Category: San Francisco

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Preparation – Life Drawing Tuesday Evening – Mission

Another go at life drawing. Good to do. Hard. Learning lots. A lot of sketches… basically I sketch for three hours solid with many poses, it is like entering another world. I’d like to do more, might look for something in New York and in Christchurch, however I feel like such a beginner and different with my tablet there while they all have charcoal.

I began at lunchtime with some preparation, exploring textures. Inked in a few from the last time, but that felt wrong, that led to pencil. Finished up using mostly pencil ecept for the large patches of black, used pastel for that. Everything is done in Artrage II. I am putting them all up in two pages. Exploring textures is the first page. Here is one of the sketches, done in one of my favourite San Francisco cafes “Roasters”.

#0641 Ritual
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See more explorations here

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California Poppy

#0634 California Poppy
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This was from a photo taken on the Muir Beach walk last week. A tiny delicate little thing, smaller than it it appears here, with deep colouration. I was told it was the State flower… and Wikipedia agrees:

The California poppy is the California state flower. It was selected as the state flower by the California State Floral Society in December 1890, winning out over the Mariposa lily (genus Calochortus) and the Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri) by a landslide, but the state legislature did not make the selection official until 1903. Its golden blooms were deemed a fitting symbol for the Golden State. April 6 of each year is designated “California Poppy Day.”

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From plein air to abstract landscape in Buena Vista Park

I walked to the top of Buena Vista Park just above Height today. Saw the people & their dogs. I had a glimpse of the park yesterday and the first sketch in this series was from memory of something I’d like to do when I walked in the park.

Here is the final image – I will put that here, and link to the day’s work all on one page. There were also some “combinations of “layers” I found striking, so I have added them in.

See all nine Buena Vista sketches.

#0633 Buena Vista IX
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My day so far

We biked out to the beach through the park, had breakfast. I put up the rest of the sketches from yesterday’s drawing group. Then I did a few fast still life sketches (next post?) Walked through the panhandle then up he hill to Haight, then along past Ashbury till I found this café: Rocking Java I like it. Yelp.

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And here is a sketch from the chairs in front of me. One of the eight still lifes I did today.

#0621 Chairs
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Art on the wall is interesting РGicl̩es by John Mavroudis

This is one on the wall here:

Continue reading “My day so far”

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De Young – Bay Area Figurative – Richard Diebenkorn

On Friday We went to the De Young. I like the building. I even like the mesh now. There was one flaw, the top viewing deck is “elevator only”, ridiculous. We met a friend of Amy’s Joe Mangrum. Does ephemeral art. I liked the Hiroshimo Sugimoto exhibit, the suble siplicity of the seascapes and the art about art idea is present in his long warrior photo.

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Continue reading “De Young – Bay Area Figurative – Richard Diebenkorn”

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Philip Guston Contradictions

I began to make a post about my visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, but lost it half way through for some reason. But just one artist will do for now. Philip Guston.

Amy introduced me to him. I am intrigued by the man, his place in the abstract expressionist world. When I walked up the stairs at the museum today there was a Guston, much more impressive than the web stuff!

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The one I really liked, and the first painting that really drew me today was one called The Tormentors:

Continue reading “Philip Guston Contradictions”

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Pete’s Café

#0575 Pete’s Café
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In Pete’s Café near the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art – the rest of the day the art gallery was the focus. I am now in the Café Museo posting up some sketches I did after being inspired in the museum.

These line sketches are fun, but I like my kinaesthetic big bold abstracts. I sketch them here on this little screen but imagine myself in some rural studio with unlimited real materials. But I am ahead of myself…

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