Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco

In celebration of moving to the Bay Area twenty years ago this month, (has it really been that long?) I thought I’d pull out this drawing I did last year of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Built for the Panama Pacific Exposition in 1915, the Palace of Fine Arts was dedicated to progress and a celebration of the completion of the Panama Canal. The Exposition also signified a rebirth of San Francisco following the destructive 1906 earthquake.

I visited San Francisco in 1989 as a prospective student to the Academy of Art College (it was a college back then). A friend of mine who already lived in the area, showed me around the city and one of the places we visited was the Palace of Fine Arts. Wow, was I impressed. San Francisco felt like the most European of American Cities. Just a few years before, I had lived in London and I still longed for a cross cultural experience.

Coincidentally, one month after my visit, the Loma Prieta earthquake hit San Francisco destroying houses, bridges, and even damaging the Palace of Fine Arts. But needless to say, Earthquakes didn’t keep me away from this beautiful, eclectic city and I chose The Academy of Art to study illustration.

Internet Archives Building in San Francisco

It’s easy for me to forget how cold San Francisco can be in the summer. Mark Twain famously said “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” I believe it. I live about an hour’s drive from the city but with a distance of only 55 miles, San Francisco can still be up to 40° cooler. As I drive south, especially in late summer, I see the blanket of fog rolling over the Marin headlands welcoming me to the City by the Bay. This morning was no exception as I shivered in the cold with fog misting me and my Moleskine sketchbook as I drew.

This is a drawing of the Internet Archives building (the Archive is an organization advocating for a free and open Internet.) in the Presidio. I set up my folding chair across the street on a man hole cover in an effort to keep the feet of the stool from sinking into the soft dirt. This was working fine until I dropped my pen cap down the tiny hole of the man hole cover and into the darkness.

Birth of Impressionism Exhibit

 

My wife Marilyn and I had a great time at the Birth of Impressionism show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco yesterday. The exhibit, containing paintings from the Musée D’Orsay in Paris, travels in the footsteps of one of the most celebrated art movements in history, Impressionism. Included in the show are paintings by Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Monet, Sisley and many others. It was interesting to see the transformation of the art world from the classical style of Bouguereau to the modern style developed by Degas, Monet and the others.

We also saw a companion exhibit at the Legion of Honor called Impressionist Paris: City of Light. This show mainly focuses on the graphic arts in the form of etchings, lithographs, and wood engravings from artists Gauguin, Degas, Daumia Mary Cassatt, Loutrec. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of etchings in the show and being an etcher myself, delighted in the detail and craftsmanship of the prints. Some of the best prints highlighted the narrow city street of Paris lit up with eclectic gas lamps. But one of my favorite pieces in the show was a small oil painting by Renoir called “La Loge,” which portrays a fashionable Parisian couple sitting in a theater box. It depicts a lavishly dressed young woman gazing at the viewer while a gentleman in the background looks through binoculars at another balcony above. By the end of the show I felt like running off to Paris for an extended vacation or more likely, snuggling up at home on the couch watching old black and white french movies wishing I was in Paris drawing and painting the narrow city streets.

Another special exhibit we saw was Paris sans fin: Alberto Giacometti’s Paris. These lithographic sketches of Paris’ city streets were especially inspiring for their looseness and lively impressions modern Paris of the mid twentieth century.

After viewing the special exhibits, Marilyn and I breezed through the permanent collection and another exhibit called Very Postmortem: Mummies and Medicine. This is where I finally had a moment to park myself on a bench and do a quick drawing of a sculpture called Saint James the Less. Although I didn’t get to draw much today, it was inspiring to see the work of the Impressionist movement.


