The Disney Hug

The last time I was in Disneyland, I took a photo that is now in the works of becoming a painting.

The Disney Hug
I took the photo as a father held his toddler on his hip as his wife had an arm around him. The toddler had an arm on Dad too to secure and balance himself. In front of them were the classic tableau of the related photographer taking his photo  and the statue of Walt Disney and Mickey off the the side in the center park of Disneyland. The toddler had on the classic Disneyland ears and so did some of the people in the distance.

I have been doing a series of watercolor paintings of digital photographers as they grab their groups of related family in various positions throughout life. The first painting I did was of a woman in a halter top getting a photo by the Puerto Vallarta arches. She was standing next to the muscle guys in the native Indian garb. The photographer had a beer in his hand and was trying to balance taking the shot without dropping the beer.

Potential Members in the Series

I have an idea for one from a photo I took this summer where the 30 something guy was taking a photo of his girl in front of an older car that could eventually be a low rider.  I have a pretty cool photo of three girls getting their pictures taken in front of the Japanese Tee garden in San Francisco. They are in purple pleated dresses and their photographer is in jeans.. what a contrast. It was taken in the spring so the ability to use the spring flowering trees in the background is a possibility.

The difficulty in doing these I  paintings in composition is the distance between the photographer and the subject. It is best to hook or overlap your subjects so that the feed into each other. When this is done they can and should share color families and coordinated shapes and perspectives. Its been a great challenge to work with these groupings as often I have not taken the photograph to accommodate the shadows and other elements to hook them together.   I have several more that will be included in the series.

The Street Magican

The last series I have completed is taken from a photo I took this summer at the Stanislaus county fair. It was nearly closing time but the entertainment continued to pop up in various parts of the fair. There were local bands that played and a couple on stilts. Near the arts area, a street magician had set up his table and commenced to wow his audience.  I took a photo of him doing his tricks as kids and others gathered around and watched the show. I took the photo from behind him and the people who stopped became my subjects for the painting.

The first painting was a 12x24 inch watercolor on canvas painting that I completed and was immediately snapped up for display in Lindsay's office in Oakland. I had photo of the completed work and subsequently tried vista prints to make wraparound mugs and pens and note cards, postcards of this painting. They did a great job in reproducing the painting. It was the first time that I had used buff titanium watercolor media strata for the conversion of an acrylic primed canvas over to a canvas that could use watercolors.

The second in the series is from the same photo. The magician comes to life in a 36x 48 inch version. It was fun to switch to the really big brushes to get the areas covered. The result is more mural approach to the subject.. something along the lines of Diego Rivera.

The Oliver the Kitten Book

One of my art projects last year was to do a year in the life of a new kitten that we have at home. I have depicted his life and his various adjustment in 50 pages of a rough Indian made paper book. It was a challenge as the paper didn't always stop the spread of ink. I used permanent ink pen to provide structure for the subject.

Ideas in the Moleskine

The sketch book is still out and sometimes I sketch an idea. Coming from the sketch book, it looks like my next painting will be another in the Disney hug series where the toddler will be seen in profile rather than from the back. Now that I know the painting profiles the painting should go fairly quickly. I plan to use some saran wrap for the background to add texture and interest.

Love to all
Pat