April 25

Golden Gate

oil on canvas panel 3" x 5"

I fell in love with San Francisco and, although I left with my heart intact (a narrow escape), I have to pay a little homage to a very beautiful and livable city. I guess this is a landscape cliche, but what landscape hasn't already been seen? In a superbly curated exhibition of Vivienne Westwood's fashion career now at the de Young Museum in San Francisco's Golden Gate park, the designer is quoted as saying something about how we react only to what we already know. Somehow, seeing something already known, but experienced in person for the first time is very poignant--perhaps all the moreso for the accompanying recognition.

April 23

I just flew home on a red-eye flight from San Francisco this morning. Now back in the familiar seting of my studio, I can hardly believe I was watching pelicans and cormorants fish in the crashing pacific surf yesterday. That trip and a portrait I was working on account for the long hiatus, but I plan to be posting more small paintings and drawings very soon.