The Japanese influence

John Byram and I tried to go see the Fealing Lin and Tom Fong watercolor show at Alhambra City Hall. It was closed and the schedule is "office hours" . Needles to say I was disappointed as I don't have a lot of time to go to shows. I moxied over to Nucleus Gallery in Alhambra , a gallery and an outpost of hyped-up heavily asian-influenced artwork which I like to browse from time to time. I am not particularly fond of the self-centered attitude and peter-pan-ish charm of a lot of the artwork but sometimes a burst of wonder pops out. They had a wonderful exhibit of drawings for starters. Browsing a couple of books ("The Totoro Forest Project" and "Three trees make a Forest") I hit upon two marvelous artists: Tadahiro Uesugi and Eric Tiemens . The first one had the most stylized and wonderful illustrations of women in this anonymous but poetic environments. Eric had some classically strong and romantic gouache and watercolor landscapes. I will keep track of them both I am adding them as links.

The Arroyo Seco Re-discovery Art Walk

I think this is the fourth time I do the Discovery Tour along with the Mt. Washington group at the Ziegler House . The sales were ok ( the economy is certainly in everybody's mind) but this had to be the best displayed, better advertised and 'minglier' show ever. Everybody that showed up stayed a while and it was truly a very pleasant experience. Here is a pic of Chris Zambon proudly displaying her art with a very schoolgirlish pose.

After the show we all moved to Roderik Smith's house who was also featured in the Art Walk and where Linda, Rod's wife, treated us for dinner and Rod had all his recent pieces on display. If you think you have seen the Dodger Stadium or Catalina Island , you need to check out his amazing renditions of these two locales. He layers his oils thickly in a scintillating array of hues without ever loosing a strong sense of composition. You can check his artwork at www. rodericksmith.com.

San Gabriel Mission

In what it looks like the most extended summer I've ever seen (It's November and it's still hot) I decided to paint the San Gabriel Mission from the gardens as my submission for the San Gabriel Plein Air 2008 extravaganza of the San Gabriel Fine Arts Association . My intention was to travel around the city and avoid the mission since usually shun the typical and like a few challenges. But once in there, the place is so peaceful and romantic that it just felt like a crime not to enjoy for it a bit so there, I stayed, what can I say, there'll be plenty of time for soot and grime. Plus they allowed artists in for free and i was not about to miss that. A big thanks to the amazing organizers Alfred Tse and Alice Lee and all the others whose name i can't retain and that work so hard to get a little bit of the arts in this town.

"Visions of the Rialto"

Well, I participated in my first official event with the California Art Club and I must say me and hubby Armando were VERY impressed. The SoPas gallery was marvelous, the people I met couldn't have been nicer, specially Miriam Noske who is an exhibits curator from the California Art Club and Tom R. Field the gallery manager. Among the wonderful artists let me mention Paul Strahm and his wife who gratiously lent me a poncho when we were oainting in the rain in San Luis Obispo, Debbie Holladay , Alex Schaeffer who has a great touch for contemporary landscape and Lynne Fearman. And I sold my painting to none other than the Chief of Police of South Pas. Now about those parking tickets...... just kidding.