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