Beach Paintings

Dick and I went on vacation with his family to the Outer Banks in North Carolina with his family last Summer. While we were there, I took many photo (imagine that) of family scenes on the beach. I took a few that I thought would make really nice painting compositions, and put it in the back of my head that maybe I could paint them as Christmas gifts for our family.

I'm happy to say that I actually painted them! I sent them out as Christmas gifts, and they all just received and opened them. (Meg was out of the country on vacation, and just returned home earlier this week.)

I intentionally wanted to make smaller, studies of these photos. I have found in the last couple of years that I really like doing studies on smaller canvases. They are significantly less intimidating to me, and I feel much more loose and free in my style.

I did three paintings in total. They range in sizes 9 x 12 inches to 8 x 8 inches.

I'm super happy with how all three turned out. So much so, that I'm going to try at least one at a larger size, while attempting to keep the style the same. (looser brushstrokes, less detail, but keeping the sense of motion.) Also, I'm realizing more and more that I really enjoy painting beach scenes. :)

They paintings were given to Dick's two sisters and their families, and to our oldest niece and her husband.


"Family at the Beach"
9 x 12 inches
oil on canvas


"Meg and the Kite"
8 x 10 inches
oil on canvas


"Adrianne & Ricky"
8 x 8 inches
oil on canvas

Mike & Kayak Painting

My friend, Mike (Kayak's Dad), had a big birthday last week. I surprised him with a small painting that I made for him from my favorite photo that I took of them a couple of years ago.


"Mike & Kayak"
2018
oil on canvas
8 x 8 inches

Finished Cityscape Quick Study

I really enjoyed working in this little piece. It is 8" x 8". I should work on more small pieces like this.

A "Trina Chow" at the Diego Rivera Gallery

Miguel and I went to the San Francisco Art Institute to see the newly installed Alumni Exhibition and so I could give him a tour of the campus.

The exhibition is really nice! It's a good amount of pieces, and shows well. When I spoke with the curator on Saturday, she had no idea how many pieces would be brought in from alumni. It looks like they could have easily handled more, but the pieces that they have display well in the space.

It's pretty cool to see one of my paintings hanging in the prestigious Diego Rivera Gallery!

One thing that I found amusing: It was no surprise to me that there were no other pieces at all that looked anything like mine. My style is not the typical, more avant-garde style that you usually see at SFAI. That's okay with me. :)

Looking forward to sharing the show with my family at the reception on Saturday afternoon!

SFAI Alumni Exhibition, Part 1

My Alma Mater, The San Francisco Art Institute, is doing a new thing this year: They are hosting an Alumni Exhibition at the famed Diego Rivera Gallery as part of their Annual (apparently) Alumni Weekend.

The exhibit is being done "Salon Style":

—Le Salon de Diego. Taking its name and from the Parisian salons of the 19th century academic competition, the style refers to an organic way of taking over a space and hanging throughout the wall.

The only criterial for physical pieces were that they not exceed 20"x30".

Most of my paintings are 24"x24" or larger, so many wouldn't be qualified. I decided to submit my painting, "Pool #2" which is 24"x18".

I brought Wallace to my school today to drop off the painting. I thought it would be fun to grab some photos of him while we were there.

The curator told me that they would be hanging the show on Tuesday, and that the exhibit will be up from Wednesday through Saturday. There will be a reception for the artists on Saturday from 4:00-6:00. I plan to be there with my family from 4:00-5:00 or so.

I imagine that this will sound much more impressive than it actually is (Having a painting on exhibit at the Diego Rivera Gallery) but I have to admit that I'm pretty excited about it!

I'll be bringing Miguel to show him the show and campus on Wednesday, so I'll take some photos of the hung exhibit then. Stay tuned!


Wallace posing in front of the Diego Rivera Mural


Wallace is posing in front of my submission for the Exhibition, "Pool #2"


some of the entries for the Alumni Exhibition

Back to painting!!

