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Went to check out the LA Contemporary Dance group perform at LACMA. It was a lot of fun to see what they did inspired by the works of Magritte. It was family day, so there were tons of funny little kids all over. A woman next to me explained to two little girls that what the dancers were doing was surrealism. The little one sat quiet, then pointed and knowingly said “That’s funny!” and she was right. Another kid was pushing chairs, and many others provided additional entertainment in their own confused and happy way. The dancers loaned us kids some cool green apple masks, wigs and scarves. I sported a curly blue clown wig. It was cool. It’s pretty cool to see so many parents bringing their kids to check out art, and then to see them understand it and enjoy it in their own way. I always feel like that’s how it should be. Afterwards, I grabbed some food then checked out the Crafts and Folk Art Museum with my brother Waqas. That place always has amazing stuff. This time I got to see works by Ramona Otto, who was there to tell all kinds of fun stories behind her pieces.

Got to this session a little late, due to work, but it was cool to see what I could pull out of it. Our model was Michael Q. Schmidt who’s always good natured and gives us artists some challenges.

To round out my Sunday, I head over to the Fountain Theatre, for Forever Flamenco. The first sketch is of the cafe at the theatre. Next I did one of José Tanaka playing guitar, Richard Chavez dancing, two of Lakshmi Basile dancing and finally one of Rosa Maria Prats singing. I didn’t get to draw Luis Pena, but he too was amazing. It was all over so quick. Very energetic and fun. There was so much expression. Not a bad way to prepare for the next grueling work week.

Went to check out a DJ set by Nitin Sawhney. Before hand I got to see Carmen Rizzo and Satnam Ramgotra’s set. It was good to be out. Here are a few sketches from the Temple Bar, just to keep it going. I got to try out a new pocket sized watercolor sketchbook. I like.

I wanted to feature a piece by my extremely talented friend, Jorge Martinez. We actually met at a show at the Temple Bar a couple of years ago, and I saw him again at a show there last night. I did a few sketches, which I’ll post after this, but he did one too. I was going to post that, but he sent me this other piece to put up instead. He does amazing things with cut paper, markers etc. I’ve been trying for a long time to get him to put his work out there. He is an amazing talent and this is the smallest taste of his work. Please email him and encourage him to setup a presense on the web.

The week just passed my by again. Last Sunday I went to Laguna Beach, checked out galleries and tried to paint a little, but mostly just sat on some rocks and stared out into the ocean. That place is like a little piece of paradise.

Here are my two favorite galleries there:

Laguna Fine Art (have a look at the amazing Dali etchings).

Richard Macdonald (beautiful sculptures and an amazing sculpture garden in the back).