July 2016

This one happened on tar paper on the kitchen floor. It’s 3ft x 4ft, chalk pastel. The original photo reference is by Bart Nino.

The African Queen

Hi All, This was Bakersfield, CA two weeks ago. I had a great time, the weather was nice, and the pavement was amazing as usual. I took some artistic license this time with the image – as you will see. I altered a few things for the sake of limited time and to add more pizazz and vibrant color where it counts on the ground in a situation like this.

As far as I can remember, I’ve never taken such liberties before. Notice the eye color and highlight difference. Simplifying her clothing was in the interest of time. This painting took about 2 full days – starting Friday afternoon and finishing Sunday afternoon. The weather was perfect, I had my easy-up and so was in the shade! Halleluiah! The ground was fabulously newly blacktopped, as it is every year. I LOVE that about this festival.

Here’s the beautiful reference photo:

Here is the 8 ft x 12 ft street painting:

This may be my last street painting of the season…we’ll just have to wait and see!

More Street Chalking

Saturday and Sunday, I did another street painting festival in San Luis Obispo, CA. Here are the results. She was 10ft x 10 ft. I started Saturday morning about 9 and “finished” Sunday about 2pm. I did take time to eat and sleep. 🙂 Enjoy!

Reference photo:

 

Street painting:

 

Chalk to the Street

Well…My first street painting festival of the year was last weekend. (See below). It’s taken me this long (a week) to recover…only because the temperature was a whopping 99 degrees (I think it was actually hotter) and THAT temperature was supposedly in the atmosphere…which meant…that it was MUCH hotter on the pavement.

The featured artist (a world renowned 3-D street painter that does this for a living, mind you) was taken to the hospital for heat exhaustion. THAT’s how hot it was. Not to mention, for whatever reason, we were prohibited from having pop-ups (umbrellas and easy ups) for sun protection.

Saturday was the super killer…Sunday was a little better. Talk about dedication. It was too hot to work in the middle of the day, so I lost a few hours then, but after it got cooler, I made the hours up by staying until it was too dark to see and then I woke up with the sun and got to the street around 6am to beat the mid-day heat. Most of us (artists) did our paintings this way. It sort of worked. I did get a little burn and was totally wiped out, but it was totally worth it. I love festivals. Love the camaraderie. It’s a culture all it’s own.

I highly recommend attending one of these in your lifetime…and even trying street painting. A warning though – it can be addictive 🙂

This square was 10ft x 10ft, which is a hair more than 3 meters square. Many sizes are available at these festivals. I did a 4ft by 4ft square at my first event years ago, so if you’ve never done it, it might be good to start smaller.

To brag a little…the highlights you see…were painted in with chalk. They weren’t from the angle or the sun projected onto my piece. I was happy with how they turned out…that’s one of those things that’s questionable as to whether it will show as it’s intended. I didn’t even realize the sun highlights had worked that well until I looked at the photo a few times. I thought it was the sun…but it’s not! Very exciting 🙂

Here is the reference photo:

 

Here is my interpretation of it via street painting:

Thanks for visiting!