Dana M Johnson – Paintings, Illustrations, VideoThe Blog of Dana M. Johnson

Meacham Lake Adirondacks Mountains, watercolor

The Sketches above are from Saturday, people watching at Fanelli Cafe in Soho area.  After wandering through colorful storefronts of China town & over to Prince Street I saw the glowing sign & dark entrance, with red & white checked table cloths above an old tiled floor.  It was like a magnet that this was a place to get a bit of drawing done in my sketchbook.  It was a lively Saturday afternoon, a mix of locals & visitors from around the world.  A very historic pub feel, I was told that it started in 1847 and over time was a brothel, a speakeasy (with a cabinet door under the register that I saw one of the bartenders pop out of!), and a few different restaurants.  People watching at Fanelli’s over a piece of NY cheese cake & a Guiness reminded me of an article I read last fall in Volumeone called The Third Place, by Patti See.  I think that over the years, under the yellowed tar covered ceiling,  Fanelli Cafe has been a “Third Place” for a lot of NY neighbors.

Live from the Village Vanguard!

My paints & two blank sketchbooks are packed & ready to go!  I’ll be painting & sketching on the road this week.  If I can I’ll post updates in the middle of the week.  The little sketchbook on the right was a gift from friend & artist Sally Velleux, who I visited at the Open Air Festival of the Arts last weekend.  The cover of this cute little journal is also the image that was featured on Urban Threads!

If you want to know where I am, you’ll have to check back midweek to see what I’ve been painting-

Watercolor on paper, postcards painted on the Riverboat Bar in St Paul MN June 2009

The gal in the imgage is my friend Gina working in her sketchbook-