Continuing with my current infatuation with birds of prey, I've painted a couple more.  I'm super stoked with both of these and happy to say that they both had some viewing time with the public.

Norhter Goshawk, 24" x 36", oil on canvas.  Recently, I had a few of my paintings hanging at the Ian Ross Gallery as part of their group show for Keep Tahoe Blue.  This was the last one I painted before they got on the walls.

Osprey.  28" x 36", oil on canvas.  This one was a commission and probably one of my favorites.  

Speaking of birds, I saw this crow the other day hanging out on the landing of my neighbors stairs.  I caught this show right before I scared it off, trying to get a cool in-flight shot.  Didn't get that one..

More Birds!

Two Saturdays ago I had a small art showing at Darwin Cafe.  It was pretty well attended and a great opportunity to show the new paintings I've been working on.  I don't know how I managed to do this, but I didn't take one photo of the night and have yet to find one.  But I have witnesses that can attest to the event happening.  Anyhow, it was really great exposure and they are still up until Friday.  

Here are a few new paintings that are on the walls now.

 American Kestrel, 25" x 20" oil on canvas.

 Puffin, 8" x 19.5" oil on canvas

Great Horned Owl, 36" x 36" oil on canvas.

It was really nice getting such immediate feedback on the new work.  The Puffin was hands down the favorite.

BIRDS!

During the last week of last year and the first week of this year, my muse paid me a visit and I did some painting.  It felt good having some momentum and I'm still riding it.  Here are the fruits of my labor.  More to surely come soon!

Black Shouldered Kite, 40" x 30"

Grey Gryfalcon, 30" x 40"

Snow Owl (horrible picture, but you get the jist) 40" x 38"

Wave

I sat down this weekend not knowing what to paint, but wanting to paint.  Going through my pictures from my trip, I found a few images of waves I took in Kaua'i.  Here's the painting that came out.  It was a nice exercise in focusing on the whole painting and not getting too stuck in a certain area.  Plus, it was just nice to stare at a wave since it;s been so brisk and foggy in the city.

Colors

While at the first farm, at the beginning of our travels to France, I was taken by all the colors spring had to offer.  That got me thinking of doing a colors post, dedicated to the beauty of our surroundings.  My goal was to capture interesting pictures while attempting to isolate a color or groups of colors.  It was a nice challenge to give myself throughout the trip.  Here it is.

Darwin Totem

I just finished a new painting that's going to be somewhat of a going away gift for the cafe I work at. I titled it Darwin Totem.

Market Street Cars

I just finished a painting for my old friend Ka Wan, who lives in the city. She and her fiance wanted a painting to remind them of their time in San Francisco after they leave the city. They aren't leaving just yet and hopefully having this piece while they are in the city will solidify some memories.

Here's the final piece. It is 22x44 inches, oil on canvas. The direction they gave me was the Mission/Castro district. Street cars run up and down Market Street, which goes through the Castro, and some distinctive aspects of these neighborhoods are the victorians and the palm trees. With the long format they wanted, I'm stoked on the composition and every time I look at this painting it, at least, reminds me of SF. I hope they like it.

*They haven't seen it yet, so don't mention that I put it up on the blog just yet. I figure they don't check this regularly so it was safe to post it before they saw it. Thanks!

My own

In my last post I mentioned that I started working on my own paintings again. I think with all the sun these past couple weeks and the beginning of my travel plans (I'm going to France with Casey for 3 months!) this painting took on a new meaning.

It is the companion painting to my last painting, Weighted Hibernation. In idea, the painting was always meant to be about a new beginning and the start of an aspiration, but this whole time I had a totally different picture of how it was going to look. However, when I started sketching and inserting symbols, it shaped up to be this, and I'm very happy with how it turned out. Keeping with the size, its 40x38 inches, oil on canvas.

I was left with a day off of work and having just finished that painting (which I still need to name) I was left wanting to paint, but not having anything I "needed" to paint. So, I did a study.

On my deck, there is a plastic sculpture of an owl that I always love looking at. I haven't painted from life in a while, so I used all my left over paint and did this quick painting. Turned out pretty nice and somewhat reminds me of a few of my favorite contemporary painters.

2/10 - Update. Just named it - Fixed Catalyst

Holiday and Holiday Work

I think it goes without saying, as evidence of my lack of posting, that the end of last year was pretty busy for me. But the nice thing about working a ton is that when you get a day off with nothing to do, it feels like a week.

