Mini Gallery Crawl and Cinema Paradiso

As I mentioned in a previous update, I was part of a group show at the Studio Gallery which had its reception on Saturday. Well, I got a call from the gallery owner the day before the reception to let me know the painting was already the first one to sell! I've managed to sell a few prints in the past, but this was my first major sale of a painting in a gallery.... so what better way to celebrate than by buying more artwork? After hanging out for the reception a while, Alex and I were off to another show at this address:

If you're in "the know", you call it 17-cubed.

My friend Dice mentioned a benefit auction put on by Maverix Studios to help Alzheimer's research. I was a little late finding out about it to contribute any work (but I'll be sure to next time). Still, the show definitely had no shortage of great artwork for us to bid on.

Contemplating a bid on Jennifer Chang's Degas-esque sketch of a dancing woman.... I placed a bid and was promptly beaten into submission.

Dice and I had a very brief bidding war on this lovely woodblock print called "Lady Wonton" by Stef Choi. In the end, I wished him luck so that I might be able to see it again, if not in my own home.... but I think someone else won it altogether.

Ultimately, this is the one that came home with us... the first piece I bid on (and fended off several bids to the bitter end... or bidder end as it were). My first purchased painting, and for a good cause too! It's by Noah Klocek, a sketch artist at Pixar, who went outside to paint this in pastels during one of his lunch breaks.

Speaking of going outside and painting, I went to work with Alex this past Friday morning to paint a defunct old theater that I've passed by on previous visits to Alex's workplace.

"Cinema Paradiso" - Lafayette, CA - 9"x12" Gouache and Watercolor on Paper

It drizzled on me a couple times and I think this session is partially to blame for my current case of the sniffles, but after last Sunday's painting cancellation, I was motivated to rise above something as minor as inclement weather.

Hopefully, I'll be going outside a lot more to paint now that my favorite time of year is here: Autumn. I've got a bad case of the travel bug, and am hoping to treat it with many small weekend trips along the coast to paint.