Land's End in San Francisco

Chilly day painting under the dismal clouds with the group. We were perched above the Sutro Baths and the Cliff House. They have made a very large lookout building and set of parking lots and revamped the trails and overlooks. Some nice wildflowers in bloom though. Scanner cut off slight bit at bottom and left side, but the composition still works.

Stanford (Cantor) Museum & Ridin Sculpture Garden

Just three of us today for a lazy painting outing to the Cantor Visual Arts Center on Stanford Campus. First one is of the entry statue to the museum, I think it might be Gerald Cantor dressed in toga. This is pen, watercolor, watercolor pencil and gouache. Second one is a Rodin entiteld "prayer" in the garden. That one is all pastel pencil.

Commissioned?

Nancy redid the bathrooms and they came out quite nice. But bare, as the old decor was removed and not reusable due to color and style. She suggested that I paint a picture for over the toilet, where a painting had hung before.

So I sized up the space and picked out a photo of a tiny street square in Monterosso al Mare that I like so much. Right colors sort of, right orientation, and a simply interesting design.

Set about with my acrylics and the photo taped to a wall outside and did up a reasonable facsimile. At least it captured the shapes, colors and composition reasonably well.

Hung it on the wall and everyone seems to like it. Though I know all the faults (and there are some glaring ones), it just works and works well and is intriguing enough to hold interest. Not the actual colors of the bathroom, but a set of complementary tones that works well with the decor. Now just waiting for a frame I ordered to finish it off and hang it properly.

I actually dislike copying anything! This is not normal for me and I can't say that I'm bad at it (much better at that 30 years ago on the rare occasions that I did copy a photo), but it usually does not inspire me. This time seemed to work.

So both Nancy and Lisa kept saying, "I didn't know I could actually commission you to paint something." Not sure that part is going to work out too well for me!