Christmas was pretty ugly. Casey, Richmond, Ryan and I had plans to drive down the coast a bit and have a brunch picnic by the water. This was our amazing view.

We didn't actually hang out in this for too long. We ate a little food crammed in the back to Richmond's station wagon and went out for a few minutes. It was pretty amazing to see the storm and the power of the ocean. The rest of the day was spent playing games, watching movies and hanging out like bums.

New Years Eve was a lot of fun. We spent it in the Mission, going to a few bars and finding ourselves in the basement of an old theater for a packed countdown.

I don't think this picture does justice to just how packed it was. Casey's best friend Emily came up for New Years. Looks like the old Littleton crew is all grown up! It was probably the best way we could have counted down.

December and early January was filled with commissions.

This one was done as a Christmas present for this mom and son. I was a bit nervous starting this one because its always a lot of pressure doing a straight portrait for someone, let alone painting a kid, which I don't do very often. But I'm very happy with how it came out and I hope they liked it as well. (This isn't the actual finished painting. I realized that I didn't get a shot of the completed painting before it left my hands, but this one is pretty close to the finished painting)

I also did a piece for this publication that will release its first issue this spring. I can't share too much about the publication itself just yet, but I can say a bit about the piece.

This one was to accompany an article on respecting yourself first. It a bit about self confidence and being able to trust who you are so that you can be successful in life. I think this piece, however, is going to be used in a later issue as the direction of the article changed a bit while I was painting it.

Another piece I did was for my houseman Jake.
This is his girlfriend and he gave it to her for Christmas. They were both as pleased as I was with the drawing and I was happy to be apart of their holidays.

So, that's the update for now. I'm finally back to working on my own piece and am excited to share it in a week or so. It's the continuation to "Weighted Hibernation" and it's coming along quite nicely. Stay tuned!

Koa

As I mentioned on the last post, I just finished a painting. Here it is:

This painting will be a Christmas gift for the dogs owners. The painting is named Koa, after the dog who is named after the native Hawaiian wood for the gorgeous color of her coat. Its been a while since I've painted an animal and it was really fun getting into this gal's scrunchy face. I hope the Christmas surprise goes well!

22-Fillmore

A while back I sold my 5-Fulton painting and was totally stoked on it. Recently, friends of the couple who bought that painting saw it and inquired about making a painting in the same vein. The story is pretty endearing, so I hope if you're reading this, you don't mind me sharing.

They have a 20 month old son who loves buses. Every time he sees a bus, he yells out "Bus! Bus!" In later conversations, I found out that his favorite part of the day is when he walks to daycare and can see the buses go by. The couple also just celebrated their 4 year anniversary, and instead of going out for a big evening, they commissioned me to do a painting that would remind them of this time and their young son.

Here's my new painting for them. Its called 22-Fillmore because thats the line that they see when they walk to daycare. The scene is located, hopefully, towards the end of their little commute and I hope it will remind them of the city when they leave.

One More For The Show

In November, I will be part of the Artist Xchange's Realism show. The three drawings I posted a bit earlier will be joining this one.

So. If you're in town and stumble by the Mission, go check it out. The opening reception is November 5th from 7-10 and they will be up for the rest of the month.

Artist Xchange Gallery

3169 16th Street @ Guerrero
San Francisco

Weighted Hibernation

I've been working for a while on this new painting. It seems like my busyness is sinusoidal and this past month (and looking forward to next month) are the peak of the wave. If it is sinusoidal though, at least I can look forward to a little break after November.

Anyway, here is my new piece, Weighted Hibernation.

It is 38x40 in., oil on canvas. I have plans to make it one of two pieces that compliment and complete each other. Hopefully I can get that painting going soon.

As it turns out, I've got another month at Tango Gelato, so if you're in the area, go and check it out in person. It really is a piece I think benefits from seeing in real life.

Drawings

A couple months ago I was in between ideas with painting and did a few drawings to get the art itch out and to just draw again. I sometimes forget how much I used to draw before I started paintings, so it was nice to spend a few hours on these and just get into the details. Click on the pictures to see the details.

The images I drew from come from a book I bought in Colorado on the works of an American photographer named Wayne F. Miller. Photographs 1940-1958 show images of life, American and foreign, during war and postwar time.

There is sometime that seems more real and genuine back then. Something that seems more based in the world and the tangible. Or maybe its just the way Miller shot. He seems to have this ability to capture people and their thoughts in amazing exactness.

Im planning on doing a few more of these in the next few weeks.