Thinking back to better days

With Wimbledon under way, its pretty difficult for me to get very excited about the outcome with Rafael Nadal's absence. I was lucky enough to attend the final for the 2009 Monte Carlo Open where Nadal won his 5th consecutive championship in Monaco. He went on to win in Barcelona and Rome before problems surfaced. A loss in the finals in Madrid, and a shocking loss at Roland Garros signaled an injury which finally grew too serious to continue playing. With a recovery time of up to one month he felt he was not able to compete in Wimbledon this year and had to withdraw. Get better soon Rafa!

LastFM...pourquoi? (and other news)

One of my favourite sites LastFM has decided to charge users 3euros/month if you live outside US, UK, or Germany. At first I thought I'll find something else just as good that is free...but now I've tried a few alternatives and nothing I know of has such a good smart radio. I've now contributed what amounts to one less latte per month to LastFM. Consider yourself lucky if you live in one of the exempt countries!

In other completely unrelated news, it seems like Formula 1 will not split up. The top 8 teams have now reached an agreement with the FIA. I was not entirely unhappy with the possibility of a split as I hoped Montreal might get its race back. I still can't believe that the Canadian GP which was always a huge event for the fans was removed from the calendar, and others (cough...Turkish GP) stay; where on race day the big topic of conversation was 'Where are all the people?'

Bobblehead Song of the Summer 2009

This new track by Animal Collective is obviously targeted to be a summer tune, its even called Summertime Clothes. Most of their stuff is much less commercial but they went for mass appeal with this one...and I like it! Anyone up for running through the lawn sprinklers??

Diptych 2 work in progress

Slowly but surely my second diptych is coming along. I usually draw both and do the undercoats first then roughly fill in one, then the other then finally go back and complete all the details. This time I seem to be spending more time with the first panel as sometimes its hard to leave parts unfinished and move on. This weekend I will be sure to move on to the second panel.

Exhibitions 2009

In 2009 I joined the Com2art association which creates group art exhibitions for unique venues. So far this year my work has been in St. Tropez and Beziers. The St. Tropez exhibition was in an old wash house, it really brought something to all the art. In July some paintings will travel to the Langedoc region of France to be exhibited in 2 winery estates. September 1-15 for the first time my paintings will be shown in Zaragoza, Spain. The last stop before attending the SNBA Salon in Paris will be at Galerie Aleph in Marseille. A busy year for my paintings touring..I wish I could go along with them everywhere!