Artist Meetups San Francisco
Connect through artist events and meetups in SF
Thurs Sketch at Cento Coffee (Cafe Art Circle)
Thu, Sep 24, 7:00 PMCafe sketching at Cento Coffee in downtown SF 📍 **12:00 noon meet at communal table inside.** 🎨 Bring your own art supplies. Roam freely. Sketch what you see. ☕ Pull up a chair anytime to draw with us and talk art. 📓 1:45pm. We wrap things up with a show & tell. We’re heading to sketch at Cento Coffee, an independent San Francisco coffee shop tucked inside the **Center for Architecture + Design** a space devoted to architecture, exhibitions, talks, and design culture that sits in the historic Hallidie Building. This cafe is closed on the weekend, so we worked in a rare weekday (Thursday) event to ensure we got to experience it. This is organized by the **[Cafe Art Circle](https://www.zenbay.org/cafe_art_circle)** meetup under SF Sketchers. We explore coffee and tea shops around the Bay Area, using sketching as a way to experience the atmosphere of each place and its neighborhood. All skill levels welcome. Message Jimmy or post on the group board if you need help finding us.
Sketching the Views at Baker Beach
Sat, Sep 26, 5:00 PM**Our next Marin Sketchers Meet Up will be just north of the Golden Gate Bridge at Fort Baker - Cavallo Point.** There are an amazing variety of vantage points from which to sketch from at this former 1905 U.S. Army post: historic army buildings and gun emplacements, the fishing pier at the sheltered harbor and while in a comfortable Adirondack chair on the 2nd floor deck at Cavallo Point Lodge. All with a dynamic view of the Golden Gate Bridge as a backdrop. We'll meet at 10:00am at the old [Presidio Yacht Club](https://maps.app.goo.gl/c8bJiNttUEWkw8DZ7) at the edge of the Bay and throw down sketches at noon. **More info** on the [National Park Service website](https://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/fort-baker.htm). Here's a [park map](https://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/upload/map_mahe_150429_508_2021.pdf). Here are [directions to parking](https://maps.app.goo.gl/vmFrsR6ko7LsnTi4A) at the Bay Area Discovery Museum. **Also:** • bring your preferred paper, sketchbook, color media and drawing materials • you might be able to grab a free coffee or tea in the lobby at the Cavallo Point Lodge • restrooms are located nearby • post your sketches after on our MeetUp Event page or tag #MarinSketchers on Instagram • more info about our group at MarinSketchers.com • Call Bill at 415.846.1655, if you need more info, directions, etc.
9/27 SF PASTEL PEOPLE
Sun, Sep 27, 8:00 PM**The plan for our SEPTEMBER 27th session is st HOLLY PARK in Bernal Heights.** Nice landscape and views, lots of benches, shade, bathrooms and food/drinks nearby. Public transport should be easy. **At 1pm** I'll meet you in the park at the top of Highland Ave - come say hello then find a spot to draw. **At 3:30 pm** we'll meet at the same spot to share and enjoy everybody's work. **Bring layers!** Fog and wind are *always* a possibility, dress in layers. Bring your [pastels](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mfj0y76y996UhKqXsHtCc57et62fikry/view?usp=sharing), [paper](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d--XtZPmC2EuxaOtL9h4oo1faUgL9Q8s/view?usp=sharing), a [board](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jig4iyOTJoQL6BMCj_A2ym-XX_Wg96d1/view?usp=share_link) (suggestion in blue links), tape, something to sit on, baby wipes as well as water and sunscreen/hat. **NOTE**: this meetup is **FREE** and no teaching. I do suggest you **sign up** so that you receive any updates about the event.
