Danville Fine Arts Faire, June 2012

The theme for this year's four street paintings in Danville was Food, and as expected, all of the painters came at the topic from different perspectives. Cece Linayao painted an elegant woman sipping wine while contemplating her chocolate dessert, Hien Nguyen painted a Vietnamese woman with her baskets of produce, Christine Pasadis painted a huge red velvet cupcake. We struggled for a while to find a subject that we wanted to paint, toying with the idea of a picnic before discarding that idea as missing the humor and action we like to include. Finally, Cheryl hit upon using one of her favorite foods: sushi. What could be included to add humor and action? Why, Godzilla stomping through the plate!

We were joined that weekend with some special helpers--our nieces Alex and Catie, who like to help us when they can, and Cheryl's cousin Ann, who was visiting from Illinois. This was Ann's first time seeing street painting in person, and she enjoyed getting to chalk with us, despite the 100+ degree heat (she claimed it wasn't hot...what can we say, Californians are wimps when it comes to weather!).

Wayne started by painting Godzilla from the top down.

The view from the side shows that Godzilla's head is partly on a section of roadway that has a different texture than the rest (it had been trenched while the new Vets Hall building was under construction).

Saturday at lunchtime: it isn't clear whether Cheryl is trying to be Godzilla or a zombie.

We got started early on Sunday to beat the heat, and made quick progress on the sushi on the right side of the board.

Wayne was getting hungry already.

One of the passersby had a good idea.

Almost noon: Wayne finishes up the wasabi while Cheryl uses the same colors to paint asparagus maki sushi.

Cheryl and the asparagus rolls.

We got this little girl to pose like a sushi roll for us.

After lunch on Sunday, we just had a few more pieces of sushi left to go. Ann was doing a fabulous job on the wood block table.

Finished! Now for some close-up views.

The sushi on the right side of the painting: tamago (egg) in back, ebi (shrimp) in the middle, a 49er roll and some ginger and wasabi.

The sushi on the left side of the painting: asparagus roll and smoked salmon. Godzilla is holding another 49er roll (like a California roll but with a slice of smoked salmon and a thin slice of lemon on top).

Alex did the base layer of the chopsticks and Catie painted all of the placemat.

Our next door neighbors have these neat chopstick holders in the form of origami cranes. This is the one that isn't holding up the chopsticks.

This sushi roll rolled off the plate when Godzilla came through.

We figure this is really the reason Godzilla invaded Tokyo.

The view from the top. Wayne poses as Godzilla as Claudette and Ann look on.

A side view of the painting.

All four of the paintings are done! Ours is in front, then Christine's cupcake, then Hien's produce vendor, and Cece's lady with wine and chocolate is at the corner.

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