Friday

The crit session is scheduled at Carlie’s tonight, a combination Christmas gathering and artwork bashing mixed with a dangerous dose of red wine! It should be fun, most of the artists will be bringing along their respective others to meet and socialize.

That being said, I was open last night to go to Bryce Liston’s figure painting session at the south end of the valley. Actually it’s not that far away. It just seems like your driving forever if you leave at 5:30 in the evening during the height of rush hour traffic. Just a few minutes from my house I was locked into a stand still, bumper to bumper parking lot on Foothill Drive. Thank God I don’t have to drive that home every night from work, I’d go crazy! Half of the idiots are on cell phones driving below the speed limit in the left lane. Yes, I admit cell phone drivers really piss me off when they get so inconsiderate.

I finally made it out to Bryce’s place late of course and ended up with the last available spot in the corner off to the side. At most crit sessions its first come first serve for the best spots for painting and if you show up late…….well you might find yourself in the next room looking around a corner at the model.

As it turns out the model cancelled and we all had to wait around for a replacement to arrive. So it gave me a chance to meet the rest of the crew, most of whom I’ve never met before. Our group consisted of Liz Robbins, Robert Duncan, Rick Graham, Dean Bradshaw, Eric (not sure of the last name), Bryce and myself. There we killed time looking through the hundred and one art books Bryce had up on the wall. And as with most artists the conversation soon came down to graveling over just how good Anders Zorn was. The depressing realization that no matter how much we work at it, we’ll only end up being half as good as the master was. That being said….

“Here is my half as good result for the night”

This morning I worked on another Amsterdam piece. From the last crit session it was determined that the main building needed more light and shadow play. So I spent some time and defined the structure a little better. I’ll bring it to the crit tonight.