Not to be missed: Richard Diebenkorn

A drive into San Francisco from Oakland can be a big deal with traffic. I try to take public transit when I can. But since I had a business appointment in the far reaches of the city, I piggybacked a trip to the de Young Museum to see Richard Diebenkorn, the Berkeley Years, 1953-1966.

I love Diebenkorn's Bay Area Figurative and Ocean Park series. I even feel a special affinity since he was an alumni of both my high school and college. Ah, if only I can paint as well as he did!

This exhibition highlights the breath of his work from abstract (often landscape-like) to figurative and back to abstract for those 13 years he lived in Berkeley. It showcases 130 works - oil paintings and many smaller mixed media pieces on paper, most rarely shown before. Most just wonderfully luminescent! Terrific brushwork and underlying textures hinting of changes. Diebenkorn worked improvisationally. He often sat for hours looking at his painting before re-doing areas his canvases.

Due to copyright issues no photography was allowed (nor can I but you can browse through the museum's website for more information including a fewYouTube clips. His daughter's reminiscing is an especially illuminating view of his life and character.

Going home, I got stuck on the freeway for about an hour because the bridge was closed for removal of a suspicious package. That probably won't happen to you, so if you're in the area, don't miss this! Exhibition closes September 29, 2013.

Wire diversions

I've long admired Mari Andrews' sculptures ever since visiting her studio a number of years ago. Now am looking forward to her exhibition Over, Under and Inside Out at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. 

Mari Andrews' Hold Mari Andrews' Propensitus Gravitas

Two years ago she offered a one-day workshop called Paperless Drawing - Wire Sculpture at the Richmond Art Center. But the timing didn't work. This year I had another chance so I broke with my nose-to-the-grindstone routine.

After learning about wire - types, gauges, tools, knots - I played, adding other paraphernalia to wire, to create these two small sculptures:

I'm still having fun toying with their orientation.

It was a terrific diversion from the rigors of piecing. Maybe I'll make one every day week month. Oh, heck, just make another one . . .  whenever . . . then another . . .

Italian vacation recipe

During my vacation in Italy, when I wasn't walking, eating, sleeping or napping, I was either reading or keeping my hands busy. 

Ingredients:

• one 6" embroidery hoop
• 21 pieces of cloth, each marked with 4" square
• needles 
• pearl cotton
• thread snippers
• thimble
• stitch notes

Directions:

Stretch a cloth in hoop. Thread needle with pearl cotton. Select a stitch. Stitch as desired. Rethread needle as needed. Rethread with another color as desired.

Use only one stitch per cloth. Stitch improvisationally without marking. Explore stitches: change stitch length, change stitch density, change direction,  overlap stitches.

blanket or buttonhole stitch

detached chain stitch or lazy daisy

chevron stitch

coral stitch

feather stitch

needle weaving

snail trail, unfinished

Conclusions:

• Some stitches lend themselves to variations.
• Some stitches cover more ground. 
• Not a large selection of dark value pearl cottons for the lighter cloths.
• Harder for no. 12 pearl cotton to be effective against no. 5. Weight makes a difference.
• Colors were chosen on a whim. Some combinations more effective. 
• Build a bigger pearl cotton stash!
• Preparing 21 pieces of cloth was overkill. 
• Will use recipe again.

How do you handle weeks away from the studio?

Bella vistas - Venezia

moored gondolas

April 25th - Liberation Day - was not a good day to arrive in Venice. It was a holiday so there wasn't anyone to guide us to the apartment.We picked up keys at the bus terminal and had an adventure finding our own way.

Though the agency's directions seemed clear enough, their map was unreadable. I had two city maps and found on the internet a good map for a nearby hotel with multiple routes marked. But maps are no guarantee. Even the best ones do not show or mark every single street. It took all three maps plus the cell phone's GPS to locate the apartment. Maybe we didn't traverse the most direct route, but at least we'd avoided sleeping on the streets of Venice.

the canal behind the apartment

Wayfinding in Venice is like being on that old television game show, Concentration, or playing one of those AARP brain fitness memory game. Deja vu again and again! I'd stop in squares to get re-oriented and often stopped in the same square again and again. Either pull the map out or take chances with a wrong turn. Often both. We were perpetually lost. And apparently not the only ones. We spent the days wandering around and window shopping.

typical canal

Because the holiday fell on a Thursday, it felt like half of Italy was in Venice for a long weekend. After squeezing over the Rialto Bridge and through St. Mark's Square, we tried to keep far from the maddening crowds. We found boat yards,

gondola boatyard

workshops where oars and oarlocks are made,

oar and oarlock totems outside workshop

and even a shop specializing in Venetian boat history and authentic model ships. Unfortunately, the latter was closed for the holiday but has a website worth perusing.

