saturday at the sac

Yesterday was Saturday and I made sure that I was in my studio at the Sacramento Art Complex - also known as the SAC - as were many of my fellow artists. At one point (okay, many points,) I wandered around to catch my fellow artists in the act of creating and sometimes just hanging out in their studios.

I started on the second floor, since that's where my studio is, and caught Andrew Hindman sketching, but he consented to posing for a shot for me as well. Andrew is a big guy who could seem imposing except for his very laid back demeanor and beautiful artwork. We had a great chat about home studio spaces and houses and school districts...

Kathy McMahon is one of the newest additions to the SAC building; she was working on a parrot portrait in pastels when I walked in on her. Kathy is one of our most consistent tenants, putting in long regular hours at her studio here - very impressive!

I caught Marbo Barnard working on a small koi pond image, also in pastels. She had recently received an award plaque from the National Pastel Society, I believe. I think Marbo has received more awards than I can keep up with - at any rate, the plaque is nice on her studio wall, but not as impressive as seeing her actual artwork.

Back down the hall across from my studio is my new friend Brenda Boles. I caught Brenda at the easel, too, fine tuning a big floral painting in acrylics. Brenda was leaving a little early to see her granddaughter's gymnastics meet, which was a very important date, indeed.

But before Brenda left, she came into my studio to catch me at my work table - that doesn't happen too often on film, as I'm usually the one behind the camera lens - but I do manage to get work done in my studio, even on social days like yesterday.

A little later I found my way downstairs, to see what was going on down there. I found Allison Carlos in her studio painting, too, in oils, I think... but she stopped to chat with me a bit.

Down the hall a little I caught Pat Orner in Studio 12 working on a tennis themed piece in acrylics, I think...

as was her studio mate, Keith Hopkins. We talked a bit about upcoming shows and schedules and I remembered that I'm loaning them my canopy for an event in Roseville early next month. I'm sure they would have reminded me before too long.

Time to get back to my own studio - if you find it looking sort of like this you'll know I'm not far away: food & drink on the work table, open drawers with more food (I was hungry!) Sunglasses out, open bag on the floor and empty camera case on the stool...

I really did get work done at my studio yesterday, besides visiting with my neighbors. In between it all, I completed "Garcia Bend" (number three of only ten darkroom prints.) It's one of those pieces I've just fallen in love with: all the colors fell together just right, a sign that there's some wonderful creative energy at the Sacramento Art Complex!