San Antonio, Texas

Winter never really comes to the Texas Gulf Coast. Certainly there are those of us who actually like the hot and humid Houston summer and who complain when he temperature drops below 70 degrees F. In late November 2008 the temperatures have routinely been in the 60’s during the day and in the 40’s during the night – temperatures too cold to put the top down on the Flying Carpet. But occasionally we get a beautiful day that warms up to 77 or 78 degrees and stays that way until dusk falls.

A day like this occurred on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so Patricia and I took the day off, put the top down on the Flying Carpet, and drove to San Antonio. We arrived a little before lunch, parked just north of the Alamo and walked down to the River Walk for lunch at Casa Rio (see a review at: http://pebblelisciously.blogspot.com/2008/12/tx-san-antonio-casa-rio-mexican-foods.html) After lunch we strolled along the River Walk, past the Arneson River Theater and up the arched walkway leading to La Villita Historic Arts Village. La Villita was San Antonio’s first neighborhood and today it has become a thriving art community that stands as a monument to San Antonio’s past.

Our mission today was to find an original painting of San Antonio – in any medium – for my library.

We started at the River Art Gallery and the Monte Wade Fine Art Gallery. Excellent paintings, but few originals, most of the paintings on sale were limited edition prints and this was not what I was looking for. The Starving Artists art gallery has original paintings, jewelry and pottery but nothing caught our imagination. In Galleria II we found a mural that was perfect but it was a limited edition print, so we took a break and walked through Scentchips smelling the many different assortments of scented wax they concocted for sale.

The owner of Scentchips suggested we check the San Antonio Visitors Center by the Alamo for other art shops, so off we went. The visitors center suggested a visit to the Blue Star Arts Complex in Southtown, so we hopped on a blue route trolley at the stop next to the Torch of Friendship red metal sculpture that is 30+ feet tall and impossible to miss at the junction of South Alamo and Commerce Street.

The trolley took us a couple of miles down South Alamo to the south end of Southtown to the Blue Star Arts Complex and Brewing Company. Unfortunately much of the artists workshop area was closed so we did not see anything to buy but we enjoyed visiting Stone Metal Press where limited edition prints of artists works are produced, and the Blue Star Contemporary Arts Center where a string of works by graduate students from the University of Texas art program were on display.

Frustrated in our quest once again, we decided to walk back so we could stop at El Sol Studios on the way and check them out. Interesting paintings, once again, mostly abstract, but not what I was looking for.

Somewhat discouraged we walked back to la Villita and had almost decided to buy a print when we spied the Little Studio Gallery and the Nueva Street Gallery we had somehow missed the first time around. There were a couple of oil paintings in Nueva Street Gallery that were close to what I was looking for but not quite and the owner of the gallery suggested we might like a painting hanging in the lobby of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. Determined, by this time, not to miss an opportunity, we walked out of La Villita and across the road to the Chamber of Commerce and looked through the window of the closed building. We were getting closer, but it was still not quite right so we headed back to la Villita for one last chance at the Little Studio Gallery.

Unfortunately, once again, it was not to be. The gallery had several interesting originals but either the size or the composition were wrong. Our good fortune, however, was that the person manning the store, Henry Cardenas, was one of the artists whose work was on display. He told us that the five artists who sold art in the store took turns in being the store salesperson.

I explained what I was looking for and Henry showed us some small pieces he had painted and we agreed he would paint something on commission for me. We explained we would like a painting of the Arneson River Theater in oil or watercolor and that the size should be 11’ x 13”. He agreed to the commission and said it might not be ready until Christmas which was OK for me.

To celebrate we walked to the Azuca Nuevo Latino for a beer and a coffee. (see a review at; http://pebblelisciously.blogspot.com/2008/12/tx-san-antonio-azuca-nuevo-latino.html ) After the beer we discovered we were quite weary so we caught the Blue Route trolley back to the Alamo, walked around the Alamo to the Flying Carpet and drove back to Houston with the top up. The air temperature had dropped considerably when dusk fell.