Thursday, June 4, 2015

Sketching Popeyes in the Mission District, San Francisco (corner of Mission and 22nd St.)




I really found my love for drawing again.  I know that if I really want to reach my goals as an artist, I must draw very well.  So even though drawing takes a way from my painting time, I know it will be worth it in the long run. Good Painting can not cover bad drawing skills.  So again, if I'm really serious about being the artist that I want to be, I must slow down and draw!
So if I'm going to draw, I might as well draw things that I am passionate about.  For quite a while now,  I've been noticing the constant changes in the cities I've lived in.  The forefront of gentrification is happening right now in San Francisco.  The energy has changed, a lot of people are frustrated and angry.  Many have been forced out of the city because of the rise of rent.  Local businesses that have been in the city for many years are closing down. And at the same time, the tech industry is more apparent than ever.
 This building I drew was located on the corner of Mission and 22nd st.  It was an old apartment complex building with a Popeyes restaurant on the bottom floor. It was caught on fire late January leaving 1 dead, 6 hurt, and many of its surviving residents displaced.  To the right of the building is a fresh new modern building that is yet to open for the tech industry.  This building I drew will be replaced.
While I drew, I was fortunate to have talked to a lot of the old time neighborhood locals.  They all had their point of views about what was going on in the city.  Some people felt like the fire was a conspiracy to push the residents out of the apartment complex.  Apparently there was another nearby building that was caught in fire as well.  I'm not exactly sure which came first, but the people I talked to didn't think it was a coincidence.  The timing was perfect.  Not a scratch on the brand new building next to it.  Who really knows what went down.  But the facts are people lost their homes and a person lost their life.  People have lost hope that SF will no longer  be the San Francisco they once knew and loved.
Is there a solution?  Can we stop gentrification?  Have we hit rock bottom?  How will SF look in a year from now?  5 years from now?  10 years from now?  Can we unite the old with the new? Can techies and artists work together?  I have hope. I see an obvious divide from the old and the new, but I have hope that we can meet in the middle.  Is this being naive or hopeful?

Painting 64: Still Life of Flowers Daniel Keys Workshop








 I took a Daniel Keys workshop in SF last week.  I learned a ton of information.   Daniel is such a super talented and hardworking artist.  He is best known for his still life. He makes painting flowers look so easy.  That is far from the truth.  I had such a challenging time simplifying the still life.  He taught the class how to observe closely.  The key components to a successful painting are drawing, values, color/temperature, edges, and composition.  The hardest part for me these days are color temperature.  In this workshop Daniel mentioned that I painted my objects a lot more cooler in temperature than they really are.  I was frustrated with my results because I couldn't see what he saw.    I had to remind myself that I must slow down and really focus on observation.  Sometimes as a plein air painter, I tend to feel rushed because of the moving light.  But taking this workshop and focusing on an indoor still life, it reminded me that I don't have to rush. I learned that everything is relative.  One color can be innately cool, but next to another color can be warm. Same goes for values.  One value may seem dark, but next to another value is actually lighter.
I have a long journey ahead of me in terms of painting the way I want to paint, but I've been so fortunate to learn from people that I admire.