BBQ at ICB

We had a great hotdog bbq at the ICB art studios building yesterday. We had a lot of fun, good food and drink and company. And we raised some money towards buying ourselves a picnic table so we can eat outside in the sun when the weather cooperates.

I took some photos at the beginning of the bbq but then got involved in talking to people. More people showed up as the bbq went on.

I heard there was an "after" after party, but I missed that....

Plein Air Session at Corte Madera Marsh

Yesterday, I was seeking to escape the fogged in city to where there was sun so I could paint outside. I drove around Tiburon but could see the fog was quickly coming in to anything I wanted to paint.

I ended up at the Corte Madera marsh and had sun all afternoon. It was a little windy for me (my chair and water container completely blew over one time) but otherwise was a very pretty afternoon.

I kept company with a whole flock of these pretty birds, American White Pelicans. They rotated around the marsh feeding and relaxing. Okay, they came out as just white splotches on my little painting but they were quite beautiful to watch all day.

I painted for about 2 hours and then went and had a lovely Thai dinner and glass of wine in Mill Valley.

The Fisher Collection

I had the pleasure of going to SFMOMA on Friday and see the small portion of the Fisher Collection. It is a partnership with SFMOMA to house and display the collection of Gap founders Doris and Donald Fisher,  more than 1,100 works by iconic 20th century artists in total (this peek had about 160 of total collection on display), dubbed Calder to Warhol. Much of this collection has never been seen by the public. It was great to see some of these works up close and live.

I liked the Gerhard Richter pieces, Anselm Kiefer (I like a lot of his work), Agnes Martin, Serra and Warhol. I had never seen Chuck Close's work up close and there was a whole room for his work and I liked the David Hockney double portrait.

Then I got to hang out with and go to dinner with the Friday Artists' Roundtable group and talk art and other musings.

Here are two Gerhard Richter pieces:

Here is a Anselm Kiefer piece:

Okay, the below Kiefer piece is NOT part of the Fisher Collection, but was on display at the SFMOMA several years back and took my breath away. It's not a great image of it. It was almost room-size and it looked like swarms of locusts lifting from the earth - and the swarms were all sunflower seeds. A better image would have shown the complexity within the "swarm". I loved Kiefer after this in-person experience.

And back to my day with the Fisher Collection, here is part of the Artists Roundtable Group at the rooftop cafe before dinner.