In a doctor's office waiting room.

The Farmers' Market by the sea in Santa Monica is always a lively place, but at holiday time it seems to buzz with a special excitement.

Many people don't realize that like Pasadena, Santa Monica has many architectural gems. This is a Greene & Greene Arts and Crafts bungalow sitting high on a bluff overlooking Santa Monica Canyon with a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean. Many years ago the owners, friends of mine, asked me to lend them my Jack Russell Terrier, Killer, to rid the crawl space under the house of rats. He came up empty handed.

The infamous Santa Monica stairs, mecca to fitness buffs who literally arrive from around the world to "do the steps." There are two sets forming a kind of loop actually, these concrete ones and wooden ones a couple of hundred yards to the east. From Adelaide St. they drop around 300 steps down to Entrada at the bottom of Santa Monica Canyon, a series of long dizzying flights, landings, and right angle turns. The workout freaks can be an aggressively arrogant bunch. While I was sketching one brushed past me and muttered, "That oughta be illegal."

Old Mountain Road, Upper Nyack, NY. This lovely stream ambles through woods and neighborhoods on its leisurely stroll to the Hudson River.

Visiting my family this past week I discovered a small cemetery near their home in Upper Nyack, NY. I'd passed by there many times in years gone by without noticing it behind the shrubbery and stone wall. It was a family cemetery, dating back to the 1600's

"Here lieth body [sic] of James Palmer departed this life November the 12th 1875 aged 33."

It's a self-portrait, intended as a study for the central figure in a larger painting.

Venice Beach, at the end of Washington Blvd. I always have to remember how much of what we see is defined by shadows.