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!

Thanksgiving

This past month has just flown by and I can hardly believe its December already. Time for a little catch up.

Thanksgiving was definitely a highlight. We started the day off having a little brunch at Ryans house.

Here's Ryan and Joel cooking us some delicious breakfast food while Casey and I watched and drank our mimosas. There were never skinnier jeans in the kitchen before this moment.

Leaving their place, satisfied but not stuffed (we knew better than that!), and on our way home, we came across a huge moving box full of CDs. It was a jackpot for the musicheads that we are. We spent a good 10 minutes going through the box and claiming our picks. After we were satisfied musically, we went back and started cooking our contribution of the huge feast ahead.

Dinner was at my house with friends and family of the house. Here's Casey with her sister and her boyfriend in my room. Oh, and the day was as sunny as San Francisco can get. It was almost hot!

Lots of preparing. This is my housemate Andrea tossing a salad and adding some fresh to dinner.

Dinner was happily eating in the living room, with folks overflowing to the couches behind. In all, I think there were about 25 of us for dinner, and more for dessert. It was such a nice day and probably one of the few times I really enjoyed a holiday for the aspect of having a day off.

Just before Thanksgiving, I finished a painting for a new found friend. He had bought one of my paintings earlier this year and asked me to do a painting of his daughter for her birthday.

Here it is and I can finally post it. It was a bit challenging since I don't usually work from multiple photos when I'm painting in this style. But I'm really happy with it and was happy to do it. Thanks Mathieu!

I've also just finished another painting, but have to wait to post a picture for it since I haven't given it to them yet.

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.

GIANTS!!

San Francisco GIANTS

2010 World Series Champions!!!!!!!