phillythings.

More pics of phillythings from our usual Saturday walkabout, including of course an outing to the Piazza's Farmers' Market:

The usual cat at Chic Petique, getting extraordinarily up-close and personal with John's back:

"Cipro" here reeeally likes the Ricky Gervais show, I guess.

Part of the Norris Street mural, a nice attempt at making Fishtown less unattractive:

Sidewalk kitten face! Kitty.

A species native to Fishtown, evidently - and reproducing in the streets at an alarming rate - behold, the omnipresent discarded Arctic Splash container.

A line-up of jean-clad posteriors on Chestnut Street:

Grupo de dibujo.

I'm still on the search for a good drawing group, but I might have found a suitable one – the right combination of location, timing, vibe, so forth. Love the Sunday Open Studio sessions at Studio Incamminati, but Sundays are the time when I tend to get a lot of my own painting done... so I haven't made it back to that session in weeks and weeks. I liked the portrait session at the Philadelphia Sketch Club, but it was during the weekday – having a "day job" kind of rules out that option. Alas. There's one I've been meaning to try at another artist's studio on Saturdays, but I'm always busy during that time, too. So, I found a good drawing group on Tuesday nights at painter Mark Bullen’s studio near Rittenhouse Square – after work but not too late, 2 hours, good model, nice studio, good vibes, good group. Yay! I'll post some drawings from these sessions once I have something show-able...

Visit this link for more information on the Rittenhouse Drawing Group.

I ♥ Philly, the sequel.

Outside the Toothless Cat, in the Piazza

Geoffrey gets relaaaaxed at Chic Petique

My new favorite game at Dave & Busters

The strange mix of beauty and ugliness which seems to characterize Fishtown...

wildsaintbirdpeacevincentdrums.

Don't you love it when you go to see a concert of a band you like and the opening act blows your mind? Me too. This was exactly the case this past Thursday night – fortunately the season's 90 millionth snow storm didn't stop the magic that was the double-billing of Wildbirds & Peacedrums and St. Vincent. Phew! Boy, was it great – my favorite from St. Vincent was probably her cover of "These Days" – here's a version of it: And my favorite from Wildbirds & Peacedrums was... everything. WHOAH they were good. Check them out at their website here.

Jones.

I'm finding that I'm jonesing for some France-time, especially the time I spent in France studying with Studio Escalier in 2007 and 2008. Sigh. Here's a little sketch I did while in Argenton-Château almost 3 years ago... wow, how time flies!

Painting. With KITTY!

Hey, so I mentioned a painting that that friend and fellow artist Alia El-Bermani had started of me last year in this post... she's worked on it some more in the interim, and now it looks as though it's finished, yay! Here is is, and it can be found here on Alia's blog:

Diane with Kitten, oil on panel, 20" x 16", by Alia El-Bermani

Feelin' squirrelly.

Been paintin' squirrels, in between commission projects. Squirrels! The world's cutest creatures (see this link for evidence). Here's a sneak preview:

Detail of an in-progress painting