After a one month hiatus, I went back to painting today!

Slowly but surely, it's coming along.
As my instructor, Dean, says, "The last 10% takes 90% of the time".

Today, I tried to focus on putting thicker layers of paint on. I like the general composition of the painting and the colors, but it looked flat. I added a lot more paint on the street and sidewalks, and applied these areas with a palette knife. I also added more color into these areas. I worked on some of the trees, and also added more paint to the sky. I changed the car in the foreground to be a little higher up, and also changed the color.

Progress on my Cityscape Painting

I made more good progress on my Cityscape Painting yesterday.

It was very good timing that I was walking in the same street Sunday and was able to take additional photos from the same angle. The new photo shows some nice shadows on the front of the houses on the left side. It was the perfect thing to add, as those houses needed some extra dimension, without adding too much detail.

I also changed the sky to make it a little more interesting. I changed the color of the doors and windows on the big red building to match the new photo. It helped to add variation, and actually pulls the focus away from that building (which is a good thing!) I also added a few more window that j had not seen before on the side of some buildings on the right side.

Finally, I started to change the color and texture of the street. I allowed thick paint to the street with a palette knife which added more texture. I smoothed out the texture a bit with a brush, but need to do a lit more work on the street and the cars still.

Progress on my Cityscape Painting

I finally felt like I made considerable progress on my cityscape painting today.

I worked predominantly on the top portion, changing the color of the sky, and adding detail to all the houses on the top of the hill.

I also reworked the street and sidewalk a bit, and added some more cars.

I think it finally feels like it is starting to come together.

Cityscape Painting

(I had apparently forgotten to post this photo last week after my session, so I'm posting now and editing the date to reflect the day it was painted.)



I mostly worked on the left side of the canvas today, working on the front of the houses, the suggestion of windows, and the cars parked on the driveways.

Progress on my new Cityscape Painting

It's a large canvas (48" x 36") and there's lots of detail so it is coming along slowly, but I'm enjoying the process.

Today I worked in some of the houses on the left side, added some detail to the ones on the right, and worked in the trees.

Continuing on the Bradford Street Cityscape Painting

I had another painting session with Dean today to work on my latest cityscape painting. Wallace came with me again, and enjoyed helping out by playing with a couple of new toys. :)

It may not look like I did much today, but I worked the whole time on what we are considering the main focal point of the painting: the section towards the middle right of the painting, and down towards the bottom. I went building by building this time, making sure that each building was more accurate both in shape and color. I also worked a bit on the trees and street in those areas.

I've been working off a photo that I took about a year ago from the top of a hill, looking out across to this steep street. It occurred to me today that I could see other perspectives of the same street if I went to google maps on my phone. It worked like a charm! I was able to type in the address that I found from the building at the bottom right corner, and make my way up to map to the same spot where I was standing when I took the photo last year. Wild!! It was very interesting - I was able to move from side to side to see the same view, but without the tree blocking parts of the right side. I took several screenshots of different views on my phone which will allow me to see many more perspectives of the same buildings/street. I'm posting some of those screenshots here to share.

Starting a new Cityscape Painting

It has been a while since I painted a cityscape painting. I think the last one that I did (and was actually one of my first) was my Dolores Street painting in 2013.

I'm a big fan of artist Wayne Thiebaud, and am quite obviously influenced by him. I love all the different types of subject matter that he works on, but have always loved his Cityscapes. Many of his cityscapes are influenced by San Francisco, with his exaggerated compositions of steep streets.

This is a photo that I took on a training walk in San Francisco last year. It is Bradford Street, in the San Francisco neighborhood of Bernal Heights. At the time, it was the steepest street in San Francisco (it still may be, but that title seems to shift frequently). The training walk that day was full of very steep hills. When we were in Bernal Heights on top of one hill, Linda pointed across the hill that we would be climbing up next, and that was Bradford Street. I took this photo from the top of one hill, looking across to the next. I really like the perspective that was achieved, and knew immediately that I wanted to do a painting of it.