Blue Heron Lake, San Francisco
Tue, Sep 29, 4:30 PMBlue Heron Lake remains one of the most peaceful spots inside Golden Gate Park. The lake was renamed from Stow Lake to Blue Heron Lake in 2024 to honor the great blue herons that nest around Strawberry Hill. Surrounded by trees, bridges, and scenic views, you will often see paddle boats on its calm waters and lovely walking paths provide excellent painting options. **Parking** Parking is on the adjacent street and is free **Restrooms** At the nearby boathouse **Lunch @ 12:30** Meet in the vicinity of this bridge for lunch
✨ A New View: Painting Huntington Falls 🎨
Tue, Sep 29, 4:30 PM🎨 **PAINT HUNTINGTON FALLS WITH US!** A morning of plein air painting at Strawberry Hill Island Water in motion. Dappled sunlight. A colorful pagoda. A historic stone bridge. Lush greenery all around. This time, we’re heading to one of the most inspiring corners of Blue Heron Lake to paint Huntington Falls and the beautiful surroundings of Strawberry Hill Island. Come set up your easel, slow down, and spend a few creative hours painting directly from nature. Whether you love capturing the movement of water, the play of light through the trees, or architectural details like the Chinese Pavilion, you’ll find plenty of subjects to paint. 🖌️ Choose your subject: • The dramatic movement of Huntington Falls • The colorful Chinese Pavilion • Reflections and water along the lake • The historic stone bridge • Lush island pathways and surrounding trees • Or simply follow the light and paint whatever catches your eye This location offers a wonderful change of perspective from our previous sessions around the boathouse — with new compositions, new light, and plenty of possibilities for painters. 🎒 BRING YOUR PAINTING KIT Watercolor • Oil • Acrylic • Gouache • Sketchbook Plus a portable easel, stool or folding chair, and layers for the cool breeze near the falls. No matter your experience level, come paint with us! Bring your favorite materials, your curiosity, and your love of painting outdoors. Let’s spend the morning chasing light, color, and water on canvas. 🖌️
The Geography Within Us: A Poetry Gathering on Place, Memory, and Belonging
Sat, Oct 17, 9:00 PMPerhaps home is not simply the place we come from. Perhaps it is a language in which our name sounds different. A kitchen where someone knows what we like to eat. A city whose streets our feet remember. A landscape whose seasons still live somewhere in the body. A person beside whom we do not have to explain ourselves. A song that returns us somewhere. Or a place where we arrived as strangers and, slowly, unexpectedly, learned to belong. We carry many geographies within us. The place where we were born. The neighborhood where we grew up. The cities we chose and the ones circumstance chose for us. The landscapes we left behind. The languages through which we learned to understand the world. The people who made unfamiliar places feel like home. Over time, these places become more than locations on a map. They enter our memories, our gestures, our food, our music, our language, even the ways we understand distance and belonging. Sometimes we leave a place and discover that it never entirely leaves us. And sometimes a place we never imagined belonging to becomes part of who we are. **The Geography Within Us** is **a gathering devoted to place, memory, and belonging, and to the many landscapes, languages, people, and journeys that quietly become part of our inner lives**. Together, we will explore not simply where we come from, but the more mysterious question of **what places have become part of who we are.** Across traditions, poets have carried entire worlds within their poems. Mahmoud Darwish carried Palestine through memory and language. Agha Shahid Ali recreated Kashmir across distance and longing. Derek Walcott explored the ways landscape, history, and identity become inseparable. Naomi Shihab Nye finds belonging in family, language, ordinary encounters, and the crossings between cultures. Joy Harjo writes of land, ancestry, memory, and our deep relationship with place. Their poems remind us that geography is not only something outside us. It can also become something we carry within. This gathering asks: **What places have become part of who we are?** **How do landscapes, languages, cities, and communities continue to live within us long after we leave them?** **And how do the places we discover unexpectedly change our understanding of where we belong?** We will read poems about childhood streets and adopted cities, familiar landscapes and distant homelands, kitchens and train stations, migration and arrival, language and memory, journeys and returns, and the unexpected places where belonging finds us. You are welcome to bring: * A poem about a place that has shaped you. * A piece connected to a city, landscape, language, neighborhood, or community you carry within you. * A poem about leaving somewhere, arriving somewhere, or unexpectedly finding a sense of belonging. * A song, photograph, recipe, memory, or passage that transports you to another place. * An original work about a geography, real or imagined, that has become part of who you are. We invite poetry from all languages and traditions. Together, we will read, translate, reflect, and listen, allowing the different geographies we carry to meet in the same room. As always with Kaavya Connections, the gathering may wander beyond the theme. We follow where the poems, memories, and conversations lead. Join us for an afternoon exploring the places that made us, the places that changed us, the places that surprised us, and the places that continue to live quietly within us. Bring a friend, a poem, a place, or simply come to listen. **Above all, bring the worlds you carry within you.** Please find more about us here — Kaavya Connections Website: [https://www.kaavyaconnections.com/](https://www.kaavyaconnections.com/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) Please also join the mailing list for upcoming gatherings and events: [https://www.kaavyaconnections.com/mailing-list/](https://www.kaavyaconnections.com/mailing-list/?utm_source=chatgpt.com) If you would like to volunteer to help organize future gatherings and performances, please email: [contact@kaavyaconnections.com](mailto:contact@kaavyaconnections.com) **Kaavya Connections**
Trusted by millions worldwide
Popular groups
Peña Manantial
Artists Gathering
Workshops for Artists
Feel. Create. Connect. SF — by TBArt Studio.
Men's Naked Drawing San Francisco
Alameda Artists
Art in the Garden at Hayes Valley Art Works
Sketchboard Co. | Arts Nonprofit
Frequently asked questions
Related content
Discover more groups and events that match your interests