We took the vaporetto to the outer islands of Murano, Burano and Torcello.

 Murano canal

Burano color

Though the photos make the island look deserted, they weren't. Most everybody else were shopping.

Venice was the most crowded leg, but the last leg, of our trip. We had a great three weeks in Italy but were ready to go home. Ciao!

Bella vistas - Feltre

With a rented car we ventured further north for the third leg of our Italian journey.

To escape from the urban setting we stayed at a b&b in Villaga, a village just outside of Feltre. Villa Rosa nestles into the hillside near the end of a road and up a long steep switchback driveway.

from our Villa Rosa aerie, view of church across the valley

view from the church across the valley; Villa Rosa is the spot in the center

The weather had turned cold and wet the day we arrived

the view on the day of arrival

and only cleared up the day before we left. Just in time to show what we've been missing.

a similar view the day before departure

We didn't let the inclement weather stop us.

A couple hours north is the town of Cortina d'Ampezzo which hosted the 1956 Winter Olympics. It was very quiet between tourist seasons: the ski resorts had recently closed and summer season hadn't started. Even though the encircling Dolomites were obscured by clouds and rain, we could sense their majesty. Imagine what we would've seen on a clear day!

Cortina d'Ampezzo

Cortina d'Ampezzo

Other days, we explored Feltre, visited Grantorto to search for a farm "next to the road with a river on the other side", stopped in Bassano del Grappa for lunch and the grappa museum, 

small bottles at the grappa museum

and looked for distant relatives in Lamon.

Lamon

With help from our terrific b&b hosts, Andy and Simone, we contacted cousin Angelo and spent a day with his family.

Italian relatives (Angelo in the middle)

We talked and ate lunch; talked and ate dinner; then talked some more. What a great visit: good company, delicious home-cooked Italian food, homemade grappa and good conversation aided by an English-Italian dictionary. We promised to see them again in five years.

On the day before we left, when the weather cleared up. our b&b hosts pointed us to a hike on the green hill in the middle of the photo below (not the mountainous Dolomites in the background). 

clear day for a hike

We hiked up to a reservoir

reservoir

and followed the beautiful river that fed it.

river

A good ending to a great time in this area. Rested, we were ready for Venice next. 

Bella vistas: Padova

A Sunday arrival in Padova - aka Padua - meant the tourist information office was closed. Armed with a 15-year-old map without a scale we trudged to our hotel thinking it was only a short distance and direct route. Walking a mile or so is usually no problem, but between the wayward turns, rough sidewalk, very warm sunny weather and the extra burden of luggage, we I arrived at the hotel exhausted and cranky.

We had a view of Basilico di Sant' Antonio, aka Basilico del Santo, across the street.

view from our hotel room window

Basilico del Santo from street level

After 30 minutes respite and a quick late lunch, we set out to explore the city. Padova is more urban and more Roman than Trieste. We did visit a few churches . . . 

dome in the Duomo

and standard attractions, such as Capella degli Scrovegni for Giotto's frescoes (scoring tickets was insane). Mostly we walked and walked. Part of the fun was exploring the big piazza, discovering the little hidden campos (squares), and window shopping. 

from above: Piazza delle Erbe - an open air fresh produce market

butcher in the market hall

One day we took a train trip to nearby Vicenza, hiked all the way up Mount Berico . . .

view of Vicenza from the hill

on a circuitous route to La Rotunda, aka Villa Capra Valmarena, the epitome of Palladio's architecture.

La Rotunda

It's as beautiful inside as it is out.  The round central hall is covered with beautiful frescos. But, sorry, no photos were allowed of the interiors. I gleaned from the docents that the owners use this place only during warmer weather. Not so much as a summer palace, but as a setting for corporate events and fundraisers. Imagine attending a party there! 

After coming back down the hill we took many wrong turns, got totally disoriented and walked in circles. When we finally got un-lost, we paid the price: gelatos. Reward for walking - sì?