6 ribeyes on the grill and i ate 2 of them... life is good sometimes.

last night was in laguna beach at peter blake gallery, checking out the andy moses show. good crowd, great area, beautiful night and beautiful women. the art? well... moses is working the landscape/seascape horizon line, i've mined this myself, still am. when he ties it together with a signature sharp white pinstripe across the center it all comes together. when he eschews the sharp line it tends to blur. maybe thats the point, who am i to say? but i'm saying it... he's capable of making some really strong work. his use of blue and of black is poignant and indeed, sublime. when he strays off into the neon and electric things go awry. but that holds true for any painter.

all in all quite a night. the perfume of weed permeated the back gallery and the patio, the women tottered on high, high heels and there were a few tussles with a rather sad band of hipsters, one of whom got dumped on his ass, another chased around an alley by a 52 year old painter. good fun for all, except maybe the hipsters in their outfits and bruised egos.

earlier in the day i was at the studio of robert kingston. he had a few pieces in there, a new large one that was looking good and 2 smaller pieces that, though very minimal, were powerful, intense works. i mentioned to him that perhaps the smaller proportion lends itself to a pared down composition-- his scale rarely changes-- the larger works offers the appropriate arena for grander gesture and content...

from kingston's studio i drove (endured traffic) east to alex couwenberg's home and studio. then alex and i took off for laguna. i reflected that it was a pretty cool to be cruising to an opening in the black mercedes of another painter. success is a sweet energy...

spent the day in the pool and working with pastels, charcoal and graphite. trying to hit the color i'm surrounded by out here-- flowers, olive trees, eucalyptus, sky, grass, life, etc.

it was a good day.