The weather has been gorgeous and I have been out painting every chance I can get! It feels great to be back out in the sun, spending time in beautiful places around the city. Here are some of my latest paintings:

It was so calm and quiet there, despite all the chain link fences from the current renovations of the area. This one is a story of consecutive shadows, from the shadow of the sea wall on the sand in the foreground, to the rocks, to the Presidio in the distance and the Golden Gate Bridge itself. I also tried to put interesting colors into the sea. 

On my way to drop off a new piece at Studio Gallery (make sure to check out the Artist Choice show!), I went up to Aquatic Cove. I ended up climbing the steps of the Historic Black Point Gardens, which were crawling with volunteers and people cleaning, weeding, and chatting. It was a new angle on the Maritime Museum, and I was excited to be able to also see Coit Tower and the Bay Bridge. 

Just when I thought I was too tired to wake up and go painting again, I heard that my friends from the East Bay Painters were coming to San Francisco to meet at another favorite spot, Ina Coolbrith Park. I’ve painted the stunning view of downtown SF from there a few times, but this time I found myself climbing to the top of Vallejo one more tier above the park. It was a clear day, and the swooping street seemed like it could shoot you all the way to Mt. Diablo. 

I recently visited my friends at Fleetwood at 8th and Clement and dropped off a large print restock! If you haven’t been to the inner Richmond lately, the neighborhood is blossoming with art and good food. Fleetwood has an excellent selection of goods from local artists, and they are a screenprinting shop with classes! A variety of my prints are available there, as well as originals from my 50|50 Views from Fulton series. Go say hi! 

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be participating in this year’s Morgan Hill Plein Air Paint Out! I’ve never been down there, so it’ll be interesting to explore new subject matter and stretch my skills. See me and other artists paint live at Cottage Creek Vineyards on Saturday, May 2nd from 12-5pm, and the culmination of the event will be the wet paint sale and awards ceremony on Sunday, May 3rd from 3pm to 6pm at Cura Contemporary gallery. Afterwards, the exhibit will be up at the gallery through June 28th. 

It’s been bittersweet to say goodbye to BEACONS. I was able to personally hand off many of the paintings to collectors, which was extremely rewarding. Some paintings will remain with the gallery and hang in the front portion of the store until they find the right home. I have gained so much self confidence and optimism for the future of my art career thanks to the outpouring of appreciation for that series. I’m taking a break from this style of painting for a bit, but I have a long list of neon signs I’d like to tackle. 

I also attended two more SF Neon tours, in the Mission and in Chinatown, and learned so much! Neon tours are done for the season, but will return in the fall, so sign up for their newsletter to be notified when they come back.  

I’m brainstorming the next big thing, so stay tuned!

Thanks for reading! As a reward, here is a picture of Ruby.

While you await the next newsletter, you can check out my website to see my portfolio!

Stay tuned for next month, and let me know what you’d like to hear about in the newsletter in the future by responding directly to this email or reaching out at nathaniel@njbice.com.

-Nathaniel J. Bice

he/him

njbice.com