Healdsburg’s Raven Theater

While I had a few minutes to spare before meeting a friend for coffee at the Flying Goat, I drew Healdsburg’s Raven Theater, just around the corner. The Raven Theater was built in 1949 as a movie theater and was named the “Aven,” after the owner’s wife’s name spelled backwards. Sometime later the “R” was added giving it the current cool name Raven Theater. Today, the theater has performances ranging from jazz (Jean Luc Ponty) to blues (Bo Diddley), comedy and variety shows like Healdsburg’s home grown “Mr. Healdsburg” competition. The Raven Players, Healdsburg’s Resident theater group, also performe here with ambitious productions like Cats, Miss Saigon, and Our Town. Although I drew this when Seussical the Musical was playing, the current theater production is RENT. I hear its great. Be sure to check it out.

More information can be found at the Raven Players website: http://www.ravenplayers.org/

and the Raven Theater: http://www.raventheater.org

Bodega Bay, California

A trip to the coast is always a welcome escape from my busy life at home. The hustle and bustle of dogs, emails, and work, recedes from my thoughts and allows a gentle peacefulness to set in. While walking along the beach, I often feel that my life is about to change in some profound way, however small. That’s why I take two journals with me, one for drawing and the other to record my thoughts. After finding a comfortable place to sit, I watch the waves gently roll on the sand for hours at a time. My mind drifts in and out with the tide, leaving me with a sense of peace that lasts the rest of the day.

Bear Republic Brewery

Recently, my sketch pal Phil and I drove down to Healdsburg’s plaza to find something to sketch. We didn’t feel like driving out of town and that’s OK because Healdsburg has some of the best sketching opportunities in the area. This time we chose to draw the Bear Republic Brewery and set up shop in the walk way between the brewery and Hotel Healdsburg. I’ve always liked the industrial look of the fermenting tank siting out on the patio and its a great place to hang out and have a burger and a beer. The Bear’s brewmaster Richard G. Norgrove has won numerous awards including gold medals at the Great American Beer festival. My personal favorite is Red Rocket Ale and coincidentally, it goes great with pizza too. Recently, the owner Richard R. Norgrove expanded their beer operation to a facility in Cloverdale, fifteen minutes up the road where they handle additional beer production, shipping, and have a brand new tasting room.

I’m getting thirsty just thinking about it. Good thing today is pizza Friday. Beer Bad? No, beer good! Buffy anyone?

Storybook House of John Allred’s Pro Framing Services

Out drawing again with the Sonoma Sketchers, this time in Cotati, California. After grabbing a big cup of coffee at a local cafe, I meet with several other sketchers to invade yet another Somona County town with sketch artists.

It’s interesting to watch the reactions of passersby as we draw along city streets. Most people speed on by to get to their next appointment. But some are curious enough to stop and appreciate, at least for a moment, the everyday world around them. I had one person say, “wow, I never even knew that tree existed before.” Comments like that are one of plein air sketching’s biggest pleasures.

Today, I chose to draw John Allred’s Pro Framing Services shop that looks like a storybook house. I love the large tree that protects it from the afternoon sun. A while back I got a call from John asking me to stop by the frame shop and resign a print of my watercolor. Seems the buyer had a different idea of where to mat the print than I did and wanted me to resign it in another location. It’s an unusual request, but I obliged, making the customer happy.

Mystic Theatre and McNears Restaurant

While preparing for a trip to Greece last summer, I spent as many hours as possible sketching and painting out-of-doors. One of those days I was in Petaluma, California drawing the Mystic Theatre, a well known music venue. Built in 1911, the theater originally hosted live Vaudeville entertainment, but today it hosts a plethora of modern music with a focus on rock and blues bands. McNears Irish Pub next door helps keep people’s whistles wet before and after the shows next door.

The city of Petaluma has an eclectic selection of architecture ranging from brand new to early twentieth century, making it a great destination for drawing. But most often I find myself here for the pizza at Old Chicago. They serve up a mean deep dish pizza piled high with ingredients and oozing with cheese. I find it especially hard to resist after a day of drawing, like today.  In between the McNears Restaurant and Old Chicago, there is a vacant lot where a scene from the movie American Graffiti (directed by George Lucas) was filmed.