Figuring it out.

Figure studies from the Tuesday night drawing group I've been going to:

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!

...from me and my little friend here.

Art with Sartre.

I've been working on about forty different things at once of late - including portrait commissions - which is not a particularly efficient way of working, truth be told. Anyway, here's one I feel like I've been working on forever:

Being and bubblegum, work in progress, oil on printed fabric. by me, Diane. Hey.

The Art of the Mozartkugeln.

Happy new discovery: I found this great international magazine vendor in West Philly, out at Penn: Avril 50. In addition to having heaps and heaps of harder-to-find international and art magazines in stock, they also have some international snacks: behold, the truly divine Mozartkugeln:

... no one can resist the Mozartkugeln! (Cue Pete Schwedde here)

OK. And now for some art-related content here, which you may think I had forgotten, what with all this swooning over Philadelphia's urban delights and such. Well, here's a complicated one, because it involves potentially shady dealings to acquire yet more urban delights for Philadelphia in the form of a highly valuable art collection: (you still with me? ok.) we saw the film "The Art of the Steal" last Friday night, about the decades-long saga of the Barnes Foundation, its (mis-?)handling over the years since Albert Barnes' passing, and the eventual planned relocation of the collection from wealthy suburb to downtown Philadelphia. The film is a good watch – somewhat biased, of course, but possibly for good reason – and definitely raises some creepy questions about... well, lots of things, really – go see it for yourself.

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...