“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” Vincent van Gough

For us San Franciscans it has been a very cold and foggy summer. Not that this is totally unusual, yet, I swear it's been really really colder this year. Such a San Francisco thing to do, complain about the weather... it's either too hot or too cold.

On our Saturday dog walk meander I took this photo on 18th Street, just as a reminder that it really is still summer. My thoughts were with Vincent.

Last Friday I had another sighting of that mystery romantic artist's work in the Mission. The others (see posting July 27) have already been taken down, so I was glad to come across this one on 19th. This one is "Fools rush in were angles fear to tread".

It's always a bit disruptive when changes happen around the studio. Not unusual that artists move in/ out just prior to Open Studios.... have met some new friends and said goodbye to some. Some are off to Europe, but thankfully some are just up the street and we can still have cafe breaks together.

With all the moving going on around the studios I decided to do a project I have long put off. I got a hold of some large sheets of foam core board to cover up the interior window/wall between my neighbor and myself. It is so nice to have finally completed this project. Makes the space brighter and provides more hang space.

The other studio project this month was to get oil paint ready. I have put off going back to oils because of concern for Taxie. I bought a fan, a childproof door divider and a low impact turp substitute. The studio door can now be open with the fan outside blowing air through and out the window. So far so good.

I have been working on a couple of small paintings to get used to oils again. Neither of these are complete, but has been very fun. Oils are such a different feel than working with acrylic. One big difference is that the paint "stays wet" and is a far more forgiving medium in some ways... don't like something, wipe it off or blend some more color in.

One is from a drawing of my balcony and the other the stools at Wiz Burger.

The cool thing about oils is that you do have wait time which makes it easier to have several projects going on at the same time.

I am starting a new very minimal/ abstract painting from a photo I took on the hill in Bernal Heights. Here is the photo and my initial layout. Hope to get the actual painting started today.