Farewell San Francisco!

The last few days were spent exploring the city's delicious art and painting in it's garden's.

Jacob Pfeiffer at John Pence Gallery.

Will Wilson at John Pence Gallery.

John Pence Gallery.

We found this Banksy on Howard and 9th,

Went in search of a reported Banksy on Haight Street and all that's left is the small dribble of red. We were stunned that it had been painted over!

Yarn Bomb, another type of pretty cool street art.

My daughter and I painting at the Japanese Tea Garden in the Golden Gate Park.  9x12, oil on panel

A small plein air oil sketch I did at the Golden Gate Park. "Water Lilies", 9x12, oil on panel

On our way home from San Francisco, we just happened to run in to Nowell and Sadie Valeri, who we had had the privilege of house-sitting for for the past two weeks. Destiny had intervened once again to cross our paths and it was a wonderful end to our trip.

If you are still looking for inspiration San Francisco style check out Sadie Valeri's artwork here. She will be posting work on from her five weeks spent in France soon!

More San Francisco Inspiration!

This week I had time to do a little painting and continue exploring the city.

"Sadie's Orchid", 9x12, oil on linen

My daughter in front of the ferry building.

Maybe it's my Florida roots but I love the graphic quality of palm trees.

Willow trees in Sausalito.

Muir Woods National Monument Park.

The play of light and dark in Muir Woods was incredible. 

I'm amazed at the eco friendly aspect of San Francisco,  everywhere there are compostable paper cups, flatware,  disposable cups, virtually everything is recyclable! Very little goes to the landfill. Garbage is separated into recyclables, compostable and landfill.

(BTW spell checker doesn't know the word compostable, sad day)

Wine tasting tour in Sonoma Valley, YES! 

Bougainvillea on Lombard Street.

Strange public toilet on Castro and Market, it has a sliding door and auto disinfecting toilet, sink and floor  after a 55 second door closing, purchased from France and modeled after public toilets in Paris. 

Found this sidewalk graffiti and thought it was cool, later found it  in other places around the city. Did a little research and found that if is the street artist Jeremy Novy.

A modified Jeremy Novy on Post Street.

A favorite find was a large Scott Fraser painting in the window of the Jenkins Johnson Gallery. John Pence Gallery is museum huge! I saw amazing work by Jacob Pfeiffer, Anthony Wiachulis, Juliette Artistide, Carl Dobsky, Will Wilson, Zach Zdrale... and the list goes on. 

More about other galleries and new artists I've discovered during my lovely San Francisco days, but for now I'm off to explore on my last day in San Francisco.

To Be Continued...

San Francisco Inspires!

I'm lucky enough to be experiencing San Francisco for the first time. Inspiration comes in many forms. Banksy one day,  the Golden Gate Bridge in the fog and on old fortune telling machine another.

Cable Car Cables

Golden Gate Bridge

Banksy

Bay Bridge

Here's some of my favorite art from the De Young Museum.

Cornelia Parker, Anti-Mass, burnt wood from an Alabama Baptist Church destroyed by arson.

Al Farrow, The Spine and Tooth of Santo Guerro, made from bullets and guns. 

 And of course a couple shots of Sargent hands, ALWAYS inspiring.

Sargeant Kendall, Cypripedia, 1927, I don't really love this painting over all, but I do really enjoy the temperature shifts in the flesh tones, and the warm reflected light.

Katie LaMonte, cast glass 2007, I was happy to see her work here, I saw it for the first time last year in Norfolk, VA The missing figure is fascinating to see, or not see?

The room I lingered the longest in was The Art of Illusion room, Trompe L'Oeil Still Life.

William Joseph McCloskey, 1890, oil, doesn't this have a contemporary feel?

Me being impressed by the size of this William Harnett

If there is ever an example of how painting is more akin to sculpture than drawing, this is it. The highlights of this Harnett are actually chunky and 3-D.

Richard Shaw, Ceramic, 1980, fun fool the eye sculpture.

The best painted grapes I've ever seen in my life, Abraham Mignon, 1669-72,
 (the rest of the painting didn't suck either)

Frank Duveneck, Study for Guard of the Harem, 1879.   I love the shadow side of the face being such transparent paint, the eye is not there in a way that is completely believable.

To be continued...