a couple of views of san francisco

I went to San Francisco this Saturday past, for a sketching day. It's important to have sketching days every once in a while, rather than the usual hour or two here and there. The first thing I wanted to do was climb Telegraph Hill and sketch some views - we were having glorious February sunshine and warm weather, not even any fog. I sketched in the Stillman & Birn sketchbook from the Symposium; it's very nice. The top one shows the Bay Bridge, the bottom shows the Golden Gate Bridge, as sketched from the other side of the base of Coit Tower. Each took about 20-30 minutes.

By Pete Scully

Sagres

Sagres is a beautiful tall ship and yesterday was celebrated her 50th anniversary on the Portuguese Navy.
Back in 2000 I had the chance of sailing from Açores Islands to Lisbon.
I was a visitor, not exactly with crew duties, and the slow days were wonderful drawing opportunities.
Some more sketches of this sailing in Bonecos de Bolso.

freezing recess

It's still freezing cold outside. The kids don't seem to mind. Many of them were digging cardboard out of the recycling bin and using them as sleds the last couple of days.

Red Lanterns

...actually they are the color and shape of ripe persimmons...they float in the trees at Huntington Gardens, San Marino, California every year for 2 weeks during the Chinese New Year celebration. It just makes me happy to see them, and a little sorry to see them go...until next year!



...getting ready for Lion Dancing, and a martial arts demonstration by the Alhambra Shaolin Temple Cultural Center...


...and leaving...

Jury Duty

Last week I reported to my first day of jury duty in Newark, New Jersey. I was curious as to exactly what was about to happen during my time there, and unfortunately, absolutely nothing happened. My name was never called and I never saw a lawyer, judge, nothing. BUT I did a few drawings of the other pseudo-jurors, a sleeping priest, and the parking lot during lunch. It was good practice and a couple days off of the normal routine.

tribute to antoni tàpies

antoni tàpies i puig, one of the greatest spanish artist of the XXth century died last monday (barcelona 12/12/1923 - barcelona 06/02/2012).
so yesterday, I sketched one of his installation in the public space as a tribute. I can't tell how much his work influence me, and since I live in barcelona, even more…

this sculpture titled "barcelona a picasso 1983" was an order of the city to tàpies at the death of picasso. while I was sketching it, a journalist of the spanish newspaper "la vanguardia" came to me, and ask me a few questions: what I was doing here? what represent tàpies to me?… and my biggest surprise was to read my answers in the newspaper this morning…
today, I went to the "fundació antoni tàpies, and join the crowd to pay one last homage to the artist.




blogged by lapin

Roberto Saviano in Barcelona

Last monday I went to the presentation of Roberto Saviano's new book.
It's a weird sensation to be near a man that is commonly considered a hero, that is menaced by several organized crime groups, that can be shot on every moment.
So many people, so much security, lots and lots of bodyguards.

Saviano is one of those indespensable men Bertolt Brecht talked about. So are his books.

Winter clothes.

The platanus in front of my window.

Sketchcrawl in an urban park

Last Saturday our Israel group of Urban Sketchers went to Meir Park - small and elegant garden in the center of Tel Aviv. Urban parks - very comfortable place for sketching. There is a lot of subjects, and everyone can find what he prefers.  Meir Park has it all: trees, grass, trails, playgrounds, even a large fish pond decorated with beautiful water flora, buildings and coffee shops around, and, of course, a lot of people: families with children, dog owners and their dogs, elderly persons and their carers and so on...

This is really fun to see many different points of view and styles done on the same location.

At IKEA: London scenes

I'm very happy to say that some of my images are now on sale at IKEA stores around the world. The images are a series of five art cards featuring London scenes, perfectly timed for the forthcoming Olympics here.

My copy of the beautiful "The Art of Urban Sketching" arrived yesterday.

It's been a good week.

There's more info at my blog.

Looking at Art with a Sketchbook

If I had walked into the San Jose Museum of Art before I sketched, I would have stood in the entryway, looked up and thought "Ah, there's a Chihuly!". And I'd have moved on to the next piece.
But with a sketchbook, everything changes. I no longer look at whole exhibits, even small ones... I always run out of time. But what I see, I see so much more deeply than before.

So this Chihuly piece at the San Jose Museum of Art was not just another Chihuly: it was a live, writhing mass of eel-like forms hanging in 3 primary colored clumps from the ceiling at the museum. It was interesting to look at the forms up-close, to see how the striations on the forms accentuated their shape, and how variations in color added depth to the pieces.


This fascinating piece of sculpture is a giant orange-red couch-like caterpillar form eating an electric blue chair. I loved how the legs on this piece were so animated.


I'm so glad I sketch. It adds a whole new layer of experience to everything!
You can read more about my day at the museum and see more sketches on my blog or on flickr.

the Hexenball

It's Fasnacht time again in southern Germany, and you can see people dressed in wild costumes preparing to party it up before the 40 day period of Lent. Over the street in Kandern hangs a banner advertising the Hexenball (witches ball), along with strings of underwear. This tradition goes back hundreds of years in the Black Forest, and looks like it's here to stay.

Mission Trails Regional Park, San Diego

This was done while sketching and painting at the Old Mission Dam with my friend Lyn. This dam is located in Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego.



It ws built in the early 1800s using Kumeyaay labor under the direction of the Franciscan Padres from the San Diego Mission.

Chiostro del Bramante, Rome

A good deal of interesting exhibits take place here. Last Christmas it has shown the wonderful Baldini and his fellow impressionists from Paris. This year I came back just for the cloisters.

Bits of jazz

For some reasons (moving house among others) I haven't blogged so much on the last 2 months. Back to normal (or so) I've realized I have several unblogged drawings I'd like to share. For example this series of drawings made in two jazz concerts I had the opportunity to attend last november.

The first one was a concert of Flavio Boltro on trumpet and Danilo Rea on piano, with opera arias revisited in jazz key.


The second one had two parts: first, Giovanni Guidi on piano...


...and second, the Conservatori del Liceu Big Band with Jere Laukkanen.

All the sketches I made on this concerts can be seen on my blog.