Category Archives: art

I Painted Enrique at the Apothecary Cafe

December 6, 2009 – 1:13 pm

The Apothecary Cafe is the new coffee house and wine bar that opened up its doors recently. It is in my neighborhood, and I can walk there. The young owners have done a perfect job of combining both the urban and the funk, all tied together with a touch of contemporary Middle Eastern decor. If […]

By Lavanna Martin | Also posted in alla prima, artist, figure painting, guerrilla artist, guerrilla portraiture, oil painting, Oil Sketches Live at Coffee Houses, painting, painting live, painting people from life | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment

I Painted Martin Button in My Studio

November 9, 2009 – 9:05 am

Here is Martin. We all love him. Martin is originally from New Zealand. He first came over to America to attend college at Berkley. He is a seismic engineer, and a structural engineer. At the present time, he is working on Building No. 7 (WTC), the Chinese Ferris Wheel (largest in the world), and many […]

By Lavanna Martin | Also posted in alla prima, figure painting, painting, painting people from life, portraiture | Tagged , , , , | Comments (3)

I Painted Hannah Today

October 26, 2009 – 8:59 pm

This is a studio painting that I just did from a photograph of Hannah.  She really did not want her mom to take her picture. Both her mom and I just loved the photo; we can all identify with the raw and stubborn posture. I just love the transparency of emotion that are portrayed here. […]

By Lavanna Martin | Also posted in alla prima, children's portrait, children's portraiture, how to paint in oils, oil painting, parenting | Tagged , , , , | Comments (11)

I Painted Ari Guerrero in 90 Minutes

September 16, 2009 – 2:09 pm

Since I’m out in the studio and unable to “guerrilla paint” this week, I’m going to post a “live’ portait that I did in my studio in 90 minutes: Ari volunteered to be painted in 90 minutes. She is a very pretty girl, and I was so happy that she showed up in the perfect […]

By Lavanna Martin | Also posted in alla prima, figure painting, painting live, painting people from life | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

90 Minute Painting:Karla Pfennig

September 14, 2009 – 12:23 pm

My good friend Karla came over this weekend. I decided to paint her while she watched one of her favorite movies, “Hopscotch”.  It was the perfect opportunity to add to my new series of paintings: Now I am asking people to pose “live” at my studio, and trying to get a likeness in 90 minutes […]

By Lavanna Martin | Also posted in alla prima, figure painting, painting live, painting people from life, portrait sketch | Tagged , , , , | Comments (6)

I Painted the Retired Military Man at Epoch Coffee

September 8, 2009 – 12:07 pm

I thought that I was going to have a nice, long time to paint this man, but he got a phone call, and left shortly afterwards. He was dressed in civilian clothes with a cowboy belt, but the look was definitely influenced by many years in miitary. He had on chinos, khaki double flap pocket […]

By Lavanna Martin | Also posted in alla prima, figure painting, guerrilla portraiture, oil painting, painting people from life | Tagged , , , , | Comments (7)

I Painted Two Men in Deep Conversation at Epoch

August 28, 2009 – 12:42 pm

The tattooed man was there earlier, sitting outside. He had a brief conversation with the baristra, Ben.  The man on the right showed up about fifteen minutes later, and they came inside and sat opposite each other. I could only hear “she blah-blah-blah” running through their conversastion. It is difficult to capture two people who […]

By Lavanna Martin | Also posted in alla prima, oil painting, Oil Sketches Live at Coffee Houses, painting, painting live, painting technique, portrait sketch, portraiture, sketching | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (6)

Detail of the Girl with the French Haircut at Flightpath Coffee

August 14, 2009 – 9:47 am

Would you like to hear a little about technique and decisions that I made as I did this painting? The walls at Flighpath Coffee are sunflower yellow. Why did I not portray this? Well, when I painted the man with dreadlocks the day before, I added in a subdued yellow background, and just hated the […]

By Lavanna Martin | Also posted in alla prima, guerrilla artist, guerrilla portraiture, Oil Sketches Live at Coffee Houses, painting live, painting people from life, painting technique | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (16)

I Painted the Man with Dreads at FlightPath Coffee

August 12, 2009 – 4:11 pm

This is the first time that I have painted at FlightPath Coffee. I’ve been in there several times, and always wanted to paint at Flight Path, but empty tables are hard to come by. This morning, I stopped in and asked the owner if I could paint there. This is also the first time that […]

By Lavanna Martin | Also posted in alla prima, artist, guerrilla artist, guerrilla portraiture, painting people from life | Tagged , , , | Comments (22)

I Painted the Sad MiddleEasterner in San Raphael,Ca.

August 11, 2009 – 6:35 pm

I’m not even going to pretend to know what was going through his mind. If he were native born, I could probably conjure up some explanations such as: poor screwed up SOB, had a fight with his wife on a beautiful afternoon, and had no where to go so he ended up here. Who knows […]

By Lavanna Martin | Also posted in alla prima, guerrilla artist, guerrilla portraiture, Oil Sketches Live at Coffee Houses, painting live, portrait sketch | Tagged , , | Comments (2)