Thursday, September 17, 2009

Things are Rolling

After about a month of working at the restaurant (and lack of posting. . . sorry), I'm starting to find my groove in San Francisco.  For now, I'm working part time (and possibly full time with some nights added in) at the restaurant, and working for myself on my days off.  Here are some examples of what I've been doing with all this free time.

Chasing geese!   Ok, I'm not actually doing recreational sports such as this on my free time.  Only on special occasions like the birthday of Casey.  We went to Golden Gate Park to enjoy nature and  were surrounded by geese.  At one point, a little three year old with his parents entered the park and with his tiny legs, proceeded to chase the flock of equal sized birds, making them a bit nervous, but more just annoyed.  We decided to follow suit.

I wished we could have made them all fly away, but something made me think this was an everyday occurrence for them.  At least I got one to lift off.  

Ok, so what I meant by "working for myself" is painting.  I've been spending my free days working on paintings.  Now that things are pretty settled in other aspects of my life, I can now focus on art without worry.  Which is great, because I've been itching to do that since my semester in Italy.

This is a painting I did as a gift for a friend (of whom I hope does not read this blog).  I'm not sure if I'm done with it yet, but its in pretty good shape and I have a while before I gift it away.

Cory, one of Casey's coworkers, commissioned me to do a portrait of him based on a John Singer Sargent painting.  This is it and I apologize for the horrible picture of it.  My camera automatically adjusts the light when it photographs dark thing, making the colors and quality of the picture off.  This is the closest I could get to what it actually looks like.  In any case, it was fun to do this painting, although it is definitely not my style.  

This is my style.  This is actually based on Cory again, the one who commissioned the last painting.  I found a picture of him on the good 'ole Facebook, and had an overwhelming urge to paint it.  So, one night, I decided to just do it, and the beginning of this came out.  I'm very happy with it and it will soon greet visitors to my house at the stairs.  

Well, I'm going to keep this momentum of art and work going.  I've got another commission coming up and am totally open for others, so spread the word to your friends!  

3 comments:

celia said...

I bet Casey enjoyed her birthday. How fun!
Wow, your first and third picture look like photographs. Great painting of Cory. It makes me want to laugh with him. I am glad you can finally enjoy your art. I wish I had your talent.

Dennis said...

Catching up with these incredible paintings. I' m impressed but I have always been impressed. Now that my cateract surgery is done I see your talent through different. Keep up the great job ! DAD.

erin said...

Love your last portrait here. You've got some really great stuff Jon! Very impressive. I hope you keep at it :)