The Original photo of Bradford Street

There are several things that I like about this composition: I really like the perspective, in that the viewer is looking across at the hill, rather than up at it, or down it. I also like the red building at the bottom right, as I feel it anchors the composition. Most of the houses on the left side of the street were identical from the front facades, and are very boxy from the side. I also like that most of the houses are probably built in the 50s, so mid-century modern style, which is not what one typically thinks of for San Francisco architecture.

Anyhow, I finally got started on this cityscape painting today. I knew I wanted it to be large, so I primed a 48"x36" canvas. I love painting on large canvases. :)

I was pretty intimidated by the thought of how to start this one. I figured it might take me several house to just pencil in the rough outline of all of the buildings, and that I'd need to concentrate heavily on perspective and accuracy.

To my surprise, when I asked my instructor, Dean, for his suggestion on how to start, he suggested painting in the trees first! He suggested this so that I wouldn't be as intimidated by all the buildings and details. He also suggested that I paint monochromatically so that I wouldn't get caught up in color.

It really worked! The positioning of everything that I put in so far is by no means accurate, but it is very loose in style, and I really like that. I used only one color which I watered down with various amounts of medium. I was pleased that by the end of the session, the canvas was pretty well outlined and filled in.


early progress with just the trees


outlining some of the buildings and streets around the trees


Wallace worked very hard while I was painting (and did a very good job of blending in with Dean's couch.).


a photo that Dean took of me while I was painting this morning

The Completed "Wallace" Oil Painting!!

"Wallace"
2017
oil on canvas
36" x 36"

I finished my Enormous Wallace Head painting!

This painting has been so much fun to work on, and I'm really amazed at how much I learned from it. I realized early on that it's so much different from any of the other paintings that I've done. Most of my paintings/compositions are much more structured. I often have to take a lot of time measuring and sketching the image on the canvas before putting any paint on it.

This one was so much different. When I looked back at the progression of this painting I realized that I had barely sketched anything at all. Just a very basic outline of Wallace's head. I suppose I could have been a lot more careful and precise with it, but I enjoyed how much more loose this process felt.

One of the things I learned the most about was color and temperature. I've always had a hard time with both, and this one was all about color and temperature. Dean helped me a lot with mixing colors and getting them just right.

For my own notes:

The shadow colors:

warm tones: 2 parts blue to one part orange, mixed with white
cool tones: yellow ochre mixed with a tiny bit of black, then mixed with white

During my last session, I worked on just a few things:

I cooled down the shadows of his chin so that the were softer. I was able to do this with a wash, and it was very effective.

I spent most of the time working on the lettering of Wallace's name on his bandana. I knew it wouldn't be easy, and it did prove to be quite a challenge!

I'm very happy with how this painting turned out, and it was really one of the most enjoyable painting experiences I had. I really did get a chuckle every time I stepped back to look at it.

It was also very fun to have Wallace with me in Dean's studio to model for us. He was patient, and slept a lot as we checked colors up against him. :)

The best thing about this painting is the sizes. It's 36" x 36", which is so enormous for the subject matter. I know the size adds to the "Pop Art" of it, and I'm thrilled with that.


The original photograph


Basic outline on the canvas


progression of the first session


End of the First Session


Second Session


Third Session


Fourth Session


Fifth Session


Wallace passed out on the job during the Sixth Session


Completed Painting


Modeling is hard work!


Wallace with the finished painting

Enormous Wallace Head Painting Progress!!!

We made really great progress on the Wallace Painting today!! Wallace was a champ, and hung out to model, even though he was tired from the hard work.

It's almost done!! I worked a lot on the eyes, nose, and general shading. I also changed the color of the bandanna to reflect its true color.

Still a little more work to do. Probably one more session! Looking at the photos, I can see that the eye on the right still needs to be larger. I also need to finish the bandanna and work on the background a bit.

Almost done!

This has been such a fun painting process.