, I have two paintings in a juried exhibition at the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center, in the northwest corner of the City of Brotherly Love, good ole Philly. Manayunk is really interesting, and surprisingly vibrant and charming. It's up a big hill from the Schuylkill River - I love towns built on hills. Anyway, the show is up through July 31 - check it out if you're here in the city.



From what I remember...

Hey there,

Just wanted to give you a heads-up about a group show I will be in next January, with a bunch of exceptional artists, at Principle Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia. The three artists of Broad Street Studios have pulled together an exhibition around the theme of "From What I Remember/From What I Forget..." about personal narratives and memory. Here's the link with examples of work from all of the artists included in the show (not necessarily the work which will be in the show, but just  a representative example):

http://www.thebroadstreetstudio.com/remember.html

Down with the DPC.

Hey there Internet, Happy Fourth! I've been celebrating our nation's independence by... painting!!! Whooop! No fireworks for me, just the explosive magics happening in the art studio! Or... something.

Anyway, on Saturday I did some outdoor landscape painting - definitely still frightening and uncharted territory for me - with a groovy group of people from PAFA, including Mike Manley, David Campbell Wilson, Alina Osipov and Lexi Thomas. Mike has a great recap on the blog for their painting group (the "Dirty Palette Club"), so I'm going to be lazy here and link to his post, add a few photos of my own, below, and then call it a day - an independence day, in fact! Woot!

 Mike in the comfy chair

 Alina and her painting

 Painters in action

David being all arty

Au Canada!

John and I made a great little trip north to Montreal last weekend - what a fun city! Here are some photos:

On the way into the city, on a seriously foggy morning.

An art installation of giant air-freshener trees.



 Notre Dame: c'est obligatoire.

 Giant chess boards.

 Funky murals, cool architecture.

 Juste pour rire/just for laughs

 Elaborate graffiti

 Likewise, more elaborate graffiti

 John, going with the flow

 On the right: the movie that we saw. I love Isabelle Carré

John au Restaurant Les Pyrénées



 Along the St. Lawrence River

 Fancy metro station

 On the way up to Parc Mont Royal

 Telephone booth at the top of Mont Royal. John has entitled this photo "A Call of Nature."

A little snailfriend we made on the top of Mont Royal



 The ugly Croix de Montreal. Ugly! Ugh.

 Us chillin' in the Parc de Mont Royal

 Leaning birches on the way down from Mont Royal

 More crazy graffiti

 Under Pressure! more graffiti.

 Oh la la! Indeed.

 More graffiti/murals... I think I spy Alfred Hitchcock in there.

A perfect example of Montreal's architectural schizophrenia...



Et voila, des fleurs. C'etait un bon voyage! Merci et bonne nuit!