Kevin's Painting Blog

Since there is an upcoming contest, I thought I would enter “The Trainer” but they told me it was too small – the contest is for sizes F10 or larger and “The Trainer is only an F8. What a ridiculous rule, but whatever. With 2 weeks before the entry deadline, I decided to paint something quick and size F15 or larger, which I am sure will still be considered “on the small side.” This town I live in is small and not exactly cosmopolitan, but what can you do?

This is a girl I met in college, we were both in the same Japanese class. She also took photography and gave me a black and white image that I happened to see and like. I immediately painted it, gave her the painting, and stored the image away, only to recently  pull it out again. This took me three sessions, it went rather quick. I think I spent about 8 hours on it total. I can think of a few things I could fix that are not right about it, but I am out of time.

Full Sized Image HERE

I looked all over the web and couldn’t find this info. For future reference sake, here are some standard metric canvas sizes found here in Japan. I believe it’s the same for Europe as well as I recently attempted to copy a Renoir and what do you know, the original was “exactly” F15 measurements! The more I am forced to deal with metric, the more I am liking it I must say!

Standard Canvas Sizes (unit=millimeters)

Although I started this during the summer, I just finished this painting on Christmas day. Not that it took me one half of a year’s worth of work, I think I may have put about 8 or 10 hours into it total. It consisted of three, one to two hour sittings with the model, plus about 3-5 or so hours in the studio.  My model here is a Japanese friend who has his own baseball training business.  The “R” on the shirt and cap stands for major league baseball  hitter “Reggie Smith”, who my friend trained with in the USA and whose training system he uses.

“The Trainer” - F8 Oil on Canvas

(Large version here)

This is my third New Year’s in Japan, and the third time I’ve spent it at my favorite pub.

 Year by year, new faces appear while other’s do not for one reason or another. We brought in the new year this time with some of the most excellent white wine I’ve ever had – from 1981. Can’t remember what it’s called but it was expensive.

Around 3 am we walked in the cold to the local shrine and feasted on takoyaki. Great time.

From 2005

From 2004