I’ve been in Carmel for 2 weeks now. Finally got motivated to drive the car a couple days ago and ended up driving yesterday too.
Before I get into sharing a bunch of photos, I did manage to get a painting done – finally!
Here’s the subject matter:
And here’s the painting:
I wasn’t too worried about getting it “exactly the same” but wanted to capture the colors and the feel. I also didn’t want to spend a ton of time on it. I feel pretty good about it!
Tuesday I went to the Farmer’s Market again and got some beautiful flowers – the darker ones are called Paper Flowers. I had never heard of them before.
One of the local art galleries was having an artist’s reception the other day so I decided to check it out. Here is one photo – I liked the quote. The art was, uh, interesting but it didn’t “move” me or anything. A bunch of different cloth shapes with wire and those who went there are invited to change the shapes and move things around. Kind of a cool idea. It was at the Jennifer Perlmutter galleries but now I can’t find anything about that specific show.
After that I went into a museum with a bunch of modern art. Snuck a few photos:
When I walked in the guy was on the phone ordering takeout. When he got off the phone he apologized and then asked me if I was an artist. I said I was trying to be and he said he could tell within 15 seconds of my walking in because I looked at the art differently than a lot of people. That actually made sense to me because I always wonder “how did they do that?” or other stuff about how a piece of art is made. I told him I finished up a little painting yesterday and I’d show him and he said “No! That’s okay!” I said I wouldn’t waste his time if would take 10 seconds. So I showed the little painting to him and he said “very nice. A study of Carmel.” With not much enthusiasm I might add. Well – he started it LOL!
Yesterday morning I decided to walk up to the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts.
https://carlcherrycenter.org/ There was some cool art there but then a couple who apparently know one of the proprietors came in and were talking loudly (and ignoring me trying to look at the art quietly). So, I hurried up my looking and got out of there.
On my way back to the house I decided to stop by this Japanese place I had seen before and had been meaning to try – Hanagasa. I walked in and the owner looked at me like “what are you doing here??” I think he does more phone orders than anything. Anyway, here are some photos – it was kind of surprising to find such a hole-in-the-wall in Carmel. I was the only one in there too.
I ordered the Chirasha and boy was it good. I could only eat not even half of it so I boxed it up and had the rest for dinner. The owner warmed up to me as I was leaving so that was nice. Doesn’t it look amazing?
Then I went to go look at an Open House up towards Carmel Valley about 4 miles from where I’m staying (my second time in the car!). It’s a 2 BR 2 BA Condo in a 55+ community and potentially in my price range.
But, where it’s located there’s no where to walk to other than around the community. And when I got there the realtor was talking to somebody and didn’t even acknowledge me or say hi or anything. I did a quick tour and got out of there. Oh well.
But all was not lost that day. I decided to go check out KORi wines – you can get a glass of wine and not have to do a flight so I decided to do that. I had a taste of their Blanc de Blanc – a nice bubbly white and a taste of their Sauv Blanc. They were both good but I opted for a glass of the Sauv Blanc.
When I got there there was nobody in there besides the pourer, so that was nice. After about 15-20 minutes a couple came in and sat next to me. We ended up talking and had great conversation and a lot of laughs. Their names are Craig and Edilyn. We exchanged numbers and vowed to keep in touch. Hopefully we will!
This morning I went for a walk on the beach and as I was meandering back to the house I came across a little blue ‘Free Library’ box. Looked inside and got these:
The guy that wrote it set up the box. I skimmed it and it looks pretty good!
Anyway, now you’re caught up to today. Got the Sunday SF Chronical and NY Times this morning and just finished doing laundry. Just gonna take it easy today.
Talk soon!